Netflix Raised Our Rate

[jlewisinsyr]

At the moment I am on 8. I tend to swing my numbers around based on the weather. When its nice out I might drop down to 1 with streaming.

What you are saying makes sense but if it is intentional then they are being foolish because I can get movies elsewhere and said so when I complained. Its never a good idea to irritate customers.

It is very intentional on their part, it's about throttling, not that different to how mobile phone carriers throttle high users of data. Sure you have other options, but Netflix has a great product and they know it, they use the intentional throttling to keep prices lower and as many titles available as possible for as many users as possible.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

We've dropped down from 3 dvds a month to 1 + streaming, and we use streaming 90% of the time. Our turn around time is good, but we tend to sit on the dvd; the catalog for streaming has increased noticeably since we started using it and so far it's been well worth the money each month.

Agree.

I have to ask, do they restrict you on the usage of the streaming with the 1 at a time?

I know technically you are only "allowed" to stream 1 at a time if you have the 1 at a time plan.

OH AND BICKER if you are reading this thread, I wanted to tell you that I saw SUBTITLES on a few of the streaming videos for the hearing impaired as an FYI to you.

 

[Ephany]

Agree.

I have to ask, do they restrict you on the usage of the streaming with the 1 at a time?

I know technically you are only "allowed" to stream 1 at a time if you have the 1 at a time plan.

Generally, we tend to only stream one show, our internet service isn't the most reliable even at the best of times. Once or twice we have watched 2 different shows on 2 different tvs (living room and bedroom) but it wasn't intentional or planned. It was sort of choppy and there was often a pause while the content downloaded. I had assumed it was due to our internet service, not Netflix. I didn't realize they might limit our streaming but since DH works nights while DD and I are on a day schedule, there generally isn't much conflict about who wants to watch what when.

 

[momof1princess]

so sorry that happened to you, OP. the only thing i can figure is that you didn't get the e-mail because your account was on hold, but, of course, i may be wrong about that.
we had the same plan you have, but when we received e-mail notification of the price increase, i waited until the day before our billing date and lowered our plan to 2 dvds at a time. it hasn't made a difference in how much we enjoy netflix, and our bill is $2.00 lower now. i hope you can get a resolution to this. if nothing else, i would call netflix and complain about not getting the e-mail. hold or not, you should have still been notified.

 

[scrapquitler]

How many DVDs on average are you pulling from Netflix? If its more then a dozen on a single DVD plan it could be they are idling shipments. They have been known to idle shipments for a little longer, it's part of their algorithms to manage inventory/costs, although no one knows the precise alogrithm they use, the key drivers are the types of movies (new releases) and number of pulls (how long you keep each movie).

I've wondered about this formula lots of times. We have the 3 at a time plan, and my husband watches movies while he works, so he will often watch 3 in a day. He regularly gets/watches between 6 and 9 dvds each week, and we've never noticed a slowdown. But if the new releases factor in, that could be why we never see a slowdown, he almost always gets old stuff/made for TV movies and tv shows, new releases are rare.

 

[bicker]

Our account was on hold and we did get notified.

so sorry that happened to you, OP. the only thing i can figure is that you didn't get the e-mail because your account was on hold, but, of course, i may be wrong about that.

I suspect, rather, that it just ended up in some Junk Mail folder. It happens.

 

[bicker]

That would make sense if it was the case but nope, it has been everything all the time except for the day I called to complain. Maybe they just got too big and can't accommodate the customers as well any longer.

No, it's been that way for many years. You can go back five or six years, on the AV forums, and see folks outlining the same experience you're saying you've just started having. You've probably just lucked-out in the past.

The service is deliberately designed to balance our desire to have new releases immediately with the cost associated with satisfying that desire. They don't waste money buying more copies of a new release than is optimal, taking into consideration how delays adversely affect revenues and how additional copies cost them more money.

 

[bicker]

I know technically you are only "allowed" to stream 1 at a time if you have the 1 at a time plan.

