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Policy Change in Netflix

Annoying or not?

  • I think they're being greedy and I don't like it.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    22

kyuuei

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Is anyone else annoyed by this?

Policy change summary:
Used to be: $9.99 for unlimited DVD rentals and streaming
Now: $16.something for DVDs and streaming. Nearly double the price tag. Its no longer "It's about the cost of a meal at Mcdonalds!" worthy.

Some article from teh internets describing how cheapsakes like me everywhere are pissed:

Yesterday, Netflix announced that they will be separating DVDs by mail and streaming into two separate plans rather than offering plans that provide both services. As usual, unhappy customers took to social media to air their grievances.

Previously, for $9.99/month, you could get unlimited DVDs by mail (one at a time) and unlimited streaming from a computer or streaming enabled device. There was also a streaming-only plan for $7.99/month. Once the two services are separated, the unlimited streaming plan and the unlimited DVDs by mail plan will each be $7.99/month.

Netflix explained in their blog that “When we launched our $7.99 unlimited streaming plan, DVDs by mail was treated as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan.” But because of the continuing demand for DVDs by mail, they have decided to offer DVD-only plans.

Customers of Netflix have been taking to Twitter, Facebook, and the Netflix blog to express their opinions about the changes, and almost all of the feedback is negative, to say the least. One day later, there are over 38,000 comments on the status update on Netflix’s Facebook page announcing the change. On Twitter, ‘Dear Netflix’ is still trending. There are almost 8,000 comments on the blog post announcing the change.

One reason customers are so surprised and outraged is because Netflix used to be known for customer loyalty and satisfaction. But this move has turned many customers against them. A lot of people understand the reasoning, but don’t want to choose between a DVD plan and a streaming plan. With only a fraction of their titles available for streaming, most people don’t want that service. What happens when a movie you want to see is only available on DVD? If Netflix improves their streaming library, people might be more accepting of the change. Until then, the social campaign to cancel Netflix lives on.
 

Thalassa

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It's because of all the damage to DVDs and lost DVDs.

They want to move entirely to streaming, I think.

I would be happy to just have streaming with them as long as they keep their selection varied, because I'm extremely pleased with all of the foreign and underground films I was able to watch on streaming...like last winter I watched like four of the best Russian films released internationally within the past few years on Netflix streaming. They also have a great selection of black comedies and American independent films, not to mention great old BBC shows like Fawlty Towers.

My only complaint is their streaming horror selection, it reeks.
 

Giggly

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Craptastic.

*pissed*

You can best believe that they separated the two to prep for a future increase in the streaming price. TV's now come with ready-to-stream netflix apps on them.

I don't mind this as long as they substantially improve their streaming selection, like seriously, and maybe offered a cheaper DVD plan.
 

Thalassa

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P.S. I think the "outraged" option is kind of comical and unreasonble. This is a private business, not the government, they don't owe anyone anything. I used to feel like it was an ubelievable steal to watch so may quality films on demand back to back on my laptop. Usually if you purchase individual, on-demand films through digital cable it costs A LOT MORE.

The DVD option really is best for brand new films, and that's because the film production companies aren't going to give away brand new releases that easily.

But yeah, they really should make some of their classic horror more accessible through streaming.
 

Odyne

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isn't it 7.99$/month for streaming now? Is that only in Canada?
 

kyuuei

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P.S. I think the "outraged" option is kind of comical and unreasonble. This is a private business, not the government, they don't owe anyone anything. I used to feel like it was an ubelievable steal to watch so may quality films on demand back to back on my laptop. Usually if you purchase individual, on-demand films through digital cable it costs A LOT MORE.

The DVD option really is best for brand new films, and that's because the film production companies aren't going to give away brand new releases that easily.

But yeah, they really should make some of their classic horror more accessible through streaming.

:laugh: I think it is a really good deal.. or at least I did.
The math:
If you're streaming-dedicated, you only get a fraction of the selection. You sacrifice new releases for convenience, you get things way later. While it doesnt bother some people, being the last one to see star trek means you'll undoubtably collect the entire plot via snippets of information leeking until much of the twists in the story are ruined. By the time streaming people get a hold of something, it is long past the social "grace period" of "I wont say it then! you have to watch it though!" lines.

So it's $8 a month for a few DVDs. Maybe you watch the entire series of True Blood, so it was worth it that month.

The month after, you watch 1 DVD -- Rango, because your cousin won't shut up about it. It's a DVD you could have rented at the Red Box for $1. $7 is gone, that could have been spent on 7 more movies, or a meal at mcdonalds to go with that cheap ass rental. Also, many game stores are offering DVD buy-back rentals.. "Buy it for $4, sell it back to us for $3 when you're done. No late fees, and if you like it a lot, you can just keep it there."

I think streaming people really get left out in this.. And if they update streaming anymore than this, you'll bet it'll turn into "Premium streaming--stream our DVDs as well for $x extra." Which will funnel streaming community right back into choosing outsourced DVDs or the DVD plan they were trying to avoid in the first place.

isn't it 7.99$/month for streaming now? Is that only in Canada?

