It's sad, but common. A company has a great product and treats it's customers right...then after a few years they get greedy and forget why they were successful. Since their streaming content isn't that great, I guess I'll be dropping it - and possibly the DVD's too since this type of move ticks me off.

The question is, how long until another company comes in and replaces Netflix? Hopefully it won't take too long...

Too little, too late.

I just received a lame email from Netflix stating the reasons for the changes. All I know is this is a huge disaster for Netflix. Customers with both streaming and discs by mail now have to manage two different queues from two different websites. What a mess!! I immediately canceled my disc by mail service and am now contemplating canceling Netflix streaming altogether. This bites bad. Netflix was a really really great company at one time.

Fire the CEO!

Watch the stock take a nosedive...what a shame...karma...

The president of Netfilx is a moron. He makes it sound like the 2 services are equal, and they aren't... they are complimentary. You can't really get the brand new movies on streaming right away... you have to wait months. It was good for getting certain series, and even then, it doesn't compare to Hulu. The only reason that it was better was that it came with your deal. Now that you have to pay for it... Hulu kicks its a$$!! The damage is done and as more people realize that there are other options out there... they'll lose even more.

It's funny after they make like a "few customers leaving" wouldn't make a big difference because of their huge market share. Now after the plunge, they aren't so sure, and they are trying to smooth things over with the customers that they have left. Isn't it funny how companies are shocked at what happens when they disregard customer service?

I could live with the price increase, but seperating the company is a stupid move. The streaming service is deficiant by itself. Too many titles are not available. It takes both services to see the shows you really want, and then they are not always available.

Its sad that they had to destroy what was a good company. I'll be looking for an alternative service.

Really sad to see what used to be a good company go down the drain - like Borders - bad management at the top and greedy investors = bankruptcy in that company's future. I was a loyal Netflix subscriber, and was willing to put up with the price increase, but the email today and the inconvenience of having to manage two accounts has pissed me off enough to cancel my account. I just checked their website and discovered they don't even have a way to contact them by email, so I guess I will be calling and giving them some feedback later. Suggest others do the same - let's jam their phone lines...

So, after driving away over a million customers (and counting) with a 60% price hike, they've decided to add insult to injury by making their service even messier to use than it already is? Once this change is implemented, they can count me among the next million customers to leave.

I've long found it frustrating that you can't manage your DVD queue from any of their streaming apps, such as those on the PS3, Wii, etc. But, now that I'll have to use two separate sites and services to manage both my instant and DVD queues, as well as having to rate movies and shows on two separate sites, that $6 more a month I'm now paying is even less worth it.

And if anyone would argue that we already have to rate DVD's and streaming titles separately, because they're already separate from each other even on the single service, just know that, once DVD-only titles go to streaming (which they frequently do), you'll have to rate them all over again. Not to mention, the DVD's you rate won't affect the suggestions Netflix gives you in streaming titles and vice-versa.

Netflix, why do I get the feeling you've become absolutely suicidal?

I would go back to Netflix if they combined streaming videos and dvd under the old price. In other words, I'll never again subscribe to Netflix or whatever they want to call themselves. Talk about a CEO making a major screw up. Never sh*t on your food.

I've had Netflix for years,but this is just insane...I just canceled the streaming part..I am not managing two accounts... The streaming was ok,but too limited..I wanted to watch House the other day,I said no problem I will stream it,nope not available...House not available,it's a six year old TV program...That pretty much made up my mind..

Has anyone on here stopped to think for a second what has to be done by Netflix just to be able to provide the content in the first place? Anyone remember why the talks between Starz and Netflix flew apart recently? Anyone remember that movie studios essentially forced Netflix into the same kind of provider agreement that Redbox is under for DVDs? I may not agree with the decision, but in terms of a leverage stand point, it makes sense. Right now streaming sucks on Netflix because they have little streaming content, they have little streaming content because they only thing they have to leverage against content providers is money, which is pretty lopsided, in favor of the content providers. You all are right, it is corporate greed that is causing this, just make sure you are bashing the right corporate clowns in this one.

Eric,

I don't see how any of that has any bearing on their decision to split the service into two separate companies, complete with their own ratings systems that don't interact with each other. To charge nearly twice the price for both services was bad enough, even if somewhat understandable. But now to go on to require their customers to do twice the work to manage their queues and their ratings systems? Unacceptable.

