Dear Netflix, You’re Making Me Angry. Love, Melanie

Today I received yet ANOTHER “apology” email from Netflix. Honestly, I am so over them right now. They’re backtracking yet AGAIN (which they kind of have to this time because Qwikster, along with being a horrible name for anything other than a chocolate malt made with Nesquik, was a REALLY bad idea), but still not offering less of a price hike.

Read the letter on their blog here, then enjoy my comment/idea below.

I’m getting really annoyed by these Netflix “hey dude, we’re sorry, but we’re still going to go along with our plan to charge you tons more for what you’ve already been paying for forever and not give you anything extra” emails, so I just have to say this. Amazon, I hope you’re listening.

See, here’s the problem (not counting the atrocious PR “cleanup”). The price hike was too much at once. Netflix should have just increased rates a little at first, then increased it more over time. They would have retained a lot more subscribers that way, myself included, most likely.  

I probably wouldn’t have even changed one-DVD-out-at-a-time plan + streaming to streaming only if the bump wasn’t as large. I would have just deleted the price hike email and never re-evaluted my current plan. Instead, I started thinking about how few DVDs I actually watch (one per month, tops) and realized that I could save money by canceling the Netflix DVD part and just renting instant streaming movies from Amazon when I want them.  

Amazon new releases are typically available for streaming at the same time that the DVDs are available. Amazon just needs to come up with/work out with distributors a super cool subscription plan that includes ALL of their streaming stuff. Then I’d cancel Netfix altogether. I’d probably even pay MORE than the Netflix pay hikes for that service, because I would have way more streaming options. Come on, Amazon, what do you say?