Disliking Netflix... Loving my Giants!!
I’ve talked about mindful spending in the past — you remember, my program for basically voting with my dollars. Because of various practices that don’t jive with my moral code, I have a number of “boycott” businesses, and this weekend we added one more.
We haven’t shopped Target for 2 years since we learned about their support of any/all anti-gay candidates. That’s a strong “dislike” from me because we are all created equal and deserving of equal rights — dogs and their people alike. Walmart has always been a “no” to us — we’ve never ever entered one because they abuse workers’ rights.
We no longer purchase products at Starbuck’s as we prefer milk, not guns, with our coffee and are offended by their welcoming of open-carry advocates.
Mama’s former dentist, Dr. Ludlow, had to be axed when we learned that every dollar we spent with him was being used in support of Prop 8 — a position we spend our time and money against. Although he’s a gentle dentist how, in good conscious, could we ever go back to him?
Seriously?? Doubling my rates And my time accessing you online? Shame on you Netflix!
A few weeks ago we decided that it was time to end Netflix. What started out as an outstanding organization with a brilliant business model has turned to into pure greed for Reed Hastings and his shareholders. Netflix established a brand that had the power to put powerful brick & mortar companies virtually out of business — Blockbuster & Hollywood Video come immediately to mind — yet the pockets are not overflowing with enough gold for Hastings & stockholders.
With a novel business concept, Hastings quickly grew a dedicated customer base which is rapidly turning against him and his baby, Netflix. Not only did Netflix announce their price increase (up 60% for those of use who used streaming and video), they also spliced Netflix into two businesses: Netflix for hard rentals, Qwikster for streaming. That means two separate databases… 2 sites for customers to navigate… all those “ratings” and queue settings now have to be duplicated…. I just don’t get it!
Last Friday Netflix’s stock plummeted nearly $40.00 per share when it was announced that in less than 2 weeks over 600,000 customers completely cancelled their subscriptions. What did they really expect? Doubling the customer’s cost while simultaneously doubling the time & effort of the customer’s online time? This isn’t just insanity — it’s double insanity! And did they really think that consumers wouldn’t revolt?
Sunday night, CEO Reed Hastings wrote an “apology” blog post, which was anything but an apology. A man who was once revered in the start-up space for his ingenuity has screwed the pooch, so to speak, with his greed and his customers have spoken.
As of this morning when mama left a comment on the blog, over 9000 former-customers also left their sentiments. Sadly, I foresee what was once a groundbreaking company now being the poster child for how to tank a business in MBA schools.
Renaming streaming Netflix to Qwikster is a major branding error that any marketing undergrad (with a C average) could spot. I believe this renaming (in addition to repricing) effort with soon been known as QUITster.
Netflix is just another company that no longer aligns with our values and consequently they lose our business. This is a happy time for Hulu, Apple TV, Amazon Prime and Redbox.
How to you vote with your dollars?
Note: (posted after original post) — per NBC News (evening, 9/19/11), Netflix has now lost over 1 million customers — all in less than 3 weeks…
Wow! I really need to watch the news lol. We went to steaming only but I had NO idea they renamed it. What a crappy name! I may also cancel and stick to Redbox which I love! Thanks for keeping me up to date!
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Well my brainy pooch, you may think I am crazy but I am actually rejoicing at your words. Not because of what Netflix did to their loyal fans of course. I am doing a jig because the consumer is finally seeing the might of the dollar of choice. What an incredible moment, to bear witness to walls of greed crumbling. I cannot believe I am fortunate enough to live in these enlightening times.
I applaud your principles, and the shift that enlightened companies are making to embrace change.
Jennifer Duchene
The Home Makeover Mixtress blending lifestyle, laughter and Chic Cocoons™
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Actually Lou, you are probably wise to miss the news
But this story has me fascinated…. an iconic brand self-destructing! We don’t see that happen often… Thanks for the comment Louise!
Yeah Jen!!! I am right there with you. I don’t relish witnessing the demise of an iconic brand, but it’s their own doing… Greed Is Not Good, and I stand by that principle. In light of current economic conditions, I cannot fathom the thought behind these execs decisions– Reed Hastings in particular. They are literally High on power & acquisition and, ultimately, that can Kill a business. I’m just a dog and yet I could see this exodus the moment of the announcement weeks ago. Hastings “apology” only multiplied the bad juju… We create our own destinies, right? Karma is watching (and will kick ass! lol)
One of the most sacred things about being an American is our ability to decide for ourselves who we want to do business with. Some people watch social issues very carefully and avoid corporations that don’t align with their conciousness, others are oblivious until some big issue comes along.