Think about it. If I want the DVD service to better know what I will and won't like, I have to rate titles on that service, even if I've already rated them on the streaming service (after this initial split, of course, in which they said our current ratings for both kinds of titles will migrate). But, if there's a title that's DVD-only, something tells me I'll no longer be able to rate it on the streaming service, which means my opinions of titles that are only available on DVD will do nothing to better refine its knowledge of my preferences for streaming content. And, even if I can, to have to rate everything twice, on two separate services, is ridiculous. This isn't Farmville, where people are pretty much forced to spend their entire days glued to a computer to manage their crops. This is for leisure, which shouldn't take more time to manage than it does to watch the movies and shows they offer.

It's been their rating system that has most impressed me. But, now that I'll have to rate everything twice (if I can rate things at all for the streaming service), I honestly have little interest in keeping either service.

Ron-1861300

The question is, how long until another company comes in and replaces Netflix? Hopefully it won't take too long...

Already happened. Blockbuster, juts purchased by Dish Network, has announced that it will start a streaming service ASAP to go along with it's DVD/Blu-ray by mail service, which was already working hand in hand with it's local stores (where you can bring back a mailed disc and get another at the store immidiately.) Just a short time ago BB was in trouble....my how things change so quickly...thanks to Dish Network buying them and Netflix completely screwing up.

We dropped the streaming side of netflix about a month ago. It is not worth having, due to content. Just like software is what made PC's powerful, and games is what make those platforms successful, it takes content to make streaming successful. The content just isn't there, and from what I see, they are losing content and not gaining.

Eventually, some service will offer quick and timely releases, and customers will flock. Whether it is the movie studios blocking it, or Netflix not delivering, it doesn't matter. It just isn't worth the money.

The things people are complaining about here are a little ridiculous. Boo-freaking-hoo, you have to manage your instant queue on a seperate site accessable by a single link from the adjacent site (like, oh I don't know, an "Instant" tab on the current website?). The whole point of doing this is BECAUSE the streaming is so far behind and lacking. Now as a seperate entity, they improve the instant AND it opens up the doors for gaming on the DVD side. None of this happens for free, you want more stuff you gotta pay more. If $5 extra bucks a month is throwing you're whole budget for a loop, there's probably more important things you should be spending your money on then unlimitied movies.

Oh Reed Hastings, you just made it soooo much worse. Netflix will tank further. Hastings will lose his job. And another company will buy it out. Hastings better get his resume out now given the struggling economy ... it may be a while.

Eric, you're right. It does take a lot to get the streaming side going, but to think that all Netflix has as leverage is cash is insane! Their market share is so high at the time that they pretty much control what people see. What an example of the "stroke" that Netflix has?

The US Postal Service told them several years ago that they couldn't use their envelopes because they were an odd size and had trouble running thru their machines. Netflix blew them off. Then the Postal Service told them that they had to fix their envelopes so the window that exposed the bar code was covered. It had a tendency to catch on the sorting equipment. Netflix said they would look into it and then came back and told them that it would cost too much.

Sorry, Eric, any company that can man-handle the USPS can bully an HBO wannabe like STARZ into whatever they want. Fact is, the streaming had always been a secondary thought until they noticed that a few services out there actually charged for theirs.

They fell behind the curve and instead of slowly catching up, they decided to hit the gas and ended up slapping into the wall.

His arrogance is only topped by our so called leader (president?). Some people like the C.E.O's, President, Politicians just don't get it. If Americans ask for apple pie, don't give them raisin pie and tell them it's apple, we're not idiots!

That's not at all true Kinko, Netflix has been focused on shifting their business model towards All Streaming for several years now, it was never an afterthought, it was considered the future of the company. They have been pushing for content, and spending LOADS on it, but they have been stonewalled by a lot of people in the industry. Go look at the comments and opinions of the CEOs of major media outlets like Time Warner. Heck, even the internet providers are anti-Netflix, basically scuttling net neutrality so they can up the fees for passing thru the streams.

Thank goodness Portland Oregon still has Video stores, how many movies do people watch a week? We have a family movie night and as a family we pick out what we will watch, talking to humans employees and spending money at a locally owned business. I bet you all live in nice neighborhoods with boarded up businesses.

Ok, Capt., I'll defer to you on this one, but let me ask you a question. If they were so serious, how is it that Hulu is so far ahead of them in the streaming department (minus the movies). The reason I put it that was is because when I used their streaming, it was to watch series. They didn't have any new movies... or even kinda recent (at least good ones) in there, so that isn't why I used it. Maybe I'm in the minority, but that is what I was thinking of when I called them behind the curve.

