Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers (stock drops 28%)

money.cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 190 posts

Re: Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers (stock drops 28%)

#161

Post by hessenwolf »

notJim wrote: post #149
cubicle67 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

excuse my ignorance, but what's a credit score and why does it matter? I can see it's a Bad Thing to have a low one, but in what way does it impact someone?

I'm sorry, as this is rather off-topic, but are you by any chance unfamiliar with credit scores because they don't exist in Australia? If so, how do lending institutions gauge your credit-worthiness, and how do you set expectations about the same? I am just curious how this works outside of the US.

I know a guy, who was at a conference, and was told by a guy in banking that one of the credit scoring techniques for credit card applications was checking if the first and last letters of your family name are vowels.

The idea being that Nigerians usually have vowels on both ends of their family names.

Re: Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers (stock drops 28%)

#162

Post by padobson »

shinratdr wrote: post #117
padobson wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1. Why can't the figure out a pricing point? Shouldn't the marginal cost per user be going down as they scale? What's wrong with their infrastructure that it's going up? Or are they just trying to price it for demand? That doesn't make much sense to me if they're pricing away customers in the middle of the growth stage.

Netflix doesn't have fixed costs. As they become more popular, licensing becomes more and more expensive and it becomes easier and easier for content owners to jerk them around for their own benefit.

But don't content costs scale on a linear trajectory? Cable companies pay $x/subscriber for a channel - each additional customer doesn't add to some cost multiplier and profit goes up with revenue and cost of content.

Is Netflix so at the whims of content providers that their model is so much different? It seems like a completely broken business if they can't find scalable ways to make their content providers money.

Re: Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers (stock drops 28%)

#163

Post by lsc »

georgemcbay wrote: post #43
badclient wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

still cost less than a decent meal So many great things on the web cost less than a single cup of Starbucks. Yet, I myself am so hesitant to pay for them. On my landing pages I design at work, I'm increasingly trying to communicate this via comparisons("less than a morning Starbucks trip"). Another one is showing a dollar bill to communicate that for less than a dollar a day, they will get _____. For a service that w…

The reason I think long and hard before signing up for new web services isn't even the cost 99% of the time, but the uncertainty in how difficult it is going to be to cancel should I decide I do not want to continue. I've had it UP TO HERE with services that allow me to subscribe with one click and then make me go through a half-day long ordeal of phone calls to outsourced customer service people (who earn bonuses ba…

this is very interesting to me; I thought that the ultimate in this would be to give you control over billing, so I don't do pull billing at all- I send you a bill and you pay it or you don't. (alternately, we can setup a paypal recurring payment for you, but you also can cancel that without telling me.)

But, all I hear about this model from my customers is complaints. It's a pain in the ass for them to pay every month, or they hate paypal, can't they just give me a credit card, etc...

It's possible that most people feel the way you do and those people just sign up and don't say anything... but I dono.

Re: Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers (stock drops 28%)

#164

Post by [deleted] »

danbmil99 wrote: post #136
nfriedly wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ouch - I would contact each of the credit bureaus and ask them to remove the claim. It was purely a communications error because, as you said, you're willing and able to pay the bill. (I'm not sure who the "they" is, hopefully not the credit bureau :(

FWIW there are companies that specialize in 'fixing' your credit, and resources on the web for same. With some work you can usually clean up a bad credit score over time.

[deleted]

Re: Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers (stock drops 28%)

#165

Post by ericb »

EugeneG wrote: post #111

Their main competitive advantage was their physical delivery infrastructure, which is very hard to replicate. If the DVD business dies slowly (as Hastings said it will) and is replaced by streaming, they are left with no competitive advantage. There is a good many companies that have the infrastructure to stream a large amount of video content (Amazon, Google, Akamai, etc). All of these companies will lack any compet…

I would argue their presence on millions of DVD players and gaming platforms is now a solid competitive advantage. There are only two streaming services on my blu ray player, and netflix is one of them.

Re: Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers (stock drops 28%)

#166

Post by mcherm »

frek818 wrote: post #135
chadgeidel wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally am amazed that people's queue is not constantly full. Right now I have 178 disks in my "DVD" queue and 87 titles in my "Instant" queue (including series which take one slot). Maybe there's a ton of stuff that I don't "need" to watch, but I can always find something interesting. I really don't consider myself a huge movie lover either.

