DEAL ALERT 🚨 7 streaming services for $15?! Is Bundler too good to be true?
You won't believe what's on the table here: Netflix, Hulu, Max, and more. Find out what happened when I signed up.
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Strap in, friends, because I’ve got quite a story. (One that made me jump out of hiatus again…)
Remember Moviepass? Pay $10/month and you could see one movie — in any theater — per day. Sounded too good to be true, and it was; between 2018 and 2019 the service experienced one of the more notorious flame-outs on record.
So it was with some skepticism — no, a lot — that I checked out Bundler, which promises access to seven popular streaming services for just $15 monthly. Price if purchased separately: $95.
These aren’t a bunch of unknown randos, either; Bundler gives you Netflix, Hulu, Disney, Max, Prime, ESPN+, and Spotify Premium. All the heavyweights, basically.
Oh, and these are the ad-free tiers, too.
What’s really going on here
How is this possible? That very question gets a spotlight on the Bundler site. Answer: “We link five people to one Premium/Family account, giving everyone their own profile and unlimited access to all the content.”
To put that another way, Bundler is effectively doing password management for family plans; it says as much in the FAQ section. How can it get away with that when we know that Netflix and other services have already cracked down on password sharing for actual families? How am I able to share an account with Joe from Jersey, Debbie from Delaware, and so on?
The proof, as they say, is in the pudding — or in this case the streaming. I signed up, figuring $15 is a small price to pay to find out if this really works. And because there are no connections whatsoever to my own streaming accounts, there’s no risk that I’m violating any terms of service. (Probably? 🤞)
After registering, a confirmation page explained it would take “up to eight hours” to receive the login details for all the services. In the interim, I took a closer look at Bundler’s terms of use page. Two items stuck out:
Please note that the cost of the subscription is subject to change with prior notice.
As a subscriber, you will receive a password that gives you access to the various streaming platforms. This password will be refreshed once every month to ensure fair usage and prevent unauthorized access.
The first item: To be expected, I guess, as streaming-service prices are constantly on the rise. It’s entirely possible Bundler could suddenly start charging, say, $20 or even $30.
The second item: Does that mean every month I’m going to have to sign back into each service using a new password? That sounds… not fun.
Interestingly, the Bundler site lists not only an email address to contact the company, but also a phone number. I called it and got a voicemail message that was a bit garbled and hard to understand. It sounded like an individual’s mailbox, not a company’s.
Scam or not a scam?
That seemed a bit fishy, and it got fishier from there: Eight hours went by and nothing from Bundler. The next morning, still nothing. Then I looked up its “parent” company, Mooodflix (yes, that’s the correct spelling). It’s a movie-recommendation app — except there’s no such app. The site looks legitimate enough — in fact, quite similar to Bundler’s — but links to actually get the app either don’t work or take you to a checkout page. (Huh?) I looked up Mooodflix on both the Apple and Google app stores — nada.
I should have done all this homework before plunking down my $15. Obviously I was excited enough by the prospect of Bundler that I let it cloud my judgment.
Once 24 hours had elapsed with zero contact from the company, I reported the transaction to PayPal. Thankfully, a refund was issued almost immediately.
So was this all a giant scam? Here’s where it gets interesting…
I’m using it right now
Barely an hour after I filed my report with PayPal, I received an email from Bundler: “Here are your login details!” Was this pure coincidence? Perhaps the site was just inundated with sign-ups and behind on order fulfillment. Or did this chargeback report provide a necessary nudge?
Whatever the case, I found myself staring at an email address and passwords for all seven of the aforementioned services. Still feeling a little gun-shy, I opened a private browsing window on my desktop and signed into Netflix using the credentials provided. It worked — but of the five existing profiles, none of them had my name.
I then tried Hulu, Disney and Prime — everything worked, and each service had a profile with my name. In the meantime, I replied to the initial email and explained the Netflix issue. A response came inside of 20 minutes saying the problem had been fixed, and that I should “lock” my profile so no one could change it. (No instructions were provided for doing so, but one Google search later and I was done.)
I did encounter an obstacle signing into ESPN+: It triggered an email to the main account holder and said to supply the verification code in that email. Because that’s not me, I have no way of obtaining that code. At this writing I’ve yet to receive a reply from Bundler as to how to resolve this.
Now for the part you’ll think I made up. When you access Prime Video in a browser, you’re also signing into a full-blown Amazon account. (This one greeted me as “Sonny.”) After verifying that I could indeed watch videos, I added something to my shopping cart and headed for checkout; I wanted to see what would happen (because, wow, there seems like massive potential for fraud for Sonny or whoever ends up being the main account-holder). At checkout, I noted the shipping address, which I swear to you is true: Nigeria. I literally laughed out loud.
Because, as we all know, Nigeria is home to all those princes who desperately need our help.
What’s the verdict, then?
I… don’t know. Bundler is lousy with red flags. I’m pretty sure it’s violating the TOS (terms of service) for all seven streaming services, despite claims that “Bundler is 100% safe and legal.”
I’m not sure what’s to prevent other users in my “family” from changing all the profiles or even perpetrating some kind of fraud with (or against) the main account-holder for each service. I’m also not sure how Bundler is working around the various services’ password-sharing restrictions. My guess is those restrictions are different (or not yet implemented) in other countries — Nigeria, for example — so for now, it works.
Big emphasis on “for now.” I think if I cancelled all my regular subscriptions and went all-in with Bundler, I’d live in constant fear that one or more accounts would suddenly lock out.
That said, as I noted earlier, I don’t think there’s any risk to subscribing to Bundler, only a willingness to part with $15. As long as it’s not my email address associated with all these accounts, I feel pretty insulated.
So I’ll see how this first month plays out, then re-evaluate (and report, of course). Typically when things seem too good to be true — well, you know.
Let me know what you think of all this, and whether you’d consider trying Bundler. Standard disclaimer applies: Do this at your own risk. I’m still mighty suspicious, but if you’re able to score some super-cheap streaming while it lasts, well, why not?
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This site has more red flags than a Chinese military parade
Have you considered starting a "Tales From the Cheapskate" blog? Enticing, mysterious, humorous, thrilling, and the possibility of a monetary benefit for the reader! You may have invented a new genre!