John Turner

I dropped my Netflix account yesterday. When I started with Netflix 3-4 years ago, I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. Then, I ran into the throttle. Basically, Netflix felt I was renting too many movies, causing them to lose money on postage.

I’m all for companies making a profit, but their argument doesn’t make sense. First, even if they were losing money on me, I’m 100% positive they were making money off of someone else, more than likely enough profit to cover both of us and still come out ahead. Second, they specifically use the term “unlimited” in their advertising, and they say I get to pick the movies I want. Well, unlimited means that if I only want to watch new releases, then they better send those puppies out as fast as possible.

I held on for 12-18 months…even though they weren’t sending me the new releases I wanted, I caught up on some TV series and some older movies as well as some indies. Plus, I was busy at work and with some other projects so I didn’t really miss the new releases.

But, last week I noticed that I had had “American Gangster” in my queue since before it had been released, and Netflix was still claiming “long wait”. Then, I noticed that my cable provider was already offering American Gangster on PPV for $3.99. So, I did the math. I was paying Netflix $32 a month (the 5-at-a-time plan). At $3.99 per movie, I could see a new release every week…actually 8 new releases a month, for the same cost as my Netflix account. And I wouldn’t have to deal with going to the post office, dealing with broken DVDs, incorrect DVDs, etc. Even on a good week with the throttle, I wasn’t getting 2 new releases a week.

So there you have it…bye, bye Netflix. Even better, I’m thinking about dumping my cable TV. I realized that I can get the same PPV movies my cable company offers on iTunes for the same $3.99. Since all of the broadcast channels in my area are HD for free, the only thing I’d be missing by giving up my cable TV would be series like “Big Love”, “Entourage”, “Kalifornication”, and shows like Bravo’s “Top Chef”. But I can get those on DVD, and while buying a DVD costs more than renting one, I can sell the DVD after I’m done with it.

Bye, bye Netflix…it was nice working with you but I’m moving on and saving money to boot.