If you have a netflix account, chances are you got an email yesterday, claiming they’re going to raise your prices. Well, good on them, maybe…. Here’s the real deal behind what’s going on, and WHY it’s going to end up hurting them in the long run:
Up until now, Netflix has kept DVD shipping and unlimited online viewing together. If you had online viewing, you could add DVD shipping (1 dvd at a time) for $2. Not bad, that ran around $10/month. Of course, any business owner would wonder just what exactly they were doing, because there’s no way they could be making a profit off of this. Well, their answer FINALLY came out yesterday.
As of September 1st (or whenever you’re billed after that for September), Netflix will automatically be charging you SEPARATELY for DVD and streaming access, and those charges are going to hurt if you’re on a 1 DVD plan. Your price will go up from around $10/month to $17. Yup, you, the 1 dvd at a time person just got nailed by netflix. Thankfully, there’s a solution:
drop streaming
Seriously, that’s all it takes to get back to your normal plan prices. Of course, you want to wait until AFTER September 1st (or closer to your bill date) to do this, so you can enjoy the full benefits at the low cost you’ve already got them. Alternatively, you can simply just drop Netflix altogether .
Why is this going to ‘kill a good thing quick’? Honestly, one word: Hulu
Netflix has been claiming for months that they’re the premiere source for online videos, but they’re not. They’re not even CLOSE. In fact, if you want relevant online videos, look ANYWHERE but Netflix. Their agreements with studios make it so that nothing is seen online for months after it’s released on DVD, IF it even is. Sorry, Netflix, but you lose this round.
What’s WORSE is that if you just had a ‘one dvd at a time’ plan, you know, BEFORE netflix started streaming, you’re STILL going to get jacked up. They automatically assume that everyone wants their streaming, instead of cutting it off and allowing individuals to activate it manually. Nope, this is what you call a scam, people, dead, honest scam. Of course, considering they charge for blu-ray access, I GUESS this shouldn’t really surprise me. I mean, really, this is one of those companies that nickel and dimes someone to death, and has no problem doing so.
I’ve spent the majority of this focusing on those that have 1 DVD at a time, because they’re the worst affected here. The rest of us? Yeah, we’re going to see some pretty decent increases as well. Of course, nothing like the close to doubling of cost that they’re making the 1 disc plan, but, you’ll still see additional charges.
This is a great move for competition of Netflix. I mean, you’ve got disgruntled customers, ready to leave, because your price got bumped up by (a minimum) 20%, so, what do you do? Well, you can take your business to Hulu (strongly recommended if you want television content) or even BlockBuster . Despite shutting down most of their physical stores, they have a thriving (supposedly) online business going, competition to Netflix.
Whatever you do , if you decide to cancel your Netflix subscription, make sure you wait until the day before you’re supposed to renew to do so. Otherwise, Netflix will just refuse to deliver anything to you. Yup, another scam, where service is paid for a month, not delivered, brought to you by the kings of scams and nickel and diming, Netflix themselves.
The moral of the story? Avoid Netflix. If they do this once, there’s no reason they won’t do it again. Their ‘streaming’ selection is from years ago, their ‘new release’ section leaves SO much to be desired, and they’ve got the worst ethics of them all. Bad, bad, bad business policies
I am canceling my dvd and just going with the streaming, because in the world we live in I can just go to Redbox to rent newer movies and watch the MANY tv series Netfix has on my Wii or X-Box…this ends up only costing about 7 bucks, which is cheaper than what I am paying now and works out better for me because I tend to forget about the dvd in the other room if I get caught up watching a tv series. Damn you WEEDS!!!!