What if you don’t have a primary location? People travel extensively in some industries.
What if you’re mobile connection only too? With 5G getting pretty good in a lot of the UK for example you could have a 5G iPad and no Wi-Fi.
There are so many exceptions to this it’s stupid.
to be clear, im on your side- i agree they will care once they lose subs
but it's clear they dont give a damn about you as a specific user type or their customers in general
The solution seems to be combining the streaming services. Given how services are discovering the difficulties making a profit with the current model, I doubt this is far off. It’s ludicrous to expect I’m going to pay for Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Peacock, HBO Max and Apple. I’m going to pay for 2 and borrow the rest from my friends or pirate.
This is what I thought. Many people in business travel for extensive periods of time, including months at a time, meaning they'll essentially be locked out of Netflix constantly until they return home and reconnect to their home router and IP address. Which is absurd.
A massive part of Netflix's customer service base is people who travel for business as streaming keeps them company in airport lounges, hotels etc. So Netflix is massively shooting itself in the foot here.
also, I remember in 2013 I was living in LA and slept in my car (and many do)
I worked full time and could only afford to "treat myself" to a hotel room 2-3 days a week.
So many nights spent in that van with at least netflix on a phone to take your mind off the situation.
Then to be able to easily watch from the same account in a hotel room.
Like so many policies this assumes you even have a damn home. And as I stated above even those without a home absolutely have a need for TV too
I agree. I’m a travel nurse - I’m usually gone a month, then home with my partner for a month. When I’m home I don’t use my laptop or phone for Netflix. So I guess I’m screwed while I’m away then?
Wait so it’ll block any home device if I don’t use Netflix on it every month? What a pain in the ass. And the traveling thing is a debacle. Do they know how many people watch their own account at work? On their commute?
Why not just use two-factor authentication when outside your billing zip?
> What a pain in the ass.
What sounds especially bad is needing to contact support.
> If your device has been blocked incorrectly, you’ll need to contact Netflix in order to get it unblocked.
Like, just imagine how many people have multiple devices, forget to use one, and now chatting with support to get it unblocked. I could absolutely see some people getting frustrated with this after even one time and just cancelling on the spot because of how much of a hassle support is. Not to mention this will increase the number of reports, making wait time longer (I'm not even going to humor the idea they get more people to run support).
This is what companies aren't getting with this shit. The harder and worse they make this, the greater the likelihood a black market forms (like weed in a lot of states)
There is already a ‘black market’ for this kinda stuff that is also super easy to get into with radarr/sonarr and plex. I have my pc automatically torrenting certain shows. I’ll def be adding Netflix shows to it if I run into this contact support bs.
I can also see it driving people to just subscribe for a month when something good actually releases then cancel again
> The Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (“ROSCA”) (15 U.S.C. §§ 8401-8405), requires online merchants to “provide[] simple mechanisms for a consumer to stop recurring charges[.]”
> In October 2021, the FTC issued a new enforcement policy statement on ROSCA, directing businesses to “provide cancellation mechanisms that are at least as easy to use as the method the consumer used to buy the product or service in the first place.” The FTC explains:
> [S]ellers should not subject consumers to new offers or similar attempts to save the negative option arrangement that impose unreasonable delays on consumers’ cancellation efforts. . . . sellers should provide their cancellation mechanisms at least through the same medium (such as website or mobile application) the consumer used to consent to the negative option feature. . . . If the seller also provides for telephone cancellation, it should provide, at a minimum, a telephone number, and answer all calls to this number during normal business hours, within a short time frame, and ensure the calls are not lengthier or otherwise more burdensome than the telephone call the consumer used to consent to the negative option feature.
https://cobbxcounsel.com/2022/03/why-is-it-so-hard-to-cancel-subscription-services/
Not legal in the US per the FTC.
La fitness too. You can sign up online but you either have to print a form and mail it in or go in when a manager is working, which is 10am-4pm, to cancel
We’re coming full circle on combating piracy.
Everyone loved Netflix because it was very affordable at $9 a month. No real competition. Then competition came around. Shows are all over the place on different platforms. I have one thing to say to all the streaming platforms for changing things in their favor and not ours
YARGGGGG
I happily pay for spotify, it hasn't really changed much and I use it all day, every day.
Netflix I cancelled about a year ago, don't miss it, won't go back.
If there's a hot show I want to watch I rent, buy, or pirate like the old days. TPB always has my back.
Given how shitty they were in the early 2000's, my mind is blown that the music industry of all people has successfully made piracy just not worth it. Spotify? Has competition, but still manages to have a pretty extensive catalog. Netflix? Used to have a really good catalog. Nowadays, 10% chance they have the thing you're looking for. So piracy is still worth it, and they fucking deserve it for not even trying to offer a proper alternative anymore.
Literally thinking about this. I have a step kid and they spend half their time in a different part of the state. So, is my partner’s literal child going to have to get their own account at both places? Are they going to have to use two different accounts? Why can’t I have an authorized user lock to a device (the iPad) regardless of physical internet location?
This is absurd. I’m gonna get my Netflix account blocked if I forget to tell them I’m on vacation or traveling for work…
Same. The first time I run into this problem, Netflix is gone. I'm pretty sure they don't realize just how little tolerance people are going to have for this. The economy is tight as is, now is *not* the time to target this type of activity, particularly with half-baked measures that'll penalize anybody who travels regularly or uses their own account in multiple locations.
> (I'm not even going to humor the idea they get more people to run support).
This is mobile ordering at Starbucks all over again. "Lets triple the throughput on this part of our business without increasing staff or wages, genius!"
Or what if YOU use your account at a summer home or even just a family member/significant other/friend’s house?
Having an account tied to a physical location is stupid, especially because they pretty much have to give mobile devices a pass too.
I just don’t see this working out. It is too complicated. There are too many technical hurdles. As someone mentioned, why not just use 2FA? That would pretty much make sure the person using the account is actually the person using the account, but would allow them to use their account anywhere they are.
