In the last month or so we’ve noticed that our service from Netflix has slowed down considerably. While they used to mail us movies the same day they received them, now they wait one or two days before mailing them. My brother, also a subscriber, was so enraged by this slowdown and the inability to communicate with customer service that he canceled and join Blockbusters instead. I was reserving judgement until I decided to do a small survey on a popular bulletin board – the majority of those who responded had noticed a slow down as well. One poster said she asked customer service about it and they’d said they’d had such an increase in business that it was taking them time to adjust. Maybe, or maybe they did it on purpose. Is it a coincidence that the slowdown followed the reduction of pricing to which they were forced by competitive pressures?
A January posting at the Digital Lifestyles blog provides an answer. According to research firm SG Cowen & Co, which has been carrying out a survey of DVD postal rental services in four US markets, Netflix has reduced its service by buying less new releases and shipping less movies. This saves them money at the price of users like us.
A quick search online shows that this deterioration of service has been noticed by many users, and it’s even been covered by the local news. Apparently, it is Netflix’s policy to slow down shipments to heavy users, hoping they’ll be driven away, no doubt. But the slowdown seems to hit more than heavy users, however.
In any case, we’re considering canceling. Does anyone know of any alternatives?
BTW, their secret customer service numbers seem to be 800-279-5688 or 888-638-3549
Author: marga (Page 152 of 158)
One of our favorite date night activities – particularly now that we have children – is going to a hot tub for an hour. The hot water and bubbling action help us relax both our tired muscles (try sleeping with a baby in your arms!) and our exhausted minds.
Our favorite hot tub place is Piedmont Springs on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. It’s a small place with only four hot tub rooms, but we really like it. The hot tubs are large and are half covered by the ceiling of the open dressing room and half open to the sky. We like this arrangement as when it rains, you can either stay on the open side and feel the rain, or move to the covered side. There isn’t too much light, so you can get a nice view of the stars on clear nights. There is bubbling action courtesy of a number of jets. Beyond the hot tub, all there is is a small dressing area with a shower and a wooden seat. The whole facility is very clean, inviting and relaxing. The receptionists are also very friendly and we always feel welcomed and relaxed. Finally, at $14 per person per hour, it’s one of the cheapest hot tub places around. It’s highly recommended.
When we can’t get a hot tub at Piedmont Springs (there are only four, after all), we head to Albany Sauna. Built in 1934 by Finnish immigrants, this facility is older, more rustic and probably more “authentic” by Scandinavian stanrdars. It’s also much more expensive ($20 per person per hour) and less friendly.
The hot tub rooms are very attractive in their own way. The hot tub/shower area is made out of wood, and the the hot tubs themselves seem to be built out of some rock-like material (but that my just be my impression). The hot tubs seem smaller, but they are still long enough for me at 5’1″ to extend myself in them. They are completely under the sky, but annoyingly there is a rope light at the top of the walls which might look attractive but it interferes with the view of the sky.
I like Albany Sauna, but I find the staff very unfriendly and I often feel unwelcomed as I wait for our hot tub to be ready.
We’ve also gone to Hot Tropics in San Lorenzo once and never again. This place actually seems to operate as an hourly hotel, something that seems to also have been noticed by their neighbors. The rooms are plain and anticeptic, with no atmosphere whatsoever. They smell strongly of disinfectant and the hot tub was foaming with the remains of the cleaning agent. It was not a good experience.
Finally, we’ve been to Hot Tubs on University Ave. in Berkeley. We didn’t like this place either, and I also suspect is better aimed at the casual sex business. The cavernous rooms had no atmosphere whatsoever, but they did offer a sauna and a bed in addition to the hot tub.
If anyone knows of other nice hot tub places in the Bay Area, please let me know!
As an absolute skeptic about the supernatural, I would never have guessed that I would become a fan of Medium, an NBC drama about a psychic who helps solve crimes. But a fan I have become.
First of all, I like the characters and their relationships. Patricia Arquette, who plays Alison, the psychic, is one of the few women on TV who look real. Her teeth are a little crooked, her face is often too shiny and a bit reddish and while I think she has a great body, she is a few pounds heavier than your typical TV waif. She looks like a mom.
I love Alison’s husband, Joe. He’s is an engineer, a pragmatic guy but one who has had to face the reality of her abilities, and who isn’t quite sure what to think about it. He is both supportive and skeptical, grounded and unnerven. He is also a genuinely nice guy, but one who is still human. The relationship between Alison and Joe seems very real, their fights are fights that you can imagine having yourself. On one episode, Joe harps on Alison for spending too much time on her “work”, and leaving him to deal with their 3 children – only to hear her reply how she took care of the kids for years while he pursued his career. On another, he complains about his spending their money to go pursue a case in LA, she still goes and he’s OK with it. The three little girls (or rather, the older two, you rarely see the baby) are also very “real”, I can recognize my little girls on them all the time. In yesterday’s episode the older girl tells the younger that they’re considering exchanging her for a dog. She younger one asks her dad about it, who is too sleepy to understand what she’s talking about, so she says she’ll go ask mommy, mommy will know. Mommy is not home, and she comes to tell daddy this amazing fact, and when he explains that she’s at work, she asks with her worried face how she’s going to get ready for school without mommy. I know that this whole episode doesn’t sound very exiting, but it grounds the show on the realities of family life with which I, and I’m sure many others, can identify. My one complain is that the youngest baby is completely ignored. We pretty much only see her when the mom drops her off at daycare, but beyond that she’s a complete non-entity. As a mother of two young children, that seems very unrealistic to me. But who knows, maybe by the time you have 3, the last one falls off your radar.
The show itself is well done, her “visions” and her interpretation of them (often not literal) are always interesting, as is her ability to read or not read people. In the show, you do believe in her gifts, they are presented as reality, but if I can accept Buffy fighting vampires and demons, I can accept Alison’s psychic gifts. It’s a show after all. The show tries to go beyond formula on its storylines, refreshingly I can’t usually predict what the plot will be or who the guilty party is.
In all, it’s one of my favorite shows, though I see we’ll have to deal with reruns for the next couple of weeks.
I’ll Have What They’re Having: Legendary Local Cuisine
NL
“The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova
on order
“Cast of Shadows” by Kevin Guilfoile
NEW
“Misfortune” by Wesley Stace
NEW
“In the Shadow of the Law” by Kermit Roosevelt
on order
“Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro
new/rental
“Snobs” by Julian Fellowes
new
“Under the Glacier” by Halld
Recent Comments