I would expect the ISPs to hate them. The amount of bandwith that their service sucks up must be a strain at times.

In my opinion, the split is a smart business move, BUT it was done at the exact wrong time. Netflix knows that DVD by mail is going to the way of brick & mortar DVD rental, ie. Blockbuster. Within the next 2-3 years every new TV produced will have built in internet capabilities, which will again change the way people get their multimedia. Everything will be streaming real soon, so Netflix is splitting the shipping business off so they can close that business once it becomes obsolete without taking a hit to their Netflix name. That's why the shipping business is getting the new name.

This, however, was the worst time to do something like this. They just raised their prices and competitors are growing. They should have drastically improved their streaming business before attempting this move. The streaming is still just a nice little bonus to your subscription, no one actually relies on streaming to have most of what they want, because it doesn't

I personally can't wait for Amazon to really ramp up their Video On Demand (VOD) service. Already all you have to do is sign up for their FREE 2 day shipping for a year for $80 and you get free VOD. Once they get a larger library and set themselves up on XBOX/PS3/Wii/Ipod etc streaming, I will make the move.

-Previously Loyal Netflix Customer (still giving you my money until someone takes you down).

Anyone else have the idea that streaming porn might just save Netflix?

Just rename the company STUPIDSTER.

What a dumb arse move! No wonder their stock is down 25% in the last week. What a moronic move...who wants 2 Logins??? Didnt they lern this 2 years ago when they wanted to split family Queue into seprate accounts??? MORONS!

If I remember right, the reason they lost most of their good streaming movies was because they hit a "magic number" of subscribers that tripped some clause in a contract and allowed Sony or someone else to pull their movies from streaming. By separating the companies they may be working around that contractual clause and (if streaming loses enough people) we should get the good movies back. I'm guessing they can't actually SAY any of that, but it's the only thing that makes sense. Huge mess though..

Kinko - I'd say that's a matter of opinion, I have a streaming queue of over 120 items, about half of which are tv shows. I'm never going to be able to watch all that. I just skipped a bunch of shows to start in on the new Star Wars series they just added this summer, in the middle of season 4 of The Next Generation. I have a Hulu Plus account as well, which I use for shows on tv right now mostly (tho i'm not really watching anything except the daily show), and Netflix for movies. Plus Netflix has a bunch of old nicktoons and nick jr shows for my kids.

You also have to remember that Hulu is a conglomerate of several cable companies and channels - so they access to their respective content libraries mostly by default (and even then they hold some stuff back - NBC is one of the founders, yet no Seinfeld - I'd kill for Streaming Seinfeld).

seriously, is this something to get so upset over?

or are most people just whiney little bitches these days, that any change to their routine is worthy of a complete freak out?

it reminds me of when facebook changed its format, and 1/2 the people on facebook spazzed out and vowed to never use facebook again (yet are still on facebook).

Perhaps, maybe just maybe...lots of people suck at accepting change, no matter what kind of change it is (and even if it's a good kind of change) they'll reject it and fear it and hate it and cry about it

...just because they can

Cry on babies...the world is ending, life as you know it...is done. *heavy sigh

how will we ever manage without netflix and crappy streaming, offered as one package? HOW? you tell me, HOW!!!?!?!?

M. Hastings,

Inasmuch as your apology is commendable, I can't help but wonder whether this apology is meant to be sorry for price increase you did or to soften the blow of more changes you are implementing. You sure spent a lot of time and words on Qwikster. In my opinion, in addition to "arrogance based on past success", another reason your company is in this mess is because of greed. Over the past year (not just the 2 months), your company has managed to increase price a couple of times, delay the release of new movies, and charged separately for what used to be one service. To make matter worse, you've done all of these at the time of down economy when people are looking for best value for whatever little entertainment they can afford.

You had the opportunity to prove how great your company can be. That in times of complexities (dvd and/or streaming), your company can find ways to simplify things. Instead, you chose the easy way out... and that is put the burden on people that made you successful. You chose to make us pay more and pay separate services. A company as big as you are (with top caliber employees) could have found better and easier ways to handle this complications. And now you managed to create another sub-company called Qwikster. I'm not sure if you ever heard of the phrase "one-stop shop."

The value of your company has fallen over 40% these past 2 months and today alone it's down 11%. What will it take for you to realize that to take care of your investors is to take care of your customers? I hope this experience of yours will be a learning experience for any companies out there thinking of doing the same thing you did. Take care of your customers and they will take care of you.

seriously, is this something to get so upset over?

or are most people just whiney little bitches these days, that any change to their routine is worthy of a complete freak out?

