Netflix Annoyances – Can’t Gift DVD Subscriptions
Netflix continues to annoy me; and I’m not even a member anymore. My wife and I canceled our account earlier this year when Netflix announced their price hikes on their DVD and Streaming subscriptions. I had thought about just canceling the Streaming subscription because the titles available sucked, especially compared to what we could get on HBO/Cinemax/Showtime, but I was just overly annoyed so I gave them the boot. We weren’t alone as thousands of subscribers punted on their Netflix subscription. My mother on the other hand, kept her subscription.
She lives alone and having access to movies to watch, especially during the winter, was worth the price she paid. This year for Christmas (hopefully she’s not reading this in case I figure out how) I wanted to get her a year long subscription to Netflix. I figured it was a gift not only she could use, but she’d enjoy. When I went to Netflix’s site though, all I could see where subscriptions to their streaming packages. It would cost $99.85 for a full year to their subscription service. Ok, great, $100 for crappy titles on-demand. No DVDs. Not even the option to gift the DVD subscription and not streaming.
Now, I could be totally off base here and their streaming service could be 1,000 times better than it was, but I haven’t had anyone tell me, “Bill, get Netflix! Their Streaming is awesome now!” If someone had, I’d probably at least check it out for a month. But no, no evidence of that. So my deal here is why would I spend $99.85 on something that I’m not convinced is of value as a gift? Why wouldn’t Netflix offer both as gifts? I understand that streaming is the wave of the future, but until you can get every title on-demand, it just doesn’t seem worth it. What do you think?
December 26th, 2011 at 7:01 pm
It’s funny, I ran into the exact same problem as you. I too fled with the masses several months ago, but my stepmother loves the DVD service. When I first gave her the year long subscription as a gift a few years ago, I was quite irked that she had to setup an account with her credit card info etc. just to even get the service started. Netflix had already been paid for a year upfront. I wanted to just keep giving her a year subscription every year, but I was forced to just write her a check to cover the cost since they started billing her after the year was up. It was annoying, but I got over it. This year, I couldn’t even get the price of the DVD service without calling Netflix. I am completely amazed that for a company who’s entire business model is run from a website does not have the sense to include options to buy ALL of their products from the website, or at the very least offer the pricing. The streaming service was the only thing available. I am flabbergasted at how this company who had such a bold influence on the industry has allowed themselves to be so reckless and cocky with their customers. Reed Hastings’ widely publicized pay-cut was not enough, he is still grossly overpaid for allowing this company to continue to drive right into the ground. If my stepmother didn’t love the service (that they are intent on killing off sooner than later) so much, they would’ve just as easily lost this portion of my business as well.
The market is screaming for a competitor to take these guys down completely.
December 28th, 2011 at 11:07 am
Same story here, but a nice fellow on the phone at Netflix assured me that not only are the gift amounts a cash value to be used on any plan offered, but that a DVD-only option would be available to my parents upon redemption of the gift. I’m 85% sure that one or both will turn out to be untrue. These guys are on crack.