Max customers and The West Wing (TWW) fans have taken to social media to commiserate about price gouging, with the company making removed content available—for a price.

At exactly 12:00 AM, January 1, Max removed the entire TWW series. Unlike Netflix, Amazon, and other streaming services, some customers complained of receiving no notification that the series was scheduled to leave the platform, surprising users when the show disappeared mid-episode for some.

Customers who reached out to Max were reportedly told they could still watch TWW, but doing so would require an Amazon Prime account, since Amazon and Max have a content deal. There’s one big caveat, as Reddit user “mdDoogie3” posted on the series’ subreddit.

The representative told me I could watch it on Prime with my HBO Max subscription. Awesome; day saved, right?

Right?

Nope. When I go to Prime it shows it as available, “Free with your HBO Max Subscription.” Except when I click through, assuming it’ll give me the choice to sign up or sign in, it only gives me the choice to buy HBO for another $16.99 a month. I check on my TV, my tablet, AND my computer. Then I call Prime.

Turns out, even if you already have an HBO Max account, you have to pay for another on Prime Video to access the same content you could access yesterday on the HBO Max account you already pay for.

This is just Max trying to drive up revenue by forcing people to pay for two subscriptions instead of one. Calling HBO Max back right now to give them an earful. Everyone else should too.

Max Takes Streaming to An All-New Low

When streaming services were first introduced, they promised an alternative to expensive cable and satellite TV packages that forced customers to pay for channels they weren’t interested in order to get the channels they wanted.

Unfortunately, as time has proven, streaming services have become just as bad as the services they were supposed to improve upon and/or replace. Content is constantly cycling from one platform to another or disappearing as a result of expired content deals. Because users are paying for a subscription service, they are at the mercy of the platforms, unable to save or retain shows or movies beyond their removal.

Max is apparently taking things to an all-new low, forcing customers to pay for an Amazon Prime account to access popular content that unceremoniously disappeared with no warning. As the Reddit user found out, it’s even worse for existing Max users, as a Prime account doesn’t given them access. They must either pay for a second account to access the content they are interested in, or cancel their existing Max subscription and lose their watch lists and viewing history, before signing back up for a new Max subscription via Amazon.

Ultimately, Max’s behavior exemplifies why people are growing to hate streaming services and increasingly returning to DVDs and other types of recordings.