Unlike a lot of the companies on this site, I actually like Netflix. A lot. But I hate getting frivolous price gouges with no accompanying value increase, like the one-dollar monthly hike Netflix just imposed.
Netflix doesn't have a publicly accessible email address, so I just ran down the address of their CEO and fired off the following complaint.
The Letter
Dear Mr. Hastings,
I would like to express my immense disappointment in Netflix's decision to raise membership prices for its consumers. I realize instant streaming has become the new rage, and you have to keep up with server demands, but as of this moment, your service has added no additional value to merit the rate hike. Allow me to spell out the problems with your new pricing model.
The current "new arrivals" to the Watch Instantly menu include Sorority Wars, The Planet's Funniest Animals (Season 9), The Hot Chick, Maid in Manhattan, and Repo! The Genetic Opera. Citizen Kane is nowhere to be found. Neither is Vertigo, The Sound of Music, Gone With the Wind, or Anal Babes 9.
"Netflix: bringing the authentic cinema experience straight to your living room!"
Sure, I can get unlimited instant streaming for cheap, but I'd better be content to watch the latest Rob Schneider masterpiece. It's like being able to take whatever I want out of the DVD bargain bin at Wal-Mart. This is after being a paying customer for 5 years without being able to watch instantly on:
1. a TV
2. a Mac
3. a web browser other than Internet Explorer
4. a wireless router more than 3 months old
5. the toilet.
That last one might not be your fault, but I still can't get Netflix on my cell phone unless it's an iPhone. My point is that after it took so long to finally get any use whatsoever out of your Watch Instantly service, I should be getting a discount to make up for lost time, not a price gouge.
I do understand that as more customers use your streaming service you have to upgrade your servers, but there are other companies in your position who aren't sticking it to their customers in the middle of the worst economic downturn in 80 years. Take Nintendo, for example. I can play unlimited Goldeneye online, and for free. Sure, Rob Schneider might very well pop up there too, but in that case a) I can't see him, b) there's no voice chat, so I can't hear him, and c) I can blow his friggin' brains out. Maybe Nintendo doesn't have to pay content providers like you do, but hey, nobody ever said Netflix isn't allowed to use The Pirate Bay.
"Up yours, Schneider!"
I would strongly urge you to either reconsider your subscription fee increase, or at least give us something worth watching. Otherwise, I'm coming over there and making you sit through The Human Centipede: First Sequence with me.
The Response
As of this posting, the highlights of the New Releases in Netflix's online selection were:
So yeah, looks like that letter did a lot of good!
In all seriousness, though, I noticed just the other day that my rate had actually been "grandfathered in," and I wasn't paying the upcharge, which wasn't part of the original plan. Maybe the letter did some good, for once.
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