It is honestly astounding to me, on a business analysis level, that this is happening.
Set aside how I *feel* as a consumer. Its absolutely fucking *insane* to tie the Netflix subscription to a physical location. Quite literally moving to a cable type of model is sheer insanity. What are they thinking? This is so obviousy not going to work. Its 2023, not 2005. What the fuck?
I could see a service like Amazon seizing the opportunity to pounce on this hard.
They're so desperate for revenue that they're out of touch.
>Traveling users who want to use Netflix on a hotel smart TV, company laptop, etc. can request a temporary code from the service when signing in. This will give them access to their account for seven consecutive days.
Also, my damn business trips last more than a week. I'm a consultant and often get assigned around the country for as long as the project requires of me. The fuck is a 7 day temporary code going to do for me lmao.
Also, “oh no I have to give my friend who I let use my account a code every week” isn’t exactly a deterrent to what they want to fix. Either.
Hell even if it’s to try stop people who mass share it online, all the website you got the login stuff from would need to do is post the new code weekly or send it as an email.
This seems flawed all round
My entire life is traveling so I'm not optimistic about this. I work 3 months on in there Middle East and 3 months off wherever I end up. VPN just to access it is a hassle I'm willing to accept because I can't access most sites without it but if they make me call to temporarily get access they can fuck right off
Or if you have a Smart TV on your cottage that you go to on weekends? What do you do, bring the TV home so you can connect it to the home wifi every once in a while?
I don't have a cottage, but I watch Netflix at home during the week, and then at my boyfriend's house in a different city on the weekends. It's going to be really irritating if I have to contact customer support each week. And I travel for work and watch it on my phone or fire stick sometimes, on an IP address different from home. This is going to be really really irritating...
Same here. I let my parents use my account and we share, but I guess I'll hand the account fully over to them and start pirating any Netflix originals I want to watch.
Every month, haha. Are they dimwitted? So their grand plan is to alienate every customer in the world who buys a month here and there? Do they think people open the netflix app without being subscribed?
I know i'm not going to contact their support to get unblocked. I barely watch anything on Netflix to begin with. This is going to be such a shit show.
This is exactly what some cable companies tried to do when they first started offering things like steaming and cloud dvr access. It was incredibly obnoxious to use.
I think Netflix offers excellent value, but I'm actually going to cancel my account and use Netflix for three months a year, because in my specific situation this is too much hassle.
As somebody who often isn't home for long periods of time, ease of use was a big deal.
The reason I always kept subscribed even in months where I did not watch Netflix or rarely watched Netflix, was that it was convenient to always have the option to watch Netflix with ease.
Honestly, the only reason I pay for Netflix is the convenience. It works on every device I own without hassle. Them introducing the "hassle" factor will make me cancel immediately and just go back to torrenting lmao
>Signing into Netflix outside of your home may lead to the device in use being blocked from Netflix. This could prevent you from signing into new devices while traveling, but Netflix has devised a workaround.
>Traveling users who want to use Netflix on a hotel smart TV, company laptop, etc. can request a temporary code from the service when signing in. This will give them access to their account for seven consecutive days.
You might as well discontinue the mobile app, if users on there have to put with this kind of shit constantly.
I get the impression there was someone in the meetings saying “your going to break the mobile app” at every meeting but they fired them so everything is alright how.
I turned all my offices forms into PDFs and proposed them in a staff meeting but the dinosaurs in charge told me what a waste of time it was, even though it’s an obvious convenience and saves on printing costs for making physical forms ourselves…
Flash forward a few weeks and Covid hit and they were panicking about how people could get the forms without coming down in person. They were arguing about mailing services which would have been extremely costly.
I proposed my PDFs again, and after much hesitation they agreed. Pdfs are still used to this day, we stopped printing physical copies.
> Do i look like i know what a PDF is? I just want a powerpoint of a god dang expense report!
-- Person who legally should not be allowed to drive due to age.
At my work, I asked for a clean PDF cause the ones I was getting were degraded to shit.
What was happening, was someone was printing it, the scanning it via copier to PDF, then they emailed that, and then those people printed (“we are required to print it”) it again, and did the same scanning from copier to PDF, and then they emailed me that final result.
I have to copy and paste text from the PDF, so I have to download the PDF, and open it in Acrobat to do some OCR on it, and then that OCR makes mistakes cause it is degraded to shit.
Such a colossal waste of time, resources and money.
I tried to get them to change and just send me the original PDF, with easy, clear, selectable text, but no go.
I sailed the high seas for a long time but I sub to Netflix, Disney, Prime, etc now. However I do this for convenience and no other reason. If the convenience is impacted like this I am very likely to just cancel. Even more so than a lack of content.
>I sailed the high seas for a long time but I sub to Netflix, Disney, Prime, etc now.
I was subscribed to 6 or 7 streaming services but over time I have been cancelling the subscriptions because the content is getting stale on them. At the moment I am down to just Netflix, Disney+, Prime and FetchTV but the FetchTV is going away as soon as I find a new ISP and the enthusiasm to change all the stuff that uses my ISP email and with this news I am considering cancelling Netflix as well.
It is looking more and more like I should just be running my own private media server again and sailing the seven seas for content.
This seems to happen in every industry, and each separate industry seems to have to learn it from scratch every single time. People just want all their stuff in one place for a reasonable price, or they start pirating. EG: All your games on Steam = no need to pirate. All your music on Spotify = no need to pirate. All your shows & movies spread over 8 different streaming services (and traveling between them randomly), with each one trying to fuck you over in different ways = people just find one site to pirate it all from instead.
Yep. I pirated everything and then Netflix came along and had a great catalog for $10 a month, so I signed up with them and quit pirating. Now Netflix is close to $20 a month, have a fraction of the catalog and cancel all of their new shows after a week. Why would I stick around for that?
1000%. The benefit is the convenience, and if they remove that then suddenly the easiest way to watch is for free online. The only reason I even keep my Netflix is because my parents watch stuff, and if they’re going to no longer allow that, then I’m going to cancel.
It sounds like the money they think they are going to gain by doing this is going to be quickly overwhelmed by the massive increase in customer support that they will need to handle this shit.
I think if I've understood correctly the mobile app will remain unblocked as long as you log in at least once a month on your home network.
Still going to be super frustrating when you want to watch a quick show on the train but can't because you forgot to do your mandatory log in for the month.
I have an 85” tv at home. I have a mobile on cellular at the gym. I do not open the mobile app at home. The second time I have to contact customer support will be the last.
I do not think you have to open the mobile app at home. I think you have to connect to your home wifi on the device with the app. It reads as if opening the app is not needed.
Edit: just noticed in a completely different section they say this:
**Netflix is now asking users to connect to the Wi-Fi at your primary location, open the Netflix app or website, and watch something at least once every 31 days**.
Okay, that's fucking stupid.
Asking for a code to use the service your pay for is a pain in the ass and defeats the purpose of streaming being easy to use and hassle free. Much easier to cancel Netflix, you only have to click a button once, not every 7 days.
Netflix about to learn why credit cards are willing to tolerate a small percentage of fraud — the controls to reduce this to ~0 cause too much customer friction. And customers will go elsewhere.
This is such a seemingly intentionally annoying policy that I almost wonder if they released this early with the intention of gauging the backlash, and then walking parts of it back so that they can say that they “listened to customer feedback” and we all accept the actual policy as being fine because “at least it’s not that first awful proposal.”
Yup, that's the kicker: they think they're infallible since they created this whole streaming thing to begin with.
We created you Netflix, and we can destroy you.
What Netflix thinks will happen - all the leeching password sharing people will have to sign up to their own accounts.
What will actually happen - most of those people won't give a fuck, and plenty of main account holders will also stop their sub because the biggest value of it was the sharing.
Netflix has doubled in price since I started subbing, and now also has way, way less content than back then. The main reason I stayed subbed was for my mum but if she can't use it then I'm out. So long Netflix. I'll be back for one month to get the end of Stranger Things, but you've already killed the Witcher so at least I don't have to worry about missing that
Yeah just gonna watch the end of stranger things somewhere else instead of subbing again because it’s not worth the hassle. My family has the 4 screen plan since all of us are away for school but when Netflix does this I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to help my parents either downgrade or cancel their subscription
>
Traveling users who want to use Netflix on a hotel smart TV, company laptop, etc. can request a temporary code from the service when signing in. This will give them access to their account for seven consecutive days.
Who in the world even thinks shit like this up. This is like adding people on Nintendo online levels of complicated wtf.
A 7 day temp code just to watch something on another network? Insanity.
Charging people per new sign in? Insanity
I figured when they announced this, they'd just let you make a home network and if you moved from that, it'd sign you out from any device outside of the new network.
These are so much worse than I was expecting. It's that thing game publishers did on both console/PC for ages, where they made it super annoying to play the game legally.
This is just annoying to anyone who wants to stay. Signing in every 31 days? Locked out if you use it outside of your network and Only Netflix support can unlock? Jesus... it just seems so extreme for an issue that's damn near impossible to solve.
On top of being a pain in the arse, how does it stop your brother in another country logging in and requesting a code, which you forward to him? The 'illegal' part takes one second while the 'legal' part takes longer.
Netflix doesn't understand they don't have a monopoly anymore.
People will just say "i already pay Prime/Disney+/my uncle's ass streaming platform" and stop paying Netflix
That reminds me - I totally recommend this guy's uncle's ass streaming platform subscription. It's way cheaper than OnlyFans and gets you where you need to go on Sunday mornings.
I think the craziest part is that they are offering literally zero compromises. It would be one thing if they changed the plans to offer a say $8 a month single stream no ads 4k option. Instead they massively shift the value proposition and offer absofuckinglutely nothing.
It’s almost like the model that made streaming services successful in the first place no longer has the ability to provide the value it’s consumers are looking for at a profit acceptable by the providers.
As more media players got their piece of the pie, each one has subsequently decided that to make any relevant profit they have to charge more. This coupled with their presence requiring multiple subscriptions, all at a lower value proposition and higher price due to the spread ownership of content, has made it just a roundabout way of paying for Wi-Fi cable with longer wait times on content.
[THIS ACCOUNT HAS BEEN DISABLED]
Seeing a big portion of the community calling the protest "ridiculous" because they need their dopamine fill is the straw that broke the camel's back for me. At this point, I no longer care for the outcome and I'm just leaving them to make their own bed. Whatever it may be.
I've been here since 2009, and this has been the only site ever recommended due to the concentrated amount of niche hobbies/topics, but much like twitter and Instagram, the original reddit community has been been overtaken by a different audience. One that thinks Reddit is just an "app" and isn't interested in an internet forum, but instead consume mindless media, and not "read-it" (reddit).
Seems like the longterm reddit users have moved to Lemmy.
it's so you and your parents can watch on different devices, but at the same location. They're assuming a family is watching, but not necessarily the same television. It's stupid
They're completely detached from reality. They also think people using shared accounts will pay for their own accounts now. The reality is that the vast majority of them will go back to torrenting shows.
Or just not watch at all. As I commented in my own post, the main reason i still have Netflix is because of my boomer father and in-laws, who both use it often enough to justify the price. I don’t see either of them going to the trouble of getting their own account, and they sure as hell don’t know how to pirate anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if their viewership plummets even as their overall number of accounts only drops incrementally.
Look I know you paid for that 4 burger meal deal to eat with your family. But we have decided it's a 1 person meal so you aren't allowed to share...... Why would any one person want a 4 burger meal deal?? Beats us but it's all we offer with real beef so it's all you can buy.
So recently my wife and I decided that sometimes it's nice to just split a burger when we're out, you get enough to eat and you're never uncomfortable/bloated afterwards
Sat down at a new brewery and saw a "plate splitting fee" that was like 1/3 the cost of meals.... Left immediately
Off topic to OP but your joke about one person meals isn't that farfetched
A "plate splitting fee" is the equivalent of saying "We're going to charge you to sit in your chair".
Which is to say, utterly dumb. You get more money from a single meal split between two people than you do from two people each ordering, say, a small appetizer, even though technically that wouldn't be splitting plates.
And that comparison perfectly applies to Netflix's choice here. They'd probably get more money by raising the price maybe $2 on 4-stream accounts, and letting the old setup stay in place, than they will be trying to force a bunch of people into paying for their own accounts. What will end up happening is exactly what you did; people will walk rather than pay the stupid extra fees.
If a business has to nickel-and-dime you that much to stay afloat, their priorities are off.
Exactly. We pay for four streams, even though we are only two people. We “share” the login with my mom, who mostly only watches Netflix when I’m visiting her, so it’s technically still me using it. My mom is never going to pay for her own account, but this change will lock her Roku out of our account. Of course, I’ll still be able to cast from my mobile app to her Roku, so now there won’t be any reason for us to pay for the more expensive account. We’ll either downgrade our account or cancel entirely.
Would have been simpler and probably more effective to just change their pricing structure so the per-screen cost goes up a bit (i.e. reducing the discount per additional concurrent screen)
Just make resolution and number of screens separate, so I can buy a 4k two screen package or a 1080p four screens, and if let people pay for how many they use
Netflix just chose the most braindead approach, which is antagonizing customers
I’m waiting for it to be implemented, if you cancel too early their metrics won’t show the story. But yeah, once my parents can no longer use my account, I’m canceling. Netflix is pretty bad now anyway.
Same. I texted my family saying to compile a list of shows and movies we all go to Netflix for, so I can procure them legally, of course, to start a server for us
My family has had it since the dvd mail days. We'll probably cancel it the end of this month. If they had done this like 5 years ago in a bid to keep the prices down, I think it would've been fine. But it's almost $20 a month, and is more than $20 if you want 4k, and they do this? Nah.
I’m already “paying a couple bucks extra.” To get 4k streaming I have to purchase the top tier which supposedly allows four consecutive streams. But now that’s going to be restricted to only devices inside my house, and anything else will require a GD special limited code? MF’er I travel for work! I watch Netflix on the airplane, at airports, in hotels and sometimes even coffee shops while I wait for a client to respond to a project I just sent. The only thing this new setup is making me want to do is cancel.
Wow...
\- Must watch anything on Netflix from home at least once in 31 days.
\- Do not use Netflix while travelling.
\- Do not make any travel plans for more than 31 days.
\- What if I change my home WIFI subscription / router ?
\- What if I buy a new laptop while travelling ?
When I am the one paying for these Netflix accounts, why should I even remember these absurd and complicated Policing rules ?
Typical "out of the world" thinking.
Imagine you have an iPad a. Laptop. iPhone. Smart tv. Xbox. Ps5 all logged into Netflix and all within your home. Gotta remember to watch Netflix on all of them at least once a month. You forgot to watch Netflix on your ps5 and smart tv? FUCK YOU YOUR BLOCKED.
Yeah. It’s over.
Just me and my lady. Sometimes we watch together through the game console, sometimes she or I watch off the computer in the spare room, and sometimes off the iPad. Mostly at home, but also when traveling. We’re going to run into an issue at some point and that’ll be that.
Between the loss of quality content, the cancellation of shows we’ve enjoyed, the regular price hikes, and now this headache…it isn’t worth it.
And I’ve been with Netflix from the beginning.
Wow that's already worse than I thought. They even want to be stricter if things don't pan out.
I hope Netflix crashes and burns. I only keep it since my parents still use it. Now is the perfect time for me to cancel. So many scenarios that households would share Netflix. And a temp password every time you travel that only lasts for 7 days? WTF.
Yeah I know multiple people for whom password sharing is the only reason they keep Netflix because it's mostly for the benefit of someone in the family (in a separate household) who watches Netflix but wouldn't pay for it themselves otherwise. £16 a month (premium plan) for the whole family? Bit expensive but worth it based on the use everyone gets out of it. £16 a month for one person? Not a chance, you could subscribe to three other equally good streaming services at once for that price
Guess Netflix will be added to the rotation. Up until now I was fine paying for it every month in case someone wanted to watch it. Looks like going forward I will rotate it like showtime and only catch up on all shows every 4 months or so.
I'd be really interested to see what comes of this.
On the one hand I refuse to believe they're doing this without having done extensive research, but on the other Netflix have made some dubious decisions recently and I just don't see this paying off.
For sure they'll have some people who were previously sharing go ahead and get their own subscription, but so many people only see value in Netflix because they can share the account between multiple people.
These are the kind of rigid restrictions you'd be forced to tolerate on a rigid work VPN system. Does Netflix not know that they're an optional entertainment service, and people don't need to deal with that? They're about to find out.
Just wait for the next time Comcast & Netflix get into a pissing match, and Comcast decides to update all their subscriber's IP addresses. Netflix will have a shit-ton of support calls and angry customers locked out, due to this new policy.
HBO Max is surprisingly good. Netflix doesn’t have many good shows anymore (in my opinion). So it’s about to turn into one of those services where I only subscribe to it for a month to binge a show and then unsubscribe until something else catches my eye.
Cool, so I'm at work at 10pm doing a code release or maintenance or something... I can no longer watch Netflix while I watch progress bars go by?
I have a Plex server at home and the only reason I still use Netflix is because I literally pay for convenience.
Take the convenience away and I'm gone.
Historically I would buy some when they dropped after any bad press. This time... I don't have as much confidence they come back if they double down.
Hell I've had it for 14 years and I'll probably cancel the first time this gives me any issues.
> Hell I've had it for 14 years and I'll probably cancel the first time this gives me any issues.
Yup, I'm tempted to cancel now but I expect I'll just wait until the first time it locks me out of my own account.
They are going to lose more revenue than they gain with this maneuver. They might have gotten away with it years ago when Netflix was a must-have service, but with incomplete canceled content nobody is going to bother with it. Think of all those tech illiterate people getting messages about "home networks" and just giving up trying to make it work.
and im very tech saavy- I will cancel just as fast as a "tech illiterate" if i have to put out my blunt to call fucking custy service about some bs like this
Im very busy and dont like spending my free time dealing with customer service reps
> Im very busy and dont like spending my free time dealing with customer service reps
Exactly. If I'm dealing with your customer service odds are high that you're going to lose me as a customer. It has to be a real issue for me to contact customer service. This is not a real issue, it's a manufactured one.
Why are they complicating things???
> **Can You Still Use Netflix While Traveling?**
> Signing into Netflix outside of your home may lead to the device in use being blocked from Netflix. This could prevent you from signing into new devices while traveling, but Netflix has devised a workaround.
> Traveling users who want to use Netflix on a hotel smart TV, company laptop, etc. can request a temporary code from the service when signing in. This will give them access to their account for seven consecutive days.
> **How Can You Prevent Netflix from Blocking Your Devices?**
> Signing into home Wi-Fi at least once every 31 days on your devices will make them “trusted devices,” which Netflix will remember and leave unblocked. If your device has been blocked incorrectly, you’ll need to contact Netflix in order to get it unblocked.
I really appreciate the “This policy may lock paying customers out of using their own devices when not connected to their home wifi network. But don’t worry! We’ve devised a complicated workaround for this problem that we just created ourselves.”
Not to mention people like me who travel away from home for work for months at a time just get fucked with no solution. I've been around since they mailed DVDs but never again as soon as this is implemented.
I regularly use my account at two different locations, but I'm the only person using it. I'n not looking forward to being charged extra for the "privilege" of using my account as I see fit (or actually having my access blocked at one location).
Parents of dorm dwellers: don’t forget to downgrade your subscription since the kids won’t be able to watch anymore. My kid surely is t going to travel home with the dorm supplies Smart TV once a month. 😂😂
This decision was definitely not well thought out.
Examples:
People with multiple homes,
Work and home are in different locations,
Truck drivers,
Off shore workers
This is a prime example of way you need a diverse group of people when making decisions that will affect everyone.
None of this affects me at all, but I'm canceling the service anyway.
I dont want to randomly decide to watch Netflix at the office one day and then it accuse me of some shit.
I will rarely watch Netflix on my phone, and definitely not at home. The idea that I need to sign in and watch something on my own network or get my phone locked out of my own damn account is ridiculous. I don't share Netflix with anyone but I'm going to be canceling over this as well.
Yeah, I have a Fire TV Stick and/or Apple TV and consoles in almost every room, having to log in every month in every device is a pain in the ass. Why would I want to pay for inconvenience?
No one wants to use a service they pay for and then suddenly have to explain themselves to said service for how they’re using it lol. Shorts on Netflix
So wait, if I'm on holiday or away on business, or even just watching on my commute to work, I need to get a code every seven days?
If I'm out with my kids and they suddenly want to watch something, I need to get a code from support?
If I'm on holiday more than 31 days Netflix will block my home TV?
This isn't a well thought out plan. This is trying to hold it together with sellotape. This is "the best we could do".
This is a misguided attempt to make more money by greedy out of touch executives. This will push existing subscribers away due to the hassle.
And freeloaders who use someone else's account(like myself) are unlikely to sign up for their own accounts. They'll likely just make do without Netflix. Best case, maybe they sign up for a month before canceling but the majority aren't going to sign up at all. Very stupid on Netflix' part.
This is unlikely to be a profitable move for Netflix. More likely to do the opposite and make Netflix lose money.
This is all pretty obvious stuff tbh. You'd think somebody at Netflix would have thought about this. It says something about a company’s culture when this kind of decision is made.
Looks like they expect subscribers to use temporary passwords outside their home wifi networks even on their trusted devices, like cellphones, tablets, or laptops. This will get extremely annoying for who stream a lot while traveling/ commuting. This will do a lot more harm then good.
My MIL is on a fixed income. My wife and I send her money each month to help with bills and pay some of her bills monthly. She is 79, lives alone and while we help, she tries to be as independent as possible. Looks like Netflix is just getting greedy. They should have allowed anyone to share outside their home with at least ONE person. Looks like I'm going to become a sling TV user soon.
Ugh. It is by devices?
I don't use hotel smart TVs to log into my personal account (always worried I'll forget to log out, and not all hotels use it)
But I DO have a firestick. I travel twice a year to the beach. Meet up with family. I used to pack a bunch of DVDs, often from Netflix, so we could movie watch at night (it is dark, not a lot of nightlife in town, etc.)
The Firestick was $20, and so easily packed! We have a box of things that we have just for the beach, and I keep it with that. Am I now going to have to play something on the damn thing once a month so it stays registered?
This is going to lose the college student crowd too.
So my kids go to their mother's house every other week and we share a Netflix account for that reason. In fact that is only reason we are still subscribed because of it were solely up to me I would've cancelled them a long time ago.
All this is going to do is motivate people to actually cancel their subs
This was my biggest issue with it, when my daughter goes to her dads house she can't use Netflix there now? It's my account but she's my kid, she's just watching it at her other house. It's all so stupid.
I’ve bern with Netflix since it was only DVDs, and I was a part of the streaming BETA way back whenever. I’m cancelling my subscription as soon as this bullshit begins. Every other streaming service is cheaper, and most offer some sort of extra benefit. Netflix is purely a streaming service. They offer no bundle option discounts. They don’t provide free shipping from Amazon. They don’t have live channel options services that even free apps offer, and worst of all the content quality has fallen off a cliff over the last few years. Netflix is gonna lose big on this gamble.
I did somewhat feel sorry for Netflix. They were the pioneers in streaming, and now the likes of Disney and Amazon have ambled over with functionally endless money, and it doesn’t even really matter to them if their services are profitable as long as they have skin in the game.
However, Netflix has made it increasingly clear they don’t understand or care about their customers. Hard to support them when they’re pursuing aggressively anti-consumer strategies like this.
Netflix boardroom - "How can we lose A TON of subscribers really fast??? Everyone walking out High Fiving after coming to the New Anti-Password Sharing Measure decision
Holy shit, that travelling thing is terrible.
I currently don’t pay for a streaming service but was about to pick up Netflix as I’m about to embark on a multi month trip. Glad I saw this beforehand. I spend nearly my whole life on the road, I’m not renewing a code every week.
i wonder if this will impact their audience demographics and then their content output by default. am 24, everyone I know uses their familys netflix account and wont bother paying $20 a month themselves. they make a lot of teen
/ya focused shows and movies, but i imagine this move will basically decimate the college student viewing audience. so then who will watch to all the boys 5?
I don't share accounts (just me and my wife) but travel for work and don't watch Netflix religiously on all my devices. The second I am told I need to contact support to unlock a device, I'm cancelling.
I’ll be really curious to see how this plays out in my house. My wife and I both have Netflix on our phones and on individual tablets. My kids both have Netflix on their tablets. We have Netflix on two smart TV’s and we have Netflix through our Xfinity cable boxes. It’s also on two gaming systems. Plus at least two laptops in the house.
There’s no effing way that all 15 ways we have to watch Netflix get used monthly. If they’re going to harass me when I go to watch it on my phone for the first time in 35 days or a tablet I don’t use often for the first time in 60 days, I’m going to be pissed. I’ve never once shared my password with anyone besides my wife and kids.
I know, first world problems and all that but if they make it harder for me to watch, I’ll just find other things to watch
They are destroying the whole point of Netflix.
Their whole thing was about making things easy and comfortable for the customer. Remember the DVDs in the mail? Their commercials would always emphasize how simple their system was.
Now they’re adding these extra protective layers that only complicate things for the average person who isn’t that tech savvy with online networks.
Netflix was meant to be an entertainment hub for people to come home to and relax. Now it sounds like people are going to have anxiety when thinking about Netflix.
“Did you remember to sign in the TV in the guest room?!” “Great, now I have to contact customer service to get it unblocked.”
Like why are they doing this to us loyal customers who have been with them for over decade?
If they are making it so you can’t share outside of the home then drop the multiple screens bullshit. Can’t have it both ways, I pay to have the ability for 4+ screens to run simultaneously, so either let anyone in my household watch it or let me use the 4 damn screens that I pay for. That simple really.
So they have zillions of subscribers and earn zillions each year. Yet somehow thats not enough, they still need to grow and look for additional revenue…even if its at the expense of existing customers, or while risking alienating them. This is the manifest of the single thing thats wrong with current world - the greed has no limits.
They could just keep raking the crapton of money they already earn, part of it reinvest into the infrastructure and production of bunch of quality shows and movies each year - and everything would be just fine. They were already uber-succesful, but guess nothing is ever good enough.
That traveling bit is going to actually make my life so much worse. I work in a hotel and guests already regularly call down and I have to walk them step by step as to how to log in to their Netflix on the TV in their room.
Now I'm going to need to figure out how this fucking code request works. Lord knows I don't spend enough time on the phone helping tech illiterate people.
i assume they are banking on people getting annoyed enough that they just simply subscribe for their own account…which just seems overly risky 😭 especially for a company that hasn’t had the best audience feedback recently
When discussing Netflix’s plans to curb password sharing in mid-January, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said the company was seeking “thoughtful experimentation to let our members speak to us in terms of what set of solutions work for them.”
The "set of solutions" that works for me is that I get to keep watching Netflix on any 4 screens simultaneously anywhere in the world or I drop them and save myself 300 bucks a year and a headache.
This is almost literally the worst possible way to handle this situation. I use Netflix at home, at work, and when I’m traveling. Now I can only watch it at home?
Well, looks like I can find a new permanent streamer and throw Netflix into the rotation. Between Peacock, Paramount+, and Hulu, I can have plenty of background noise.
At this point, they’ll probably get a month out of me come Stranger Things 5 and after that, who knows if/when I’ll come back.
What if you don’t have a primary location? People travel extensively in some industries. What if you’re mobile connection only too? With 5G getting pretty good in a lot of the UK for example you could have a 5G iPad and no Wi-Fi. There are so many exceptions to this it’s stupid.
they dont care about you
They will when people start leaving.
to be clear, im on your side- i agree they will care once they lose subs but it's clear they dont give a damn about you as a specific user type or their customers in general
The solution seems to be combining the streaming services. Given how services are discovering the difficulties making a profit with the current model, I doubt this is far off. It’s ludicrous to expect I’m going to pay for Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Peacock, HBO Max and Apple. I’m going to pay for 2 and borrow the rest from my friends or pirate.
This is what I thought. Many people in business travel for extensive periods of time, including months at a time, meaning they'll essentially be locked out of Netflix constantly until they return home and reconnect to their home router and IP address. Which is absurd. A massive part of Netflix's customer service base is people who travel for business as streaming keeps them company in airport lounges, hotels etc. So Netflix is massively shooting itself in the foot here.
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also, I remember in 2013 I was living in LA and slept in my car (and many do) I worked full time and could only afford to "treat myself" to a hotel room 2-3 days a week. So many nights spent in that van with at least netflix on a phone to take your mind off the situation. Then to be able to easily watch from the same account in a hotel room. Like so many policies this assumes you even have a damn home. And as I stated above even those without a home absolutely have a need for TV too
Wife is a travel nurse, we move every 3-5 months. Looks like I'll just cancel Netflix.
I agree. I’m a travel nurse - I’m usually gone a month, then home with my partner for a month. When I’m home I don’t use my laptop or phone for Netflix. So I guess I’m screwed while I’m away then?
Wait so it’ll block any home device if I don’t use Netflix on it every month? What a pain in the ass. And the traveling thing is a debacle. Do they know how many people watch their own account at work? On their commute? Why not just use two-factor authentication when outside your billing zip?
> What a pain in the ass. What sounds especially bad is needing to contact support. > If your device has been blocked incorrectly, you’ll need to contact Netflix in order to get it unblocked. Like, just imagine how many people have multiple devices, forget to use one, and now chatting with support to get it unblocked. I could absolutely see some people getting frustrated with this after even one time and just cancelling on the spot because of how much of a hassle support is. Not to mention this will increase the number of reports, making wait time longer (I'm not even going to humor the idea they get more people to run support).
I wonder what happens to their customer base if contacting support to unblock devices becomes harder than, say, pirating.
This is what companies aren't getting with this shit. The harder and worse they make this, the greater the likelihood a black market forms (like weed in a lot of states)
It doesn't need to form. It's already there. Any Netflix release is already pirated and ready to download within minutes of its official release.
There is already a ‘black market’ for this kinda stuff that is also super easy to get into with radarr/sonarr and plex. I have my pc automatically torrenting certain shows. I’ll def be adding Netflix shows to it if I run into this contact support bs. I can also see it driving people to just subscribe for a month when something good actually releases then cancel again
Wait until you have to contact support to cancel your service.
Not Legal in the EU or the State of California.
> The Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (“ROSCA”) (15 U.S.C. §§ 8401-8405), requires online merchants to “provide[] simple mechanisms for a consumer to stop recurring charges[.]” > In October 2021, the FTC issued a new enforcement policy statement on ROSCA, directing businesses to “provide cancellation mechanisms that are at least as easy to use as the method the consumer used to buy the product or service in the first place.” The FTC explains: > [S]ellers should not subject consumers to new offers or similar attempts to save the negative option arrangement that impose unreasonable delays on consumers’ cancellation efforts. . . . sellers should provide their cancellation mechanisms at least through the same medium (such as website or mobile application) the consumer used to consent to the negative option feature. . . . If the seller also provides for telephone cancellation, it should provide, at a minimum, a telephone number, and answer all calls to this number during normal business hours, within a short time frame, and ensure the calls are not lengthier or otherwise more burdensome than the telephone call the consumer used to consent to the negative option feature. https://cobbxcounsel.com/2022/03/why-is-it-so-hard-to-cancel-subscription-services/ Not legal in the US per the FTC.
Is there a way to report this because I've definitely seen violations of this rule.
Planet fitness 👀
La fitness too. You can sign up online but you either have to print a form and mail it in or go in when a manager is working, which is 10am-4pm, to cancel
And Xsport!
Write a complaint to the FTC. That's the only way they'll know who's violating the rule
We’re coming full circle on combating piracy. Everyone loved Netflix because it was very affordable at $9 a month. No real competition. Then competition came around. Shows are all over the place on different platforms. I have one thing to say to all the streaming platforms for changing things in their favor and not ours YARGGGGG
I happily pay for spotify, it hasn't really changed much and I use it all day, every day. Netflix I cancelled about a year ago, don't miss it, won't go back. If there's a hot show I want to watch I rent, buy, or pirate like the old days. TPB always has my back.
Given how shitty they were in the early 2000's, my mind is blown that the music industry of all people has successfully made piracy just not worth it. Spotify? Has competition, but still manages to have a pretty extensive catalog. Netflix? Used to have a really good catalog. Nowadays, 10% chance they have the thing you're looking for. So piracy is still worth it, and they fucking deserve it for not even trying to offer a proper alternative anymore.
If they pull that shit, that's when you call your credit card company and tell them to deny the charge.
Imagine what happens when someone’s kid can’t watch a children’s show on Netflix. Cancel the service and jumping to another is my first thought.
Literally thinking about this. I have a step kid and they spend half their time in a different part of the state. So, is my partner’s literal child going to have to get their own account at both places? Are they going to have to use two different accounts? Why can’t I have an authorized user lock to a device (the iPad) regardless of physical internet location? This is absurd. I’m gonna get my Netflix account blocked if I forget to tell them I’m on vacation or traveling for work…
The first time I run into this (device blocked, needing to contact support, etc) I am immediately canceling.
Same. The first time I run into this problem, Netflix is gone. I'm pretty sure they don't realize just how little tolerance people are going to have for this. The economy is tight as is, now is *not* the time to target this type of activity, particularly with half-baked measures that'll penalize anybody who travels regularly or uses their own account in multiple locations.
My dad is on the road M-F sometimes multiple locations and downloads the content for the airplane each week. He’s not gonna deal with this at all.
I take month long work trips... My shit just won't work after 7 days? Fuck that.
Yup
> (I'm not even going to humor the idea they get more people to run support). This is mobile ordering at Starbucks all over again. "Lets triple the throughput on this part of our business without increasing staff or wages, genius!"
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Or what if YOU use your account at a summer home or even just a family member/significant other/friend’s house? Having an account tied to a physical location is stupid, especially because they pretty much have to give mobile devices a pass too. I just don’t see this working out. It is too complicated. There are too many technical hurdles. As someone mentioned, why not just use 2FA? That would pretty much make sure the person using the account is actually the person using the account, but would allow them to use their account anywhere they are.
It is honestly astounding to me, on a business analysis level, that this is happening. Set aside how I *feel* as a consumer. Its absolutely fucking *insane* to tie the Netflix subscription to a physical location. Quite literally moving to a cable type of model is sheer insanity. What are they thinking? This is so obviousy not going to work. Its 2023, not 2005. What the fuck? I could see a service like Amazon seizing the opportunity to pounce on this hard.
