Netflix... Burn In Hell!

At least that’s what some people are thinking, after Netflix announced they were splitting their unlimited streaming and one DVD-at-a-time plan, and would be charging you a little more for the two.

Well, I have to admit I didn’t like reading about the price increase yesterday, but apparently it upset a lot of people more than it did me.

​Netflix Users Protest Proposed Price Increases With Social Media Firestorm

Netflix users stormed the streaming video and DVD rental services’ blog and Facebook page by the thousands on Tuesday to criticize a new pricing structure that will raise some users’ monthly bill by 60 percent.

Comment Highlights

• I like the split but I think charging full price for both is going to lose y’all a few customers. I love having the option for both streaming and DVD but I’m not willing to cough up $16 a month for it.
• A 60% price increase! Not many companies are bold enough to increase prices by 60% in these economic times. I hope the streaming selection gets a whole lot better. I’ve been buying a lot of videos from Amazon Instant Videos because Netflix doesn’t have them; maybe I need to switch to Amazon for my streaming, too.
• This price change wouldn’t be so bad if you put more movies on streaming. Right now the streaming option is loaded with stuff nobody would ever rent.
• This is a horrible deal for current customers. You’re going to be losing a lot of business with this decision.

The thousands of comments left on the Netflix Facebook page Tuesday struck similar themes.

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Some of those highlighted comments are the nicer ones. There are some that are just down right ugly. I’ll let you go and read the comments people have left on the Netflix blog.

Likewise, TechCruch had this to say:

​Dear Netflix, Thanks For The Customers! Signed, Redbox

…yesterday Netflix announced its new plans. Suddenly the cost to rent a DVD shot up, going from a nearly unnoticeable charge to almost double the cost. It didn’t make sense to keep the option and so I canceled it right away. Netflix’s own announcement email and blog post noted it’s easy to cancel, which, while honest, doesn’t inspire confidence in their pricing.

Instead, I believe I’ll be waiting in line up at Krogers to use Redbox’s DVD rental service the few times a year I need a particular DVD. I just wish I could see Netflix’s internal numbers. No doubt Netflix’s dedicated DVD customers will stick with them and continue to suck Netflix dry by renting countless DVDs every month. But I wasn’t costing Netflix any money; it was probably quite the opposite. Consumers like me — consumers who probably rented 2 DVDs last year — should have been valued by Netflix for paying for a service they rarely use. But instead they’ve drove us away. Oh well. Redbox is just as cheap and convenient and that’s all I care about anyway. (emphasis added)

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Obviously these people don’t have kids that can come up with some of the most obscure requests known to man. Look at the results I found for “Strawberry Shortcake: Big Country Fun” (requested by my daughter, of course) at Netflix and then Redbox.

The TechCrunch post also stated:

Netflix announced a new pricing scheme yesterday that effectively raised the price of a popular subscription plan by 60%. Instead of costing $9.99 for streaming and DVD rental, Netflix separated the services and priced them each $7.99, which results in a combined cost of $16.

But it’s not the $6 people are ranting about. Most of us would spend half of that amount on one silly coffee drink every day if we weren’t lactose intolerant. It’s that Netflix raised the prices without adding any value. There simply isn’t any way of spinning this as a benefit to the consumer and backlash is the result. (emphasis added)

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No value added? They’ve been adding value to their streaming service ever since it started. Does anyone remember the selection of movies when they first started streaming? I think the service is great and I think the price is fair. No, I don’t like the price increase, but I still think it’s fair. Regardless of what you might think, I’m not a shill for Netflix, I just remember how much I hated going to Blockbuster or even a Redbox kiosk not only to find they didn’t have the DVD I wanted, but also wasting gasoline in the process.

Maybe the backlash will sting enough to make Netflix reconsider a discounted price for bundling the two plans. I don’t know and ultimately don’t care. I guess I just want people to put this into perspective. Sure a 60% increase sounds like a lot, but we’re talking about $6 here. Now if the increase had been 400%, that would have been a story! (Screenshot)

UPDATE: Well at least I’m not the only one who isn’t spitting mad over Netflix’s price increase. And obviously none of those hateful comments on the Netflix blog are from columnist, Paul Thurrott.

​Netflix Raises Prices, Garners Criticism

In my case, this change will result in about $5 in addition costs per month. Is it worth that? Yes, to me it is. But I understand where the additional cost will be problematic for many people. I also understand that Netflix likely expects many to simply drop the DVD part of their subscription. Which, when you think about it, was likely the plan all along. (emphasis added)

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UPDATE 2 (July 14, 2011): Well, Sarah Jacobsson Purewal of PC World certainly has an opinion about Netflix’s streaming service. She probably left one of those ugly comments on the Netflix blog. ;-)

​Netflix’s 60% Price Hike: You’ve Gotta Be Kidding Me!

