Netflix Customer Tracked Account since July 2000

Bill McClain has been a Netflix customer since July 2000, and he kept a diary of his experience with the company as it grew. He published some interesting charts, including a one that shows how long it took for Netflix to receive a DVD over the past 8 years:

How long have you been a member?

Comments

[Vince]

I've been a member since 9/1999 but I haven't tracked things as well as Bill

[WendyD]

I've taken a few months off here and there, but I joined in Nov. 1999.

[bigduke6]

Member since July 2005, 99.5% of time get 2 day turnaround (next day to Netflix then another day back). 4 or 5 times when I sent something back on a Monday they received it on Tuesday but did not mail something out until Wednesday.And a few times they were throttling me or a title was not available at my local center

[jmess5]

I've been w/NF since June, 2001. Back then delivery times were running between 5-6 days to get from coast to coast.

[MCW]

Looking back on my history (I joined in December 2006) I reported 2 damaged discs that were too scratched to watch all the way through, 1 missing disc (They told me it was returned to them, and gave me a HECK of a hard time when I wanted it resent for free as a bonus disc) 9 unwatched (Don't worry, I didn't rate these like you would, I left them unrated. I wasn't in the mood to watch some of them, and some I started watching and realized that they were just not for me).

I had initially wanted to keep charts like these for my account, but didn't have the time to keep up with it all. I hoped http://feedflix.com would help, but it only supports data since you've been a member of FeedFlix. Eventually he'll be able to get your entire membership's data, but for now he can't do it.

[Matt Rombach]

Joined in June 2005. Having lived near Birmingham, AL, St. Louis, or Chicago, turnaround time is nearly always 2 days. But wow, I've reported 40 damaged discs in that time.

[Sydney]

Member since Nov 2000. I've had Netflix in four states and six different addresses. Netflix has never disappointed. The longest it took for DVD was when I lived near Canada, it took nearly a week. Now, I put a disc in the mail on Monday and I have a new movie by Wednesday.

[Kimberly]

Wow, I feel like a newb in comparison. Only since 2002, and it took forever to send and receive movies in Pittsburgh, PA back then.

[tdischino]

NF customer since July of 2000 as well. For some time (until late 2004), I tracked in a spreadsheet my cost per disc/discs per month based upon my plan and the return dates reported by NF. I may have it somewhere still.

[Chuck]

January of 2000

[Ron]

As I am not working I tried to see how many disks I could get in a week on my one-at-a-time plan. I received one on Tuesday and sent it back that same day before 3pm, got another one on Thursday and mailed it back same day again, got another on Saturday and back, another on Tuesday but couldn't keep it up because of the holiday. Unfortunately this week they were out of the title I asked for locally (or are they throttling me?) so they sent it from the opposite coast so the disk I sent back Tuesday won't be back to me until Monday. Plus, I believe they send the return envelope addressed back to where it came from so if I send it back on Monday they won't get it until Thursday or so :-( . Maybe I'll "cheat" and change the address to my local NetFlix depot. };-)

[MCW]

@ Matt Rombach,

If you've reported 40 discs as damaged in just a few years, there is definitely something wrong with your DVD player. That's about impossible.

[gibsonian]

Ron,

It goes to your local hub regardless of the address. The post office doesn't sort them by address upon return to Netflix. They just throw it in a bin full of Netflix DVDs that go back to the nearest shipping facility, as per the addressing on the return envelope, "Nearest Netflix Shipping Facility."

[dAVe]

Nice chart, McClain! And I appreciate the fact that the Return-To-NF chart was used to post this article. After all, the only part of this that we, the membership, have total control over is when we drop the return envelope into mail box.
I've been a member since July 2003.

[macdude22]

Since they had the yellow envelopes. Netflix was a godsend for a budding rural movie buff who's closest decent video store was over 30 miles away (the local gas station had a fine selection of upwards of 30 vhs tapes). I've watched 1000X the amount of content I could have ever hoped to have purchased outright. I've had maybe a dozen broken disks over the years, and most of those are due to the way rural mail carriers strap up their bundles of mail.

[Bill McClain]

dAVe: please note than the middle chart is return time spent in the mail, not spent at home. So we really don't have control of it.

I have this data because when I started with Netflix I kept a program-readable text file of titles, return dates and Netflix check-in times. This was in case of disputes about returning discs, but that hasn't been a problem.

So it is not much record keeping. I did the data reduction program a few years ago to produce text-based charts that were not spiffy enough to put on the web.

The charts are hand-made (so to speak) using Python and the Python Imaging Library. I didn't like the charts from my spreadsheet and didn't have the patience to figure out gnuplot.

