US Postal Service Changes Halving Netflix Value ?

I received a post card from the US Postal Service a few weeks ago that let me know they were altering their routes because of the economy and that delivery times may change.

Well, since that notice came it seems to take almost a week for my Netflix movies to get back to Netflix. I've gone from getting movies every Tuesday and Friday, to what seems like one movie a week, maybe less.
The first time it happened I reported the movie lost because it was taking soo long to get back.

Is it just my area, or has this happened to anyone else recently ?

Netflix has been awesome, but if the USPS is going to be making my movie delivery times erratic it's going to end up being more cost effective to run down the street to Blockbuster so I know when movie-day is.

Being on Linux, I don't even get to use the Microsoft Silverlight powered player to watch movies online, even if I was able it appears to be junk from what I've read online lately anyways.

I just download them from Torrent sites. Lawyers mess up everything, including successful "download movies for $4" business plans.

Net flix has to mail you a copy, not because it's a good plan, but because lawyers force them to only rent physical copies.

It took years for the RCAA to figure out that they could make money instead of losing it, aka iTunes.

I used to use torrents/etc about 6 years ago when I first got online for music, but the hassle of determining which files are safe is more trouble than it was worth.

I bet more than 50% of the forum posts and other similar posts on the entire Internet with hijack-this logs and other virus related mumbo jumbo attached can be traced back to using torrents/etc.

The two most popular types of software on any download site are filesharing software and anti-virus, yet there's still soooo many people with screwed up computers every day.

I'd really rather spend the couple of bucks to watch movies on the TV and keep my computer at least a little safer.

By the way, those kiosks at the grocery store suck.

I went away for the weekend and ended up using one of those kiosks where they charge you a dollar to rent the movie for the night.
The damn thing chraged me twice (I get text messages when my card gets charged) and I didn't have time to screw with it because I had icecream.

Then today, after the movie was already returned, the damn thing charged me TWICE again.

I'm waiting to see if they get back to me before I file a dispute with my card company.

I've never had any problems with the Red Box kiosks - I love the things. Cheap, easy, legal, quick - perfect for picking it up one night while shopping, watching it, and returning it the next night.

Sorry you've hit problems with em', but I wouldn't write them off entirely.

I've actually had good experiences with the RedBox Kiosks as well. Quick and cheap and pretty easy.

Although I've only used them a handful of times each time seemed to be pretty easy and user friendly. Unfortunately I have the habit of not returning movies on time, and these things are 1 day rentals so it doesn't work out the best for me.

The kiosk I used was owned by these guys, http://www.moviecube.com/

3 days after I contacted them via their website, they got back to me with the explaination that my card wasn't actually charged twice and that one of them was a hold, and, that it was impossible to be charged for the same movie twice.

Bull. A hold deducts funds one time and stays on the statement as a pending transaction, it doesn't deduct funds from my account twice like this situation did.
A week after this whole ordeal the two $1.06 charges were taken off and I was left with a single charge for $2.12 still twice as much as it was supposed to cost.

I hate using kiosks almost as much as I hate using ATMs. If you don't watch them next thing you know you're missing $100 because they charge you $1 every day or some other "glitch" makes a one-time charge. I wouldn't have even seen the machine if the friends I was visiting didn't bring it up.

It still seems to be taking a week for my movies to get back to Netflix.
At least it only takes a day or two to get from Netflix to me.

I must have exceptionally good service. Last week, I put my movies in the mail on Thursday and got the next round on Saturday.

I also use the instant viewing feature on Netflix, constantly.

I feel like I get my dollar's worth.

Our mail system has slowed considerably. I was talking to my grandma the other day and she was telling me that the Postal Service is contemplating going down to delivering mail Monday through Friday only.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... on/columns

Looks like that is a worst case scenario

Fine by me. I probably get 1 useful thing in the mail per week if that. Maybe it will cut down on the amount of "paper spam" I get.

on the other topic I've actually been using Blockbuster Online for quite a few years. The base concept is the same as Netflix (dvd's by mail, keep as long as you want and return). However, there are a few features I prefer over Netflix notably that fact that I can return my mailed dvd to the local Blockbuster store and exchange it for a video from the store at no charge. Then the store mails the DVD back to the warehouse and I walk out with a movie right then and there. This is a really nice feature if you don't feel like watching the movie you got in the mail etc. I also get coupons for a free movie or game rental every month which makes it really nice for the occasional wii or ps3 game rental. On top of all this the system is integrated so if I get a movie in the store that's also in my que, they email me and ask if I want keep the movie in my que, etc.

The only catch is that they don't have a "watch it online" service the way Netflix does, but this isn't really a deal breaker for me since I wouldn't spring for the Netflix box for my TV anyway.

But you can hook your PC up to your TV like I do.

Very true but I've never really had a desire to buy a dedicated HTPC and my main machine is in my home office in a different room from the TV we use to watch movies.

All I do is use the VGA adapter on my laptop and hook it to the VGA on my TV. I don't have an HTPC either but would love one.