Netflix increasing Bluray Charges - What will you do?

johnnypark

johnnypark

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Just received this email from Netflix, as I'm sure many others have:

You are receiving this email because you added unlimited Blu-ray access to your account for $1 a month. The number of Blu-ray titles has increased significantly and will continue to do so. As we buy more, you are able to choose from a rapidly expanding selection of Blu-ray titles. And as you've probably heard, Blu-ray discs are substantially more expensive than standard definition DVDs.

As a result, the monthly charge for Blu-ray access is increasing for most plans and will now vary by plan. The charge for monthly Blu-ray access on your 2 DVDs at-a-time (Unlimited) plan will increase from $1 a month to $3 a month. The price of your 2 DVDs at-a-time (Unlimited) plan is not changing and remains at $13.99 a month.

The new charge for Blu-ray access will be automatically added to your next billing statement on or after April 27, 2009 and will be referenced in your Membership Terms and Details.

If you wish to continue unlimited Blu-ray access for $3 a month, you don't need to do anything. If not, you can remove Blu-ray access anytime by visiting Your Account.

If you have questions about this change or need any assistance, please call us anytime at 1-888-923-0898.

-The Netflix Team
Click to expand...

I can't decide if I'm going to drop it or not. Thoughts?

EDIT: Courtesy of Dmaul1114 and Gizmodo, here's a chart of the Bluray price increase:

[quote name='dmaul1114']Chart from Gizmondo that has the price per plan after increase:
netflix-blu-ray-price-increase.jpg
[/quote]

As Shrike has pointed out, it appears that it's $1 extra per the number of movies you have on your plan the original $1 base fee.
 
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[quote name='Steve0Matic']I was a bit pissed about this, then I check Blockbuster's pricing and it's the same as the raised prices for Netflix.[/quote]

See earlier in the thread; that's the price for a BB subscription with in-store exchanges. If you remove the in-store exchanges (which Netflix doesn't offer anyway), BB is cheaper. Of course, with BB, you don't have instant watch. So it all depends on how you're going to use it.
 
I'm on the 1 at a time plan unlimited. Mine went up $1. It's still cheaper and easier than going to Blockbuster, or Hollywood Video. I've got about 45 Blu Rays in my Que and all but 2 are in stock.
 
If I did get Blu from Netflix, i think I'd rather pay $2 more and get the HD Extra package from DirectTV. It has HDNet Movies, Universal HD, anf MGM HD for movies. HDNet is cool because they show one movie each month before it comes out in theatres (Great Buck Howard, etc.) and has a ton of relevant movies all day. I think I'd rather rent in SD and then if it's a good enough movie, I'd buy in HD. Save the extra $3 a month...
 
fuck this shit, I just cancelled my Bluray portion of netflix. I'm on the 3 at a time package and I'm not paying $4/month for the one or two movies I get that are actually on bluray. They look nicer for sure, but not enough to warrant a 20% increase in price. fuck Bluray in the first place. I wish HD DVD was alive still so we could get some price competition back.
 
I had that happen twice to me with Blurays in the past.

Could happen with any discs. People are just more inclined to complain now.
 
I just got a cracked BR yesterday. Might be the surge in new subs and new BR subs causing these to go through the automated mail processing machines a little more than before, I dunno.
 
Well I finally decided to downgrade my service. Was on 2 at time unlimited with Blu Ray, decided to drop down to 1 at at time.

At 10.99 for 1 vs. 16.99 for 2 with Blu Ray access it just wasn't worth it since I've gotten busier and seldom watch more than 2 movies a week and don't take much advantage of the streaming (despite having a lot of stuff on my instant queue).

If it weren't for the extra blu fees I may have kept it, but now I'll save the $6 and make more use of the streaming and On Demand movies on Comcast.
 
Didn't see this thread! Yeah, I cancelled mine the first day I possibly could after hearing about this. See, the joke on them is that if you have an upscaling DVD player to go with your fancy HDTV, it's "virtually" all the same, and you get to save money. I also really had a problem with the fact that not every movie would be on blu ray, so how does that work if you only get one or two blu ray discs a month?

