|
| Wednesday, December 05, 2007 |
| Netflix caused the recent postal stamp price increase? |
 This Marketplace.org story: Post Office gives Netflix negative review reports that the most recent stamp price increase was due to Netflix costing the post office a ton of money to process all of those red DVD return envelopes.
The clean crisp edges of the Netflix mailers get frayed on return. The postal report says 70 percent of those return envelopes get stuck:
DEL POLITO: Consequently the postal service was manually processing a tremendous amount of the mail but still allowing them to get credit as if it were automatible.
If Netflix had to pay the 17 cents extra for manual processing on the 416 million DVDs it sends each year, it would cost the company an extra 70 million bucks annually.
Bulk mailer Todd Butler blames the extra labor costs caused by Netflix for the recent rise in postal rates:
TODD BUTLER: Every user of first-class mail is subsidizing the rental industry. I used to be a Netflix customer and loved it up until the time I ran out of movies or tv shows to add to my rental queue. I have been Netflix free for the past few years and I really don't miss it. I rarely go to a video store either, mostly I rent movies or shows using my OnDemand feature from Comcast or from Amazon Unbox . I don't seem to watch that many movies - perhaps it is because there do not seem to be that many good ones I want to see or I am just going out to see the highly anticipated movies in the theaters. But doing it this way gives me the spontaneous at the moment pick of a movie vr. adding to a queue and waiting for the disc in the mailbox. |
| posted by Boston Gal @ 9:48 AM *
* Subscribe to Boston Gal's Open Wallet |
Links to this post:
|
| 8 Comments: |
-
I like netflix because they have a lot of movies you can't find elsewhere (certainly not on Comcast's On Demand). It's a pain to have to wait, but they are also getting a lot of movies you can view straight on the website as well.
-
Are we supposed to believe that if all bulk mailers went out of business the USPS would reduce postage rates. Shouldn't the USPS tell Netflix which mailers are acceptable and which aren't?
-
I confess that I like both the selection and the ritual of Netflix. I like the excitement of the red envelope peeking out amid the junk mail. Movies on demand don't do much for me. (And the ones that are available on demand typically aren't the ones I want to see.)
-em
-
I currently have more than 400 movies in my Netflix queue - most of which are TV shows that have multiple discs. I can't believe the post office is trying to use Netflix as their scapegoat. They raise postage prices every year anyway, even before Netflix started! In fact, shouldn't the USPS be thanking Netflix for keeping them in business?
But maybe this explains why I keep getting cracked discs. The postal employees jam them in my apartment building's mailbox -- even though there's more than enough room -- and often break them. (Bastards.)
-
netflix has instant watching - which is very cool (no waiting) and very fast (no visible lag) and looks just fine when hooked up to a big screen TV but the film choices are limited (just over 4,000) and somewhat poor (a lot of older crappy movies) --- but hey i got to watch all the episodes of Heroes and The Office without commercials....
-
Let's hear it for The Office! Woo-hoo!
-
The USPS does raise rates periodically, but they have become more frequent in recent years.
-
How nice of the postal service to blame netflix for the increases. Is netflix the reason you guys did not deliver all the freinds and family coupons I placed in the mail?
|
| |
| << Home |
| |
|
|
|
|
I like netflix because they have a lot of movies you can't find elsewhere (certainly not on Comcast's On Demand). It's a pain to have to wait, but they are also getting a lot of movies you can view straight on the website as well.