Netflix announced a major price hike yesterday, sending subscribers into a tizzy. No longer will customers be able to spend just $9.99 per month for DVDs and unlimited online streaming—they’ll have to pay $7.99 for each. Now, thousands of Netflix’s angry subscribers are taking to the Internet to protest the new fees.
According to the New York Post, enraged users attacked Netflix CEO Reed Hastings online, calling him “Greed Hastings” on message boards and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The post on Netflix’s Facebook page announcing the fee increase already has over 30,000 comments from the site’s members, all of which seem to be negative. (Although, strangely, the post does have more than 700 thumbs ups.)
People posted contact information on Netflix’ Facebook page ranging from Hastings’ company email to the Netflix headquarter's phone number and address, encouraging other enraged users to get in touch with the service and “make noise.” Facebook pages like “1,000,000 people who will not stand for Netflix's new prices” and “If 2,000,000 People Like this Netflix Will keep the same rates” have already popped up, while commenters on Netflix’s official page are complaining that their angry posts are being deleted.
Many users are promising to cancel their subscriptions on September 30, when the rate increase goes into effect, while others have threatened to switch their allegiances to rival streaming services like Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime, or to start renting DVDs from Blockbuster and Coinstar’s Redbox service (as one Facebook user put it, “GOODBYE, greed has brought many a business down, and in this rough economy, really?? Hello Redbox, goodbye Netflix!”).
Eric Wold, director of research at Merriman Capital, agreed that Redbox could benefit from the new Netflix fees (Coinstar’s stock has already risen since the announcement). “I am negative on [the price increase],” he told the New York Post. “It's a pretty steep hike.”
