Netflix stops charging customers who never watch • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#201

Post by chki » Sat, May 23, 2020, 9:27 AM UTC

INTPenis wrote: post #199

Misleading title. Here I thought I could be charged by the hour. That would actually make me get netflix, finally. But I don't think it's worth 5 euro or 11 euro a month because I only enjoy a very small portion of media. So far it's easier to pirate. And I'm far too used to the situation where a friend wants to put something on from netflix and it's not available. What's the point of paying 11 euro a month when you'…

How do you deal with the fact that pirating is not sustainable? Expecially right now when cinemas aren't even open, how can films be made if nobody's paying?

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#202

Post by INTPenis » Sat, May 23, 2020, 9:30 AM UTC

chki wrote: post #201

INTPenis wrote: post #199

Misleading title. Here I thought I could be charged by the hour. That would actually make me get netflix, finally. But I don't think it's worth 5 euro or 11 euro a month because I only enjoy a very small portion of media. So far it's easier to pirate. And I'm far too used to the situation where a friend wants to put something on from netflix and it's not available. What's the point of paying 11 euro a month when you'…

How do you deal with the fact that pirating is not sustainable? Expecially right now when cinemas aren't even open, how can films be made if nobody's paying?

No answer I give will satisfy you morally. I've been pirating since tapes on C64 in the 80s so I'm afraid we're just going to have to agree to disagree as they say.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#203

Post by cpv » Sat, May 23, 2020, 9:30 AM UTC

mywacaday wrote: post #168

sytelus wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm getting charged by rhapsody.com every quarter for no apparent reason. I used their service like may be 8 years ago. They have a phone number in their merchant line which is invalid. When I filed request to void the charge to American Express, initially they declined! Then I filed appeal with angry comments and they finally voided it. It took over two months for the process. I just saw new Rhapsody charge again. T…

Companies that make it difficult to unsubscribe should be penalised, I live in Europe and got the New York Times on a 12 month trial for €4 a month. Trial just ended and it's now €8 a month, only way to cance is to ring them, have tried once so far and was on hold for 20 mins before I hung up. There should be a law that if you can sign up online you can cancel online.

One reason I try to never give my card to lots of websites. If they have paypal, good. Or playstore subscription, sure. A one time/non recurring payment via a platform/provider/bank, ok.

But never the card. Reading such user horror stories, or Terms & Conditions, makes me turn around and never come back.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#204

Post by kalleboo » Sat, May 23, 2020, 9:34 AM UTC

reificator wrote: post #127

KajMagnus wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds as if you are not worried that they would sue you? What are the reasons you feel safe? (Then maybe I could try this me too)

> It sounds as if you are not worried that they would sue you? Netflix subscriptions are prepaid. What on earth would give them the idea to sue if your card is declined? If your current month runs out and your renewal is declined, they just don't authorize you for a second month of service. There's no breach of contract, there's no debt for services rendered, I can't think of a single motivation to sue for this. What…

Companies in Germany will actually keep raking up your debt and call a collections agency on you. It's horrible.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#205

Post by krick » Sat, May 23, 2020, 9:34 AM UTC

That's great, but why would they do this? I don't understand. Is it just a seemingly costly PR-capmaign?

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#206

Post by erk__ » Sat, May 23, 2020, 9:37 AM UTC

elcomet wrote: post #195

adamtulinius wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually we have such a law in the EU. Not sure what it's called, but I'm sure it exists. I believe the wording to be something like it has to be possible to cancel in a similar way you signed up.

If it exists, it is not followed. In France, Le Monde (most famous daily newspaper) requires you to send a paper mail (and not a regular mail, but a registered mail, which costs around 5-10€) to cancel your subscription. Even if you subscribed on the website, for a 100% online subscription. It's really shady.

It may not be followed in every country, but at least in Denmark the "forbrugerombudsmanden" slams down on things like that, I think that they recently sent out a message that online services should be able to be unsubscribed online as well.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#207

Post by t0mas88 » Sat, May 23, 2020, 9:39 AM UTC

elcomet wrote: post #195

adamtulinius wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually we have such a law in the EU. Not sure what it's called, but I'm sure it exists. I believe the wording to be something like it has to be possible to cancel in a similar way you signed up.

If it exists, it is not followed. In France, Le Monde (most famous daily newspaper) requires you to send a paper mail (and not a regular mail, but a registered mail, which costs around 5-10€) to cancel your subscription. Even if you subscribed on the website, for a 100% online subscription. It's really shady.

That's illegal in the EU. So you could just send them a cancellation email and stop paying.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#208

Post by hackissimo123 » Sat, May 23, 2020, 9:39 AM UTC

jclulow wrote: post #57

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…

I am routinely surprised to receive email spam from my gym membership. It's like they're daring me to remember to cancel it.

My gym (a very popular UK-wide chain) has suspended all customer payments while their gyms are closed during lockdown. Instead they're spamming me trying to get me to pay for their workout app which they obviously knocked out in a hurry in an attempt to salvage some cashflow during this crisis.

I can't blame them for trying, but it's definitely not a good time to be running a gym.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#209

Post by krick » Sat, May 23, 2020, 9:42 AM UTC

zerd wrote: post #28

Imagine if gyms did this with memberships. They'd lose a fortune.

Exactly. And while I don't want have the urge to use Netflix anyway, I'd sign-up for a gym that charges for actual usage without hesitation.

But that's why it only more interesting. We all are sadly accustomed that selling subscriptions you would never is the business model of most gyms. But then, what would be the reason for Netflix not to do this? This is really weird, I don't believe they would do this just to be good guys, and I don't see what can be the reason for them to do that otherwise.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#210

Post by hackissimo123 » Sat, May 23, 2020, 9:44 AM UTC

saluki wrote: post #50

spiralganglion wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm amazed how many SaaS users are zOmBiE uSeRs, this is from working on client SaaS apps. One had about 20% of the users paying and not even logging in for months or even a year. Props to Netflix for unsubscribing users who don't use the service.

I think the wider point is that it's amazing how lax and careless so many people are with their personal finances. They think nothing of wasting hundreds (thousands?) of $$$ a year on unnecessary purchases, including things that they don't even use (like old software subscriptions.) Then they complain that they're broke.

When I hear sob stories about how #{big_number}% of people can't afford an unexpected $500 bill, I'd love to know how many of those people would easily have $500 in savings if they cancelled all their unused subscriptions and stopped buying a new smartphone every year.