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Struggling MoviePass Kills Off Its Annual Plan -- Even If You Already Paid For It (nypost.com)
Slashdot reader nolaguy quotes the New York Post:
Movie subscription service MoviePass has pulled the plug on annual subscriptions, telling those subscribers that they will have to adhere to the same terms as monthly subscribers. The service made the announcement Friday in an email to those members and offered them prorated refunds if they want to cancel their annual memberships.... Until Friday's announcement, subscribers to the $89 annual plans had been able to see a movie a day.
CNET reports that MoviePass "is now forcing you onto its monthly three-movie-a-month plan -- effective immediately...and you'll receive up to a $5.00 discount on any additional movie tickets purchased." They're plannning to apply the $89 annual fees toward the $9.95 monthly fees, but.... To add insult to injury, MoviePass says you'll only have until Aug. 31 -- a week from today -- if you want to get some of your money back in the form of a prorated refund, which you can only get by canceling your plan. And just to make things more ridiculous, MoviePass is preying on your FOMO by saying that if you do take the refund, you won't be able to sign up for MoviePass again for nine months.
CNET's article ends with a link to their list of "the 11 times that MoviePass altered the deal," adding "This is getting sad. And a little shady."
CNET reports that MoviePass "is now forcing you onto its monthly three-movie-a-month plan -- effective immediately...and you'll receive up to a $5.00 discount on any additional movie tickets purchased." They're plannning to apply the $89 annual fees toward the $9.95 monthly fees, but.... To add insult to injury, MoviePass says you'll only have until Aug. 31 -- a week from today -- if you want to get some of your money back in the form of a prorated refund, which you can only get by canceling your plan. And just to make things more ridiculous, MoviePass is preying on your FOMO by saying that if you do take the refund, you won't be able to sign up for MoviePass again for nine months.
CNET's article ends with a link to their list of "the 11 times that MoviePass altered the deal," adding "This is getting sad. And a little shady."
it probably is. I'm having a difficult time feeling too sorry for members.
Even more relevant, the people who have the most free time -- teens and young adults with no kids -- are also the prime consumers of the product.
It was glaringly obvious from the start that they were promising more than the industry could afford to deliver at those prices.
Two words: class action.
Absent the right clauses in TOS, this is the kind of case class actions were made for—many people were wronged and large amount of financial damage has been inflicted, but individual suits do not make financial sense.
You high? They'll be shuttered in a week and you're behind a very long line of creditors.
Why does this company get so much media attention? The second I heard about what it was offering and at what prices I immediately began thinking "90's tech boom bullshit". Remember the company that wanted to make a business out of home delivery of pet food and even aired super bowl commercials? Movie Pass just seemed like more of that to me.
I mean, unlimited movies a month for the price of one movie of month? Guess who's going to sign up for that! People who see more than one movie a month or want to. Guess who isn't going to sign up for this? Everyone who doesn't or doesn't want to. The only way this was a money making enterprise is if they got a lot of people to sign up who didn't watch movies very often and most people just aren't that stupid.
Anybody who put money in any long term manner into such a ridiculously conceived business is too stupid to deserve the money they lost. They might as well have given it to a Nigerian prince.
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