Netflix and Dump Trucks

So I use this blog as a dumping ground for rants quite frequently in between the posts about my crafting. Today is another such day. Feel free to skip it. I understand.


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Dear Netflix,
I was 1 of your 25 million customers who didn't actually care that you decided to raise prices a big 60%. I don't have cable television, so I use your streaming and DVD delivery in the place of that expense. I thought it was still a better deal than a hundred dollar cable bill. I was diehard and sticking by your side.

Notice the past tense verbs? I'm an English teacher, so I used them on purpose. It wasn't a slip in verb tense.

No, it was purposeful because you have stepped in it with me this time. Splitting up the services so that I now have to have 2 bills to pay instead of 1, 2 log ins to remember instead of 1, and 2 new, unconnected websites to learn to navigate instead of one. Thanks. I really did think the all in one method was way too streamlined and modern. It was way too user-friendly. You are right. What the world needs now is 2 totally unconnected sites to order DVDs and streaming from. You are so ahead of the game there splitting things up and making them 100% separate. Yeah.
Wait.
Um.
No.
That is stupid. In a world where my phone can do anything my computer can do and my life insurance can be bundled with my house and car insurance, what the hell makes you think that splitting things up is a good idea? HELLO? Have you seen the Progressive "bundler" commercials? That is the future kids. Not the 1 site=1 purpose deal. Even clothing sites are now "bundled" so that you can shop all of the brands owned by a company by clicking tabs in the website. What's wrong with your management/planning team?

I know, I get that mail is expensive. I get that DVDs cost money to buy, keep in good condition, store, and redistribute. I get that. That's why I wasn't mad about you jacking my price up so high. I understand that you gotta feed your multimillion dollar bank accounts. I'm ok with you making money off of me by providing me with a service. I get that's what I'm paying you for. But I also expect I'm paying for leadership in a company I once respected and liked. I don't see that happening right now.

What I see happening is a company growing too big for it's britches to put it Southern-ly. You managed to become the "600 ton gorilla" that Wal-mart is and you shut down Movie Gallery and have Blockbuster on the ropes. You revolutionized how I get my movie content. You made my life simpler, easier, more entertained. Yes, you won the "badass idea/concept" of the year again and again. Americans welcomed you into their homes and their pockets happily. Until this year.

This year, you seem to have lost your damn mind. First, you wanted to jack rates up. How's that working out for you? Now, you're trying to push the market in the way you want it to move. You are probably right, Netflix guys. DVDs are probably going the way of the dodo and vinyl records. But you forgot that your market if full of red-blooded Americans. We don't do what we're told to do. In fact, when you tell us to do something, we often rear up against that and do the thing you tell us not to do. It's how we roll. It's part of the American DNA strand. Telling us that DVDs are the way of the past and that we should let it go (by making us have to go to another place to get them) isn't going to go over much better than your crazy price hike.

In fact, I'm one of those red-blooded Americans who is now pissed off and thinking of dropping you. I stuck by you through the price increase because I valued your product, but now you've gone and ruined that product for me. I know what your little move of splitting the company up is all about. You are either going to sell off the DVD side or just kill it quietly when you think I'm busy watching Mad Men on your streaming site. You see, Netflix doodes, you've broken the thing that kept you in business: consumer confidence in your product/business. I no longer trust you with my money. You're liable to use that money to do something else stupid that affects me as a consumer.

Since I can't trust you any more, I feel like our relationship is going to end soon. I may keep my account with your Qwikster branch, but I'll probably give Hulu.com my money for streaming. Or Amazon. Or someone else who hasn't gotten too big for their britches yet.

I hope this gives you something to think about while you ride that elevator to the ground floor of stupid and stock prices.

No love.
Me


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I'm also very tired of dump trucks in my city. We're growing (thankfully) and roads are being fixed and developments are going up to house people we think are moving to our city. With all of this going on, my city is crawling with dump trucks. I hate them all. 1-the drivers are all jerks who drive as though they are in a tank in some foreign country where other people on the road don't matter. 2-the trucks spit gravel etc. from themselves and kick it up off the road and at my car. I'm tired of the sound of gravel pinging off my 2 year old car. Yes, I keep about 3 school buses back, but they like to cut you off in traffic on the highway, turn in front of you, etc. etc. I'll be so happy when all this construction is over and the volume of dump trucks on the roads goes back to something more normal. I saw 12 on my 10 minute ride to work this am.