I haven't been with Netflix since the beginning, but I did join pre- price increase. I fell in love with the service. DVD's and unlimited streaming for only $9.99? It was a great bargain; something we "fat, lazy Americans" could be proud of. However, now I’ve downgraded my service and am now writing on my despise of Netflix. What happened?
Over the summer, all Netflix carriers received an email notice stating that prices were going to increase. Okay, fine. I was ignorant to believe that all current service members were going to be “grandfathered” in on the then current prices. This was not the case. About a month later, Twitter, Facebook and about every other social network and news site exploded with anger over the new prices. Most were against the change, but some were angered with the upheaval and thought the mere change was minimal and necessary. To understand why these people thought the changes were okay, you’ll have to check the prices and the packages (because I’m too lazy to provide specifics). From my understanding, if you began the service with one of the more expensive packages (e.g. unlimited streaming and 4 DVD’s at a time), your bill only raised a couple dollars. So, it’s understandable to why you would think it was ridiculous people were getting so outraged.
Now, here’s why many, many other people are so pissed. For the basic minimum package that allows you to receive DVD’s, it only cost $9.99. Now, for the same package, it costs 60% more: $16.00. Okay, so written down, it doesn’t seem that much. With Netflix and their “okay” shipping turn-around, you’re looking at receiving a max of 5 movies in a month. But how can you justify spending $16 a month when you can spend $8 for unlimited streaming (which there was no price change) and 8 movies from a local Redbox machine. It now seems illogical to continue receiving Netflix DVD’s when it’s economically cheaper to just stream movies and rent the movies yourself.Keep this in mind for later.
As soon as Netflix heard their customers’ reactions, they released a statement saying (and I’m paraphrasing), “We knew these would be the reactions of our customers, however, our decision is final and [deal with it]”; Basically, a ‘sucks-for-you’ from the company. I was always under the impression that you need to listen to your customers, and I’m smart enough to know that with big endorsements from major movie companies and broadcast companies, that Netflix is not hurting for money. That is something I’ll never get- if you’re making millions in net profits to begin with, why do you feel it necessary to make even more at the customers utility and happiness.
So, basically, people are in a pretty sucky situation. Then something changed and made me quite happy. Netflix lost millions of customers. Their stocks plummeted to an all time low. And ‘Starz” decided to pull their movies and Sony-based movies from the service. What a huge smack in the face for Netflix. Even though it hurts some of the customers that there are a few movies missing, this could potentially be the first domino to fall. Since the price changes, they’ve already decided to split the company into 2 separate ones: Netflix, which will be streaming only, and Quikster, which will be the DVD portion of the service. Quikster will now require you to log onto a separate site with a separate log-in; A small step, but quite annoying if you are a PS3, Wii, or Xbox user who likes to cue your DVD’s on the TV.
So, this is where we sit now- just waiting for Netflix’s next move. I guess we will see what happens next. My guess is that Netflix will really have to figure out what their customers what and stick with it. Too bad Netflix is still the best video-streaming site out there, or I wouldn’t be with them. They know this, and I’m sure this is why they don’t care what people think. They’ve got you in bind. Screw them. It’s only time before services like Vudu pick up pace… even Amazon streaming…
Till next time.