Hard to believe you have that many movies in your Instant Queue. Is this Reed Hasting? I admit that I find a unpopular movie that I enjoy sometimes. But I mostly sit through 5 boring unpopular movies before I find a gem.

Over the weekend I watched Time Bandits with my 8 year old. How can you beat that?

Re: Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers (stock drops 28%)

#167

Post by bborud »

gkoberger wrote: post #3

I feel bad for Netflix. They're between a rock and a hard place. The content providers want more money and eventually want to cut out the middleman. The users balk when the price is raised, even though unlimited streaming and DVDs for a month still cost less than a decent meal. And every decision they make (like Qwikster, which was likely done so they didn't have to pay content providers a fee for users who weren't s…

The content providers are going to keep playing these games until the only services left standing are companies they cannot boss around easily. This is going to kill small players and concentrate bargaining power and then come back to bite the content providers in the ass.

(In addition there's all the petty stuff you have to deal with when it comes to the content industry. From branding requirements, to arbitrary limits in video resolution, to who can encode what how and where etc. There are too many lawyers, too many spoilt brats and not enough people who actually care about the product)

Re: Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers (stock drops 28%)

#168

Post by wbracken »

AJ007 wrote: post #48
georgemcbay wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason I think long and hard before signing up for new web services isn't even the cost 99% of the time, but the uncertainty in how difficult it is going to be to cancel should I decide I do not want to continue. I've had it UP TO HERE with services that allow me to subscribe with one click and then make me go through a half-day long ordeal of phone calls to outsourced customer service people (who earn bonuses ba…

Cancelling a recurring service is generally no more difficult than saying, "please cancel my subscription quick so I don't have to charge this back."

Not exactly the case - documented the struggles for canceling Clear at: http://wp.me/p1CQDI-3i

Re: Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers (stock drops 28%)

#169

Post by Despite »

palish wrote: post #159
ari_ wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The phrases you're looking to google are: [credit report validation] [codename47 site:fatwallet.com] Also check out these: http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/how-to-fight-debt-coll... (note that this site is now owned by Quinstreet so caveat emptor) and http://www.creditboards.com

Thank you so very much!

I second creditboards.com. It can be difficult and demoralizing to find what you need on there, but it's worth it. I've got several collections removed from my own report, and I'll help anybody who asks.

Since you're dealing with a small valid debt -- the first thing to try is the Right Thing. Call the Dr's Office -- not the collections agency -- offer to pay if they will take the bill back from the collections agency. Whether they can do that depends on their arrangement, but for a small Dr's office they probably can. After that, you may need to contact the credit bureau's again, but it should go much better.

If that doesn't work, then you need a VALID complaint for the bureau's. Any discrepancy between the truth and what's on your report is worth trying. If the date is wrong, or the name of the company, anything. Keep trying.

This last part is my opinion, but I don't think you should EVER pay to the collections agency. They will not remove things from your report because you paid. If you ask, then they know they have you over a barrel, and will try to get more money out of you. Pay the original company.

EDIT: Another great weapon is local state law. Collection agencies have to abide by the law of their state, and the law of your state. I'm in Texas -- our laws are very strict on collectors. Your agency is in California -- I believe their laws are strict too.

Re: Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers (stock drops 28%)

#170

Post by allenp »

palish wrote: post #109
nfriedly wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill collectors really aren't that bad if you know how to deal with them. I got sent to one once for a service I had canceled three times. The collector sent me a letter in the mail and then started calling every day at around 8 or 9 am. I sent all of the calls to voicemail and I sent a letter to the collector (via certified mail with delivery receipt) that said "RE: account number XYZ; this bill is erroneous, do not…

Mine was the opposite experience. It wasn't really the same situation as yours, so maybe this is totally irrelevant. But here's my story, just incase. My health insurance denied my coverage for a Dr's appointment ("pre existing condition") a month or two after the appointment. I had moved by then, and apparently the mail didn't get forwarded or something. The dr's eventually turned me over to some California collecti…

Another approach to take - there are lawyers/groups that specialize in getting these things removed. It will probably cost anywhere from $500-$1000 but they will harass every party involved until someone slips up and the bureaus are forced to remove the claim by law.

Depending on your situation it may be less expensive than what you would pay for a high-rate auto or home loan, etc.

I don't work for or know anyone that specializes in this but had a friend get 4 different claims removed over the course of a year this way.

Post reply on HN