They are supposedly ramping up to start enforcing the restrictions more consistently.

OH AND BICKER if you are reading this thread, I wanted to tell you that I saw SUBTITLES on a few of the streaming videos for the hearing impaired as an FYI to you.

Thanks. Netflix isn't "there" yet, but they have made it very clear that they will be "there" by the end of the year. I'm very very gratified.

Except, they're only supporting Closed Captions on some devices. I have a Samsung HDTV and a Samsung Blu-ray disc player, and a TiVo S3 DVR: They all support Netflix streaming, but none of them support Closed Captions with Netflix streaming. We'd have to buy a new box (Boxee or Sony, I suppose) to get that. Hopefully, Netflix will provide support or our boxes soon. However, to be fair, Netflix is doing their part providing the capability on some boxes. At least now we have that choice.

 

[bicker]

I've wondered about this formula lots of times. We have the 3 at a time plan, and my husband watches movies while he works, so he will often watch 3 in a day. He regularly gets/watches between 6 and 9 dvds each week, and we've never noticed a slowdown. But if the new releases factor in, that could be why we never see a slowdown, he almost always gets old stuff/made for TV movies and tv shows, new releases are rare.

The protocol is a company secret, but what we can guess from pooling together our individual experiences is this: Each account starts with priority for New Releases at the top of their queue. As the number of New Releases provided to an account increases over the course of a month, that account's priority for New Releases drops relative to other accounts. If you've already gotten two New Releases in a month, and someone else hasn't gotten any, and there's one disc for a New Release that you both want, that someone else gets it.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

They are supposedly ramping up to start enforcing the restrictions more consistently.

Thanks. Netflix isn't "there" yet, but they have made it very clear that they will be "there" by the end of the year. I'm very very gratified.

Except, they're only supporting Closed Captions on some devices. I have a Samsung HDTV and a Samsung Blu-ray disc player, and a TiVo S3 DVR: They all support Netflix streaming, but none of them support Closed Captions with Netflix streaming. We'd have to buy a new box (Boxee or Sony, I suppose) to get that. Hopefully, Netflix will provide support or our boxes soon. However, to be fair, Netflix is doing their part providing the capability on some boxes. At least now we have that choice.

This was on the Wii. I have an XBOX360 and a Sony Blu Ray Player and have not check those out yet since I mostly stream thru my Wii.

 

[NHdisneylover]

At the moment I am on 8. I tend to swing my numbers around based on the weather. When its nice out I might drop down to 1 with streaming.

What you are saying makes sense but if it is intentional then they are being foolish because I can get movies elsewhere and said so when I complained. Its never a good idea to irritate customers.

Actually, if most of the customers are happy--irritating those few who actually cost them money (Which those who turn around movies really quickly do--thanks to postage) is not a bad thing. It is like if an all you can eat buffet could somehow drive off the high school football players who can come in and eat $$$ in food without losing any of their other business--it would be a win for the buffet owners even though the technically lost customers.

 

[bicker]

This was on the Wii. I have an XBOX360 and a Sony Blu Ray Player and have not check those out yet since I mostly stream thru my Wii.

I have an Xbox360 as well... I haven't tried Netflix streaming on it yet, but Netflix confirms that the CC isn't supported on Xbox360 (yet).

 

[Toad_Passenger]

This was on the Wii. I have an XBOX360 and a Sony Blu Ray Player and have not check those out yet since I mostly stream thru my Wii.

Yeah, I can confirm the CC on the Wii. I went to watch something the other day and saw the CC symbol next to it. I instantly thought of Bicker. I guess they are working on it.

 

[mom2aandj]

I love the streaming, but I wish there was more to stream, it would be great if everything or close to everything could be streamed

me too. The streaming is great, but there is still a lot that we want that isn't available that way yet. And watching tv shows through the DVDs is so frustrating--we're slowly working our way through Mad Men, because each disc only has 3 or 4 episodes on it. Really wishing that was on streaming!