Recently a shitload of people cancelled their Netflix subscriptions. I was one of them. Upon making that choice, Netflix asked me to explain why I was leaving and what they could do better via a multiple choice survey. Unfortunately, my chief reason for cancelling wasn't part of the survey, and I'm a little bothered by the fact that Netflix will be misled about my departure. So I'm going to explain it here in the unlikely event that anyone gives a damn.
Up until the infamous price hike, Netflix did everything right. They had support for the Nintendo Wii when I had one, and the Playstation 3 when I switched to that system. I saw a ton of movies that I'd been meaning to see for a long time, and discovered a few films that I would probably not have heard of otherwise. Overall I was very happy about the service and considered it a bargain.
I had a "one DVD at a time" Netflix subscription with the Blu-Ray add-on service. I did stream some shows and movies over the course of my subscription, but I was extremely displeased with the availability of content (especially when I could find the show through the search function, but then when I went to play it I was told it was not available). I felt that the streaming service was nice to have, but unnecessary. I was very happy with the disc-by-mail service. I paid good money for a fancy HD home entertainment system and I prefer to use it to its full ability when watching movies. The cheapest way to do that is to get a disc-by-mail service with Blu-Ray support.
If I was so happy with the service, why did I cancel? I can't even give a solid answer, other than, "The company seems unstable, they've made a lot of bizarre choices lately, and I don't trust them." Thinking about it a little more deeply, I cancelled after approximately two years of service because:
- Each month for the past three months, something the company has announced has upset me. Raising prices for the streaming service I rarely use, forcing me to choose a new level of service to avoid the price increase, isolating the disc-by-mail service. Only reason I didn't cancel sooner was, these announcements always came a few days after I'd been billed for the month, and when my billing cycle came due, they either did something to make up for it or I forgot to cancel.
- Being too wishy-washy. Splitting out the disc service, changing their mind, raising prices and thumbing their nose at subscribers, then apologizing when it was evident that more people would cancel than they thought. The organization is poorly managed. I had no clue what new shitty announcement would come from Netflix this month.
- Blockbuster sent me a month of disc-by-mail service for free, and it was about the same price as Netflix, but with better selection.
If Netflix had said, "We're raising prices but delivering higher-quality streaming or a much wider selection," then I might have accepted it because I'd be getting more for my money. But I was actually getting less because Starz backed out of Netflix around the time of the price hike. I didn't even watch any Starz content, but the fact that less was available to me for a higher cost really stuck with me. I sort of said, "No, fuck you for making me pay extra," even though the price actually got cheaper because I removed the streaming option and there was ultimately no change to my disc-by-mail service.
I could have afforded the marginal price increase without any trouble. But I cancelled because there was something about it that offended me on principle. I'm not even sure what it was, exactly, but I would have actually paid more for identical service through Blockbuster simply because Netflix offended me.
Even if I were an over-principled bastard in making this choice, I'm sure there are more people like me who were part of the exodus. I don't think the majority of cancellations happened for that reason, though, and I also don't think Netflix' mass cancellations are because people are unwilling to pay the extra money. I think it's more because, due to economic difficulties or the allure of competing services, it was already on their mind as an unnecessary expense or inferior service, and the price hike simply sealed the deal. The sturm-und-drang of the announcement made subscribers think critically about the service. We all just paid automatically and used it as we pleased, but suddenly, with a price increase of some kind (any kind), we were forced to really evaluate what we were getting for our money. It could have been a ten cent increase and the result would have been the same. There is a definite lesson in business psychology here, but I don't know exactly what it is.