Unfortunately the news coming out of Netflix these days is of the type that will wake up even the most comatose customer. I have a really old plan with Netflix, for less than $5 per month I can see two DVD’s and watch 2 hours of streaming video. This plan has worked for me for the past 5 years as I don’t watch that many videos and I use my DVR to record things from a variety of cable channels. I am waiting to see if there are any changes to my “old” plan before I make any decisions about staying or going.
One of the things I value most about Netflix is the depth of their catalog. I rarely order a mainstream movie, but I have over 150 documentaries, classic films, and other oddities in my que. (Yes I realize that at 2 DVD’s per month, my que will take me over 5 years to watch and that is if I stop adding new things to the que!) I recently caught one of my selections on the Documentary Channel – Born Into Brothels is a documentary that won an Oscar several years ago. I was fortunate to stumble upon it and recorded it to my DVR (Great movie by the way!), if I give up Netflix where can I go to rent those unusual videos? Blockbuster doesn’t have them, and I don’t really need to purchase them from Amazon. Where can you see great films for only $2.50 a shot?
Catherine, I totally hear you on the great docs & foreign films that the netflix catalogue has (though not streaming). Trust me my friend, by month’s end you will see your monthly bill rise — possibly double.
Amazon Prime is a streaming video service — pay per video — but cheap (not like pay per view). So no need to Buy a video. Apple TV is also moving to this model. Netflix picked the Wrong time to **** with a large, loyal customer base — we have other options. Netflix initially blew out the big-box stores and now their greed and disrespect for their long time customers, their base is fading fast… We Refuse to drop one penny into companies that “screw the pooch”. It’s virtual suicide for Netflix to implement these new policies at this time in our economy. They’ve dug their own grave and I don’t feel sorry for them one bit — greed will not succeed (esp. in this economy!). I vote with my dollars.. I hope you will too.
kudos to you, Atticus, for standing by your principles and beliefs! If more of us would do that, it would be a better world. I don’t use NetFlix, so am not impacted by this, but if I were I would be upset too. I am hoping that what is happening with them will send a good strong message to other businesses that are thinking about taking advantage of their successes.
Hey Heidi
I was with Netflix when they first started, then went back to Blockbuster until they upped their in-store movie prices to $5.00. Then i went back to Netflix. I bought and Apple TV to be able to stream as well as be able to get one DVD at a time in the mail. As soon as they did that crazy thing by basically doubling the price, I ditched the HArd Copy DVD option and just went with streaming. The problem with streaming is that everything is WAY old. I’ve enjoyed watching some old series’ that I never got to see and a lot of History channel and documentaries, but now I’m running out of interest in the older stuff, so I think I will soon ditch Netflix completely. I always vote with my wallet. I too think they’s made a disastrous mistake doing what they did. It came out of nowhere and struck me as insulting to their user base.
Thanks Donna and I hope you are right that this sends a strong message to other companies. The greed some corporations are clinging to may be their demise in the end as customers are tired of being taken advantage of — especially in harder economic times. as of the news reports last night, over a million customers have now quit Netflix/Qwikster.
We’re so happy you stopped by, Andy! Yeah, we were enjoying the streaming for awhile too, but the slim catalogue and increased pricing structure pushed us over the edge to quit completely. and, obviously, we are not alone. It really does sadden me to watch a once great company implode due to greed — a shame…
Atticus, I do not use Netflix but have been interested in watching their stumble. I actually thought they would reverse direction once they realized the fallout from misreading their customers. Obviously, they’re not only greedy but they are stubborn! I never thought of it as “voting with dollars” but I do try to support businesses with similar beliefs but do not do so to the extent as others here. For instance, I’ve been to my dentist for 25 years but have no idea what his politics are but want to support him personally. If I lived in the bay area, I’d take our cars to Donna’s auto shop for repairs in order to support her. I still go to Target (I was unaware of their anti-gay policy, actually) and do enjoy my Starbucks (probably because I like the barristas and am in awe of the marketing genius of that company). Anyway, that’s my 2 cents!
Trish
http://www.robertssister.com
caregiving. family. advocacy.
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Hi Atti And Heidi,
I don’t use Netflix but I’ve read about it, what a sad business decision. I am really wondering who is making those decisions? I mean it’s not a “one-man-show” company, so several people would have to be involved in this. Where is their common sense?
Sad to loose a service that used to be good but I guess its time has come…
There’s a lot of things I disagree with and I try to avoid supporting companies that abuse others (like Walmart) or have unethical policies. But then on the other hand I shouldn’t be living here because I am strictly against death penalty.
Franziska
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