Now, I just buy the movies I really want on Blu Ray for less than $25 somewhere during release week and upscale all the dvd's I get from Netflix.
 
I buy my Blu-Rays. I wait for them to drop in price a bit though and usually don't spend more than $12 a disc. Just got Harry Potter 1-5 for $56 and Ghostbusters for $9.

Tbh, I thought the $1 extra for BRs was dumb. Adding the additional $2 (or more) on top of that is really ridiculous.

I canceled my entire NF membership and use torrents now from time to time. I can watch on laptop at work or on my PS3 at home with no hassle.

I still buy BRs but I don't rent anymore. It seems NF act like people don't have alternatives.
 
Oh I still love the service and kept it at 2 at a time for a long time. Just now its not worth it as I am much busier with a new job after finishing grad school and the $6 difference just didin't make anymore. If it was only the $3-4 difference it was before the last increase, I may have kept it as 2 out at a time is good when going through a TV series to get discs quicker or to just have one movie and one episode disc continuously.

But it's a great service. And to the person who said and upscaled DVD is just as good is blind I think. Upscaled DVDs do look nice, but Blu Rays look much better and I don't regret getting a BR player or having BR access on Netflix.

I balso uy very few DVDs or BRs now. I used to buy a lot--have over 300 DVDs and maybe 10-15 BRs, but since joining Netflix 2 or 3 years a go I cut WAY back.

I hardly ever watch anything on my shelf as I'd generally prefer to watch something for the first time over re-watching stuff, so renting just makes more since financially and storage space wise for me personally.

I really should buckle down and sell/donate at least 50-100 of the DVDs that I probably haven't watched in 5+ years (or at all) since buying them.
 
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Does not bother me 1 bit.. still keep 3 w/ BR.. why not? i watch ALOT of movies and would be paying 5x that if i rented this much at a local store + i use netflix on 360 so its an amazing deal
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']But yea, Netflix for Blu Rays isn't worth it for people who mainly care about seeing the new releases in a timely manner. Probably better off with Red Box for that.[/QUOTE]

I wish I had Red Box with Blurays here =( A lot of you are complaining when this is still going to end up costing less than physical stores, which I don't get. The Hollywood Videos and Blockbusters in town (I don't know about nationwide) rent blurays for $4-$5+ EACH, and it doesn't matter if it's a new release or not. It's a price hike, but it's still a deal, imo.
 
Just signed up for Netflix, 1 at a time w/ Blu-ray. Even with the $2 increase, it's cheaper and easier than any other alternative I have of renting HD movies.

I plan on renting 4 movies a month, which comes out to $2.75 per rental. PSN/XBL/Blockbuster are $5.99/4.99 per rental. Cable on demand here is $4.99.
 
[quote name='lilboo']The minute redboxes around here get blu ray, I'm ditchin Netflix[/QUOTE]

I couldn't do it as I watch a lot more than just hollywood new releases and the convenience of getting movies in the mail and watching them whenever I find time is too great given my hectic schedule.
 
Yeah, redbox is nice to have around, but I'd never drop Netflix, unless they simply get out-of-hand with the subscription pricing. For me, the movies I can watch instantly on my 360 almost pays for the sub on its own.
 
One thing also worth noting is that since the last BR price increase I've had no problems getting new releases. Some still show up as long or short wait, but they still ship out. Have Watchmen on it's way now, and I just put it at #1 yesterday and it said short wait.

So they either started buying more copies, a lot of people dropped BR accesss or both I guess.
 
Yeah, same here. When I first started with Netflix, I could never get a new BR release. In the last couple of months, though, I have gotten all of the ones I wanted within a week. And Watchmen also shipped for me, even though it was listed as a long wait.
 
I just thought of the thread as it was current when I took a break from CAG/forums in general, and I had just decided to downgrade my service in part due to the last price increase making it not worth it now that I'm not watching as many movies.

