My Two Cents on Netflix and Qwikster

Well it was only a matter of time before I’d have to throw my hat into the ring. I sort of kept quiet during all this pricing and streaming fiasco going on at Netflix.

I love movies. Hell, I blog about how much I love movies. I need Netflix. I also need Redbox and Blockbuster kiosks. See I’m a film addict and I’ll get my movies any way I can. It seems like Reed Hastings knows this. He’s my pusher. He gave me a taste of how easy streaming is. Funny though, he held back just a little. I can’t stream everything. He only gave me a taste. Once I saw how easy it was to simply push a button to watch a movie, he went and jacked the price up on me.

Everyone has a story in the naked city. This is mine.



I have a crappy fifteen year old TV. I don’t have a BlueRay player. Believe it or not, I still have a dual DVD/VCR deck. Until a few months ago, if I streamed anything on Netflix, it was on my laptop. I’m not a gamer so I didn’t have an Xbox or any other type of game console. Then my daughter purchased a laptop for college and got a free Xbox. She’s not a gamer either so she was going to sell it. I convinced her to give it to me for a cheap price. Finally, I’d be able to stream just like the people with those fancy flat screens. Then I found out I needed a $60 per year Xbox Live membership. I’m in it with both feet now, what am I going to do? So, now I’m finally set up and then Netflix raises their prices by 60%! I’m in this for a lot a dough at this point. What am I going to do if I nix the streaming? I already paid for a year on Xbox. Sorry, but I’m not going to start playing Gears of War! So while everyone was jumping ship I kept my mouth shut. I was currently a three-disc at a time unlimited streaming member. If I dropped down to 2 discs, I could recoup my losses.

Then yesterday Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix sends me an email. No more rate increases but now they have decided to split into two companies. What? I understand that they want to maintain the Netflix name for streaming because that is certainly the future, but what kind of a name is Quikster? Plus, are you going to import my list? I have 469 movies in my queue right now and I’m not rebuilding it all over again. Plus, how does the streaming queue list work since there are maybe only one out of twenty-five movies I browse that are available for streaming? Will I need to toggle between two lists back and forth when I see that what I want is not available for streaming? Sigh. Hey Netflix, maybe I would have that kind of time if I didn’t have a job, but then if I didn’t have a job I certainly could afford your rates. See how that works Netflix? I’ve been a loyal customer for a long time and I’ve always stuck up for you guys. Now I feel you’re sort of testing the limits of our relationship.

I saw this last night on Conan. Netflix, pay attention. You’re going to need to do a lot to make this one up to us.