7 ms·

Netflix: Disgruntled customers rejoining service

28 points by zacharye 14y ago

mmuro 14y ago
Here's one disgruntled customer who doesn't miss Netflix at all. Redbox fills the void nicely and it's way cheaper for my viewing habits.
- muhfuhkuh 14y ago
  So, how many discs do you rent a month? Because if it's <5, then I'd say, okay, you'd be better off without the $8 netflix. But, if it's more... We love netflix at home. They're seriously starting to ramp up on TV series licenses and 80s and 90s hit movies now (where we as Gen-Xers go for our nostalgia trips). And, I'm starting to see some AAA blockbusters show up from the recent past (<5 years ago). So, it's coming along nicely for our needs and definitely for the price. I've never understood how people who say "well, cable has bigger hits faster", but not only do you have to pay $50+ for digital HD cable, but >$10 on top for HBO/Cinemax/premiums, and pay to "rent" on-demand recent hit movies. Now that is the ripoff.
  - devs1010 14y ago
    Haven't you heard of Amazon Instant Video? It has no subscription fee and has the latest movies for rent, on demand, and the highest they go is, I believe $3.99. I don't have a cable or satellite TV subscription at all but I have a PS3 and can use Amazon Instant Video with it, I believe there are devices that you can get to use it if you don't have a current gen video game system. Personally, I don't like Netflix's streaming video model, I much prefer that of Amazon's but I would definitely like to see the price decrease. Having a large library of movies (mostly older, some fairly recent), doesn't do me any good unless it has the movie I want to watch at that time. I don't watch all that many movies so when I do watch one I want it to choose from any movie to do so, not be limited to a subset of movies for which they were able to negotiate rights to stream them. I think the "buffet" model of streaming content works for TV shows a lot better since they're shorter and most people are more willing to watch what they consider a "sub-optimal" choice of a show than a movie.
    - melvinmt 14y ago
      > and the highest they go is, I believe $3.99 So that's 2 movies a month for roughly the same amount? With Netflix, I watch 2 movies a day. Have to agree that the offering is a little sparse, but it's a much better alternative than watching regular TV.
      - jessriedel 14y ago
        > With Netflix, I watch 2 movies a day. You watch too many movies :)
        muhfuhkuh 14y ago
        He didn't say everyday :D
        jmduke 14y ago
        Perhaps you watch too few?
      - devs1010 14y ago
        For me, when I watch movies I want to choose from the latest releases, I don't watch that often so its simply not a suitable substitute to watch an older (usually at least 10 years older, if using Netflix) movie.. For TV shows, however, I'm much more willing to watch what I consider to be a "suboptimal" choice, since its shorter. I think a lot of consumers share my sentiment in this, however I can see how if you watch a lot of movies it would be too expensive with Amazon's offering.
    - ben1040 14y ago
      Amazon Instant Video doesn't work on an Xbox 360, which is what I use for streaming Netflix. The rentals work on my Tivo, but not the free streaming included with Amazon Prime. And it doesn't work on my iPad at all. Netflix works in all these places and works well.
      - chc 14y ago
        Just in case you didn't know, they recently added Amazon Instant Video support to the PS3.
mc32 14y ago
I don't think it's too surprising. What were their viable alternatives --besides cutting off from video entertainment altogether? I don't think they have credible competitors§ yet. There's Hulu and there's Amazon Prime videos, but neither, to me, have the same breadth. §I mean, via internet delivery. Even DVD mail delivery, they are very good, but that's not a growth market.
- pavel_lishin 14y ago
  Hulu's advantage is that they have more things that are available on cable - I can see Bob's Burgers and Once Upon A Time the day after they air. The downside is that I cannot watch the first season of the former... unless I fire up Netflix :)
  - reneherse 14y ago
    How have you found the browsing experience on Hulu? I tried it recently and was shocked at how difficult it was to look through the different titles. One advantage of Netflix is that they give you a really dense page full of easy to read selections when you're hunting for something to watch.
    - pavel_lishin 14y ago
      Hulu's XBox UI actively conspires against me. Aside from the couple of actual bugs, it's frustrating as hell. What's worse, Netflix seems to be copying them. The web interface is better, but still not fantastic. But they're the only two legal games in town that don't charge an arm and a leg.
laconian 14y ago
Isn't Hulu going to become exclusive to cable subscribers soon (a la HBO GO?)
- devs1010 14y ago
  Where did you hear this? Its hard to believe given that they've expanded to so many devices now, I could only see this if they were bought out, in which case I think another competitor would arise.
greggman 14y ago
I know I'm like the only person in the world who cares about this but I quit Netflix the moment I saw they used pop-unders for advertising. People used to be screaming at all the popups and popunders in the early 2000s. People stopped screaming because adblockers and customer complaints in general end up getting rid of them.......except for Netflix! WTF! They still use them. Saw a few this week, and I still won't support Netflix because of it. Personally, I think as a geek, you shouldn't support them either.
- recursive 14y ago
  I've never seen a pop-under ad on netflix. I've never seen any advertising on netflix. You may have some malware or something.
  - andrewljohnson 14y ago
    Same thought...
  - tantalor 14y ago
    greggman is referring to Netflix pop-unders on 3rd-party sites.
- jedberg 14y ago
  I think you have some malware. As far as I know Netflix doesn't use popunders or overs.
- dchuk 14y ago
  there's a good chance those are ads being run by affiliates. I've seen them a bunch, it's actually impressive how they can circumvent most popup blocking technology
- TheHegemon 14y ago
  You're most likely mistaken. Netflix probably has no idea about the popunders, as it's most likely a third-party affiliate site doing something against the TOS. If you report them to Netflix I'm sure they'll be glad to shut down that affiliate's account. Either that or you got malware.
reneherse 14y ago
What, I rejoin last night and there's already an article about it? ;) Seriously though, in my search for cheap/free movies what pushed me off the fence about rejoining Netflix was that they were offering the first month free, even though I'm not a new customer. All the details of my account were saved, and all I had to do what update the security code and expiration date on my card. Pretty damn good UX through the re-signup process. The annoyance factor came when I tried to watch a movie. I got an error message with an obscure DRM error code, and instructions to call a Netflix 800 number. Rather than wake Reed Hastings up at an ungodly hour, I Googled around and followed advice to delete a particular Silverlight related file, and restart the browser. Again, no dice, but at least now the error code was one that prompted me to upgrade my version of Silverlight. Downloaded, installed, restart browser. Log back in for the third or fourth time. NOW I can watch my movie. Let's just say that was only mildly annoyed by all of this because the first month was free. And the process in the end was somewhat less painful than hunting for a working stream (...or what that must be like, I'm sure). ;) One free month is more than enough time to re-evaluate whether their streaming catalog is worth the 7.99 monthly price. I do hope they've added more A-list movies on the streaming side, because it's just not worth it for me to tack on another eight bucks to get access to the DVD catalog.