*shrugs*
 
I use Netflix for streaming to my 360 and will get a DVD sent to my house every now and again. I use the very basic unlimited plan, and won't be upgrading to the BR plan until I get a BR that can stream the Netflix content, but paying and extra 2$ a month isn't all that bad for BR IMO.
 
I guess I'm in for the long haul, price increases and all. I'm too much of a movie buff to give up renting blu-rays.
 
I went back to netflix after leaving for a year

FEB 23 movies rented for 18.18

march 8 till now 15 movies rent (if they keep sending i will rent 24 movies this month)


As long as i keep getting 24 movies per month (not counting streaming) i will stay
 
I never went back. My wife and I rent less and less films as time goes on. I stream a fair share, but we're down to the 1 at a time plan and very happy with it.
 
I'm waiting to get Netflix once it hits the Wii. I do have a PS3 and $1 a month sounds sweet for blu ray. The reason for the increase doesn't make sense to me. If blu ray selection is increasing, then the cost of making them should go down, shouldn't it? As far as I know, Netflix is still growing, so additional revenue should be coming, too. Sounds to me like Netflix is confident people will pay the increase so that is why it is being done. Based on the $1 to $3 increase even keeping half the BR customers would make Netflix more money. I'll forget the Blu ray. I'm more interested in streaming, anyway.
 
[quote name='Suade']I'm waiting to get Netflix once it hits the Wii. I do have a PS3 and $1 a month sounds sweet for blu ray. The reason for the increase doesn't make sense to me. If blu ray selection is increasing, then the cost of making them should go down, shouldn't it? As far as I know, Netflix is still growing, so additional revenue should be coming, too. Sounds to me like Netflix is confident people will pay the increase so that is why it is being done. Based on the $1 to $3 increase even keeping half the BR customers would make Netflix more money. I'll forget the Blu ray. I'm more interested in streaming, anyway.[/QUOTE]


I wonder if you realize you're responding to a 1 year old thread
 
I dropped Blu-Rays from my account 14 months ago when I got bored with watching so many movies, I was gonna cancel altogether but then I decided to keep Netflix and just switch to watching TV show seasons instead of movies, because there are very few TV shows that I would ever wanna see more than once, so I never buy them, with very select exceptions (Futurama, Family Guy, Simpsons, Married w/Children, and that's about it).
 
I left and never came back.....I rent from BB now since its literally right behind my house....Someone needs to tell netflix that the cost of blu rays have come down considerably and their price increase is no longer appropriate......

Between higher blu ray costs and throttling.......i'll take my business elsewhere....
 
Maybe I am crazy but...it seems that Blockbuster's plan might actually be comparable or better to Netflix's plan. $8.99 for 1-Disc at a time..with Blu-Ray...and it seems you can return the DVDs in store to get instant credit for sending it back. I do love my Netflix Streaming though. If they start to drop the ball with that, there could be a problem.
 
^^^ really, blockbuster needs to keep the price under netflix's since they can't offer instant streaming or they need to develop it!
 
[quote name='SonictheHedgehog1337']http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=4415

Four-week Delay for Universal New Releases at Netflix. :whistle2:([/QUOTE]

I can't wait for Blockbuster to go out of business, just so these contracts die. If people have waited for 5 months to get a DVD at home, they'll wait another 30 days longer.
 
I canceled my Blu-Ray a while back when I realized, I could just RENT the DVD and buy the Blu-Ray. This definitely means I won't be adding it back.
 
I mostly have it just for the instant and the occasional blu-ray. Now the blu-ray is more expensive and the instant has been getting worse, might be time to just cancel.
 
[quote name='joshthegreat69']Maybe I am crazy but...it seems that Blockbuster's plan might actually be comparable or better to Netflix's plan. $8.99 for 1-Disc at a time..with Blu-Ray...and it seems you can return the DVDs in store to get instant credit for sending it back. I do love my Netflix Streaming though. If they start to drop the ball with that, there could be a problem.[/QUOTE]

Blockbuster changed their in-store returns a bit. You can still return in store, but it no longer acts like a free coupon. You can get another movie with your return, but it counts against your online queue.

