...but the payment system was WAY too complicated. If I could have Paypal'ed them they would have gotten my $8. But you had to register your life away, use a credit card, and the interface/entire experience was EXTREMELY annoying. It was like they didn't really want my money. So I gave up 70% into (I'm guessing) the payment process.
...because Netflix is so well run and organized to start with. There's nothing to complain about, and I'm quite picky and love complaining. The basic system is well-designed from the user interface and queue management to the shipping and receiving back-end. Even when there's a problem, they make it as painless as I can imagine it. Defective disc? They send you a new one the day you tell them about it via their elegantly designed, straightforward web interface. No explaining, no waiting until they receive your original before they send you a new one - it's painless.
If all businesses were run this well (I probably have some Netflix employees in stitches at this point), they could all afford to have a few people answering phones in the US vs. buildings full of people in India trying to get customers to give up trying.
No kidding - that had to be the most moving thing that happened to me in my college years.
So... Can Slashdot articles that remind you about your wasted youth make you want to cry?
I finally got to breeze through the article. It might as well have been written by an untrained but literate PC superstore salesperson.
At first I was hopeful - maybe they'd talk about the things *I* care about, like which manufacturer's printers are most conducive to using alternative, less expensive ink, and which manufacturers are embedding technology (chips with encrypted authenticity codes on the cartridges, date codes, etc.) to make it painful/impossible. But they didn't mention that at all.
The article lost all credibility with me right when it began: the first recommendation is to INSIST on a USB2.0 interface! Does anyone here think USB1.1's 1MByte/s transfer rate is any sort of bottleneck in inkjet printing?
What a bunch of fluff.
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...but the payment system was WAY too complicated. If I could have Paypal'ed them they would have gotten my $8. But you had to register your life away, use a credit card, and the interface/entire experience was EXTREMELY annoying. It was like they didn't really want my money. So I gave up 70% into (I'm guessing) the payment process.
...because Netflix is so well run and organized to start with. There's nothing to complain about, and I'm quite picky and love complaining. The basic system is well-designed from the user interface and queue management to the shipping and receiving back-end. Even when there's a problem, they make it as painless as I can imagine it. Defective disc? They send you a new one the day you tell them about it via their elegantly designed, straightforward web interface. No explaining, no waiting until they receive your original before they send you a new one - it's painless.
If all businesses were run this well (I probably have some Netflix employees in stitches at this point), they could all afford to have a few people answering phones in the US vs. buildings full of people in India trying to get customers to give up trying.
No kidding - that had to be the most moving thing that happened to me in my college years. So... Can Slashdot articles that remind you about your wasted youth make you want to cry?
I finally got to breeze through the article. It might as well have been written by an untrained but literate PC superstore salesperson. At first I was hopeful - maybe they'd talk about the things *I* care about, like which manufacturer's printers are most conducive to using alternative, less expensive ink, and which manufacturers are embedding technology (chips with encrypted authenticity codes on the cartridges, date codes, etc.) to make it painful/impossible. But they didn't mention that at all. The article lost all credibility with me right when it began: the first recommendation is to INSIST on a USB2.0 interface! Does anyone here think USB1.1's 1MByte/s transfer rate is any sort of bottleneck in inkjet printing? What a bunch of fluff.