Perhaps, maybe just maybe...lots of people suck at accepting change, no matter what kind of change it is (and even if it's a good kind of change) they'll reject it and fear it and hate it and cry about it

Jessica, this isn't a reformatting of Facebook, which is totally free, by the way.

Among the myriad reasons the changes to Netflix are upsetting is because millions of formerly happy subscribers are now getting less service, and most notably less content, for a higher price.

Netflix has taken something that used to be very simple, and has made it exceedingly complicated. I am paying for corporate ineptitude when I used to be paying for a convenient service. Their hubris, inability to make good deals for content, and severely misguided management decisions will be the downfall of a good, cheap, advertisement free, third-party streaming service that I enjoyed. That's what sucks.

Ok, Capt., I'll defer to you on this one, but let me ask you a question. If they were so serious, how is it that Hulu is so far ahead of them in the streaming department (minus the movies).

Because Hulu is owned by a partnership of content providers.. I thought this was obvious?

Me Screw Boxee Box.

I think Netflix is spinning off its DVD service into a separate company, because it wants to focus more on shoring up its streaming service, since it's more profitable than their DVD service. It makes sense that they'd close down their DVD service not by ending it altogether, but by reallocating it to a newly formed company so that, when they decide to file for bankruptcy on the DVD service to ditch it, they can have the streaming service, as well as their original company name, intact. But, a lot of good that'll do 'em when both sides crash and burn from a mass exodus of customers before they can see their hair-brained scheme come to fruition.

And the streaming selections are not at all great lately.

Could not agree with you more.

Practically every movie I ever wish to "watch" via streaming is not even available. They really better improve their online selection cause as more time goes by, less selections are available yet.... they want their subscribers to actually pay more????!!!!

Does this mean you will have to go to two separate web sites to manage the accounts? If so, the guy is a complete and utter idiot. I have let my DVD account drop but was thinking of reinstating it once winter set in. However, if there will be two accounts now I may as well look at other companies offerings instead of just enabling it on my netflix account. Netflix apparently doesn't understand how much their customers value convenience. Moreover, we aren't using the streaming part of it much lately so I may just do away with that as well. Thank god we sold our Netflix stock a while back looks like a good thing is coming to an end....

To be fair, the "60%" was all of 6 dollars, for me, so not exactly bank breaking. Especially considering I don't have cable because of everything Netflix brings.

The split doesn't seem like such a bad decision Netflix has been trending towards all streaming for years, that's always been their goal, but it does have a large chance of confusing customers and being a lot less convenient for people (like myself) on both plans. One hopes they keep the two companies in a joint website for customers with both services, but who knows.

Capt,

According to Hastings, you'll be able to jump from site to site by a single link. If the only way to improve their streaming is to split, so be it. As for the DVD's, Hastings also mentioned this will now allow them to get into game rentals. Contrary to 90% of the sheeple here who can't quite see the forest for the trees and are concentrating on "two companies" aspect, there are significant benefits coming out of this.

So, perhaps, just maybe, Blockbuster might still pull off a last minute, last ditch effort to stay alive, all on the stupidity of their largest rival? That would be interesting to watch. Hey - maybe they can do a reality show, like Orange County Choppers. One camera crew follows the idiots at Netflix, and the other camera crew follows what is left of Blockbuster's management.

Blockbuster is so desperate to survive in any fashion that this might be a customer's market for once. they announced the intent to add streaming as well, so we'll see what they bring to the table.

for now I'm content to stick it out with NF.

I'm still waiting for a good reason to divide the service between two sites to begin with. I know they'll be linked to each other through a link, but why is that better than them both being on the same site with a tab-separation? And why couldn't they add games to the single site with a third tab? Why put them on separate sites under separate names. And will I have separate bills to pay for them?

Also, will the streaming and DVD accounts still be information-linked? By that I mean that, at the moment, if something on my DVD queue becomes available for instant watch, it gets automatically added to instant watch. I like that. It's nice. It's convenient. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. (Ok, maybe not so much, but you get the point). This move threatens my warm and fuzzy feelings about Netflix. I don't know that this service will be damaged, but it seems quite possible.

Changes for good reasons I can understand. The price hike under the pressure the studios were giving Netflix (and facing the competition it was from other services) made sense, and it wasn't so big as to cause me any problems ($19 to $25 as a replacement for the ~$70 cable TV). I wouldn't even have a problem with this if there were a good reason that I could point to and go 'Oh, ok, now I understand'. I don't see one, though.