Been thinking about dropping my Blockbuster Online account. Haven't watched a movie in months, but I've been with them from the start so my plan is:

3 blu-rays $19.99 / month (plus taxes)
Unlimited mailings
Unlimited In-Store Exchanges
+ 2 FREE bonus Movie or Game Rental E-Coupon / Month

If I drop it, I'll never get a deal that good. But I'm not really using it lately. So stupid.
 
that is bullshit really because they're adding more movies. now if they were to ship them faster and have better turnaround times then it would be worth the extra $2 (from $1 to $3) and if they offered better movies for instanst streaming I wouldn't mind paying an extra $1 but overall it's just them reaping more $ from us and I for one will probably cancel and wait it out awhile longer until redbox offers more blu rays @ their kiosks or i'll just stick with regular dvd's for now instead of blu ray.
 
[quote name='Birbo']Blockbuster changed their in-store returns a bit. You can still return in store, but it no longer acts like a free coupon. You can get another movie with your return, but it counts against your online queue.

Been thinking about dropping my Blockbuster Online account. Haven't watched a movie in months, but I've been with them from the start so my plan is:

3 blu-rays $19.99 / month (plus taxes)
Unlimited mailings
Unlimited In-Store Exchanges
+ 2 FREE bonus Movie or Game Rental E-Coupon / Month

If I drop it, I'll never get a deal that good. But I'm not really using it lately. So stupid.[/QUOTE]

The annoying thing about blockbuster is that they keep changing the rules every 6 months it seems. I have both because of a few reasons- in store swaps, HD DVD until last summer, and netflix streaming. Best of both worlds. I may drop blockbuster later this year though as I get through my queue.
 
Netflix is doing what every company does, screw their customers over. Once a company feels it can raise prices on us and get away with it this is how it happens. First they make you wait almost a month to get certain movies now they jack up the price. Seriously people we use to pay less before for better service.
 
They could maybe even justify it if they were getting movie exclusives that BBV and Movies on Demand were getting... but they arent. So on top of paying more, we're having to wait an extra month on a lot of new releases.
 
[quote name='Birbo']Blockbuster changed their in-store returns a bit. You can still return in store, but it no longer acts like a free coupon. You can get another movie with your return, but it counts against your online queue.

Been thinking about dropping my Blockbuster Online account. Haven't watched a movie in months, but I've been with them from the start so my plan is:

3 blu-rays $19.99 / month (plus taxes)
Unlimited mailings
Unlimited In-Store Exchanges
+ 2 FREE bonus Movie or Game Rental E-Coupon / Month

If I drop it, I'll never get a deal that good. But I'm not really using it lately. So stupid.[/QUOTE]

I understand your plan is different, but let me see if I understand their current program correctly. If I "check in" my movie that I received by mail, will their online queue reflect that I have turned the movie in and send me another one? That would be the equivalent of when I have to drop my Netflix envelope at a Post Office Box, except it would be instant.

If so, the decision comes down to...$8.99 with Blu-Ray, Some Exclusives, & Instant Return vs. $10.99 with Blu-Ray, Some Delayed Titles, and a huge streaming library.

Tough call for me there. I think the streaming wins out, though. I watched every season of "The Office" on Netflix streaming, which would have taken forever via disc.
 
I'm still having no issues with Netflix. $10.99 for one at a time with Blu ray and unlimited streaming is still great for me.

I don't like the disc delays, but at the same time I don't really care as both my disc and instant queues stay over 100 titles so having something I want to watch is never an issue.

And I love the streaming service for TV shows (added all the X-files seasons to watch over the summer) which take for ever on a 1 disc at a time plan, indie films, foreign films, classics, documentaries etc.

I loathe blockbuster so I'd never use the instant returns anyway as I haven't set foot in one of their stores in 7 or 8 years after a few bad experiences.
 
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