Dear Netflix,
Thanks for your letter of apology this morning. Really, Reed. You were cool to announce that you’d “messed up” and treated us members with less than ultimate respect when you raised our fees this month (back of hand dramatically to forehead).
I was hoping your email would say, “Gosh, Kathy, we really ARE sorry. We’re so sorry that we’re only going to charge you $10.59 again instead of the whopping $16.94 that we billed to your credit card a few days ago.”
But no. Reed, you offered your apologies. You explained your fears. You told us how you were splitting the service in two. We faithful Netflix customers can get A) streaming or B) red envelopes stuffed with DVD’s in the mail or C) both.
If we opt for the snail mail envelopes, they will now be called Quikster. (I assume that’s because our queue wishes will be mailed really, really Quik!) We can even now rent videos like Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. That is, if we had a clue what those games might be, which I don’t.
Reed ends his apology:
I want to acknowledge and thank you for sticking with us, and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly.
Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions.
Thanks again, Reed. It was a special way to wake up this morning.
You’ve brought the issue front and center:
What the heck are we going to do?
I think that $16.94 price is a little too steep. Yep. We’re poor folks with huge hospital deductible bills and, gosh almighty, I just don’t watch that many movies. Should we keep the streaming? It actually works well 78.6% of the time, even way up here in the middle of the woods.
I’m thinking–oh no, gasps the internal movie-appreciator–that it might be time to just cancel the whole thing for a while. If we want to watch a movie, we’ll trek to downtown L’Anse like in the olden days and physically choose a DVD from the shelf. (Ooops, in the olden days we’d be choosing videos.)
So, I’m sorry, Reed. Really sorry. I would have liked to stay with your company. We had a lovely relationship going on for a while, didn’t we? It all started a couple of winters back when we started watching old Dark Shadows re-runs after Barry’s ice fishing trips. (We couldn’t get ’em locally, so we had to take the plunge into the Modern Age. Please don’t ask why we were watching vampire shows from the 1960’s.)
However, we’re returning to our local store, Reed. I’m afraid it’s going to be NoFlix. For a while, anyway. If we decide to change our mind later–if we discover we can’t live without streaming–I’ll let you know.
Good luck with your company! Hope it all works out for you.
Sincerely,
A customer with at least ten extra $$ in her pocket next month. (The other $6.94 perhaps I’ll spend at the local DVD store.)
Lake Superior Spirit 
Unbelievable… not going to subscribe to Netflix again any time soon.
Hooray for you!
Tell Reed that you can stream and watch Hulu for free.
How’s that for free enterprise? (yes, pun intended) 🙂
Netflix just had one of their movie provider drop them. So I am not sure if that is the problem. If you have comcast internet service you can stream tv and movie on your laptop…
I was the “free” Hulu, there is also a Premire Hulu which I think is $8/9 for first run tv shows and movies…
Hey they have us coming and going. I take me adventure to the library, sometimes I get lucky. There are no local video stores anymore. Major or privately own, they have all closed!
I cancelled streaming, but then again I rarely used it. Son used it, so he got his own. Having the movies show up in my mailbox is like getting little treats. A pleasant surprise. Never mind that I ordered them and I’m paying for them. But our “local” rental store is 30 miles away, and Netflix is still cheaper for the snail mail movies than watching an equivalent number on Pay-Per-View on Direct. No cable available in our area.
I like Netflix because I can get in the mail the art house and international movies that never come to local theaters. So far the streaming selection hasn’t been that great. But if what Jeff says is true, that a movie provider dropped them, I wonder if the DVD selection will go down and the streaming selection will go up. It’s hard to choose when the choices aren’t that clear! Waiting for Tim to weigh in…
I decided to drop the streaming part because my computer is so slow it always stalled them. However, now with the post office talking about dropping Saturday deliveries, am wondering how that will affect things. I’ve been a steady 2 a week customer (one at a time) and one less day a week will slow that down now. Also, I’m so annoyed that so many videos I want are on “long wait” lists forever it seems. I was once told by their rep that they favor folks who get multiple videos to get them first. But, I do love my movies at home (as well as out) so guess I will cave in and stick with my delivery only. Glad I’m not alone with being peeved with the price jump.
Kathy – You are single-handedly responsible for the HUGE grin on my face this morning. THANK YOU!
Oh how we allow entertainment options to frustrate us! We recently dropped our DirecTV and the DVD option from Netflix. We don’t miss it, and I suspect you’ll get by just fine as well 🙂
Personally I’m counting on books making a big comeback one of these days. I like to watch movies, too, but the Writing Studio and Bait Shop doesn’t have a blank wall big enough for a really big display even if I could afford one, so I’d just as soon go to a theatre every now and then. Listen to my neighbors laughing or sniffling. Talk about it after.