Sounds like government.

Hey I know things are bad out there for all you folks supporting us, so we have decided to create some new rules you have to follow and of corse we will have to raise your taxes to support these new programs. It's simple math you know. Oh and for those of you who aren't even on the unemployed rolls anymore, we will give you new rules to live by for free. Just sign the slave agreement below.

Thank you Netflix for self-destructing. You were a good option for movies and streaming. I'll be suprised if you are around next year.

I have only one word, Blockbuster.

Bluelake, there was once a time that I would've laughed in your face for suggesting Blockbuster over Netflix... my how times have changed... I'm sincerely considering canceling Netflix and trying out whatever service Blockbuster is offering. I know their rental costs seem to have gotten more reasonable lately...

WarBeast - I agree with you totally - I've avoided Blockbuster for years, but there's one right up the street from me, and unless Netflix does something really quick to fix this situation, Blockbuster will be getting my business...

Blockbuster just announced it will start a streaming service to compliment it's mail service....and of course...it's physical stores. The new King is about to be crowned.

Money in is money in, you morons. Split the company, but not really? Makes no sense. You will continue to lose customers because you have just complicated their lives. (And your own accounting) GL with that.

Exactly. Not only that but my charges increased almost two-fold without ANY kind of notification whatsoever. We are probably going to go back to Blockbuster at the end of this period and find another company for streaming. I think it may be fraudulent to change charges without notification.

They did send out notification, at least I got an email outlining the changes, 2 months ago. They didn't exactly spring it out of the blue, it's been talked about all summer. Up to the customer to make a decision on whether or not it retains it's value. for me, a 6 dollar increase was no big deal, my internet went up 10 dollars at around the same time, and I have no idea what cable costs nowadays, but I imagine it's rather higher than what I was paying 3 years ago.

Qwickster = Dumpster???

switching from banks to credit unions was the much bigger move.

I wish everyone would do it. it's the fastest way to stop the banks from gambling away our money again, and losing it all...again.

considering they have not stopped the practice of default swaps...and trust me, the banks wont be bailed out next time...anyone left banking with an actual BANK (not credit union) will be left holding the empty bag, and the people who banked the most money with them - will be certain to have gotten their money back, you...you wont be.

Oh sure, its all federally insured...but you tell me the republicans in washington would bail we the people out, like they did the banksters and wall street crooks? is not going to happen...they tell you its your own fault for not having left the bank after the last bailout, when it was clear these banks were ran by clowns.

this is america after all, you make your voice heard with your money...not your vote.

Nah, the damage is done and they can't be trusted. The price will NEVER go back.

I agree with NoNukes; this company can never be trusted again. Arrogance and greed have cost them. They should have re branded NetFlix all together. NetFlix is a trash name in the realm of media now...

Of course the price isn't going back. they increased it to cover the real costs of staying in business and to fund their expansion - people want more movies, those deals cost money, and studios have been playing hardball lately, since everyone knows content is king.

You are correct, but now you will not be able to easily see which titles are available for streaming when you are trying to browse for DVDs to be sent by mail. The whole thing is a cluster @!$%#. They basically destroyed Netflix, something that Time Warner has been trying to do for some time now. Netflix just quickened their demise. It's sad because they used to act like they cared about their customers and included features which made it easy to create a community and loyal customers. They've done away with much of that now and are losing the community and its loyalty. It's unbelievable that they don't realize how much consumer loyalty is worth to a business brand. If they had just grandfathered in the increases they could have kept most of their customers while still adding customers. Now when they actually split the websites they are going to lose many more.

I think this comment points to the key to self-destruction by Netflix.

One of the good things about Netflix was the ability to see what was available on DVD and what was available to stream and watch instantly, and what was available in both forms. With the old model, if the movie I wanted to watch was available to stream, I no longer waited for the DVD or if the DVD by mail suddenly became available to stream, I could see that and watch it and remove it from my mailing queue.

Now, the DVD site and the streaming site are totally separate. There is no way to search for one movie or show and see all forms of availability (DVD and streaming) like there currently is with their old model. Instead, you have to do two searches, one on each site...unless they include something that says that this title is not available for streaming on Netflix but is available on Quikster for DVD by mail.

Secondly, if you watch the video, the new CEO of Quikster says that Quikster will now offer games (which by itself might be a reason to keep them around) for a small rental fee (on top of the normal monthly fee). So, their best innovation, offering games, comes with even more additional fees.

