Netflix Irks Customers With Price Increases

Netflix announced Tuesday it will be splitting its services and raising rates. If the Internet is any indication, customers are none too happy about it.

The movie rental company, which has become nearly ubiquitous by offering users the chance to rent movies through the mail and watch others directly streamed to their computer, announced the "two significant changes" via Facebook and the company blog. Instead of a user paying a flat fee for DVD rentals and streaming, Netflix will now charge $7.99 at minimum for each service.

According to company spokeswoman Jessie Becker, the move was designed to "better reflect the costs of each [service] and to give our members a choice...with this change, we will no longer offer a plan that includes both unlimited streaming and DVDs by mail."

"I feel that it's not too much of an increase because we use Netflix almost every day," said Karin Mansberg, 34, of Danbury. "But it still sucks."

Mansberg has been a Netflix customer since 2000 and said that despite the cost increase, she would still "definitely keep the plan" because "they have good movies On Demand."

But it is that On Demand capability that has caused many customers to take to the Internet in frustration. Just 24 hours after posting the news on Facebook, users had left over 38,000 comments, the bulk of which were exceedingly negative. In splitting the services and charging more for both, users and commenters argued, Netflix is raising costs without adding value, a no-no from a public relations standpoint.

"It sounds like it's just their way of doing a price increase. They're probably just trying to keep up with the cell phone companies with all the price increases they've been doing," said Pete Mucci, of Danbury. "Everybody wants more money."

Mucci said he and his wife have Netflix but don't use the streaming feature, preferring to rent and watch movies through the mail. So the price increases will not affect their patronage of the red-enveloped company.

Other customers were not so diplomatic.

“When you're running a company that has limited competition due to Blockbuster's recent bankruptcy, and you also have very valuable customers, a price hike as much as this one — which I think was somewhere around a 60 percent hike — is unnecessary,” said Ashley Perssico, 18, of Naugatuck. “Because of the increase I'm honestly thinking about switching back to Blockbuster and boycotting Netflix altogether."

Netflix users and detractors, alike, have also taken to Twitter to vent their encouragement and frustrations. 

Some, like @billcolrus, offered witty, enduring appreciation for the company, saying "Dear #Netflix: The NERVE you have to still offer us an unbelievably good deal on DVD rental and video streaming!!!"

Others, like @CarmenRodgers, were less complimentary, saying, "Dear #Netflix, your 60% increase is the perfect opportunity for someone else to come in on a market you had comfortably cornered. Good luck."

Chad Messenger, 29, of Redding has not been a Netflix customer for years after he realized he wasn't using the service that much.

"All the good movies you couldn't stream anyway," Messenger said. "Would I cancel my service if I had it now? It would really depend. If I was using it a lot, I probably wouldn't be really happy about it. But, then again, there's nothing you can really do."