Why I Quit NetFlix

This morning I decided to go over to the Netflix website and change my membership from "on hold" to "cancelled." What could I be thinking of? Isn't Netflix the greatest way to get movies since, well, the beginning of the universe?

Partially, that's so. After I clicked cancel, and then was redirected to the page that said "ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO QUIT NETFLIX?" which I also had to confirm, I was quickly sent to a survey page to try and explain it to them. Exactly why I could be making a choice of such questionable sanity? Was their selection too small? Had Blockbuster tried to undermine their business model with some misleading new program? Was I going to some radical new technology? Were there technical problems with their downloads? Wasn't their high definition high enough? Couldn't their surround sound surround me? All the questions were multiple choice, and none allowed me to tell them exactly what was wrong. So I have to use my trusty blog for that.

No Netflix, all those things are OK. The reason I quit is that you stole $15.00 from me, to which you were not entitled, and for which you delivered no value whatsoever. In addition you were able to process that payment through my bank on a credit card which had expired (you did the same thing as well, Amazon, and I'm going to deal with that soon). The long and short of it is, back in September( I believe?) my credit card was expiring, Netflix asked me for a new number, I thought "heck, I don't really use this service, because I don't really watch movies much anymore," and went to cancel. The Netflix website said, noooo, just put your account on hold for up to three months, so I did that. When the hold was up, Netflix sent me an email to tell me (I promptly went back and extended the hold), but they also processed a payment. Fifteen bucks. Against an expired credit card. And Bank of America processed it, because face it, Netflix is probably Bank of America's only successful and liquid client. B of A would never let me use that expired credit card, but they will let the likes of Netflix "If-you-don't-pay-us-we'll-just-steal-it-from-you" Corporation process a payment through that expired credit card.

Now there are those who would say I just need to call Netflix customer service to get my money back. That's fine, but that means that it's OK for a company to take my money, and it's up to me to ask for it back. That's a bad, bad, bad state of affairs. I speak English. I have a phone. I read my credit card statements. I wonder how much Netflix collects each month in questionable transactions. I find it troubling and a little disgusting.

So, the answer to the question posed in the title of this post: I am no longer a customer of Netflix, because they stole money from me. And proven themselves thereby to be scum sucking pond rats. And what's worse is they're probably the best and most principaled of the online service-online payment companies out there. Sad. Very, very sad.