Adding games actually makes the split make sense, since the Quickster deal will be completely disk based.

Is it confirmed that there will be 2 separate sites? Obviously hasn't changed yet, but I wonder if people with both services will still be able to access both from a single website. Otherwise all it does is confuse piss off those customers.

This seems like something they could have done internally, without the customers seeing any changes.

So he's actually saying:

I'm sorry I let you know how stupid I think you are. I should have done better by separating them and THEN hiking the price 60% because I think that would have slipped right by you and you would have paid it without squawking because you aren't smart enough to catch it.

Come on, we all understand prices have to go up, but this is just flat out F.U. by Netflix. I agree, it won't matter if they give the service away, I'm gone forever.

It appears that they're positioning the DVD-by-mail business for either shutdown or selloff--I can't come up with any better explanation for it. They are eliminating value to their customers by having a unified website--If I'm looking for a particular movie as a DVD and see that it is available for streaming, I might just want to stream it. On the flip side, if I see that a movie or TV show that I was going to stream has some special features available only on the DVD, I might put it in my DVD queue rather than stream it.

If NF wants to focus on streaming, so be it, but so far they haven't demonstrated that they can do it well. In addition to a lack of content (and more leaving--Starz), their streaming content is only in 2.0 sound, suffers from a lot of artifacting, and does not contain the special features, subtitles, and audio commentary available on physical media. So not only have they decided to focus on the thing that they don't yet do well (I realize that by focusing on it they will get better, but still), they're getting away from the thing that they've done extraordinarily well, and alienating their customer base because of it.

If BB can prove that they are a viable option, NF is going to be in a world of hurt.

They aren't reversing anything. It will still cost you double what it did a month ago to have streaming and dvd's by mail.

Umm Scott, the price increase has already been applied. He is simply saying he won't charge you even more because of the new name. Isn't he great?

As to the price not going up I just checked my billing history at Netflix and discovered there was a $2 increase in September - this is on top of the earlier advertised increase. I didn't change my plan - nor did I receive any warning about another increase. It sounds like they slipped this rate increase through right before he announced they wouldn't be raising rates again in the near future. Everyone, go check your billing history - they are really screwing over their customers.

Did you add Blu Ray access? Sept is when the earlier advertised increase took effect for current customers, BTW.

Crap Gadfly now you got me thinking. I dropped the DVD option and kept the streaming. But I never verified the billing for september. Thanks, will check now.

Ok, just checked and its ok. $7.99 plus tax for August, since I dropped the DVD's in mid Audust.

Great to here. Under this economy, and with this service being under entertainment category. A price increase isn't something you want to bring to the table, right now. Good move, reversing decision. Will keep a lot of customers.

All he did was say "oops, we lost customers." He didn't reverse his decision. He's just splitting the company in to two different comanies now. Now you won't be able to browse instant and DVD's on the same site!

I quit the DVD's when the price doubled. I have the instant stream, but I'm thinking my OnDemand offers me the same selection, if not better. Perhaps I should save my $10 bucks a month and see what someone else offers!

Well, most of my friends got rid of cable TV years ago.

Though I have Comcast I refuse to use On Demand for watching new movies. Their prices are ridiculous. Anywhere from $6.00 to $10.00 for a "new" release. I'll burn $1.00 worth of gas to spend $1.00 at my local RedBox. I'll probably keep my DVD's by mail from Nutflix however.

abolish, I agree. I still don't see why anyone is dealing with cable nonsense. I got away from them and their tricks years ago. Enjoying FIOS now, no regrets.

i deal with comcast's cable only cause i already had internet through them. they called and offered cable for 2 bucks more a month and i took it. hell, it's less than netflix.

I got rid of cable a long time ago. Digital broadcast covers almost as much as what I used to watch on expanded basic cable. And I just had to get the coupon and pay $5 for my converter box!

I love FIOS internet. AFter years of dealing with either Comcast or Cox for internet, FIOS is the most stable connection I have ever had. As a a matter of fact in the 3 years I have had it, it hasn't even gone out on us once. We can even use our laptops online when the power goes out because they provide the battery backed up wireless. Pretty awesome, considering that both comcast and cox went out constantly and the modems or routers always seemed to need resetting. I even got to the point where I was resetting the modem every fricking day if not multiple times throughout the day when I finally bought a place in a FIOS ready zone. I would dread ever having to go back to either one of those other companies. I'm not interested in the TV service because the only thing I would want would be HBO and its not worth it to me to pay for all of cable when I just want one channel. If I could just get a streaming version of HBO like HBOGo without cable, i would do that.

