This Week in DVD: A Week Without Netflix

It's a slow week for new releases yet again, so let me talk instead about last week's Netflix fiasco. I'm still not sure what really happened, and I don't believe the company is going to come forth and explain it anytime soon, but they had some kind of "technical difficulties" that prevented them from shipping DVDs until the end of the week.

Naturally, many customers were upset. Well, I say "naturally" because I think people who pay for a service are justified in raising a reasonable gripe or two when they don't receive that service. The problem is particularly acute with a service like Netflix which relies on the postal service as well as its own limited shipping schedule. Since Netflix doesn't ship weekends, and since a DVD takes at least a day in the mail, well, a lot of people didn't get their discs for a whole week or so.

Cause for anger, or at least concern? I think so. Yet whenever an outage like this happens (and it has happened several times to Netflix, though this was the most severe problem I can recall), as soon as people post comments on Netflix's official site and unofficial outlets like Hacking Netflix, the chorus of "Get a Lifers" immediately chimes in. You know who I'm talking about--the people who chide customers for "whining" about not getting "their precious DVDs."

This backlash, which is often more mean spirited than the average original reaction, especially considering it's directed at individuals and not a profitmaking corporation, usually goes something like this:

"Oh, Boo-hoo. You don't get a DVD this week. How will you survive? Get a life! Read a book or go outside."

Assuming they aren't company shills, I don't get the point of this kind of commentary. As if people don't know there are alternatives to watching DVDs 24 hours a day. Duh! Perhaps some of the reaction to Netflix's latest trouble was a bit excessive, but it's not like they are providing a free service. People are paying money for those discs.

I mean, where is the line? If my cable goes out, at what point am I "allowed" to raise a fuss? Can I cause a commotion if the phone is out for a few days? "Things happen," we're told by these anti-griping gripers. Well, yeah, and there is usually some sort of compensation, even if someone is "working on it" and even if it's just an apology. Netflix issued some generic "sorry for the inconvenience" statements throughout the week but was rather tight-lipped about what was going on, so people got frustrated. It's part of the give and take between consumer and business.

You know, come to think of it, cable and phone companies and utilities often DON'T give us any refund for lost service. Netflix does. But that doesn't mean we can't be miffed while the situation is ongoing--particularly on Netflix and Netflix-related sites (it kills me how people take the time to log on to a specific site just to tell that site's users they need to get a life). And just because the cable company, for example, gets away with stiffing customers doesn't mean other businesses should be able to.