Since Netflix changed its prices

[vthokies]

They need to add better shows / movies to their instant streaming.

 

[nynix]

Canceled

I canceled yesterday. My kids watch NF streaming a lot but I don't anymore -- hasn't been a lot of new stuff lately worth watching. Figure the kids need to spend some time outside and maybe if NF gets the message and either adds enough new quality content to justify the increase or returns the rates back to where they were I might come back in a few months. Otherwise, I'll look for alternatives.

 

[anon(4698833)]

Given what you guys have said about the content addition never really improving (when it comes to new and quality titles), im very surprised that they are still successful at all (and this price hike might actually support my idea on this that maybe they HAVENT been successful lately).

I mean $8 is not much over a months time, but at least when Blockbuster was the king of rentals, you could go down to the store and get any new release you wanted ON release date...Netflix kind of sticks you with a few streaming new movies and a waiting line for new discs that are at times weeks long.

 

[Fausty82]

Given what you guys have said about the content addition never really improving (when it comes to new and quality titles), im very surprised that they are still successful at all (and this price hike might actually support my idea on this that maybe they HAVENT been successful lately).

I mean $8 is not much over a months time, but at least when Blockbuster was the king of rentals, you could go down to the store and get any new release you wanted ON release date...Netflix kind of sticks you with a few streaming new movies and a waiting line for new discs that are at times weeks long.

I never fully understood how they dealt with the movie studios. In order to get the meager online streaming catalog, Netflix agreed to wait on new release DVDs for 30 days...

You may be right, maybe a lot of their "success" was merely smoke and mirrors... We typically turned a DVD around in one day - meaning that when you allow for 1 day mailing time each way, I was getting a new DVD every 3 days or so... allowing for no mail on Sunday, we were easily getting 7 or 8 DVDs each month... so for the $9.99 Netflix was shipping 8 movies two ways - postage has to be at least $0.40 each, so that's about $6.40 in postage each month... leaving $3.60/month for licensing, overhead and profit... plus we watched some streaming content...

I guess they make it up in volume... but regardless, it does not justify a 60% increase in fees.

 

[ProEvo]

They lost my vote. I will have to go back to less than legal sources of entertainment.

 

[Fausty82]

They lost my vote. I will have to go back to less than legal sources of entertainment.

Sorry, that's NEVER an acceptable answer...

 

[fubaracing7374]

They lost my vote. I will have to go back to less than legal sources of entertainment.

lol I wonder how many people are going this route now.

 

[zerog46]

I'm keeping the streaming services.

 

[Phil DeLong]

Sorry, that's NEVER an acceptable answer...

Have to agree. I'll still be finding legal methods to obtain my movies, the industry will die if we don't support, same as any other.

 

[Rodville]

I left Blockbuster because they wanted my to move to a higher price plan as I was grandfathered in at a lower price point. They sent me an email almost daily and letters weekly. They finally just cancelled my account (on accident) and told me that it was an error but they couldn't get me on the old plan and told me I would have to pick a new plan from the current plans.

I will stick with Netflix. They have been good to me.

 

[d0ster]

I'd have to say I saw this coming. I remember reading a whole ago how Netflix wanted to shift away from mailing DVD's and go streaming only. I suppose this is how they plan to accomplish that, by still having the option of DVD, but at a price point that has little value for the customer. It's as if they are pricing their DVD option out of market on purpose so as to have fewer customers choose the option, and at some point in time in the future, cancel it all together, affecting a much smaller user base.

 

[phreddyl]

I'd have to say I saw this coming. I remember reading a whole ago how Netflix wanted to shift away from mailing DVD's and go streaming only. I suppose this is how they plan to accomplish that, by still having the option of DVD, but at a price point that has little value for the customer. It's as if they are pricing their DVD option out of market on purpose so as to have fewer customers choose the option, and at some point in time in the future, cancel it all together, affecting a much smaller user base.

This would be fine if all or most DVDs were available to stream. I would in fact prefer this. I always found that movies need to be out for months before they are in the streaming part. I switched to just the streaming figuring if a new movie came out I wanted to see I would go to redbox for a buck. I'll prob drop streaming too if it doesn't get better. If I want old played out movies I'll stick to cable.

