Netflix

A few years ago my staffer Angie told me I should join Netflix and wow was she right.  Getting a DVD in the mail (sometimes a surprise because I may have forgotton it's on my list) is like getting a present from someone who likes you.  Best of all, the Netflix Guru is alsolutely clairvoyent and after I rated 500 or so movies I'd seen, Guru knew me better than I knew myself.  Guru would make suggestions I never would have chosen for myself or even ever heard of.  And Guru was usually spot on with its number rating of how much I would like any given movie.  What a bargain for only a few bucks a month.

But when Reed Hastings, CEO, decided to jack the price up a bunch, I dropped the streaming part.  There were usually no movies in the streaming catalog I cared to see, and it definitely could not compete with having thousands of choices available via snail mail or the fun or finding a red envelope in my mailbox.

Now Mr. Hastings has apologized for his complete underestimation of his own customer base - whether its those who chose DVDs or those who prefer streaming or those who are paying quite a bit more to have both options.  Bigger companies than Netflix have gone down in flames by not paying attention to little guys like me...