Netflix, You Disappoint Me

So yeah, I’m a little slow on the uptake. I’ve noticed over the past few months that new releases weren’t coming out on Netflix until like a month after videoeta.com said they were released. I kept wondering why I’d see movies for sale in stores but couldn’t rent them yet. Finally, I looked into it and found that months ago Netflix made a deal with several movie companies to delay releases for a month in hopes of increases the sales on those movies. A month??? Really? How is this a good idea? I get that big Hollywood threw some pretty words at Netflix, promised more streaming availability of the older movies no one really wants to see anymore anyway, yadda yadda etc and so on. Bottom line- Netflix screwed me out of actually seeing new releases while they’re still NEW and screwed themselves because Blockbuster and every other video rental company (except Redbox apparently) will have those movies on time. Netflix is going to have to change thier tagline to “All the old crap you don’t want to see but will watch because you’re paying $20 a month and have nothing better to do right now.” This just doesn’t seem right. It doesn’t seem fair to me, the consumer. I didn’t receive a notice saying “hey, you may want to cancel your account because we can no longer offer you new releases.” Seems I should have been given a heads-up.

What’s a girl to do? My options are limited. I don’t want to can my account because I do rent older stuff for my son occasionally, and my only local option is Blockbuster, a store that consistently forgets to check in my stuff, tries to charge me for it, practically calls me a liar when I insist I returned it, and offers no apology when they finally find it on their shelf exactly where they claimed to look five minutes ago before I started using words like “class action law suit.” OnDemand costs almost as much as Blockbuster and you only get the movie for 24 hours. What if something comes up and I can’t finish it? Then I have to pay to rent digital data again. My cable company is already raping me monthly, I’d rather not give them any more than I have to. So basically, I’m stuck with Netflix or nothing. Ah, I see! They knew it would come down to that! They realize they are the lesser of all evils and they can screw customers every which way till Sunday (anyone still having their account throttled for actually taking “unlimited” to heart?) and people will stay because the alternatives suck. Kind of like the American government!

Fine Netflix, I’m not threatening to abandon ship, but I am disappointed in you. And in an act of rebellion, I refuse to go out and buy those new releases as the movie studios were hoping I’d do. Maybe I’ll buy them used and circumvent everyone. HA! Take that!

Tagged as: Netflix release delay