Telling Netflix to GFYS

We "cut the cable" about 18 months ago. You'd have thought the world ended for these people (Direct TV, Dish, Netflix, Sirius, etc)! It was like a tidal wave of offers for everything imaginable. We cut everything at once (and they talk you know, right?). Well, it was like a full-court-press from Hell with these people. Shortly afterwards I bought a new truck which came with a trial Sirius subscription. They must called me 200 times, sent me 50 letters, bombarded me with emails to the point I had to block all of them. When I'd canceled the service, they'd asked the usual questions, tried to make all the usual "special offers just for me"...all of it. I told them all same thing..."We just don't use it, none of it, no matter what service; we don't use it. So cancel it". They have no response for this; there's no way they can argue. "Cancel it, and take it off my bill; I'm not paying for it anymore. Anything else? Bye!"

You really have to understand how all these services work. They start out as a good idea, and they become really popular. Then the original owners sell them off to media companies, and the media companies eventually sell them off to subsidiaries who are filled with "activist investors" (i.e. basically hedge funds). This is when the subscription model starts showing up, and that's how these venture capital activist investor/hedge funds work. They want their profits right now (usually 6 months or less after investing). The way they turn their quick profits is through all the subscription services. They have very little staff (so zero customer service) and therefore little overhead, and they just take the money by the bag full and run away with it. And this is just an endless cycle. This is why your rates keep going up.

After I discovered all this, we just said 'screw it' and cut the cable. Told them to come pick up all their dishes and gear, and they wouldn't even do that!!! They were like..."keep it". They don't care. It's like one of the biggest cash cows in the universe. We set up a way better internet setup, it's like 30% of the cost we were paying and 5x faster than our old service. No gimmicks, no BS, no outrageous monthly fees like before...and we watch whatever we want, pretty much advertising free. F all the big name networks, and their endless advertising blasting you in the face.

We're done. We cut the cord. And, nearly two years later, we've never been happier (not to mention about $300 bucks a month richer).

"CUT THE CORD!" HOO-AHH!!

a reply to: MykeNukem

PLUTO TV is a free service online but does have commercials, however, they don't last that long and you can watch a lot on demand without commercials... they have catalogs of paranormal stuff including UFO/UAP stuff! A lot is repeated on 'live tv' which is a downside but it's a free service.

I also watch discovery channels online... mainly Quest Red which is free but they also have catalogs of stuff to watch... most are paid for channels though but a lot less than Netflix.

YOUTUBE is good for ufo stuff and wildlife documetaries...

Other sites with free stuff on but google are trying their best to delete all these types of sites!

originally posted by: chiefsmom
Um, Amazon is already throwing Ads in some of their stuff.
P's me off, but what can you do? Pay more or cancel, or watch the ads.

I use them for bathroom or snack breaks, cause I am not paying more.

All about the money, honey!

If you go for too long and get back before the next break, I can rewind. They will stop that one day.

originally posted by: DontTreadOnMe
DVR whatever you can.
Watch at leisure and fast forward through the ads, and intermissions.

Yes!

But Amazon won't let you do that way unless you have a way to capture the stream and store it where you are at the time.

originally posted by: BingoMcGoof
a reply to: MykeNukem

Maybe I'm too old school

Well yuh Myke, that'd be it right there huh? The minute they put a screen in front of anyone's face, it was a for profit thingie. What year was that, 1911? That first movie room, that's just a guess.

And TV was only free to any viewer because the viewer was the product sold to the advertisers.

And then of course along came HBO and all the rest and they were free of ads if one paid the entry fee. Some believed that promise would always be honored but that was naivete.

One might hope, year after year, promise after promise that this system would hold to the bargain but it was, is and always will be ''open your wallet sucker''.

We still have that deal with the squirrels though right?

a reply to: MykeNukem

Sometimes a few jokes fly over my head, other than that, agreed. I watch the actual good stuff and leave the hyped bad stuff...

Back in the days it would take hours to get that movie not to think about whole seasons but now a days, it's 15min or less for a movie.

The laws here in Switzerland are such that only sharing is illegal but not downloading... I take it that this is not the case in Canada or the US?

a reply to: Justoneman

Right, Amazon will bookmark your place in a program so you can return to it later and pick up where you left off, and you can rewind it (or start over), but the way Amazon has it set up is there's no way we've been able to figure out to skip the commercials. If you rewind or rejoin, you still have to watch the ads. FeeVee on Amazon is pretty much the same.

But there's still lots of stuff out there, including tons of movies and documentaries where you can watch and skip the commercials and/or not have commercials at all.

originally posted by: Terpene
a reply to: MykeNukem

The laws here in Switzerland are such that only sharing is illegal but not downloading... I take it that this is not the case in Canada or the US?

If we already own it, like a DVD, we can download it.

But, it's illegal to download and watch movies you haven't paid for here in Canada.

There's tons of free services here and I don't mind the commercials for those, they need to make money somehow, but Netflix is BS IMO, done with them.

originally posted by: DontTreadOnMe
DVR whatever you can.
Watch at leisure and fast forward through the ads, and intermissions.

You can't do that with Smart TV streams, well you can but you'd have to buy some hardware.

I don't mind ads so much, just don't like the privilege of being charged for them, lol..

Hulu pisses me off too, why are ads allowed to be twice as loud as what I'm watching?

originally posted by: MykeNukem
Anyone else get the constant f'ing reminders to upgrade their subscription because their current sub is expiring and won't be available anymore?

They have one priced almost the same, but it has ads.

Not sure wtf planet NetFlix lives on but Paid TV doesn't have f'ing ads, k?

Maybe I'm too old school...but F##K Netflix and their aggressive and annoying f'n reminders.

So, I told a Customer Service Rep to pass on essentially this same message.

F'n arseholes...

I ditched them after they paid the Obmamas millions to be on the board. Nothing good will come out of that.

a reply to: MykeNukem

We haven't cut the cord yet. So, the DVR is part of our plan.
But yeah, otherwise you'd have to buy some hardware.

originally posted by: Shoshanna
a reply to: MykeNukem

Paying for ads. Do they think people are stupid? Probably. A lot of them are. I watch Tubi its free and there are very few ads like I can go a whole unsolved mysteries episode with no ads if I watch the on demand part. Even their live TV part doesn't have many ads to fill time they play like...elevator music if you don't use the live TV part of Tubi you probably don't know what I mean but that is much less annoying than ads.

Same me too. And 123movies.com, also 100% free with movies & series. Though I don't use them as much as youtube, too little patience for movies nowadays .