28 points by zacharye 14y ago

mmuro 14y ago

Here's one disgruntled customer who doesn't miss Netflix at all. Redbox fills the void nicely and it's way cheaper for my viewing habits.

muhfuhkuh 14y ago
So, how many discs do you rent a month? Because if it's <5, then I'd say, okay, you'd be better off without the $8 netflix. But, if it's more... We love netflix at home. They're seriously starting to ramp up on TV series licenses and 80s and 90s hit movies now (where we as Gen-Xers go for our nostalgia trips). And, I'm starting to see some AAA blockbusters show up from the recent past (<5 years ago). So, it's coming along nicely for our needs and definitely for the price. I've never understood how people who say "well, cable has bigger hits faster", but not only do you have to pay $50+ for digital HD cable, but >$10 on top for HBO/Cinemax/premiums, and pay to "rent" on-demand recent hit movies. Now that is the ripoff.
- devs1010 14y ago
  Haven't you heard of Amazon Instant Video? It has no subscription fee and has the latest movies for rent, on demand, and the highest they go is, I believe $3.99. I don't have a cable or satellite TV subscription at all but I have a PS3 and can use Amazon Instant Video with it, I believe there are devices that you can get to use it if you don't have a current gen video game system. Personally, I don't like Netflix's streaming video model, I much prefer that of Amazon's but I would definitely like to see the price decrease. Having a large library of movies (mostly older, some fairly recent), doesn't do me any good unless it has the movie I want to watch at that time. I don't watch all that many movies so when I do watch one I want it to choose from any movie to do so, not be limited to a subset of movies for which they were able to negotiate rights to stream them. I think the "buffet" model of streaming content works for TV shows a lot better since they're shorter and most people are more willing to watch what they consider a "sub-optimal" choice of a show than a movie.
  - melvinmt 14y ago
    > and the highest they go is, I believe $3.99 So that's 2 movies a month for roughly the same amount? With Netflix, I watch 2 movies a day. Have to agree that the offering is a little sparse, but it's a much better alternative than watching regular TV.
    - jessriedel 14y ago
      > With Netflix, I watch 2 movies a day. You watch too many movies :)
      - muhfuhkuh 14y ago
        He didn't say everyday :D
      - jmduke 14y ago
        Perhaps you watch too few?
    - devs1010 14y ago
      For me, when I watch movies I want to choose from the latest releases, I don't watch that often so its simply not a suitable substitute to watch an older (usually at least 10 years older, if using Netflix) movie.. For TV shows, however, I'm much more willing to watch what I consider to be a "suboptimal" choice, since its shorter. I think a lot of consumers share my sentiment in this, however I can see how if you watch a lot of movies it would be too expensive with Amazon's offering.
  - ben1040 14y ago
    Amazon Instant Video doesn't work on an Xbox 360, which is what I use for streaming Netflix. The rentals work on my Tivo, but not the free streaming included with Amazon Prime. And it doesn't work on my iPad at all. Netflix works in all these places and works well.
    - chc 14y ago
      Just in case you didn't know, they recently added Amazon Instant Video support to the PS3.

