It's All over for me and Netflix

When I first got a Netflix subscription, I thought it was the best thing that had happened for movie-viewing since the end of kozmo.com*. The idea that movies would just keep coming to my mailbox and all I had to do was build a queue was something that made me very happy. I had a habit of owing a lot of late fees on DVD rentals so I thought this was a sure fire way to end that problem.

For a while, it was great. I watched a ton of movies but then.... I got some movies that I wasn't in the mood for and it took me a while to send them back. And then... I started to feel like a hermit because the pressure to watch my 3 movies and get them back so the next 3 could come was something I got a little obsessed about. And then... I moved and I just didn't have time to watch my three movies.

Every month I saw this $19.57 charge hit my bank account and I didn't blink an eye - I mean it allowed for unlimited movie-viewing. And then ... this morning I was balancing my checkbook and I saw that fee and I tried to think back to the last time I had actually sent my movies back. I realized that it was something like last January, which means that I have paid $156.56 for the privilege of having three Netflix envelopes gather dust on top of my TV. I think I actually watched the movies at some point but it's been so long I can't remember if I did.

For me, it seems that the occasional late fee from the local DVD store isn't so bad and it's a great place where I actually get to interact with people obsessed w/movies who will give me good ideas about what to watch.



Bye bye Netflix.

* ummm. I would still jump for joy if kozmo.com would come back. It was definitely the best thing ever.