Cranky Homotron: Netflix QUADRUPLES Blu-ray Charge!
I just received an email from Netflix that really pisses me off. After baiting users for a few months with a reasonable $1/month charge for the ability to rent Blu-ray discs, Netflix has just sent out an e-mail saying they're now quadrupling the monthly charge (for 3 disc at a time customers) to $4/month!
You are receiving this email because you added unlimited Blu-ray access to your account for $1 a month. The number of Blu-ray titles has increased significantly and will continue to do so. As we buy more, you are able to choose from a rapidly expanding selection of Blu-ray titles. And as you've probably heard, Blu-ray discs are substantially more expensive than standard definition DVDs.As a result, the monthly charge for Blu-ray access is increasing for most plans and will now vary by plan. The charge for monthly Blu-ray access on your 3 DVDs at-a-time (Unlimited) plan will increase from $1 a month to $4 a month. The price of your 3 DVDs at-a-time (Unlimited) plan is not changing and remains at $16.99 a month.
The new charge for Blu-ray access will be automatically added to your next billing statement on or after April 27, 2009 and will be referenced in your Membership Terms and Details.
If you wish to continue unlimited Blu-ray access for $4 a month, you don't need to do anything. If not, you can remove Blu-ray access anytime by visiting Your Account.
$1 a month was reasonable, and they led us to believe that would be the charge for the foreseeable future. Now they pull a bait and switch on us after a few months and quadruple it?!
They say "well, if you don't like it, cancel your Blu-ray access." Yeah... you know what else is easy to cancel? My Netflix subscription. Back off on this or I'm jumping ship.
Ridiculous!
Den Den Boy
Posted to Hot Stuff, In Your House, In the News on 30 March 2009
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: Blu-ray, cranky, HD, movie rentals, Netflix
3D iPhone glasses. Why?
mine said that its $3 a month for the two dvd plan. just letting you know.
Yes, there's a whole chart for that. It's why I specified the $4 charge is for the 3 at a time plan.
Ahhh, the premiums you pay for newer technologies.
I really don't see a problem with this. They must maintain their DVD library and now build a Blu-ray one as well.
If they upped the price for people who don't want Blu-ray disks (i.e., the DVD only people), then I could see a problem.
You want Blu-ray? Pay for it :)
@Creax
Wow, how do you not fall over more? There was already an extra fee, and now it's bigger.
Eh, I never use my netflix anyways anymore, least they gave me a good excuse to dump it. Maybe with the money I'm saving I'll bump up gamefly to 2 games at a time.
I canceled my blu-ray upgrade the second I received this email. It seems like half the videos I rent are not in Blu-ray.
I don't understand how people who've invested a substantial amount of money on a Blu-ray player, high def TV, and likely a surround sound system, can gripe about paying more for content. Some Blu-ray titles SELL for forty bucks, and you're complaining about paying forty bucks a YEAR for unlimited rentals?
If you can't stand to shoulder the cost of Blu-ray content you can always go back to DVDs, standard def and stereo, it all still works.
If you can't find enough Blu-ray disks to rent then of course don't pay a monthly charge, get your Blu-ray content elsewhere. It's not like Netflix is the sole distributor of this type of content.
@DoorHold
The problem here is two-fold: They made it seem like the $1/month charge was going to be permanent, even promoted it to new customers as a recruitment tool. This was obviously misleading; an outright lie. They bait and switched, plain and simple.
Secondly, the $4/month charge is a flat fee, no matter how many Blu-rays I rent that month. Most of the movies in Netflix's library are NOT on Blu-ray, and I can go a whole month where nothing that is shipped to my home is a Blu-ray, and I'm still charged $4/month for the priviledge of *possibly* renting a Blu-ray.
At $1/month, that's fine, but at $4/month? That's ridiculous.