mc32 14y ago

I don't think it's too surprising. What were their viable alternatives --besides cutting off from video entertainment altogether? I don't think they have credible competitors§ yet. There's Hulu and there's Amazon Prime videos, but neither, to me, have the same breadth. §I mean, via internet delivery. Even DVD mail delivery, they are very good, but that's not a growth market.

pavel_lishin 14y ago
Hulu's advantage is that they have more things that are available on cable - I can see Bob's Burgers and Once Upon A Time the day after they air. The downside is that I cannot watch the first season of the former... unless I fire up Netflix :)
- reneherse 14y ago
  How have you found the browsing experience on Hulu? I tried it recently and was shocked at how difficult it was to look through the different titles. One advantage of Netflix is that they give you a really dense page full of easy to read selections when you're hunting for something to watch.
  - pavel_lishin 14y ago
    Hulu's XBox UI actively conspires against me. Aside from the couple of actual bugs, it's frustrating as hell. What's worse, Netflix seems to be copying them. The web interface is better, but still not fantastic. But they're the only two legal games in town that don't charge an arm and a leg.

laconian 14y ago

Isn't Hulu going to become exclusive to cable subscribers soon (a la HBO GO?)

devs1010 14y ago
Where did you hear this? Its hard to believe given that they've expanded to so many devices now, I could only see this if they were bought out, in which case I think another competitor would arise.

greggman 14y ago

I know I'm like the only person in the world who cares about this but I quit Netflix the moment I saw they used pop-unders for advertising. People used to be screaming at all the popups and popunders in the early 2000s. People stopped screaming because adblockers and customer complaints in general end up getting rid of them.......except for Netflix! WTF! They still use them. Saw a few this week, and I still won't support Netflix because of it. Personally, I think as a geek, you shouldn't support them either.

recursive 14y ago
I've never seen a pop-under ad on netflix. I've never seen any advertising on netflix. You may have some malware or something.
- andrewljohnson 14y ago
  Same thought...
- tantalor 14y ago
  greggman is referring to Netflix pop-unders on 3rd-party sites.
jedberg 14y ago
I think you have some malware. As far as I know Netflix doesn't use popunders or overs.
dchuk 14y ago
there's a good chance those are ads being run by affiliates. I've seen them a bunch, it's actually impressive how they can circumvent most popup blocking technology
TheHegemon 14y ago
You're most likely mistaken. Netflix probably has no idea about the popunders, as it's most likely a third-party affiliate site doing something against the TOS. If you report them to Netflix I'm sure they'll be glad to shut down that affiliate's account. Either that or you got malware.

reneherse 14y ago

What, I rejoin last night and there's already an article about it? ;) Seriously though, in my search for cheap/free movies what pushed me off the fence about rejoining Netflix was that they were offering the first month free, even though I'm not a new customer. All the details of my account were saved, and all I had to do what update the security code and expiration date on my card. Pretty damn good UX through the re-signup process. The annoyance factor came when I tried to watch a movie. I got an error message with an obscure DRM error code, and instructions to call a Netflix 800 number. Rather than wake Reed Hastings up at an ungodly hour, I Googled around and followed advice to delete a particular Silverlight related file, and restart the browser. Again, no dice, but at least now the error code was one that prompted me to upgrade my version of Silverlight. Downloaded, installed, restart browser. Log back in for the third or fourth time. NOW I can watch my movie. Let's just say that was only mildly annoyed by all of this because the first month was free. And the process in the end was somewhat less painful than hunting for a working stream (...or what that must be like, I'm sure). ;) One free month is more than enough time to re-evaluate whether their streaming catalog is worth the 7.99 monthly price. I do hope they've added more A-list movies on the streaming side, because it's just not worth it for me to tack on another eight bucks to get access to the DVD catalog.