Thursday, March 26, 2009

The Daily Vitriol, or, A Comment I Wrote

I have Netflix. I get one DVD at a time, and watch TV hosted by Netflix on the computer. Recently Netflix changed their online viewer, and made the mistake of asking my opinion about the quality of my most recent viewing. I felt obligated to tell them. I didn't think I was in a particularly splenetic mood, but I guess I was. Or maybe I'm always like this.

Comment:
"Since Netflix 'upgraded' to Silverlight, 'watch instantly' watching has become almost unwatchable: exceedingly choppy and often completely stop-and-go when viewed 'full screen.'

I am sure mine is not the first complaint about this. Nor will it be the last. (A simple Google search for 'silverlight sucks' should give you an idea of the problem).

In this economy, a business model that works to make customer satisfaction WORSE is probably not a very good idea. I would recommend you fix this problem as soon as possible.

In addition, the search engine on your site is really poor. Why don't you use Google search like normal people? You and amazon and your stupid terrible search engines. Amazon must seriously lose $100,000 a day because people simply cannot find stuff on their site.

Finally, I would like to say that only being able to 'watch instantly' using Internet Explorer is exceedingly trying. I don't know if you know this, but Internet Explorer is crappy, and only used by your grandma, who just learned to use the computer last month. And even grandma will have Firefox once one of her loving grandkids (a category that does not include you, obviously) comes over and installs it for her and puts a shortcut for it on her desktop labeled 'google.' I know this, because that's what I did for my grandma-aged parents. And all of a sudden their browser wasn't one invented in the Cretaceous Period by giant land animals who are now extinct. It's amazing. It's called 'evolution'!"

2 comments:

futuregirl said...

You are a God! That's the best feedback ever. Ever! I'm guilty of giving people that kind of honest and detailed tech feedback on their websites, even when it's not solicited.

And, in pre-solidarity with you, I responded to someone's retarded comment on my blog with a bit of f*ck-you-ness, which made me feel a lot better. It was wrapped in a bit of humor and a touch of sweetness, but I took out all the smiley faces before I sent it, because, f*ck her.

And hopefully Netflix fixes their player because our cable just got turned off (we got it free for a year because they messed something up) so we're going to have to take our Netflix account off hold and if the "watch instantly" stuff is unwatchable I'll be watching my Fight Club DVD every weekend and some week nights (we also just get one movie at a time, so I guess I'll get a break from Fight Club once a week).

p.s. I particularly liked the Grandma-Firefox bit. You're brilliant. :) xo!

Angelina said...

At least your grandparent-aged parents are able to use the internet at all! My mom claims to be incompetent with computers but I think she must be lazy because she makes me look everything up for her and refuses to let me show her the easy modern way.