What principals? Never accepting the fact that prices go up? I have to pay a whole 6 dollars more a month, first price change in what, 3 years?

I'm not breaking out the protest boards over that, sorry.

As to FIOS, it was a great service but I @!$%#ing HATED dealing with Verizon's customer service, apparently the fact that I didn't have a cellphone with them meant I ceased to exist in between calls. At one point I had some lady insisting I must be confused as to my service provider. Went back to TWC and Roadrunner, good enough. Never suffered thru Comcrap tho.

Yeah for me, after years of not having cable, I just got back on board last year, because 1) I upgraded my internet and it wasn't much more when bundled than internet alone and 2) I like sports and more and more of sports is only offered on cable (for now - I expect more and more games to be streamed on internet eventually). If it wasn't for sports, I would never bother with cable.

They listened, I guess, but their response amounts to what, exactly?

Will Quikster be integrated into Netflix in such a manner that I can browse titles from the streaming AND delivery library? Or will I have to work with the added inconvenience of having to visit a different website in order to browse titles for delivery? How often have you checked to see of a movie was on the streaming service, found it was not, and then added to your delivery queue? This is something that makes sense to me. Removing the one-stop shopping aspect is really, really stupid.

Principles aside, I can absorb the price increase, and I am willing to bet most folks can, too. Despite a 60% increase, we're still talking very minor dollars and clearly Netflix assumed their customers and investors would see it this way (they did not). However now they're not only raising the price, they're dismantling the service and in favor of what? A name change?

I understand there are major industry factors at play, and Netflix has been getting the squeeze from their licensors, who are separately searching for ways to compete themselves.. but these are the best moves they could come up with??? Ugh.

i canceled the last day before streaming went to 8 bucks. they have no doubt as to why i left that way.

If all you used was streaming, your price didn't change. So that's a weird reaction.

Only people using both services saw an increase.

when i started instant viewing was free with your account so the price did change.

Well I thought you meant you had the streaming only option now, which has been available for some time for 7.99.

The price increase started already. So it's not canceled. You'll have both services at the new higher price.

The costs had already changed, so they aren't increasing it further, but it is overly confusing for such a well branded entity.

I don't understand why Netflix didn't raise prices by just $2 or $3 -- a modest price increase which wouldn't have angered their customers. Then they could wait a year or two and do another small price increase, if needed, and probably few customers would get upset. The sudden large price increase was a very poor business decision.

I don't mind paying a *little* more. If another company offers combined DVD/streaming services for $12 a month, I'll be happy to join. (Until then, Netflix will be getting just $8 a month from us).

Not too difficult to figure. They are more or less the only game in town if you like DVDs and like to stream. They gambled that people would swallow it because there were no other choices.

Surprise Surprise.

I can afford it but I'll be damned if I'll ever give them another penny. I'll watch the grass grow for entertainment before I'll join netflix again. Shame too because they had a great DVD library--things it was nearly impossible to find elsewhere.

I agree with all of you. And I think of it this way, if the service was good, as in I got new DVD's in a reasonable time and not constantly in a "Long Wait" status for weeks, and the streaming service had better movies, I would consider paying the higher price. But pay more for crappy service? No thank you.

I kept the streaming only service, for now. And only because my kids watch some older stuff they've never seen. But when that ends, I will cancel.

I joined Netflix in 2005. The thing that really irked me was their whole attitude of "Oh, it's not a big increase. They won't even notice. It's not enough to affect anybody."

Really? I think they're starting to realize that a hell of a lot of us are on tight budgets these days, and yes we DID notice. I told Netflix to p!ss off right after they announced this rate hike. I can't afford cable, so now I just watch stuff on hulu or use the converter box on my old TV to watch regular television.

Stupid Netflix. They had a good thing going and loyal customers, but they're going to have to do some steppin' and fetchin' to make it here on out.

Dont let the artical fool you, the prices have gone up.

Some clarification: the price change was announced in May or June to be effective September 1. The article simply states that there will be no additional price change as a part of the Netflix/Quikster split.

This split is all about greed and how to squeeze that extra dollar from your customer. Well Mr. Hastings, guess what, it back fired and if the trend continues with customers leaving and your stocks plummeting, your job is the next thing to split !!!

It isn't the price that bothers me. It is the inconvienace of having to manage two seperate queues on two seperate websites that has me upset. Now they are costing me more time as well as money.

