The first rental place we had down here in Mexico didn't come with a TV. So I went to Sam's Club and picked up a 50 inch LG for about 4-500 bucks. It was a smart tv and worked great considering all we had was netflix, hulu, prime, disney, etc...
Fast forward to our new rental about 10 minutes away. No TV in the main room again, so it worked out well to just bring the one we bought. Set it up in the living room and all was well again regarding the tv situation.
It only took about 2 months living in this rental for my oh so clumsy wife (who in her defense, was holding our 1 year old) to trip and use the screen to break her fall.
The left side of the tv was spider webbed and part of it was completely black. Basically, 60% of the tv was viewable, mostly just the right side. We lived with it for a week or so, as it was mostly just the kids tv anyway.
source
Not our tv, but similar to what we had happen.
A week later, the cleaning lady came and must have either cleaned the screen itself, or moved the table it was sitting on and the spider web spread covering about 80% of the tv.
It was now basically worthless. I wasn't too happy obviously. I went to Sams and shelled out another 4-500 bucks for another one, ugh.
Now, this is where the story gets interesting....
Knowing that it's impossible to fix this kind of damage, I set it out by our garbage to be hauled away. Only to be told by my wife later that a worker in the neighborhood walked by and asked if he could have it. She told him it was broken, but he didn't care and took it anyway.
That TV never crossed my mind again, until about 4 months later when we were lying in bed one night and our netflix account told us we couldn't use it because there were too many users accessing our account.
Huh?!
According to Nextlfix, the TV was an LG brand. I'm a Samsung guy, the only LG I've ever bought was that one from Sams when we first got down here.
But maybe it's a friend in the states who has access to our account??
Well, would they be watching a Mexican kids tv show? I didn't think so.
Time to do some real sleuthing. I ran the IP address and it came back that the signal was coming from a city right outside Mexico City. Which is an 11 hour drive from where we live.
What. the. actual. F?
How did our broken TV, 4 months later, end up 11 hours away in Mexico City and are they really enjoying watching TV with only 10% of it being viewable???
I guess so, because the same thing happened the next night on a different Mexican tv show.
We called Netflix, went through all the steps, and they shut down that TV from ever accessing our account again.
WILD!!!
So I guess the lesson is, make sure you delete all your application info before tossing out your old tv's, even if you think no one would ever watch them using a small snippet of the screen, lol, and that in Mexico, anything can happen.
Oh wow, that is a crazy story! I would have expected it to still be a little local, not 11 hours away from you! Talk about nuts! I am glad you were able to get it sorted out with Netflix!
I thought the same thing man, like, maybe in Vallarta....but 11 hours away? That's a long haul for a broken tv.
It was his reward for fixing the tv… free movie watch in’ for a bit. LOL.
I honestly don't think they fixed it...it costs more to replace the screen than it does to just buy a new tv, so why bother?
My one buddy down here said they probably hooked it up with a cable to another tv which did work and just use the free netflix! lol, I'm thinking that might be the case.
I give people too much credit sometimes. Lol Yet connecting it to another tv to score some free tv watchin’… not bad. 😂😂
I didn't think of that option either, so don't feel too bad....the lengths people will go to is quite astonishing though.
The Simpson memes will live forever
See, that's why I run a dumb TV and a Raspberry Pi. No residual info!
I hear ya....but, so, you're running rabbit ears? Or paying up the ass for cable/sat?
Rabbit ears and basic internet for the Pi's WiFi. I wrote about installing the IP plugin in March.
Damn, that's impressive man. I din't think my wife would survive on rabbit ears, not for her specifically, but the kids would go crazy, lol.
THIS GENERATION IS WEAK!
I grew up with rabbit ears, a small TV, and no VCR until I was 8. And my sisters were the primary TV watchers.
I would agree for the most part. I don't mind them watching tv, as most of the stuff we allow them to watch is educational. So at least they're learning. There's def a ton of crap out there, but we limit what they can and cannot watch. The Mrs. is a stay at home mom, in a foreign country with no real friends, stuck at home most days (since I have the only car) raising 3 kids, 5, 3, and 1. I couldn't do it. So I don't look at it like they are weak. In fact, we're raising them not to be weak, via the stuff they're allowed to watch, homeschooling them, and teaching them right vs. wrong is the same whether you're Joe Blow or a state agent.
Are the kids starting to pick up Spanish so they can make friends with the locals?
Well that is one way to recycle and keep the landfills in Mexico clean! ♻️ 🖥 🇲🇽
Never a boring minute in your life!
Thanks for the heads-up @intothewild
Hahaha, I will say there are a few boring moments, but ya, for the most part it's pretty exciting.
Happy to help a little bit keeping the earth healthier than when I found it.