Netflix - shipping my DVD from across the country?

[UndeadRedshirt]

I live in Baltimore, MD, and have had Netflix for over a year now. I can't recall a single movie before now shipping from anywhere besides their Gaithersburg, MD processing facility, which always resulted in a 1-day there, 1-day back turn around time.

This week I get an email saying that the Bender's Game DVD was not available at my local facility, and is shipping from Santa Ana, CA. Huh? This means I won't get it until Monday, when it would have been here yesterday if it had shipped locally. Has anyone else had this issue lately? It happened a couple weeks ago with another movie, but that one shipped from TN, so there was only an extra day.

I'm more confused about why they would do this than upset with the delay. Does anyone know if there is a way to specify on your account to only ship from the local facility? I searched the account settings on the website and didn't come across anything. Most of the time I'd rather get a movie quickly than necessarily the one at the top of my queue, as my wife and I tend to watch a lot of DVDs and turn them around pretty quickly. Oh well.

 

[Captain Craig]

I've never paid attention to where they ship from.
Maybe the TN site was also out. Maybe the game is so popular, is it new, that people are keeping them longer to play. Thus the site to have one is unfortunately across the country.

Look at it this way if there was an option that specified you only wanted items shipped from the MD site your still out of luck. The site doesn't have the game. You can get it from the CA site in 3 days or it might be a week or more till the MD site even has one available to ship.

I think your complaning needlessly on this matter.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

How does one even find out where they are shipping from?

 

[Star Wolf]

How does one even find out where they are shipping from?

They automatically ship from the local plant. If unavailable they ship from further out and send you an email notice to let you know why the delay. Normally it is done for movies with low demand so the movie won't be listed as having a wait in your queue. I've had many shipped from all over but then I've been renting a lot of Filipino movies to explore their culture and eventhough my local area has a lot of pinoys the movies are still shared with people all over the country so are shipped to MD for a customer and when they return it the DVD is mailed back to CA for me.

 

[UndeadRedshirt]

I had intended my post more as an observation of what I found to be an odd occurrence, and wondering if others had encountered it, rather than a complaint. If it is a common occurrence, as Star Wolf seems to indicate, I'll live. I've just enjoyed the quick turn around that a local delivery location has generally provided, and always thought of it as one of the main reason to use Netflix.

The shipping from other locations makes sens on movies that are in low supply, as every location may not have a copy until a local customer requests it. I would assume that a new Futurama release would be big enough to have some in each location, but I have no way of knowing that for sure. What I found odd in this situation was that even though my top few movies weren't available, I still had plenty of "Available now" items in my queue that they could have shipped and I'm just wondering how/why Netflix decided to ship they way they did when it seemed to be pretty consistent in the past that they would just ship an item lower on my queue.

Also, Alidar Jarok, you can tell what facility you are dealing with by the address on the return envelope, which should almost always be the local facility. Besides the notification emails that something shipped from another location, I am not sure of any other way.

 

[Twilight]

When I lived in Baltimore my Netflix DVDs came from the distribution center in MD, as I recall

 

[Professor Zoom]

It's occasionally happened to me. We rent Bollywood films and British stuff, so I think on the rarer things they just have less copies.

And perhaps on the high demand stuff (like possibly Bender's Game) maybe they don't have enough copies to meet demand, and maybe one location has to many, so they ship from there.

I don't think it'll happen often though. it's maybe been like 4 times in the four years that I've been a member.

 

[Brolan]

I live in Minnesota and most times they come from Minneapolis, but sometimes they come from Fargo North Dakota

 

[Star Wolf]

It's occasionally happened to me. We rent Bollywood films and British stuff, so I think on the rarer things they just have less copies.......


I don't think it'll happen often though. it's maybe been like 4 times in the four years that I've been a member.

Its happened much more often with me. As I said I have a lot of tagalog movies/TV shows in my queue, even with our large Filipino population in CAlifornia I wait. Jazz concert DVDs seem to ship from all over also while rock concerts seem to be available locally at a greater rate.

 

[stj]

Netflix is now essential for me, as it has old movies and TV sets. The only stores that even have TV sets are thirty miles away. And old movies are like finding old books in public libraries, which means only when they are being sold in mass quantities dirt cheap.

As far as turnaround here in WV goes, if they ship from Charleston, it's pretty fast. I mail, they get it next day, they mail, then I get it next day. It can be as short as two days, unless a weekend is in the middle.

But either the Charleston office is the smallest in the Netflix organization, or I have minority tastes, because most I order come from somewhere else. Turnaround time usually runs five to seven days total. If it wasn't for the variety available (and no charge when I'm short on viewing time,) Netflix wouldn't be worth the deal. Which is why I check Redbox first.

 

[nevermore]

I live in Baltimore, MD, and have had Netflix for over a year now. I can't recall a single movie before now shipping from anywhere besides their Gaithersburg, MD processing facility, which always resulted in a 1-day there, 1-day back turn around time.

Sometimes they ship from Easton as well.

This week I get an email saying that the Bender's Game DVD was not available at my local facility, and is shipping from Santa Ana, CA. Huh? This means I won't get it until Monday, when it would have been here yesterday if it had shipped locally. Has anyone else had this issue lately? It happened a couple weeks ago with another movie, but that one shipped from TN, so there was only an extra day.

Not recently, but I have had some shipped from other states as well, maybe a half-dozen since 2005. It's generally happened when I had a movie that was wait-listed for a while already. Basically they don't want you to wait too long, so they move you up to "next available". It might take another day or two, but I'd rather have that then wait a couple weeks...

Of course, I just put Bender's Big Game on my queue and it's not wait listed, so I don't know.

 

[Spot's Meow]

It happened once, when we got a pretty rare movie. There simply weren't any copies nearby. The reason I think they don't skip over that movie to the next available one is because it would mean they'd have to keep skipping it forever if it was a rare movie that no one near your distribution center ever rents. Whether you get it now or a year from now it would still have to come from far away, so might as well do it now. With more popular movies, I'm not sure why.

 

[Kail]

I'm still trying to figure out why I get movies way down the list of available movies.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

I've had a movie on my queue for the better part of a year- "Wanted Dead or Alive" with Rutger Haur. It still says "Very Long Wait". I guess they only have 1 copy for the entire country.