Netflix Users Irate, But Are Higher Fees Really That Unreasonable? Discussion

Sounds like a typical old business/political trick. Show those concerned that you're taking "comprehensive action" in response to their grievance when in reality you're either not changing anything or "sticking it to them" even more. Gotta love the classic cons...

 

I am a newbie and have no right to stick my two cents in, but a friend of a friend works for Netflix. They have been planning this split all along.

They want to eliminate the mailing portion, but it was too popular to dump outright. This will enable them to sell off that aspect of the business in the future. (Or so the rumor running down the company pipeline goes...).

 

Well I still don't get it. They don't offer any new release titles, HD content is compressed 720p, more or less DVD quality. They need to work on that before even considering getting rid of discs. My DVD queue is longer than my streaming queue. So what, they'll release year old titles and older for streaming? How is that competitive?

 

The price increases didn't bother me. I don't have cable (a savings of $40+/month PLUS a one year+ contract) and the $16 Netflix plan pretty much gives me most everything my family wants to watch. I use HULU (free) and channel websites sites to watch current episodes of stuff that doesn't come through our over the air antenna.

This break between DVD and Streaming is irritating and a terrible move for me as a consumer. It actually makes me more inclined to ditch the streaming service since the DVD selection is much larger than their streaming service.

I find the streaming service to be interesting, but the selection is pretty bad. It was nice to watch episodes of older TV shows at first, but I'm done with that now.

I'll be more than happy to switch to something like Amazon's prime service if their selection improves. If Qwikster is sold to another company, that means Netflix stands a good chance of losing me as a customer entirely.

I can imagine that other people share my perspective.

 

@ kto - my thoughts exactly. Streaming is popular, but only because it's convenient. The selection just sucks as you stated (as did I). I don't see how they can think it's the way to go.

 

I was thinking about this a little more today and realized that Netflix could do something that would probably please a lot of people like me - they could made a premium streaming service with a much better selection for $16/month.

Since I'm already paying $16/month, I wouldn't mind dropping the DVD option and paying the full amount for a streaming service with a great selection.

It might be a shock at first, but what if you could ditch cable? So many people are already paying so much money for cable. Even if they charged $20 for streaming, people would still jump if they could get a wide selection of TV shows and movies.

I used to have cable. When it started to climb past ~$30 I decided it was too expensive and got rid of it.

I really doubt this will happen soon though. I'll bet many in the movie and TV industry see a good streaming service as nothing more than a way to cut into their profits.

 

Streaming selection is only going to become more limited as more and more production companies are preventing Netflix from streaming their content. It's a push to make Cable TV more exclusive and allow the premium channels to air their content via "On Demand" instead of Netflix Streaming.
(Showtime/CBS has pulled most of their streaming content, Starz streaming negotiations fell through looks like they're gone; HBO will not allow any of their content to be streamed [DVD only]).

Starz ends renewal negotiations with Netflix, will pull movies from streaming in February -- Engadget
Showtime Pulls ‘Dexter’, Other Shows Out of Netflix - Techland - TIME.com


I still like their DVD only plan, but since the prices are going up and up every year (now it's $10/month under qwickster; I get maybe 3-4 movies a month). I'm thinking they are making the "DVD only" side subsidize they're streaming only content until they become more mainstream.

I can now see the incentive to maybe switch over to Red Box ($1 per movie/day).

 

As others have mentioned, the price hike isn't a big deal really, especially for what are essentially two luxury goods--the content, and the method of convenient delivery. For the former at least, libraries with free videos still exist.

What will be more annoying will be having to deal with two websites, two queues and two rating systems. The price of that inconvenience and the value of the additional time required to navigate between them far exceed any visible price increases to the plans themselves.

 

I wonder when will redbox offer streaming, hmmmm...

 

I ended up canceling my entire Netflix account. $10 for 1 DVD at a time was getting too pricey.


I actually did what ShowTime and the other cable channels/providers want:
I purchased a subscription of ShowTime, which gives me 7 channels of movie content + access to Dexter every Sunday all for $15/month

Bye Bye Netflix.

 

Meh, I tried the cable movie channel route and never had on what I wanted to watch. Sticking with netflix. I get 3-5 blu-rays a month so it makes sense for me.

 

I'm not really a fan of increasing the price while meanwhile offering less service (a ton of streaming content vanished from netflix... why am I paying more again?)

so I cancelled my subscription.

i would like to state that netflix hd really is far and away better than DVD quality.

DVD resolution is 720x480. Those pixels may not be square, so your aspect ratio is not predetermined, but that is the resolution of your video on DVD, generally. 720p is 1280x720. 720p is roughly 3x the resolution of DVD. 1080p is roughly double 720p.

Still doesn't give them a leg to stand on, but it's worth noting, 720p is closer to 1080p than 480p, in terms of quality.

