Amazon Unbox - Utter and Complete Irritation

Monday Jul 16, 2007

I gave Amazon Unbox the old 2.0 college try over the past week out of desperation. The promise remains, but I am completely and utterly disappointed in Amazon Unbox rentals. The summary:

• While the software installed smoothly, my rental at amazon.com didn't even register with my player for over 24 hours!
  
• It would have been faster to order a Netflix movie through the mail than it took me to receive the Unbox download for my rental once it started
  
• The 24 hours to watch your rental once you start is utterly foolish
  

Here's the whole story. I was stuck in my hospital room with only the Season 1 House DVD to keep me company and a wireless connection. Since I had a fever and a chest tube I wasn't really going to spend any time working (sorry...). My friend offered me her amazon.com account to rent a movie from Amazon Unbox.

I downloaded the software and installed it, no problem...oh, I had to reboot before it ran but I've been there before with Amazon (see a prior post).

I launched amazon.com and found "The Bourne Identity" and hit the rental button. The terms were interesting, I have 30 days to watch it once its downloaded, but I have to watch the whole thing in 24 hours once I start. No problem, I'm in a hospital bed.

The download didn't even REGISTER with the software for over a day, then once it started downloading, it took over 36 hours to download! UNBELIEVABLE. By the time it downloaded I was SO frustrated I didn't even watch it at the hospital.

So, I started watching it last night...I'm still in recovery so I only got about 30 minutes in and had to tune out to catch some rest. I ran up to my room to beat the 24 hour deadline tonight, and I seemed to have made it. At the 1:20 mark (a 1:40 long movie), my screen saver kicked in. Ouch, I flicked the mouse, no picture...sound, but no picture. I played around to no avail so I restarted Amazon Unbox. My 24 hours had expired!!!!!!! My video was gone with 20 minutes left to watch.

UNBELIEVABLE.

The worst part? When I was getting the details on the rental times for this blog post I "1 clicked" and re-rented the @)(#$&*#&$ movie for another 3.99. GAGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Amazon Unbox, I have tried you twice. This time you completely and utterly failed me when I needed you. To be honest, I don't really give three strikes to things. I registered my Tivo with your service but I am going to have to pass until I find better rental terms and a guaranteed delivery time. If you can't beat a Netflix Rental by snail mail, you really don't deserve to be in this game and, further, if you are going to force me to watch a movie in my hectic life within 24 hours of when I first press play, you have SERIOUSLY miscalculated my lifestyle.

The worst part of this experience? DUDE, I WAS DEPENDING ON YOU TO ENTERTAIN ME WHEN I WAS KNOCKED OUT IN A HOSPITAL ROOM, it was your PERFECT chance to shine...and you struck out in so many ways.

Control Panel / Add or Remove Programs / Amazon Unbox Video / Change/Remove

To reiterate, I won't try you on my Tivo and your software is gone. Here is what you have to change before I install you again:

• Guaranteed delivery time (sorry, I know its hard, but you have ways to calculate overall connection speeds...do it)
  
• A "panic" button if your download doesn't start
  
• 30 days to download and watch the program, no 1 day limit once its started...end of story
  

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Posted at 10:57PM Jul 16, 2007 by Paul Monday in Architecture
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