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Review 5/28/2011
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I've been a member of Netflix since 2002 on the 3-at-a-time plan. Up until fairly recently, I did nothing but rave about this company and their service, and recommended them to everyone I knew. I thought it the perfect business model and the best company I've ever dealt with.
However, all good things must come to an end, I guess. Why is it human nature to ruin something good? First, Netflix eliminated their community features, much to almost everyone's chagrin. Then the availability of recent releases became seriously delayed, and I started to notice that the availability of even older movies was starting to become suspiciously slim for shipment. Then they jacked up their membership fees, and for the first time ever I changed my plan, down to 1-at-a-time. Now my membership is on hold.
But the major issue that will make me end my association with them is their intended and forceful push to a streaming-only service, INSTEAD of DVD shipments. To me - a loyal customer for so long - this is a stab in the back. I have no interest in streaming movies to my TV, which would not only require me to purchase an adapter of some sort and pay more for faster internet access, but would require my computer to run whilst watching my TV. Maybe for some that's no big deal, but to me, it's a waste of electricity and needless additional wear on a computer. I use one or the other devices at a time, not both. Basically, Netflix's changes would make me pay more more more one way or the other and just makes things unnecessarily complicated. (And I have heard a great deal about the poor picture quality of streaming video as compared to playing an actual DVD, besides.)
Many, many people who have patronized Netflix for so long are those who live in rural areas and have no access to other DVD rentals. Unfortunately, those who live in rural areas also tend to have internet access that is too slow to properly and reliably stream media to begin with. We LIKE having the actual DVD. Get it Netflix? No, I guess you don't. One of the things that made this company great was the CHOICES they offered, but I see a sad trend towards taking choice away.
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