 

As far as resolution and aspect it may be closer, but by quality the streaming HD is closer to DVD. I still find it pixelated with compression banding, etc. like you see on DVD. It's unavoidable with compressed video, period. True 720p or 1080p is so refined.

 

Wow... Guess Napster finally realized the error of their ways. Just got this email:

" Dear HTWingNut,

It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.

This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster.

While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.

We're constantly improving our streaming selection. We've recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks alone, we've added over 3,500 TV episodes from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, USA, E!, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, SyFy, A&E, History, and PBS.

We value you as a member, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get your movies & TV shows.

Respectfully,

The Netflix Team"

 

Yup...I got the same email this morning too ... in addition to this, adding insult to injury, streaming was down for a while on Saturday. I guess I'm paying more so that I can not stream to all my devices...

 

To me this just says "WE SCREWED UP". Now they say the July price increases were necessary, yet originally they said they were making profits with their current business model. So it's just a way to gouge customers for more money I guess.

I'll still stay, since as I already stated I can't find anything cheaper, and it works for me.

 

Restructuring into a sub still makes good sense actually, as does the price increase (although I question the "we are now done with price changes" line--why commit to something like that?). Nothing wrong with more profit, as long as you gain more than you lose from it.

Presenting the customer with two interfaces was an obvious mistake though.

 

I know. But they first said that they were profitable as it stood. Then they said they needed to do this to run as two separate entities, now they're saying the price increase was needed. They're floundering and losing customer confidence in the meantime.

And while running one as a sub, they could have done it more or less transparent to the end consumer. Keep the Netflix name, and just run it that way. People expect price increases periodically, but they could have easily increased 20% every couple years for the next six years and been just as profitable and probably wouldn't have turned any heads.

 

Wow I just found out what Im paying and Im seriously considering dropping netflix. It was a 100% increase for the same damn service (I was paying $8 a month for both)!!! The other isue is netflix doesnt have alot of movies I like on dvd or streaming and the streaming selection (80-90% of my netflix use) is pretty bad...

Will be discussing this with the wife tonight and Im pretty sure we both lean on the side of cancellation...

 

Not a lot of movies on DVD? I haven't seen anything that ISN'T on DVD. It's just the streaming selection is poor.

 

Yea, their DVD/BD selection is quite good. The BDs are the only reason I still keep that subscription really. I also notice their streaming content still doesn't support 3D, subtitle selection, or multiple audio tracks. Other than convenience, there really isn't much to say about Netflix's streaming side.

 

I'm a happy Netflix user.

Will probably stop the DVD option since we really don't use it due to RedBox or when DVDs go on sale.

If you have kids, the Netflix streaming content is quite extensive... or if you like to watch B sci-fi movies like me.

 

Amazon Prime for my sci-fi fix. The complete Star Trek saga--all the series!

I'm not even a huge fan--but having the entire thing at my fingertips is just so convenient that I'm actually watching it from beginning to end (albeit slooowly).

 

The one that comes to mind is Twister. Looking at the browser I see its on so I guess it was an android app deal. So I rescind my previous statement.

Still considering getting rid of netflix due to the price hike and the fact that I dont think its worth $16 a month...

I have thought about doing a redbox only deal since we have 3 within a short walk from our house. But the kid statement does make me rethink this although my child isnt born yet (January) and that use is a bit off for now.

 

Yeah, infants don't need to watch much Dora the Explorer, lol. But not before long! By the time they're 1.5 to 2 you'll be having a lot more kid oriented TV on because, well, you can't exactly have them watching hack n slash films.

Hopefully you find something that works for you.

 

I do too. We do have the disney channel and nick, so it seems there are fewer and fewer reasons to keep netflix. Sad as I have been a member for many years...

 

I've found blockbuster total access is better than Netflix. There are physical stores I can grab movies from and return them to and their online streaming is pretty decent and they get movies before Netflix.

 

I have no Blockbusters near me and had many horrible experiences with Blockbuster in the past, well when they had stores. Told we never returned a movie when we did, trying to charge us $50 in late charges, etc. I just stopped going there and went to the local mom and pop video store, thankfully not soon after that Netflix popped up.

 

All the Blockbusters closed near me (coinciding with all the RedBoxes popping up)... and from what I remember, they charged you extra for their streaming content... has that changed since Dish took over?

And while there are tons of channels to watch on cable for kids... the accessibility of Netflix streaming trumps it... most TVs, most tablets, most phones and not just at home but on the road or at places where keeping them distracted helps.

Dang... I sound like a Netflix commercial... sorry.

 

Here's more... Class Action Lawsuit and it involved Wal-Mart too. Wow.

https://onlinedvdclass.com/

 

Why are people saying price increases broken over a period of time are better than one flat price increase? I view multiple price increases as worse, I feel the company is trying to sneak in the price increases.

At least the way Netflix did it, they were honest about it, and upfront.