It is in the US.
 

miss fortune

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it doesn't really bother me all that much... just make a few more things available on streaming (I'm usually annoyed about not being able to find series of several television programs!)... otherwise, I only use the streaming function anyways and leave the ordering of dvds part to the man, because it sounds like too much work to me :laugh:
 

Giggly

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P.S. I think the "outraged" option is kind of comical and unreasonble. This is a private business, not the government, they don't owe anyone anything. I used to feel like it was an ubelievable steal to watch so may quality films on demand back to back on my laptop. Usually if you purchase individual, on-demand films through digital cable it costs A LOT MORE.

The DVD option really is best for brand new films, and that's because the film production companies aren't going to give away brand new releases that easily.

But yeah, they really should make some of their classic horror more accessible through streaming.

Will you be buying the DVD option as well? Anyways, I'm mostly venting my future potential frustration once they raise the streaming price again. (yay for ne!) I have blockbuster online too and they have both, but I only pay $4.99/mth for that but it's only 1-title out per month, unlimited streaming. They either don't advertise that plan or they only offered it to me because I threatened to cancel. Anyways I only use blockbuster to find new releases and older movies I might want to see if netflix doesn't have them. I'm still skeptical of torrents.
 

Thalassa

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Will you be buying the DVD option as well? Anyways, I'm mostly venting my future potential frustration once they raise the streaming price again. (yay for ne!) I have blockbuster online too, but I only pay $4.99/mth for that, and I've been a customer since it started.

No I probably won't buy the DVD option because there are so many films I enjoy on streaming, and I can watch horror films elsewhere.

Blockbuster *should* charge less, because their selection is absolute shit, IMO. To someone with my taste in film Netflix is heaven and Blockbuster is hell.
 

Giggly

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I have both to cover all my bases and I have had to use them both for rare finds. Until I get a new computer, I like watching them on the TV screen best. /greedy
 

ZPowers

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I'm not particularly annoyed. I recently switched from a two at a time unlimited rental plan at Blockbuster and it still cost more than two at a time with Netflix does now. The selection and the extreme convenience and variety of their streaming service is worth the extra few dollars.
 

miss fortune

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I have both to cover all my bases and I have had to use them both for rare finds. Until I get a new computer, I like watching them on the TV screen best. /greedy

we stream netflix through the blueray player onto the tv... in the living room and bedroom :shock:

I'm afraid that the man is a bit of a technophile...
 

Giggly

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we stream netflix through the blueray player onto the tv... in the living room and bedroom :shock:

I'm afraid that the man is a bit of a technophile...

I do too. I meant for movies that aren't on netflix to stream but I want to watch them right away. blockbuster is newer to streaming but still has some titles and exclusive rights that the others don't have (I already admitted I'm greedy), plus I keep getting them to lower my monthly fee. :) I also use Vudu to rent stuff I can't find any place else if I have to and there is no monthly fee for vudu. Vudu goes directly to my TV or I can watch on the computer (which I rarely do because it's too slow).
 

kyuuei

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Still, they claimed to go this route to give the customers more options.. but I see little in the way of this helping streaming-fans. This seems to just put a lot more emphasis on the DVDs, and thus delay updating the streaming. Why update if everyone's purchasing DVDs?
 

prplchknz

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I'm on A streaming only plan at the moment because of my current living situation, but I'll probably switch back to one at a time plus streaming at some point still cheaper than renting a movie from blockbuster every week.
 

chickpea

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i cancelled my netflix account, they have a pretty good selection but it's never what i want to watch. i like having the actual files from torrents better anyway, so i'd end up downloading even the stuff they had. when i cancelled i listed "bootleg dvds" as my main source of movies :).
 

MacGuffin

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we stream netflix through the blueray player onto the tv...

Until I get that set up I'll be switching to DVD-only plan. I loathe watching things on a laptop screen.
 
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I think that this pricing change would be fine if more than 10% of the stuff I wanted to watch was streaming. They have to seriously beef up their streaming offerings if the new price is going to be worth it. I'll just stick with the DVD-only plan. Besides the meager streaming offerings, I hate watching stuff on the laptop.
 

Totenkindly

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P.S. I think the "outraged" option is kind of comical and unreasonble. This is a private business, not the government, they don't owe anyone anything. I used to feel like it was an ubelievable steal to watch so may quality films on demand back to back on my laptop. Usually if you purchase individual, on-demand films through digital cable it costs A LOT MORE.

That's my impression as well. I mean, the price bump does suck. Then again, it's only the cost of a fast-food meal for an entire month of free downloads. What's Rhapsody up to now for a month? $15? Meanwhile, the economy sucks and I have no idea what the movie studios are doing in terms of raising their own prices to NetFlix. I think we're only spoiled because the Internet has typically provided free content to users with costs paid by the site owners to put their info out there (that's the original model), which isn't really the case for much else in the world.

I would guess DVDs incur additional cost, due to maintenance, storage, inventory data, etc.

I would expect prices to go up, and go up faster than they have been. Is Blockbuster even still around or are they officially dead yet? (IN other media, Borders is now gone. There's a lot of big companies that can't even stay afloat.)

I do like the Streaming convenience, but it's been disappointing when I check out a movie and it's not available for streaming... it's happened for maybe 30% of the movies i look up.
 
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