Now that there is a complete 'Net furor going, I thought I'd toss in my two cents' worth concerning Netflix. We first encountered this movie mogul when friends gave us a "free" one-month subscription as a Christmas gift. We signed on for a month, but decided it wasn't worth the cost of the structured agreement to keep it up, and dropped out. Fast forward three years and two or three packaging structures and throw in streaming as well as DVD rental, and we decide to try 'em again. We liked what we got for about ten bucks a month--movies one at a time (turn around was one day from the warehouse, one day back after viewing), and all the streaming we could stomach (providing of course that they had the license for streaming that particular movie/television program; which two out of three times they did not but we were okay with that because we could put the DVD in our queue for later viewing).

Bombs dropping. Suddenly, we're informed (we did get about a six-week's notice, thanks Netflix guys) that we will have to choose--streaming on demand for a couple of dollars less, DVD rental for a couple of dollars less, or keep both for about half again as much as we're paying. Two things rubbed me the wrong way about the set up: (1) to keep my current status with the company, my out of pocket would increase by about seven dollars (a giant increase, I would have been happy to move from 10 to 12 dollars without too much whining); and (2) there was no (let me say it again with emphasis NO) discount for bundling the products together (thanks again, Netflix guys). And the kicker for me was that there was no explanation apparent anywhere for why they were doing this--it just seemed like a ploy to gouge more money out of the happy customers.

Explanation forthcoming. Finally, we get the explanation for why it all went down (two months after the fact). Well, it seems it's too little and too late. The apology is less than sincere (I got caught so I'm sorry, but I really wouldn't be sorry if it had worked.) The explanation fits Netflix's viewpoint, but it doesn't really address customers' wants.

Having said all of this, I think I just needed the jolt of dissatisfaction to remind me that I waste too much time watching movies and TV anyway. So, good-bye Netflix (not so long or I'll be seeing you, because it's good-bye for good).