Why I Hate Netflix
Its Monday morning and I'm off to mail the two movies my wife and I watched over the weekend. See, its important to get out there before the maillady comes. Why? Because I want to get some new movies quick. None of this waiting around crap. Thats why we use Netflix. Maybe I should say "used", because I'm very close to cancelling the account and swapping to Blockbuster. And believe me, thats not my first choice. I've been giving Netflix chance after chance to get better, yet they only get worse.
So its Wednesday night as I write this. How many movies have they received? One. Odd... I sent them at the same time, yet they only receive one. Now here's the real kicker. This has happened like this every single time for months. I've gotten to the point where, in my mind, I guess which one they'll choose to have received. Why do they only receive one at a time? Well, if you do the math, it starts to add up over the course of a year. Spread this same phenomenon to every one of their users, and suddenly its a really large amount of money they are effectively skimming off the top. They have at their disposal the greatest excuse of all time - the mail.
Another interesting phenomenon, is what happens if I mail all three back at once. The returns still get spread out over two days, except without fail the first day has two returns. You'd think "well, thats not bad" but it is and here's why. The day they ship, I get a notice saying they shipped me ONE movie. Not two. But they received two (although you and I know they actually received all three). So now the shipping is spread across three days, for three movies. All of which should have been mailed on the first day.
Do the math involved with that last example. Pretend you watch all three movies in one day, mail them back and count the days required to receive them. Again, account for non-shipment/receipt on weekends, add this up over a year and you'll quickly see why Netflix is actually cheating you out of rentals.
The truly sad part, is A: we can't afford to pay for our movie habit via local rentals, B: Blockbuster is basically the devil and C: we have the basic cable, so we rely upon Netflix's dodgy service as "better than the alternative." A very unfortunate situation.
So its Wednesday night as I write this. How many movies have they received? One. Odd... I sent them at the same time, yet they only receive one. Now here's the real kicker. This has happened like this every single time for months. I've gotten to the point where, in my mind, I guess which one they'll choose to have received. Why do they only receive one at a time? Well, if you do the math, it starts to add up over the course of a year. Spread this same phenomenon to every one of their users, and suddenly its a really large amount of money they are effectively skimming off the top. They have at their disposal the greatest excuse of all time - the mail.
Another interesting phenomenon, is what happens if I mail all three back at once. The returns still get spread out over two days, except without fail the first day has two returns. You'd think "well, thats not bad" but it is and here's why. The day they ship, I get a notice saying they shipped me ONE movie. Not two. But they received two (although you and I know they actually received all three). So now the shipping is spread across three days, for three movies. All of which should have been mailed on the first day.
Do the math involved with that last example. Pretend you watch all three movies in one day, mail them back and count the days required to receive them. Again, account for non-shipment/receipt on weekends, add this up over a year and you'll quickly see why Netflix is actually cheating you out of rentals.
The truly sad part, is A: we can't afford to pay for our movie habit via local rentals, B: Blockbuster is basically the devil and C: we have the basic cable, so we rely upon Netflix's dodgy service as "better than the alternative." A very unfortunate situation.
Labels: Netflix
