Did I miss something here? I got an email today from Netflix. It seems that they are splitting my subscription into two parts. The net effect is that if I want to have DVDs sent to my house AND watch streaming movies on my TV, I will have to pay more… about $5 a month more.
I checked out MSNBCs article on the topic, and it turns out that I actually agree with them on something… for once! You can read the entire article HERE, but the gist of it is that they think it is a pretty stupid move on the part of Netflix. I think the best part of the article is the comments. It seems that the common consensus is to rent DVDs from Redbox and subscribe to the streaming from Netflix.
My favorite quote:
It takes a real genius to destroy a thriving company in a single day…..Congrats Netflix!!!!!
I have a couple of problems with that. The first is that I have always had a problem with the selection of movies that are available streaming. Often, when I decide that there is a movie that I really want to see (even if it is an older movie), it is not available to “watch instantly”. In this case, either I am S.O.L., or I have to put it in my queue, or find another way to watch it anyway.
This seems to happen a lot. Often, I will see a sequel on the “instant” list, so I look for the original… nope, have to wait for that one. An even better example was of something that recently happened. I watched “Zombieland” streaming from Netflix. I actually watched it twice, and was pleasantly surprised by the movie. I removed it from my instant queue.
A couple of weeks later, I was talking to my girlfriend about the movie, and to my surprise, she expressed an interest in watching it. No problem, right? I went to Netflix, searched for it, and… WTH??? Not available for instant anymore??? What, did it break?
Another problem I have is the movie quality. It seems that every time I watch something “instantly”, either the video quality is poor, or the quality is fine, but the movie will stop at random times (usually at the worst possible times) throughout the movie. Now honestly, I do not know if this is because Netflix sucks or Comcast sucks. Since this article is about Netflix, I will blame them this time.
Another problem that I have with Netflix is their “suggestions” are inane. I have reviewed over 300 movies and STILL they cannot recommend a movie I would actually like to watch. I wind up hearing about interesting movies from other sources and have to do a search for them. Why even suggest movies to me at all? You are recommending “Sands of Iwo Jima” from 1949 because I enjoyed “The Hunt for Red October”? Really, guys?
Between all this, and the occasional damaged disks, do you think maybe they could decide to work on making the service better BEFORE they decide to come up with “creative” ways to raise their rates? Also, if they are going to raise their rates, why don’t they just say, “Hey, we are raising our rates”, instead of trying to be slimy about it?
Yea, it’s not a huge deal, but do they really think that this will increase their revenue stream? More likely, it will end up with them losing customers. I still watch streaming movies from them, from time to time, but $8 a month worth? Probably not. Hey, I should look at the bright side – my Netflix bill will go down, once I cancel the “instant” thing. I guess I will use it like crazy before September 1st. Now if only they streamed something I want to watch!
This is Steve and that is just my $0.02.