Thank goodness for libraries, eh?
Haha, we got that same e-mail this morning. I didn’t read it (it came to hubby’s account) but he gave me the short version. He said that for us, the price increase was about $2, and we do have both services. We will probably keep them for now, but who knows what will happen in the future, especially if they raise their rates again?
I just wish their streaming selection was better, and you could get new releases in a reasonable amount of time.
Did you know that Blockbuster has a mail DVD service, too? Maybe that’s an option for you if you decide to drop Netflix? Might be something we might give a try in the future, but as far as I know, Blockbuster does not have streaming.
I have my beef with netflx too. and may just keep doing without, since everything I wanted to watch I coulcn’t have. I don’t go with that.
Carla gets what she wants, just not through netflix.
I just love the way marketing seems to work (not). We sign up because we think it’s a good deal and once they have you as a customer they go and change the game increasing their prices and giving less service. It’s happened with internet providers, cable, cell phones etc. etc. Don’t get me started on the price of gas though.
It’s great that you are going back to the local store, Kathy. I know that a lot of them are doing very poorly because of the internet competition. I have a local store as a bookkeeping client and she has seen a substantial drop in business over the last few years.
They got me, too. Good for you for standing up for the sneaky way they increased our fees. However, for me, the local store is over 60 miles away … so, I will probably just stream for awhile (there is not much else to do while I am recuperating). There are really a lot of “free” places on the web to watch. Thanks for the post …
Amazing how many comments this one is getting! We have all this pent up angst, or ideas, or … whatever that we just don’t talk about much. I had quit Netflix some time ago, but subscribed again a few days ago because if I did, I could get a gazillion free gold bars for the silly but pretty online Facebook game I play (Gardens of Time, I really do love it. That’s my confession. See, I live in the desert, and with Gardens of Time you can design your own fantasy garden with endless grass, green trees, fountains, flowers, and so forth, and its my escape from the endless heat…) so then when I subscribed to Netflix to get the gazillion of gold so I could buy all the little trees and grass I wanted, then Netflix said I could be a member again but I couldn’t have the gold because I had been a member the year before. So I said, “Hmpf!” and I UNsubscribed so fast that you could measure it in nanoseconds, and then after that, the game gave me the gold anyway for free. Weird, huh?
By the time I go to the local dvd store, which isn’t that close or inexpensive, it’d cost me more in gas and time than I pay to get those little red envelopes. Plus, via their recommendations, I’ve seen some of the best films I’ve ever seen. During busy months, I change to the most basic plan, and then change back to the next plan, for example, during cabin fever season. I have Hulu instead of TV, which is much less expensive than cable, but for movies, I do like Netflix. Really, it’s the convenience and the fact that in time, it costs me much less to obtain what I want to see. I really value my time, lol 🙂
Thanks are you Netflixers and Noflixers (**smile**) for sharing your thoughts on this. I am going to cancel for a while, at least, and try the local method again. Waiting until closer to the end of the month so I can get by $16.94 worth of service before the next billing cycle. Christopher, our eldest, emailed to suggest a DVD that I watch before signing off. Not an easy call…especially for those of us used to the easy convenience that Netflix has offered in the past.
We keep debating whether or not we should keep Netflix but drop cable television. Netflix offers so many excellent children’s series WITHOUT commercial time. That alone makes it so worthwhile for us when the grandchildren are around.
Oh so interesting. A sign of things to come, me thinks. We’ve been thinking about subscribing but keep putting it off, so many changes happening in the industry, it’s hard to know which way to turn. Right now we use Comcast’s on-demand and Xfinity, splurge on day time matinee showings at our local theaters when something interesting is being shown and read a lot.
Thanks again! So many decisions… I wish you all luck…. we’re gonna need it! 🙂
Did you hear the news today? Netflix is rethinking their changes … and made one big move today .. they are keeping the mailed dvd’s and the streaming at one site, not separate ones. I hope they keep rethinking their changes …
I hadn’t heard the news, but went & read after your comment, bearyweather. I cancelled our subscription in September and (so far) haven’t missed it. Haven’t gone to the local store to rent a DVD yet, either. Since we’re 12 miles from town, you have to plan a day when someone will be in town the next day to return the movie. Unless you get one of those multi-day rentals. The $16 is just too much to pay for someone who uses the service as little as we do. Bet you’ve enjoyed a lot of movies as you’ve recuperated.