Rant against big business in generel
And AT+T and Netflix specifically, since I got screwed by both of them this week...........
My dad is 95, and I have been taking care of him in my home for the past couple of months....He uses a walker, and for most of the day he sits in my recliner and watches reruns of old westerns on Netflix.
I got a phone call from AT+T my internet provider telling me they had instituted a broadband usage cap of 150 GB per month, and I had exceeded it. In the future there will be an additional $10 a month for each additional 50 GB.
This is a new policy that officially takes effect 03/02/2012. I went to their web site where they had a nice video showing how some bandwith hogs use up all the bandwith making the internet S L O W for all the good broadband users. They showed some college age kid downloading endless grunge mp3's and kiddie porn as the BAD BROADBAND HOG. They said the new policy wouldn't affect NICE people.
Their new policy will only cost me about $10 a month, and I can afford it. It just pi**es me off when one side of a business relationship changes the rules in mid-stream without warning and motivated purely by greed.
Now comes the second half of the equation. I dropped Netflix back when they pulled their "new coke" stunt, and split up streaming and mail in movies. It was clearly an effort to get twice the money for the same service. Netflix lost droves of subscribers, and millions of dollars. They immediately started a nationwide "WE SCREWED UP" campaign.
I got weekly emails from them saying "If you just take us back we won't screw you again".
Since dad came to live with us, I relented and renewed my Netflix subscription, after all he loves to watch old Gunsmoke reruns, and they PROMISED. So this week they split up with Starz Play, and thus lost Gunsmoke and many more old western TV shows. So it looks like Netflix has whizzed in my cheerios again, once again, they want the same money for less service.
Now I know why there are so many single moms with 2 kids....If you just take me back I promise I won't screw you again!!! Ya right.
Starting next week I'm dropping Netflix, dropping 1 cell phone, and looking for another ISP, and writing those folks we elected to say I THINK THESE GUYS IN THE COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY NEED SOME MORE REGULATION.
Rant complete, over and out.
