Three Reasons I Should Cancel My Netflix Membership
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
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Nope. She wasn't AWAKE early, the girl hadn't gone to BED from the day before. Angry, worried, and downright puzzled, I turned to look at my husband as he returned to bed. Through his tired eyes, he turns to me and asks, "Wanna know what she was doing? Take one guess." Before I could utter any words I shook my head and he states, "Watching Netflix."
To say Netflix is a big part of our lives is an understatement. In order to save a little money, we completely canceled our cable service. You read that right. We only have local stations through our antenna and digital converter. We, solely, rely on Netflix type subscriptions played through our Roku, Wii, Computer, or iPhone. The sacrifice has had little effect on our family because we're not big TV watchers to begin with.
With that said, yesterday I REALLY contemplated cancelling our Netflix Membership for a few reasons:
1. Netflix Price Increase: Yesterday, Netflix announced that they would be separating their streaming plans from their DVD plans. Wow. Seriously? I have to pay an extra $8.00 a month JUST to get a DVD? I, often, forget to return the discs so that leaves me with about 3 movies a month for $8.00. No thank you. Not when Redbox is right around the corner. I could understand the price change ONLY if they offered more new releases on their streaming service. Bad move, Netflix. Bad Move.
2. Redbox will stream movies soon: Okay. It's only speculated and not completely official yet, but rumor has it that Redbox (my new BFF since they started offering video game rentals) will stream movies very soon through a partnership with Amazon. What do you think? Can Redbox compete against the Netflix giant now that they shot themselves in the foot with their price hike?
3. Netflix takes over our lives: I can't say this enough. Neflix is everywhere. You can stream at the gym on your phone. You can stream on your computer, iPad, Roku, Wii, and XBOX. I thought we were being smart parents by canceling our cable service and only allowing a controlled internet service, like Netflix, but I was wrong. The thing about Netflix is it's every where my child goes. She can watch it in her room on her iPod touch. She can watch it while she waits in the Doctor's office. It's insane. She also has access to FULL seasons of shows adding to her addictive behavior. We need to unplug. BAD.
Now, I know it's not Neflix's fault my daughter has a problem. It's ours. As parents, we should have monitored her behavior a little bit better, but it kind of just snuck up on us. The fact that she was watching on her iPod touch late at night was NOT something I realized.
Sneaky Netflix.
You have become nothing short of an annoyance.
But I can't quit you.
I want to.
I should.
I just might.
What did you think of the Netflix price hike? Bad for business? Or expected?
Disclosure: This post not directly associated with Redbox, Amazon, or Netflix. Opinions, stated, are always my own and never wavered by products received nor compensated unless, otherwise, stated.
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I will say I was totally miffed by the increase yesterday, but I saw it coming. All the media companies are miffed they do not get more, so when folks like Disney(ABC) and Universal(NBC-Comcast now)redo their deals, they are all asking for a larger piece of the pie.
James- I expected it too and to tell you the truth $8 bucks won't completely kill our budget, but I think I was more "miffed" at the delivery of their price hike. We're still on the fence about whether or not to keep our Netflix. So, we. shall. see.
Not thrilled about the price hike. With money already being so tight, not in our budget.
Sara,
I am preparing a post on how Netflix charged me for three years on a gift card I gave out and i did not get reimbursed.
I am almost in the exact same position. No cable to save money, not a biggie because we dont watch much and what we do is either available online or on local channels.
Honestly, Im a little upset about the price increase because soooo many titles are only available on DVD. Most of the really good stuff, only available on DVD. Many titles arent even available at redbox (although, redbox is my bff too, ESPECIALLY now that they have games)
Unless much of their dvd selection is added to their streaming selection
Also, id like some sort of parental control, i dont like that my daughter, in the privacy of her room, can select a title thats rated R. True thats my responsibility as her mother to monitor, and I do, but that feature would be nice.
We don't have cable/satellite either...haven't for a long time. It was an expense that we just couldn't afford anymore. Plus, we would watch more TV when we had it just to make it worth the cost. So now we just have HD antennae and it's fine. We've had Netflix off and on for the last year. We found that the kids would want to watch a lot more TV when we had Netflix..and there were times when they were off from school that we were letting them watch...A lot. It kind of became a problem because they were "forgetting" to take care of responsibilities in order to get to the tv or computer to watch Netflix..so I cancelled it. I realize it's up to us parents to regulate Netflix in our home, but I can't always think for everyone and it gets tiring having to remember to remember for everyone else what they're supposed to do. Our oldest two are 16 & 13 and they should be more responsible.
So, anyway...the increase in price is a good reason to totally ditch it. :)
Lori! I'm so glad to hear another parent going through what we're going through. I, like you, can't keep up with everything everyone is doing in my house, especially when i'm tyring to work or clean, etc. I had NO IDEA my daughter was watching Netflix late at night on the iPod touch. Then it hit me how much of a problem it was. Like... it's a SERIOUS addiction she has. It wasn't like this when we had cable b/c her shows were ONLY on at certain times and she could ONLY watch them on the TV, not all these other devices.
I think price hikes are a normal part of life and people shouldn't be having such a negative reaction. I am probably going to change my subscription to streaming only.
I included your post about Netflix on my post about Netflix raising prices and alternative ways to save money: http://www.mamiofmultiples.com/2011/07/netflix-raises-prices-and-alternatives.html