If your DVDs arrive promptly from Netflix, but seem to take longer to return, it's possible your mail is being intercepted on the return trip. Someone is noticing when you return a disc. They could open your envelope, watch or copy your movie, reseal the envelope and return it to Netflix, and no one would be the wiser. This is much easier than outright mail theft, because all it takes is a little detour. Netflix is too busy to notice if a return envelope has been opened and resealed.
I suggest returning your discs from an alternate location for a few weeks, to see if return times improve. I always use a blue USPS box on the street, and I experience very prompt check-in on all my returns.
If your movies disappear entirely, even once, report it missing to Netflix AND to the United States Postal Service. The USPS has a convenient online form for reporting mail theft. If you have a pattern of lost discs (I don't know how many constitutes a "pattern") Netflix will hold you liable, so in your own self-defense, you should alert the authorities.
An improbable assumption. If rentals take longer checking in than shipping out it's most likely due to renting too often (throttling). Carl Craven can provide some insight about the matter. You're assuming a postal worker is stealing mail in order to watch videos. First, a postal worker has no idea what movie is inside the envelope. Second, your assuming the postal worker will painstakingly tape together the envelope he opened and return it in the mail. There's little incentive into taking such a risk that you would lose your job, health benefits, and pension. Third you're assuming someone has broken into a U.S. mailbox to steal a Netflix rental. Again, little incentive for such a large risk.
ReplyDeleteThrottling is not the issue in my case (I'm a low-volume user with a monthly limit), and I often have movies that take several days to get logged in as returned. Interestingly enough, I notice that it seems to occur more often if I return a movie on a Saturday or a Monday, and in fact, my last returned movie was mailed after collection on Saturday and wasn't logged as received until Thursday. (I live two mail days from my nearest DC, so it should have been noted as received on Wednesday.) I've had several returns that weren't received at all over the past six months.
ReplyDeleteA lot of things can go wrong or 'not according to policy' inside individual post offices, especially ones in smaller communities. The Postmaster or his or her deputy are only on duty so many hours in a day, and a lot of mail handling occurs outside their normal hours of operation. (In order for your mail to be in your PO box or your house mailbox by the time it is, most carriers start work between 4-6 AM.) In addition, a lot of mail transport is contracted out to third-parties. Sure, it's the proverbial "federal offense" to tamper with mail, but if one is miles away from any oversight, how is anyone going to know, especially with otherwise untraceable things like Netflix DVDs?
All this occurs even without using the blue street corner collection boxes, in which no important mail should ever be placed. While a quaint holdover of Americana (I can remember when they were red and blue, prior to the reorganization that created the USPS out of the Post Office Department), they are subject to attack, vandalism, and theft, either outright or via 'fishing', where unscrupulous people take inspection mirrors and cameras to survey the contents and remove any deposited mail of intrinsic value. They also assume that the usually unsupervised solo letter carrier collecting the mail is honest and isn't going to pilfer the deposited mail.
Not fun things to think about, but parts of life, nonetheless!