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Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

bbc.com

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Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#81

Post by utopcell »

jackson1442 wrote: post #72
sillysaurusx wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone is giving you their money, how do you know they don't want to use your service? Many people give money to ensure that a service is available when they need it.

> Many people give money to ensure that a service is available when they need it. Netflix, as a service, takes ~10 minutes to set up. This might be the case for a software suite like CC, where you might need to download a massive amount of data, or other software where you pay annually or enter into some kind of contract, but Netflix is strictly monthly and easy to sign up for by design.

That is mostly, but not entirely true. If one's Netflix account is deactivated for more than 10 months, they lose their history, preferences and personalized results.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#82

Post by krtong »

spiralganglion wrote: post #45
raiyu wrote: post #12

I always wonder when a company does this if it is completely altruistic or if something else is going on behind the scenes. Maybe notifying customers gets them to reactivate, maybe if they resubscribe later they can charge more, maybe it’s better for financial reporting and projecting subscriber counts. On the other hand it could just be a rare moment of a company doing right by the customer.

We do this at my company, and it is purely for altruistic reasons. If people aren't happily making good use of my service, I don't want their money. That's the entire calculus. Netflix is vastly bigger, granted, so who knows what machinations are afoot for them. But it is certainly believable to me that a company could choose to do something explicitly anti-greedy.

It probably also stops people from unsubscribing, which means they may check on Netflix more often and possibly watch something again. Also if they go to resubscribe they may fall prey to the signup form attrition rate, so ensuring they don't have to fill that out again helps.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#83

Post by S_A_P »

goodside wrote: post #78
bsanr2 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. If someone is paying for your service and not using it, perhaps they have an inaccurate idea of what your service (and their payments) actually entail. If that's the case, then you have a customer who's going to come to you eventually to figure out what the hell they've been paying you for all this time, and/or in need of a particularly expensive crash training course (because it's coming out of nowhere). Bette…

If I sign up for a gym membership and then don’t show up for months on end, I don’t feel like I’ve been swindled — I knew that’s how it works when I signed up. I’m not confused about what a gym membership is for or why I’m paying for it. I might still never cancel because I don’t want to admit how lazy I am, so each instance of me considering the wasted money ends with me thinking, “I really should get to the gym mor…

On the flip side I think it’s probably cheaper to cut ties with an inactive user than deal with small claims lawsuits, chargebacks and other hassles from people who forget they are subscribed.

Honestly I could see this being an honesty test class action at some point.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#84

Post by aspenmayer »

goodside wrote: post #55

Years ago, I heard of a dating site doing the opposite of this. They normally sent periodic digests and newsletters to their users to try to increase engagement, but if a user went a certain number of months without logging into their account, but still allowed monthly fees to be charged, they were labeled as a “sleeping giant” in the database. Once in this state, they would not be contacted by the site for any reaso…

There’s a growing app industry to combat these dark patterns, an industry with its own costs and benefits. I believe iOS and Android also are incorporating dashboards and tools to manage subscriptions made via Apple Pay and Google Pay respectively.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z43qx9/how-to-cancel-recu...

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#85

Post by chrischen »

goodside wrote: post #55

Years ago, I heard of a dating site doing the opposite of this. They normally sent periodic digests and newsletters to their users to try to increase engagement, but if a user went a certain number of months without logging into their account, but still allowed monthly fees to be charged, they were labeled as a “sleeping giant” in the database. Once in this state, they would not be contacted by the site for any reaso…

This is what Hulu did to me, and frankly, these companies are optimizing for short term revenue rather than for people actually want to pay for their products.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#86

Post by [deleted] »

chrischen wrote: post #85
goodside wrote: post #55

Years ago, I heard of a dating site doing the opposite of this. They normally sent periodic digests and newsletters to their users to try to increase engagement, but if a user went a certain number of months without logging into their account, but still allowed monthly fees to be charged, they were labeled as a “sleeping giant” in the database. Once in this state, they would not be contacted by the site for any reaso…

This is what Hulu did to me, and frankly, these companies are optimizing for short term revenue rather than for people actually want to pay for their products.

[deleted]

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#87

Post by baddox »

aspenmayer wrote: post #84
goodside wrote: post #55

Years ago, I heard of a dating site doing the opposite of this. They normally sent periodic digests and newsletters to their users to try to increase engagement, but if a user went a certain number of months without logging into their account, but still allowed monthly fees to be charged, they were labeled as a “sleeping giant” in the database. Once in this state, they would not be contacted by the site for any reaso…

There’s a growing app industry to combat these dark patterns, an industry with its own costs and benefits. I believe iOS and Android also are incorporating dashboards and tools to manage subscriptions made via Apple Pay and Google Pay respectively. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z43qx9/how-to-cancel-recu...

I would love to know if any of these are actually good, instead of just their own scams. I just want to see all recurring payments grouped by something intelligent (like the vendor and/or the amount).

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#88

Post by jonathanlydall »

alanlovestea wrote: post #59

Be careful, exactly 10 years after I cancelled my Netflix, Netflix started to charge my card again. I contacted Netflix, but they cannot did anything about it. I ended up having my card issuer to issue a new account number to me.

The most likely explanation is that your credit card details were compromised and someone was using them for “free Netflix”.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#89

Post by ekianjo »

cocochanel wrote: post #74
goodside wrote: post #55

Years ago, I heard of a dating site doing the opposite of this. They normally sent periodic digests and newsletters to their users to try to increase engagement, but if a user went a certain number of months without logging into their account, but still allowed monthly fees to be charged, they were labeled as a “sleeping giant” in the database. Once in this state, they would not be contacted by the site for any reaso…

Just a few weeks ago I realized I was paying for Xbox Live without having played it for 8 years. I didn't even remember the password.

Cancelling for XboxLive has always been a pain (at least until 5 years ago, I don't know now): they make it easy to subscribe online and pay with a credit card, but cancelling forces you to look for a phone number buried in help pages and call a hotline that's only open during business hours or something. Pure dark pattern.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#90

Post by staticautomatic »

goodside wrote: post #55

Years ago, I heard of a dating site doing the opposite of this. They normally sent periodic digests and newsletters to their users to try to increase engagement, but if a user went a certain number of months without logging into their account, but still allowed monthly fees to be charged, they were labeled as a “sleeping giant” in the database. Once in this state, they would not be contacted by the site for any reaso…

That's fascinating and very smart.
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