Something I meant to put on the page: discs returned on Friday or Saturday are never checked in until Monday at the earliest. I don't think our post office even ships outgoing mail on Sunday. So Friday returns are always at least 3 days and Saturday returns are at least 2 days. That some months have 1-day average return times is very impressive.

-Bill

[DPOE]

I have been a member since september 2003 and I thought I had been a member for a long time. I originally started using netflix in college when I was spending about 40 bucks a week at blockbuster. It was cheaper but the turnaround took about 4 or 5 days since I was living in lubbock and the closest shipment center was in carrollton I think. I still love netflix because I have found so many great movies that I never would have discovered any other way.

[Ron]

Gibsonian, the only time I mailed back a disk in an envelope that was addressed to a different NetFlix shipping facility it did take 4 days for them to get it so I think my post office ignores the "Nearest Netflix Shipping Facility" part of the address :-( . I'll try this one more time to confirm.

Hey, anybody know how NetFlix deals with all the damaged disks they get back? I assume they have a deal with the distributors to exchange them for new ones for some greatly reduced price? I was quite surprised the first time I received a disk from them, naked in that thin envelope - doesn't even say "fragile" or "do not fold" on them!

[Typical Whiney Bitch]

NOT GOOD ENOUGH! THEY SHULD HAVE GOT IT DOWN TO LESS THAN ONE DAY! INVENT TELEPORTER, NETFLIX! YOU OWN IT TO YOUR CUSTOMERZ TO BREAK LAWS OF TIME AND SPACE! FOO! I QUIT ANYWAY BECAUSE THEY THROTTLE ME FOR RENTING 700 MOOVIES A WEEK. THEY DISCRIMINATE BECAUSE I'M FAT AND LONELY AND THEY HAVE STREAMING CAMERAS IN MY BASEMENT TO KNOW THAT!

[Michael]

I've been a member since December of 2006; I've noticed a significant difference in the service in the past 6-8 months. I used to get a DVD back in 4 days; it now takes at least 6. I used to get all the new releases in a resonable amount of time. I've been waiting for Hell Boy II for about six months.

I called customer service today and the representative indicated that I may be getting skipped on the new releases because I have a 4 disk subscription whereas if I had 2, I probably would have gotten it because they ship new releases to lower-level customers first (which I think is bull-!@#$).

[dAVe]

Bill - I've been doing something similar as well all these years, I just never got around to charting the data. I've never had returning a DVD on Friday to be of any value. I have found that dropping them on Saturday was a good thing bc NF will most times ship a Tuesday New-Release on the Monday before. For me, a good rhythm for cycling DVD's is to return at least one of my 3-out on these days: Saturday, Monday & Wednesday.

[Tom]

@Ron (December 05, 2008 at 01:58 PM):

Netflix has revenue-sharing deals with most of the major distributors. Rather than buying each DVD outright, they pay a flat fee for each title + a portion of the rental proceeds.

This implies that their loss for broken discs is minimal, certainly low enough that it is not worth paying the extra-ounce postage for a sturdier mailer.

Even for titles not under revenue-sharing, the likelihood of breakage is presumably low enough that the extra-ounce postage would quickly surpass replacement costs.

[Matt]

@MCW

Then there's something wrong with my last three DVD players, which I doubt. It's impossible that folks in the Chicago mailing area don't take care of their Netflix discs, and Netflix doesn't pay enough attention to take crappy discs out of circulation? I respectfully disagree.

[Matt]

Good tip I picked up on this site a while back: if you get a disc from another state, take a Sharpie to the address, and it will go back to your nearest shipping center!

[Ron]

Thanks for the tip, Matt. I think I would want to write in the proper zipcode as it appears my local NetFlix facility has its own zipcode 06115-0405 which fully encodes the rest of the address (PO Box 150405, Hartford, CT). I'd also cross out the bar code above the address as I'm pretty sure the post office scanning machines will use that as the address and ignore anything written (or crossed out) below?

[Raghu Srinivasan]

It's really easy to track all this info for yourself on the new FeedFlix beta: just head to http://feedflix.com/login and click on the green 'Try the Beta' button.

I'd love to get some feedback.

[Howard]

Been a member since October 1999.

[SOMEONE WHO KNOWS]

Lets think about this: NF receives discs through the Post Office! After you all return them, why bother tracking how long it takes to get there, just so you can go and blame Netflix? Thats ridiculous. Damaged discs have the same issue, POSTAL SORTING MACHINES! If NF used big envelopes, well then it would take forever to get to you. As it is, maybe everyone should be watching movies on Instant Watch while waiting for their DVDs rather than complaining about things that are obviously not NF issues. Get real guys. There is no NF guy in a red suit coming to deliver movies to your door.