Netflix is a shitshow and I'm done with it
In May 2023, Netflix started to enforce their new policy, demanding that all devices using a Netflix account belong to the same household. While this is a legitimate business concern, the actual implementation was increasingly heavy-handed. Combined with a completely incompetent and apparently unmotivated customer service, this quickly turned out to be more than an inconvenience.
What is a household?
As an IT guy, I try to follow best practices, especially regarding security, at home. A part of this is network separation, i.e. not everything is in the same logical network. Different areas, for instance, are in different subnets, such as Wifis for desktops, mobile devices, work devices, IoT devices, TVs, etc. Also, different areas have their own subnets. All subnets have strict rulesets on what can be accessed from where. Security cameras, e.g. don’t need to have access to the internet. We also use different public IPs for different systems as well as VPNs for browsing privacy. However, all devices belong to the same household as in the same economical and spacial combination.
Household detection
I believe in August 2023, we got the dreaded “Your device does not belong to your Netflix household” screen on both of our TVs for the first time. So far so good. I added both TVs to our household and went on with my life. Maybe 2 months later, it popped up again on the second TV. Slightly annoyed, I added that again. Another couple of months later it popped on on both TVs. I re-added the TVs and contacted Netflix customer service to find out what the problem was. They couldn’t tell me anything and gave me a link to a help page on their website which was completely uninformative. They also couldn’t tell my how the household detection works. After that, I basically had the message pop up on some TV every two or three weeks. Multiple contacts with customer the service were unfruitful. Then one day, when I was trying to re-add the living room TV to the household, the Netflix app on my phone said “Your device isn’t in your home Wifi”, which was clearly wrong at that time. I again contacted customer service and told them that they need to get a handle on this or otherwise I will cancel my subscription. They basically said “do it if you want”.
The straw that broke the camel’s back
Mid-September 2024, I again had to run around to add TVs and I was about done. I anyway don’t watch Netflix that much and mostly kept it because of the kids. On a Sunday family dog walk, I talked about it with my girl-friend and she said that she also doesn’t really watch it a lot. On the same walk, I had some problems understanding what our 5-years-old daughter was saying to me. Well, that’s nothing new as I’m not a Finnish native speaker and kids sometimes speak their own language. However, I did notice that in recent times, the problem got somewhat more pronounced (pun intended). But my girl-friend (who is a Finn and works in a kindergarden) also didn’t get what our daughter was saying, so we talked about it. My girl-friend told that she has recently noticed that our daughter has started to adopt some really bad artificial slang from Netflix shows, primarily “Monster High” and the various “Barbie” shows. That settled it then. Netflix had to go.
Customer service
The Netflix customer service was a constant source of disappointment. In the vast majority of contacts, the reps only offered links to the Netflix websites which often barely even touched the topic. Not a single contact led to a solution. I generally got the impression that they had not the slightest idea what I was talking about and just punched some keywords into a search function to get some links.
For example: After watching “Damsel”, I wanted to write a blog about the movie. I contacted the customer service to find out how and where I could get some screencaps and permission to use them.
- The first rep gave me a link to a help page which said “Netfix can own the intellectual property to this and that”… YES, I KNOW! That’s why I try to get official material and permission!
- The next one told that I can’t do that at all, Netflix won’t allow it… RIGHT - so all other blogs are doing it illegally???
- The next guy I asked for a contact to some press or marketing department which he told, he can’t give out. When I asked if he can then forward my request, he told that they can’t contact them for security reasons. OH WOW! First line customer support can’t contact press/marketing for security resons???
The inquiries about the household detection problem went in quite a similar way. The reps gave me a link to a generic help page explaining that devices need to belong the same household. They obviously didn’t know the difference between a private and public IP or what a subnet or a VLAN is. COME ON! Netflix is a tech company. If a customer has problems which are clearly caused by their tech, the customer support reps should at the very least understand what the customer is talking about!