 

[phreddyl]

I never fully understood how they dealt with the movie studios. In order to get the meager online streaming catalog, Netflix agreed to wait on new release DVDs for 30 days...

You may be right, maybe a lot of their "success" was merely smoke and mirrors... We typically turned a DVD around in one day - meaning that when you allow for 1 day mailing time each way, I was getting a new DVD every 3 days or so... allowing for no mail on Sunday, we were easily getting 7 or 8 DVDs each month... so for the $9.99 Netflix was shipping 8 movies two ways - postage has to be at least $0.40 each, so that's about $6.40 in postage each month... leaving $3.60/month for licensing, overhead and profit... plus we watched some streaming content...

I guess they make it up in volume... but regardless, it does not justify a 60% increase in fees.

For us we maybe get around to getting a DVD a week. Sometimes even less but figured for $10 no biggie if I don't get that many. At $16 its a deal breaker.

 

[anon(4698833)]

Have to agree. I'll still be finding legal methods to obtain my movies, the industry will die if we don't support, same as any other.

The usage of those outlets doesn't have the impact you might think (i recently did a pretty lengthy paper on it in school and even i was surprised at the facts i was finding about how many people actually use those things). Torrents and online streaming of movies illegally make up less than 10% of the viewership of films, so at this time, it's like throwing a tiny pebble into the ocean. Even if you increased that volume by double, you're still talking a very small hit to a very big entity...look at hollywood films, they still find that movie theater revenue increases and decreases in cyclical fashion in an almost MIRRORED way to historic cycles...you're essentially shooting a BB at a freight train.

Personally, i enjoy the theater experience over convenience...combine that with the fact that my wife is heavily in the industry and torrents/streaming are unattractive to me, but i can see why people use them, especially with the outlets for getting this stuff at home is becoming non-existant (IE: Blockbusters shutting down), or unjustifiably more expensive (IE: Netflix).

 

[Nanci]

I'm surprised so many people are dropping Netflix. I never got the DVDs, so the change doesn't affect me, unless they are pressured to make the streaming selection better.

 

[phreddyl]

I'm surprised so many people are dropping Netflix. I never got the DVDs, so the change doesn't affect me, unless they are pressured to make the streaming selection better.

Your surprised that consumers are upset when a product price is raised 60% without adding anything to the product?

 

[Nanci]

I guess I felt like only charging $1 more for unlimited streaming was, I don't know, too cheap to begin with. I was surprised at the pricing structure when I signed up for streaming.

I would have thought that people would just choose whichever service they preferred most and switch to just that, not drop Netflix entirely.

 

[Fausty82]

I guess I felt like only charging $1 more for unlimited streaming was, I don't know, too cheap to begin with. I was surprised at the pricing structure when I signed up for streaming.

I would have thought that people would just choose whichever service they preferred most and switch to just that, not drop Netflix entirely.

Obviously, you'd be wrong. My take is that they offered both services for a fixed price. If it was "too cheap to begin with", that's not my fault, and it's the deal that we both (me and Netflix) agreed to. Now they want to change the price without adding any benefit to me. For some things, I want a DVD - some movies really are better in Blu-Ray high def quality... and for some, it's no big deal. No, Netflix doesn't offer Blu-Ray quality streaming... and even if it did, more than likely, it would be impacted by my cable company's bandwidth/speed limitations.

Now they want to gouge me for what they agreed to give me for an agreed-upon price... so I am voting with my wallet and walking away from the deal. Their loss. I'll find another provider and move on in a Netflix-free world at my house

 

[Nanci]

Hey, I just said I was surprised; I didn't say I supported the price increase.

 

[anon(4698833)]

It's an ugly business practice to draw people in with a fairly low price for a product or service and then when they realize the marketing worked and they have a ton of people loyal to them, stick them with higher rates...it's what cable and satellite companies have been doing forever, and it's exactly why those same companies (Comcast, Direct TV, Dish Network, etc) have some of the lowest customer satisfaction ratings on the planet...make people happy with your service, then completely screw them when they almost "rely" on it for entertainment (or whatever the product is intended for).

It's one reason why i love Apple, they had a cell phone that was instantly a legendary piece of technology, and when they had a new version, do they raise the price? Nope...they drop it, A LOT...and people are happy.