Earlier this month, Netflix announced a huge (and I mean huge – sixty percent) price rise across all of its membership plans. The public's reaction? The big middle-finger salute. This week Netflix announced it quarterly results, and they're a fiasco. New memberships are down nearly 80% from the same period a year ago. The stock got hammered, too.
And today, Netflix lost one long-time member: me. Follow below the fold for why I switched to Blockbuster, and how you can too.
Back in the old days, you got 1 or 2 or 3 (depending on your plan) DVD's for $11, $17, or $20 per month, sent in the mail and returned by mail. It was a huge success. Netflix made a pile of money. In fact, Netflix is currently the largest single customer of the US Postal Service.
And then Netflix began to look for ways to cut costs. Since their biggest cost was mailing, Netflix began to offer a new service: streaming video of the movie you selected, over the web, for no extra cost to you. It was a classic win-win: Netflix saved the mailing expense, and you got to enjoy your movie faster.
I tried streaming once, but as expected, the experience was pretty much a zero for me. My DSL line out here in the sticks barely manages 200 kbps in a good minute, and is often half that or even less. So for me, the movie frequently paused (often very long pauses) while waiting for the data to catch up. But hey, what did I expect? I have the same problem with Youtube, and their vids are considerably lower quality. So no, I didn't use the online streaming. But that's ok, since I wasn't being charged for it, either.
And when I bought my Blu-Ray player, I told Netflix and they began to automatically send me the Blu-Ray disks when they had them. Cool.
And then Netflix decided that good enough wasn't good enough. They wanted more. So the streaming service, which started as a way of saving them money, they're going to start charging you for. They're going to charge you for it even if, like me, you don't actually use it. And do you like getting Blu-Ray? They're going to charge you more for that, too. (You won't see this on your credit card bill yet, because it won't start until September for existing customers. But it's coming, folks.)
So naturally I went to the Netflix website to opt-out of the streaming service, which I never use. I just want my three disks a month via mail, like I've always gotten.
Sorry, Charlie: you can't get three disks a month by mail any more, unless you also sign up for streaming! You can get one or two a month without streaming. But if I want three, like I've always gotten, Netflix will ding me big time for a service I do not and cannot use. And then, of course, they're going to charge me extra for Blu-Ray no matter what.
So for me, it was time to bail. Last week I signed up for Blockbuster. Like Netflix, they offer you one month free. I signed up for the same plan I used to have with Netflix: three disks at once, $20 per month, Blu-Ray included. At Blockbuster you can choose either mail or streaming as a delivery option, which suits me fine (though maybe some who have used both at Netflix might be miffed). For me, I've got the same service I used to get at Netflix, for the same price I used to get at Netflix.
Today, when I got my third Blockbuster in the mail, I cancelled my Netflix. Buh-bye, corporate greed, and hello, the invisible hand of the market.
So here's how I did it.
1. Sign up for Blockbuster. Choose your plan. Then go back to Netflix, copy your queue, and put them all on your Blockbuster queue. My queue had about 60 items, including some rather obscure ones (we like old classic movies). There were about five of these oldie-moldies that Blockbuster didn't have, but they weren't that important to me anyway. But you know that place at the bottom of your Netflix queue where they hold movies that you want, but they don't have? My Netflix queue had five of those, and Blockbuster had all five. So I lost five Blockbuster didn't have, but gained five that Netflix didn't have.
2. Wait for your Blockbuster movies to arrive. Should take about as long as Netflix. My first Blockbuster took 2 days, which is about the usual Netflix turnaround; the next 2 took an additional 2 days, but I figured since we were a new customer maybe they were seeing if we would really return the first one. In any case, the movies came, so we're happy.
3. Cancel your Netflix. On the main Netflix page, go to “Your account and help” link in upper right. In the right column, under your plan type, find the “Cancel membership” link. Check the box that says “I accept and understand the terms of cancellation and want to cancel my account.” Hit the button that says “Complete Cancellation”. Then if you want, fill out the form that tells them why you’re canceling.