Netflix Helpdesk

My Dad called today. He had signed up for Netflix but had an unsatisfactory talk with a customer service Rep about how to find the shows he was interested in. So he called me to be his personal Netflix consierge.

At first I was worried I was going to have to try and figure out how he could watch it on his TV. Thankfully he was trying to watch on his computer since he does not have a smart TV. So over the regular phone we began the conversation about how to find shows.

He was looking for British Comedies and really wanted to see To the Manor Born. Sadly it is not one offered on regular Netflix, but he could purchase it for some ridiculous price. I encouraged him to keep looking and just watch what came on his regular subscription.

“How do I know what they have?” He asked me.

Since I was looking at Netflix on my TV and he was looking at his on his computer I decided that we needed to FaceTime so I could help him with what he could see. So now I went from just trying to teach him about Netflix to teaching him about FaceTime video and Netflix.

After a few false tries we finally connected via video. The trouble came in my getting him to hold the phone up to his computer screen in such a way that I could see it.

“Move the phone to the right… no to the left, now back it up a little so I can see a wider amount all at once.”

I had to show him what the search magnifying glass was and had him type in the names of a few shows I knew were on Netflix. Eventually he was able to create a list of four shows as start of “My List.” It will give him something to begin watching and hopefully the algorithm will give him suggestions he likes.

He did quite well, but I found the whole thing funny since I had just come home from church where our communications director was teaching me how to set up a Google Group for a committee I am chairing. It was not as intuitive as I wished it could be and it took a little while for the two of us to get it going. After an hour I told her I was tiring of this subject and no longer could pay attention.

I am so thankful my father did not need help with a Google Group. I was able to be his Netflix help desk, but that is about as far as I am able to do, at least over FaceTime. Please lord, let Netflix put To the Manor Born in their line up, I think there are so many episodes of it they could keep him busy for a year.