What follows is an email I sent to Netflix.com. It addresses a problem which I have been experiencing with their service and which is very bothersome to me. For those of you who don't know what Netflix is, it's a company that allows you to rent dvds online which they will then mail to your household. There are no late fees or due dates. You simply receive the dvd with the rest of your mail in a flimsy little red paper envelope and when you are done watching it, you put it back in the mail in the somewhat less flimsy, postage paid envelope and when they get the dvd back they send you another one. This is a well thought out system and it runs really well, until.... well, please keep reading.
To whom it may concern:
I'm not sure that you can do anything about my problem, but I thought I would bring it up anyway. Lately I have noticed that it is taking longer and longer to receive dvds from Netflix after they have been mailed. Last week I was supposed to get a dvd on Tuesday (The Transporter 2) which was mailed out on Monday and by Saturday I had not received it so I filed a missing dvd report with Netflix. On monday, Netflix emailed me and said that they had received this dvd back from me, even though this dvd did not arrive at my address so there is no way i could have sent it back. I figured that maybe it was lost in the mail and returned to the sender, so I requested another copy of the dvd, but the next two dvds that I received in the mail were both already opened when they came in through the mail slot into my house. It seems that somewhere between Netflix, the postal service and my doorstep my dvds are getting opened, and possibly even viewed by someone other than me. I am concerned because I do not wish to be penalized for missing dvds which I do not even receive. It has only begun happening recently and hopefullly it will not happen again, but I would like to know what, if anything can be done about it. Thank you for your help.
Sincerely...
etc etc etc.
You get the point. So... someone is possibly taking the dvds I order from Netflix before they come to my door, opening them to see if the movie that I am paying for is one that they might like to watch. If they're not interested in it then they'll let it come through my mail slot, if they are interested in it they'll watch it and maybe then give it back to me so that i can watch it too a few days later or maybe just return it to Netflix for me, so that they can get more dvds at my expense.
For a while I've been wondering why I have to wait a whole week to get a dvd from Netflix when the mailing center is located right in Chicago, where I live! Clues are turning up now as to why I'm having such problems. The past few dvds that I have been getting are opened before they come in through my mail slot into the house. It has to be the postal worker (or a corrupt Netflix employee?) because nobody can get at this dvd once it has been delivered by mail. The mail goes through the mail slot in my door and is therefore locked away from the outside world and any would-be movie thieves.
Whoever is doing this is really running a cunning little scam. They get free movies... granted they have to watch what I or my wife wants to watch, but then again, a postal employee has their choice of thousands of red Netflix envelopes to get free movies from. I wonder how many other people are having this same problem, or if they're even noticing it. For a while Netflix envelopes were very easy to slide the dvd out of. You simply had to seperate two pieces of paper and slide the dvd out, you didn't even have to break any seals. Now they've put seals over the top and bottom of the envelope so that it is harder to get the dvd out without detection. That must be why I have found the last two envelopes completely torn open... not shredded open, but neatly pulled apart at the perforated seams. It looks way too neat and clean to have accidentally split open. It is obvious to me that a person pulled the envelope apart with care.
So what am I going to do besides get pissed off? I have no idea what I'll do about it. But it isn't worth paying for movies that I do not get to see or having my service slowed down to a crawl all because of some postal service error and or theft. I can't say for certain what is happening though. It seems to me that what I have deduced is logical, but then again... I could be paranoid. What do you think is going on and what should I do about it? I would like your help.
-Joe
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