Posts tagged Netflix

So, last night my Roku Box refused to let me watch NETFLIX. The main page was the systems menu and no amount of fiddling would take me anywhere else. I tried recycling the power, still nothing. So, as a last ditch effort I did a factory reset…

Come to find out, Roku did a policy change way back in 2010 (apparently JUST after I bought the damn thing) that required new customers to create an account to activate their device…yeah, ok, fine. What’s NOT fine…in order to create said account, you have to provide a credit card.

WTF???

Tell me something…why should I have to put my personal financial information at risk, to activate a device, I have already bought and paid for??!

You best believe Roku will be getting an angry phone call this afternoon with an ultimatum. Give me an account that without my Credit information, or I go out and buy one of the many other options. End of story.

I know I have been posting a lot of HARVEST MOON stuff lately…

…well tough tomahawks (yeah, I know that’s not a real saying but I’m trying it out for size, it’s gonna be a thing!) cause I got jack else to post about.

My life has gotten pleasantly boring as of late and I’m enjoying it as best I can without being bored. Sure, I feel guilty for spending hours on end laying on the couch playing a video game about being a productive member of society instead of actually being one myself, but hell, I’m 26, single, and live by myself. If that’s how I want to spend my time off, who’s to nag me about it? No one that’s who!!

Even Transformer collecting has taken a bit of Hiatus. Sure, that’s because the DOTM toys are just as awful as the movie, but still KRE-O has been released and I’ve still to seriously consider purchasing them. Of course, when the PRIME toys come out, all bets are off…

Also, some of my sloth can be blamed on Netflix…or Qwikster…or Boneyouintheassbecausewehavenoideahowtorunasuccessfulcompany-ster…or whatever the hell they want to call themselves. DVD cue has been full up on BURN NOTICE, and BREAKING BAD was just added to the Instant Watch along with a ton of MST3K Gamera movies…sure they’re *shudders* Joel episodes. But for Gamera, I’ll take the not-at-all-as-funny-as-Mike Bullet.

Apparently they put lesbians in ADVENTURE TIME and both sides are freaking out. One side because “OMG I love LESBOS!!” the other side because “OMG I hate LESBOS!!” Frankly, I think both sides are missing the big picture; the princess is made of bubblegum. It’s not going to work out between them…she has no blood for the vampire chick to drink. It’s common sense people…come on.

Lastly, I finally have a decent collection of liquor to constitute the phrase “Liquor Cabinet.” At the moment it contains a full 750ml minus one shot of Sailor Jerry Rum, an unopened 750ml of Woodford Reserve bourbon, and 3/4 of a Flask of Jim Beam Black bourbon…ok, so maybe “Bourbon Cabinet” is more accurate, but you get the picture.

…bourbon is delicious.

Dear Dubzor,

I messed up. I owe you an explanation. [Damn right you do.]

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. [Um…no? We’re pissed because you instituted a 60% markup with absolutely no incentive to bundle services from your site.] That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing. [Oh god, this is going to be good…]

For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn’t make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. [And you did make that leap…your streaming service is rivaled by no one and has made your company one of the fastest growing in recent history.] Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us). So we moved quickly into streaming, but I should have personally given you a full explanation of why we are splitting the services and thereby increasing prices. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do. [It wouldn’t have changed jack shit about how we feel.]

So here is what we are doing and why.

Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD. DVD is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection of movies.

I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail. We need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolves, without maintaining compatibility with our DVD by mail service. [What compatibility??? It’s DVD’s verses Live Streaming, there’s NOTHING that makes them “compatible.” …suddenly I feel like Domingo Montoya…”I don’t think it means what you think it means.”]

So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures [That are somehow the exact same price…], that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently.

It’s hard to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”. We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming. [Oh sweet Jesus…here we go…]

Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. [So…why bother doing it in the first place?] One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. [So let me get this straight…you separated from streaming because you were worried about “compatibility” between services…what makes DVDs and Video Games so compatible then other than they are on a shiny disk?] Members have been asking for video games for many years, [They’ve also been asking for PORN but that doesn’t make it a good idea.] but now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow. [Please god, not porn…it was a joke for f*cksake.] A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated.

There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!). [AFTER a 60% price hike, you damn well better.] If you subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix. The total will be the same as your current charges. We will let you know in a few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready.

For me the Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy. The new envelope is still that lovely red, but now it will have a Qwikster logo. I know that logo will grow on me over time, but still, it is hard. I imagine it will be similar for many of you. [When they changed the Burger King logo I nearly had a heart attack…my mind can’t handle new things…please don’t make me think…I’m just a wallet with eyes, you know that!!]

I want to acknowledge and thank you for sticking with us, [I had no choice…thank you for reminding me.] and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly.

Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions.

Respectfully yours, [You forgot quotation marks around Respectfully.]

-Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix