The Netflix $6 Increase

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Lynne7042003
@Netflixhelps Ok now that you will be raising my price by $6 in September in return please restore all the Dark Shadows Collection DVDs
3 hours ago

Netflixhelps
@Lynne7042003 The good news is that the increase will allow us to focus more on these types of issues!
1 hour ago

Lynne7042003
@Netflixhelps Thanks that makes the 6 dollar increase better to handle knowing it is going towards restoring all the Dark Shadows Col. DVDs
39 minutes ago

I wonder if that's a load of bull or if Netflix really will use part of the money they'll derive from the price increase to offer all of DS for streaming? It would be nice to think they will...

[borgosi]

Is Lvnne7042003@Netflixhelps the address we should all use to ask for the complete DS?

[KMR]

MB, unless I'm misunderstanding something, it sounds like Lynne was asking for all of the DS DVDs to be restored to Netflix. I didn't see anything about streaming DS episodes. (But then that makes me wonder:  how many DS DVDs are no longer available thru Netflix--and why?)

[borgosi]

They are streaming 160 DS eposides right now, they just added 80. I know they are missing some on DVD. I want them to stream them all.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Is Lvnne7042003@Netflixhelps the address we should all use to ask for the complete DS?

No. Lynne7042003 is the Twitter name of the lady who was tweeting to the Netflix Help account, and Netflixhelps is the name of that account on Twitter. And unfortunately, I didn't see any sort of e-mail address on Netflix' Web site. Perhaps it only shows up if you're a member, which I'm not.

MB, unless I'm misunderstanding something, it sounds like Lynne was asking for all of the DS DVDs to be restored to Netflix. I didn't see anything about streaming DS episodes. (But then that makes me wonder:  how many DS DVDs are no longer available thru Netflix--and why?)

There were a few earlier tweets where streaming DS was being discussed by others who were part of the discussion, so from that I gathered streaming DS was what she was talking about. And before I posted I did check which DS DVDs are supposedly available, and Netflix' Web site listed them all as available for rental, with Volumes 1-4 as available for streaming. But now that borgosi says that they are missing some, I don't know. But if all the volumes aren't available for rental, someone should definitely update the list because someone who's potentially joining mostly to rent DS isn't going to be very happy if the whole series isn't available as indicated. And as you say, who knows why that would be?  

[Gothick]

A glitch on Netflix is that in some cases, something shows up as available, but when you add it to your queue you get "short wait."  However the short wait appears to be never ending, rather like Miss Amanda Harris in Mr Best's hotel lobby between the worlds.

Overall Netflix is pretty decent, but their DS discs get heavy use--you can find threads here from years ago about broken discs that were never replaced, etc.

G.

[Heather]

I am a Netflix subscriber, and use it to rent DS DVD's as well as a few other favorites...
Netflix once had all DS DVD sets EXCEPT for most of 1897...now they have removed most of the volumes in entirety. I'm so upset.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Thanks for the info, Gothick and Heather.

I wonder if because there has been such demand for the discs, they've eventually become damaged, and Netflix just hasn't replaced them? If so, then hopefully Netflixhelps was being truthful if they meant that the price increase will help them to replace the missing/damaged DS discs.

[borgosi]

I saw a story on one of the entertainment news shows that said Netflix was doing away with all of their DVDs and would be streaming everything. In the last month or so they went for having 80 DS eposides to 160. That still isn't very many but the number is increasing. I have all of the DVDs but I still hope they get them all streaming soon.

[Nancy]

I have had to return discs that were scratched or damaged to the point they would not play at all.  I'm not surprised by the price increase.

I can see one problem in their having all of the DS episodes for rent: the staggering inventory of housing the DVD sets.  How many volumes altogether are there?

[madscntst]

I don't begrudge a price increase, but I do think that it's silly that they don't offer any discount for a bundled plan (ie., getting discs plus streaming is the cost of the two plans added).  I also think it's silly to initiate this at a time when not enough titles are available for streaming to be able to replace getting DVDs.  I guess it depends on what you want to watch, but I intend to drop streaming, at least for now, and stick with a 2 DVD plan.  I know they eventually want to eliminate the discs, and I would like to, too, but not yet.  Luckily, I've only had occasional trouble with DVDs being cracked, scratched, or otherwise not playing, and when that happens, they always send a replacement the same day or the next day after I report it, so I've had no complaints on that front.

[Gothick]

To me, streaming isn't as good as watching a DVD on the player that is attached to my television set.  I have a friend now who just watches everything on his computer and he doesn't care.  When I stream, I often notice hesitation, or it stops and starts due to traffic or bandwidth or whatever the hell it is. 

I notice in our culture a tendency to think that our tech and our resources are at a place that we imagine they could be, but they really aren't.  Like the idea that we're getting rid of all our books and newspapers and mags and going whole hog digital.  Well, some of us don't want to be staring at glowing screens 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

I feel more fortunate than ever that I am privileged to own all the DS episodes on DVD.  Netflix track record around DS is not one of their finest hours as a company.  I think the consumer demand, and the volume of episodes, is simply beyond their capacity.

It's amazing and wonderful to me to see how popular DS continues to be after all these years.  I watch a lot of "vintage" television (am just catching up with a wonderful Bill Bixby series from 1973, The Magician, thanks to a generous and kind friend) and it's very rare for a series this old to be this widely followed.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

How many volumes altogether are there?

There are 32 sets. So that's 128 discs.

[KMR]

There are 32 sets. So that's 128 discs.

Which would be an infinitessimal percentage of the entire Netflix inventory, even if they had several copies of each (which they should...)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Very true. And as in demand as DS discs might be, I seriously doubt they're as in demand as the latest big movies are - so you know those discs have to get damaged as well.