But this is not parental guidance. This gives any gift giver huge control that they shouldn't have.
Give a kid a gift card that can only be used for a cd that's rated E and suddenly you start to have a higher rate of gift cards going unused. I mean, what 12 year old still wants to buy a Freshbeat Band cd?? Take it in a different direction, marriage gifts can involve lots of gift cards. Do givers go to the lengths to restrict, I mean gently direct, a person to certain types of items?
IMO this is a "save the children" reason to help increase gift card depreciation from non-use.
You mistake my point. Either someone couldn't afford the increase, or they chose not to pony up. Whatever the reason, a corporation expects to lose some people to that. And honestly, if you can afford the service at $8, but not $14, then you can't afford it.
The price increase was not stupid nor insulting. It was business. Netflix needs more money, which is obvious now, so the move was smart.
No one who mattered cared about the price increase. It was trivial for what was provided. Anyone who did was just angry to begin with.
The revamped ui was, and still is irritating.
Those 2 items combined were just annoyances. The service provided was still far superior to anything else currently available. However, Netflix went one farther and announced the complete split of DVDs from streaming. What? How could they not see that splitting the 2 services totally stripped netflix of one of its core areas of superiority that no competitor could EVER attain? No one else will ever have the disk service that netflix holds. That's their true power. And they willingly went ahead with a plan to gut that.
Streaming is just not there yet. Once it finally does "get" there, cable companies will take the required steps to prevent it from staying there. (hint: Download caps) For everyone who just wants to stream all their content and pay $8/month, I have bad news for you. It won't stay that cheap for much longer. It can't. In another year or 2 when that price jumps to $20 will you still pay? Will you accept the inevitable advertisements? Some will, but many others will just pirate the stuff all the while moaning how they would pay if it were fairly priced.
Originally I planned to cut the streaming side. I just don't use it. I don't have a smart phone, or a tablet, or a paranoid aversion to paying for cable. So the streaming side was only for those odd moments at the PC to kill some time now and then. Plans changed when they announced the Quikster split. That just downright pissed me off. Why should I have to change sites and lose service? That made me re-evaluate the cost of the disk service. $8/month for unlimited disks just suddenly becomes overpriced. Since disks are typically movies, they get watched on the weekend. Meaning no more than 4 per month. Some months went by without watching even one. Redbox just offers superior pricing, if much less convenience and availability.
Ultimately, Netflix was arrogant and pissed off their customers. Quite honestly, splitting streaming into a separate bundle was a mistake. I imagine the vast majority of its customers are mainly interested in only one side. Netflix compounded their arrogance by also giving their customers a way to cut costs and retain whatever service they preferred. This is horrible management.
The bright side: Amazon will probably buy netflix now that its stock price is plummeting.
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But this is not parental guidance. This gives any gift giver huge control that they shouldn't have.
Give a kid a gift card that can only be used for a cd that's rated E and suddenly you start to have a higher rate of gift cards going unused. I mean, what 12 year old still wants to buy a Freshbeat Band cd?? Take it in a different direction, marriage gifts can involve lots of gift cards. Do givers go to the lengths to restrict, I mean gently direct, a person to certain types of items?
IMO this is a "save the children" reason to help increase gift card depreciation from non-use.
You mistake my point. Either someone couldn't afford the increase, or they chose not to pony up. Whatever the reason, a corporation expects to lose some people to that. And honestly, if you can afford the service at $8, but not $14, then you can't afford it.
The price increase was not stupid nor insulting. It was business. Netflix needs more money, which is obvious now, so the move was smart.
No one who mattered cared about the price increase. It was trivial for what was provided. Anyone who did was just angry to begin with.
The revamped ui was, and still is irritating.
Those 2 items combined were just annoyances. The service provided was still far superior to anything else currently available. However, Netflix went one farther and announced the complete split of DVDs from streaming. What? How could they not see that splitting the 2 services totally stripped netflix of one of its core areas of superiority that no competitor could EVER attain? No one else will ever have the disk service that netflix holds. That's their true power. And they willingly went ahead with a plan to gut that.
Streaming is just not there yet. Once it finally does "get" there, cable companies will take the required steps to prevent it from staying there. (hint: Download caps) For everyone who just wants to stream all their content and pay $8/month, I have bad news for you. It won't stay that cheap for much longer. It can't. In another year or 2 when that price jumps to $20 will you still pay? Will you accept the inevitable advertisements? Some will, but many others will just pirate the stuff all the while moaning how they would pay if it were fairly priced.
Originally I planned to cut the streaming side. I just don't use it. I don't have a smart phone, or a tablet, or a paranoid aversion to paying for cable. So the streaming side was only for those odd moments at the PC to kill some time now and then. Plans changed when they announced the Quikster split. That just downright pissed me off. Why should I have to change sites and lose service? That made me re-evaluate the cost of the disk service. $8/month for unlimited disks just suddenly becomes overpriced. Since disks are typically movies, they get watched on the weekend. Meaning no more than 4 per month. Some months went by without watching even one. Redbox just offers superior pricing, if much less convenience and availability.
Ultimately, Netflix was arrogant and pissed off their customers. Quite honestly, splitting streaming into a separate bundle was a mistake. I imagine the vast majority of its customers are mainly interested in only one side. Netflix compounded their arrogance by also giving their customers a way to cut costs and retain whatever service they preferred. This is horrible management.
The bright side: Amazon will probably buy netflix now that its stock price is plummeting.