Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Netflix Sukz

When Netflix first came out I thought it was the coolest thing since microwave ovens. Pay $19.95 a month (at the time) and you get 3 movies to watch whenever you want - keep them as long as you want - and when you are done send it back and they will send the next one on your list. It was easy, fast and convenient. I raved about the service and got several family members and friends to join the service as well.

Several other companies got into the business and Netflix decided to lower their rate by several dollars in order to compete. Great! Only I started to notice that the movies were taking longer to get to me than they were in the past and I wasn't getting my first choice very often. For a while I chalked that slowness up to the post office until I read an article about a practice Netflix was using called "throttling". Netflix decided they could make more money if they slowed down the amount of movies you receive because they would save the postage. They do this for people who view a lot of movies. They prefer those customers who pay the membership dues and then only rent 1 or 2 movies a month. How's that for customer service?!

Well I think it SUKZ! I canceled my membership and joined Blockbuster.com instead. Pretty much the same deal but hopefully they won't manipulate my account in such a way. I'm guessing Blockbuster values their best customers and will treat their accounts with respect.

Netflix had a good thing going - but their greed will be their ruin.

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