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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

#401

Post by namibj »

dredds wrote: post #149
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…

As an aside, when i top up my prepaid mobile i have the option to donate the top-up to another number. Yet dating sites i've seen don't allow subscribing someone else for a limited time (by opting-in on their side of course). Is there some reason as to why this is not an option on most dating sites? Seems courteous, but it might lead to scams or begging perhaps?

Twitch Subscriptions can be "gifted". You might want to check that ecosystem for concrete begging behavior and such.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#402

Post by wpietri »

dyslexit wrote: post #113
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.

Is your company private? If you're not heavily funded by investors you probably have more freedom to behave according to your morals than if it were otherwise. Public companies are always looking to meet shareholder expectations on the other hand. Not saying they can't occasionally make altruistic decisions like this, just that more people's interests are being weighed.

That's not a requirement or anything. There's no law that says you have to maximize short-term revenue at the expense of customer happiness.

I think it's become common because the average public company CEO tenure has fallen by 50% over the same period that their compensation has gone up 10x. Now it's in their strong interest to juice the quarterly numbers and not worry about anything particularly long term, because that's going to be the problem of some other sucker. And similar incentives apply all down the executive hierarchy. The faster people move around, the easier it is to make bonus-related metrics go up even if it harms things a few years down the line.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#403

Post by notadog »

alkonaut wrote: post #294

Imagine if gyms did this.

The difference between Netflix doing this and gyms doing this is gyms rely heavily on people who join and don't go (even specifically targeting that audience), while for Netflix it is less than half a percent of their users.

If anyone is interesting in learning more about the economics and psychology of gym memberships, I highly recommend Episode 590: The Planet Money Workout of the NPR podcast Planet Money.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#404

Post by fuddle »

sytelus wrote: post #143
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'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…

It's probably worth reporting your card as lost and to get a new one. They won't be able to charge you then.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#405

Post by saystupidthings »

hackissimo123 wrote: post #210
saluki wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

Spoken like someone who has never worked a minimum wage (or close to it) job. There is no savings. There is no extra smartphone. There is barely food and rent.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#406

Post by kchr »

bcrosby95 wrote: post #366
cdolan wrote: post #285

For those in the chat who react by saying “this should be law!” Laws have unintended consequences. Also I subscribe to a number of services I barely ever use, generally because I got in with an account very early on, and the price I’m paying is usually 1/5 or less of the current retail price. I do not want companies to proactively cancel my service. “Thats Absurd!” You may say... well for about 10 years I kept my ori…

My wife has an old gym membership for 24 hour fitness. She pays $120/year. Never uses it. Figures it's good "whoops, you're homeless" insurance - it's a place you can get dressed and take a shower.

Wow, that's one use of the gym card I never considered. Genious.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#407

Post by diebeforei485 »

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.

If you're an Apple user, subscribe through their in-app purchase with Apple. Apple lets you cancel monthly subscriptions fairly easily.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#408

Post by perl4ever »

war1025 wrote: post #337
KMnO4 wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the problem with credit cards. Once they have your number, it’s very difficult to “stop paying”.

Do people really have the same credit card number for that long? I feel like every year I end up with a new card for one reason or another and suddenly I have to track down all the places that can no longer process my payments. I learned that you can request a replacement card with the same number, which I was initially very excited about. But when you get the new card it has a different expiration date, so it still…

In my (recent) experience, periodic charges are automatically applied to a new card, even if it has a new number. For your convenience, if you forgot to update your payment info...

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#409

Post by Fezzik »

wpietri wrote: post #396
mywacaday wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, agreed. I canceled my NYT subscription a while back in protest over some of their editorial misbehavior. It took me weeks to get in canceled and all my money back. Especially frustrating is that they dragged out the process and then charged me for the time that I was trying to unsubscribe. Eventually I just made American Express take the extra $2 back. I want to resubscribe eventually, as they put out a lot of…

One sort of workaround is to subscribe through Apple. Then cancelling is as simple as toggling your subscription to Off. As an added bonus, when you subscribe this way, you do not even have to give the NYT any of your contact info - Apple has it set-up so you can use randomized tokens to login. One of the many things I appreciate that Apple does.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#410

Post by have_faith »

minikites wrote: post #279
have_faith wrote: post #276

Could this feasibly be law? what are the potential down sides? That is a company has to stop charging for a service if the service isn't used for a specified amount of time, 12 months or so etc. Like a gym couldn't just keep charging you if their records show you never turned up.

Why should the government interfere in market outcomes?

Should vulnerable people be left to fend for themselves without government intervention? What's the issue with laws that prevent the market from abusing it's position of power against vulnerable people?
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