…Netflix kind of wants you to ditch the DVDs and start seeing the company as bleeding on the cutting edge of streaming video technology. So, what’s the problem?

Oh yeah, the problem is that Netflix’s streaming video service just can’t cut it.

Netflix’s streaming video service includes around 20,000 titles, the likes of which include such popular titles as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Reservoir Dogs. Other streaming video services, such as Hulu Plus, have fewer titles (Hulu Plus has about 400 current and classic TV shows), but they’re much more relevant–Hulu Plus boasts up-to-date episodes of House, Bones, and 30 Rock, while Netflix…doesn’t.

A choice between Netflix streaming and Hulu Plus streaming isn’t even a choice–Hulu Plus is absolutely better–but Netflix’s $2 unlimited DVD add on is what (had) saved the service for me. Admittedly, I don’t use the DVD service nearly as much as I use the streaming service, but I use it fairly often because Netflix’s streaming line-up is pretty pathetic.

The last videos I streamed from Netflix include such gems as Mega Python vs. Gateroid, Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus, and Egyptian Secrets of the Afterlife. Entertaining titles, to be sure, but you can rest assured they were not my first choice (the last DVDs I rented from Netflix were Avatar and The Sopranos: Season 6).

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Okay, everybody has a right to their own opinion, and if you want to leave Netflix that’s fine, but come on, the last video you streamed was Mega Python vs. Gateroid? Netflix has a lot of great selections for streaming: Secretariat, Iron Man 2, the latest Star Trek movie. They also have the complete collection of The Andy Griffith Show, the original Mission Impossible, the Cosby Show, and that’s just scratching the surface.

If the best you can do is Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus, then I’d say there’s a problem with your video preferences and not availability. I can understand the anger over the price increase, but frankly, Purewal’s article, to me, is rather misleading about what Netflix has to offer.

UPDATED UPDATE: (After Feb. 2012) Well, as you may know, some of these streaming titles have been lost due to Netflix and Starz parting ways, but hey, you can still get the DVD’s. You can’t say that about Redbox.

UPDATE 3 (July 18, 2011): It just keeps getting worse for poor ol’ Netflix. Good thing we’re not addicted to our movies, or anything like that.

​Netflix streaming service hit by outage

Netflix’s streaming service was down and unavailable for much of last night but has since been restored.

In a tweet posted around midnight Pacific time by the official Netflixhelps account, the company acknowledged that the streaming issues reported early had been fixed and offered an apology to its customers. This followed an earlier tweet from the account and a posting on the Netflix Facebook page at around 10 p.m. PT yesterday in which the company said it was working on the issue.

The outage had been brought to light a few hours earlier by several sources, notably a slew of tweets from disgruntled customers. Capturing the tweets and other reports, the Web site Downrightnow.com recorded the outage starting at around 4 p.m. PT yesterday and lasting at least sporadically throughout most of the night.

There’s been no official word from Netflix yet on the cause of the outage. The company did not immediately return CNET’s request for further details.

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UPDATE 4 (July 20, 2011): It’s good, and it’s only getting better!

​Reed Hastings Responds

This past Sunday, I penned an open letter to Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX ) . Writing with my tongue somewhat in cheek, I intended to capture the frustration some people felt, while keeping an even-tempered perspective on what this means for long-term subscribers and investors. But I never actually expected I’d get a reply.

A surprise response
Just before I went to bed Sunday night, an email arrived from Hastings himself, categorically addressing my concerns.

Taken on a larger level — as a message to all of the subscribers who have been irked by the rate hike — I think its contents are worth sharing here:

• Hastings started with an apology: I’m sorry you felt jammed by our message.
• He then responded to my plea to have the rate hike explained: We will take the increased revenue and mostly spend it on more streaming content … we want to be able to have stronger and stronger streaming.
• And he concluded by making a fair assessment of what Netflix has to offer right now: It is a big increase, I know, but we feel each of the $7.99 programs are a great deal on their own.

What this means
If you read my previous article, you know that I wasn’t suggesting selling my shares or cancelling my subscription. Basically, I just felt a little cold, based on how the rate hike was carried out. This response pretty well addresses my concerns.

In some ways, we’ve been spoiled with an $8.99 plan that sent us DVDs and allowed us unlimited streaming. That model probably isn’t sustainable.

Moving forward, I’m fairly certain that Netflix would eventually be willing to sacrifice its DVD business to the likes of Coinstar’s (Nasdaq: CSTR ) Redbox. I don’t doubt that most of us will be using streaming to watch our movies 10 years from now.

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