r/technology • u/chrisdh79 • Feb 03 '23

Netflix says strict new password sharing rules were posted in error Business

https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/02/03/netflix-says-strict-new-password-sharing-rules-were-posted-in-error
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u/fffangold Feb 03 '23

You would be surprised how much corporate will reframe things as a positive for the customer even when it's a negative.

For instance, when I worked retail, we had an "item of the week" that was at checkout. You had to offer it to customers, and if you didn't offer it and the customer called you out on it, they got the item for free. And then, of course, the person who didn't offer it got written up by management for not trying to sell the item.

We were told the customer might want or need the item, and once offered see the benefit in buying it. In reality, most customers hated being offered the item, with reactions ranging from a hurried decline, proactively asking us not to offer it, and occasionally getting legitimately upset about us trying to sell them more crap. But of course, once in awhile someone would call us out because hey, free item.

But in the end, customers, on the whole, hated it, but corporate was always like "but what if they want it and you don't offer? See, it is good for customers!"

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u/Urag-gro_Shub Feb 03 '23

CVS did this years back when I worked at the pharmacy, except instead of trying to sell something, we were supposed to say 'Mr./Mrs. So-and-So' three times during the transaction. Was supposed to give us a "small town vibe", (It's not a small town). So then when everyone refused to because that's stupid, they put up a sign offering customers a $25 gift card if they called us out for not doing it.

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u/fffangold Feb 03 '23

That's quite the small town vibe. Nothing says small town like a forced awkward interaction where the customer can call you out for free money if you don't do it.

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u/Holovoid Feb 04 '23

So then when everyone refused to because that's stupid, they put up a sign offering customers a $25 gift card if they called us out for not doing it.

Honestly with this shit I'd just do it all the time and point out the gift card policy just to see how much money I could wrack up from the shitty company before they fired me.

I'd invite literally everyone I knew to try to get as many gift cards as possible. It'll never bleed em dry but fuck em, if you work at CVS you can literally get a job at almost anywhere else on the planet and it'll be as good or better.

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u/tangojameson Feb 04 '23

That's when you just start every conversation like a scratched CD. "Mr Smith, Mr Smith, Mr Smith, what can I help you with today?"

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u/Rough-Cry6357 Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23

I remember working at a dollar store in high school where they did this except with the added bonus of the customer getting a free chocolate bar if they called you out on it.

So basically corporate turned customers into snitches against employees. Customers would try to distract you or blurt out that you didn’t offer the item before you had a chance just to get a shitty generic brand chocolate bar, not realizing we got in trouble for “losing” our candy. And if you lost 3 candy bars, you would get fired. Can’t understand how it would help anyone but people loved to try and get that candy

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u/waldojim42 Feb 04 '23

I would literally stop what I was doing, and walk. The moment one of them pulled that. And when the customer got upset, I would just say "that was number 3. I just got fired. Enjoy your candy bar." And fucking walk.

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u/NGGJamie Feb 04 '23

I have a friend that worked for a dollar store that walked out. The entire store was him plus 3 women, and the women were all a clique. So the woman he was usually paired with would walk outside for a break and disappear for hours at a time. Manager was part of the clique so he'd get in trouble instead for complaining.

One day she went out there and left him alone for a long time. He said screw it, clocked out, went home, and left the place unattended without looking back.

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u/rastilin Feb 04 '23

This is the way. There's abuse for high pay, and there's a great working environment with low pay. But if you're being abused for low pay then just walk.

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u/NGGJamie Feb 04 '23

What a great value proposition. We want to sell these candy bars that cost the store a few cents, but we're going to mark them up to like $2. This employee lost us $5 in profit that we voluntarily gave up through a ridiculous policy.

Anyway, he's unemployed now. Time to spend a few hundred more dollars hiring and training a replacement.

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u/imagineaworld Feb 04 '23

Try thousands. Hiring staff isn't cheap and the amount of time and money that goes into training is quite high.

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u/makos124 Feb 04 '23

I remember working in telemarketing for a month or so, many years ago. That place was full of psychopaths in management. They all had perfect smiles and tried to act friendly towards you, but the moment you didn't sell enough, it was mental torture. Playing back your calls and pointing out everything you did wrong. Meetings with the leader, telling you, in a worried tone, to get better at selling or else you'd be fired. And the techniques they taught us and told us to use were so fucking predatory, I felt sick to my stomach having to use those lines with an actual person on the other side of the phone. My gf works in retail and it's full of the same people in management, and sometimes even little psycho manager wannabes in the lower ranks. And I'm not even from the US, that corporate culture is a virus spreading all over the world.

Now I work in a factory where I know my boss, and it's infinitely better.

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u/hostile65 Feb 04 '23

"We have restructured password management so it will be isolated to a single address or IP address at a time. With this correction on our part we hope to cut down on illegal password use and scams. This will help keep your account safer and more secure. We hope you find our hard work on this problem helpful and easy to use!"

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u/sup_ty Feb 04 '23

At that point why isn't management on the floor shoving an inventory list in every customers face.

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u/ScarsonWiki Feb 04 '23

That’s a beautiful catch-22. Absolutely beautiful.

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u/mis-Hap Feb 04 '23

Netflix does try to frame this as a positive for the customer. They say it will give them the funds to bring great content.