It's not really about greed, tho Netflix IS a business trying to make a buck, and their prices have increased as they try to add more content - that's simply reality. You want more movies, it 's going to cost you more as a customer. Also they have been trending towards a streaming only environment for some time now, and they would have dropped DVDs completely at some point. splitting it into seperate entities, focusing on core aspects (discs vs streaming), makes the most sense. Don't know about the timing, and I actually think they could have done it internally without changing the customer experience since they already split the prices.

Let's see how you feel when that gallon of milk you buy goes from 4.00 to 7.50 overnight. Does it still seem fair? Do you still think you aren't getting ripped off?

There is no way to justify what netflix did but sheer greed. The more people who stream the cheaper it gets for them. Do you realize how much money they would have been losing to justify a 60% rate increase? They would have been out of business.

I think the increase is for future proofing, from the information coming out at the time. They have plans to dramatically increase content and market penetration (more shows available in Canada, for instance, who has about a third of the US' at the moment), providers have been upping the prices for syndicated shows and new releases. The cow analogy isn't a good one, unless for some reason half the animal stock died off - then the price increase would be, not any easier to swallow, but understandable. I dunno, I was satisfied with their reasoning when this was announced several months ago.

Not so much splitting the company in twain tho, that just seems overly complicated and brand diluting.

Let's see how you feel when that gallon of milk you buy goes from 4.00 to 7.50 overnight. Does it still seem fair? Do you still think you aren't getting ripped off?

There is no way to justify what netflix did but sheer greed. The more people who stream the cheaper it gets for them. Do you realize how much money they would have been losing to justify a 60% rate increase? They would have been out of business.

You've got it partially right in theory, however the case is that the more people that stream, the more costly it has become for Netflix. Let's forget the increasing costs of server space and bandwidth, the issue is that they're faced with new and exorbitant licensing fees from their content providers.

Netflix does not own the rights to the films they stream, and they are being pushed around through price gouging from the content providers. What recourse do they have? Several of their suppliers are working on content delivery in-house, so why make it easy for their competitor?

Your gallon of milk analogy does not work here, since the price increase was not exactly overnight, it was announced some time ago. A gallon of milk is a necessity to most families, however streaming Netflix over broadband internet is a luxury. You have a distinct choice to either subscribe to Netflix, use one of their competitors, or use nothing at all.

At the end of the day, despite the high percentage increase, it's only a few dollars. To be honest, I think they were unsustainably underpriced to begin with. The "greed" you're focusing on is more on the part of the content providers, not Netflix themselves.

I've noticed that a lot of their stuff isn't available on streaming. It doesn't seem worth it. I won't miss Netflix.

as for the new dvd's, certain companies are making contracts to withhold new releases so they can rent them to anyone who wants to see them right away and make more money. they already have netflix's money so renting them first will generate more.

Yea, a lot of that is the industry, not Netflix. Netflix wants EVERYTHING, and they want is ASAP, but movie studios have other lines of income they want to protect. So they structure the contract to keep certain films and shows off of the streaming list, and new releases have a 30 day hold for discs.

Netflix does have some advantages over watching the same thing on tv or Hulu.

1: No commercials or edits for time/content (even Hulu puts in several ads up to 1 minute). Even if you DVR tv/cable (I always do, NO show is worth sitting through a four-minute commercial break), you have to fiddle with a remote.

2: While Hulu-Plus will sometimes give you the current season, Netflix usually offers-up entire series' episodes (up-to the current one). I guess I'm lucky that most of what I like is there. Cable stations don't always show episodes in order. I can pick-and-choose the episodes I want to watch and the time index bar on the Netflix player responds fast (Hulu's will drop you in another ad if you go past certain points, or just lock-up).

3: Netflix is free of programming artifacts, like those annoying translucent station-ID logos and incredibly annoying animated graphic inserts for upcoming programs in the corners of the screen (even Hulu has their logo in the corner). Also, you get to see the closing credits and opening/closing music themes with no voiceovers or split-screened into the opening of the next program (to make room for MORE commercials).

4: Netflix's streaming movie/tv library is still vastly superior to Hulu's. While both are dominated with indie and b-movie chaff, Netflix does rotate-in a few top-drawer films and tv series, and Hulu still runs ads in their movies even with a plus-account, no matter what they claim.

I guess I'm also just lucky I have a Comcast/Xfinity internet connection that's been relatively problem-free for several years, with several computers/internet devices running off the same modem/router combo 24/7 for years now.

Messed-up as the management is, I still feel I'm getting a good product from Netflix.

However, that may change if they drop Bones...