You know what frosts my flakes?
Amazon’s movie-watching shenanigans.
Apparently, buying a movie from Amazon isn’t complicated enough already. Now the company is assigning customers a “home region” based on their ZIP code.
That home region determines which movies and shows people are eligible to watch.
But, what happens if you travel a lot?
Amazon says customers traveling within the United States can continue watching eligible content outside their home region for up to 30 days.
WOW! How unbelievably generous!
What about traveling salespeople, journalists or retirees who spend weeks or months away from home?
After 30 days, you could get a message saying content you paid for isn’t available where you’re currently staying.
Snowbirds aren’t completely forgotten. Amazon says customers can change their home region up to two times per year.
That’s great if you spend winter in Arizona and summer somewhere else.
But, it’s not much help to someone like me who visits daughters in Texas, Illinois and Wisconsin several times a year, often for weeks at a time.
Each of those areas is considered to be a different “home region.”
So, I contacted Amazon’s legendary customer service for an explanation.
The chat robot kept telling me about restrictions on rented movies. That’s wonderful, except I wasn’t asking about rentals.
I was asking about the 223 movies I’ve purchased from Amazon.
I finally reached a human representative who assured me I could rent a movie and watch it anywhere while traveling in the United States.
Again, that’s wonderful, but I wasn’t asking about rentals!
I stressed that I often travel more than 30 days outside my assigned home region.
She assured me I will always be able to access a movie purchased on my account anytime I travel in the United States.
I read her the policy that was emailed to me and asked for official verification that I would be exempt from the 30-day limitation. After 17 minutes of checking, she emailed me this reply:
This is from Amazon Tech Support , It was my pleasure Assisting You today .
YOU WILL BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE MOVIE PURCHASES ON YOUR ACCOUNT AS YOU TRAVEL ALL OVER UNITED STATES .
^_^ . I hope I was able to make your day better ?”
Oh, yeah, that looks and sounds official all right.
Of course, I realize we don’t really “own” the movies we buy from Amazon anyway.
We’re essentially purchasing permission to watch them as long as Amazon maintains the rights which allows us access to those movies.
Now Amazon apparently wants to decide where we can watch them, too.
I’m Grandpa Grumpy, and if I paid for the movie, I shouldn’t need Amazon’s permission to watch it at my daughter’s house or a hotel room outside of my “home region.”