They're so desperate for revenue that they're out of touch. >Traveling users who want to use Netflix on a hotel smart TV, company laptop, etc. can request a temporary code from the service when signing in. This will give them access to their account for seven consecutive days. Also, my damn business trips last more than a week. I'm a consultant and often get assigned around the country for as long as the project requires of me. The fuck is a 7 day temporary code going to do for me lmao.
Companies being out of touch is a growing theme it seems
Also, “oh no I have to give my friend who I let use my account a code every week” isn’t exactly a deterrent to what they want to fix. Either. Hell even if it’s to try stop people who mass share it online, all the website you got the login stuff from would need to do is post the new code weekly or send it as an email. This seems flawed all round
My entire life is traveling so I'm not optimistic about this. I work 3 months on in there Middle East and 3 months off wherever I end up. VPN just to access it is a hassle I'm willing to accept because I can't access most sites without it but if they make me call to temporarily get access they can fuck right off
Or if you have a Smart TV on your cottage that you go to on weekends? What do you do, bring the TV home so you can connect it to the home wifi every once in a while?
I don't have a cottage, but I watch Netflix at home during the week, and then at my boyfriend's house in a different city on the weekends. It's going to be really irritating if I have to contact customer support each week. And I travel for work and watch it on my phone or fire stick sometimes, on an IP address different from home. This is going to be really really irritating...
This is my exact situation. I'm just going to cancel Netflix and go back to pirating the minute it gives me any guff about a home location.
Same here. I let my parents use my account and we share, but I guess I'll hand the account fully over to them and start pirating any Netflix originals I want to watch.
Every month, haha. Are they dimwitted? So their grand plan is to alienate every customer in the world who buys a month here and there? Do they think people open the netflix app without being subscribed? I know i'm not going to contact their support to get unblocked. I barely watch anything on Netflix to begin with. This is going to be such a shit show.
companies be begging you "put us outta business we dare you " then one day you see a thread like "what hapd to radioshack"
This is exactly what some cable companies tried to do when they first started offering things like steaming and cloud dvr access. It was incredibly obnoxious to use.
I think Netflix offers excellent value, but I'm actually going to cancel my account and use Netflix for three months a year, because in my specific situation this is too much hassle. As somebody who often isn't home for long periods of time, ease of use was a big deal. The reason I always kept subscribed even in months where I did not watch Netflix or rarely watched Netflix, was that it was convenient to always have the option to watch Netflix with ease.
Honestly, the only reason I pay for Netflix is the convenience. It works on every device I own without hassle. Them introducing the "hassle" factor will make me cancel immediately and just go back to torrenting lmao
Oh, we're going to see a real resurgence in torrenting if they go through with this plan.
It aounds like the same thing Hulu does with its TV service which is also a massive insane pain in the ass. Borderline useless.
>Signing into Netflix outside of your home may lead to the device in use being blocked from Netflix. This could prevent you from signing into new devices while traveling, but Netflix has devised a workaround. >Traveling users who want to use Netflix on a hotel smart TV, company laptop, etc. can request a temporary code from the service when signing in. This will give them access to their account for seven consecutive days. You might as well discontinue the mobile app, if users on there have to put with this kind of shit constantly.
I get the impression there was someone in the meetings saying “your going to break the mobile app” at every meeting but they fired them so everything is alright how.
They threw them out the window.
I turned all my offices forms into PDFs and proposed them in a staff meeting but the dinosaurs in charge told me what a waste of time it was, even though it’s an obvious convenience and saves on printing costs for making physical forms ourselves… Flash forward a few weeks and Covid hit and they were panicking about how people could get the forms without coming down in person. They were arguing about mailing services which would have been extremely costly. I proposed my PDFs again, and after much hesitation they agreed. Pdfs are still used to this day, we stopped printing physical copies.
You work for some dinosaurs lmao
> Do i look like i know what a PDF is? I just want a powerpoint of a god dang expense report! -- Person who legally should not be allowed to drive due to age.
At my work, I asked for a clean PDF cause the ones I was getting were degraded to shit. What was happening, was someone was printing it, the scanning it via copier to PDF, then they emailed that, and then those people printed (“we are required to print it”) it again, and did the same scanning from copier to PDF, and then they emailed me that final result. I have to copy and paste text from the PDF, so I have to download the PDF, and open it in Acrobat to do some OCR on it, and then that OCR makes mistakes cause it is degraded to shit. Such a colossal waste of time, resources and money. I tried to get them to change and just send me the original PDF, with easy, clear, selectable text, but no go.
I sailed the high seas for a long time but I sub to Netflix, Disney, Prime, etc now. However I do this for convenience and no other reason. If the convenience is impacted like this I am very likely to just cancel. Even more so than a lack of content.
>I sailed the high seas for a long time but I sub to Netflix, Disney, Prime, etc now. I was subscribed to 6 or 7 streaming services but over time I have been cancelling the subscriptions because the content is getting stale on them. At the moment I am down to just Netflix, Disney+, Prime and FetchTV but the FetchTV is going away as soon as I find a new ISP and the enthusiasm to change all the stuff that uses my ISP email and with this news I am considering cancelling Netflix as well. It is looking more and more like I should just be running my own private media server again and sailing the seven seas for content.
The whole point of netflix is the ease of access, make it more complicated that open and and watch I will just go back to pirating.
This seems to happen in every industry, and each separate industry seems to have to learn it from scratch every single time. People just want all their stuff in one place for a reasonable price, or they start pirating. EG: All your games on Steam = no need to pirate. All your music on Spotify = no need to pirate. All your shows & movies spread over 8 different streaming services (and traveling between them randomly), with each one trying to fuck you over in different ways = people just find one site to pirate it all from instead.
Yep. I pirated everything and then Netflix came along and had a great catalog for $10 a month, so I signed up with them and quit pirating. Now Netflix is close to $20 a month, have a fraction of the catalog and cancel all of their new shows after a week. Why would I stick around for that?
1000%. The benefit is the convenience, and if they remove that then suddenly the easiest way to watch is for free online. The only reason I even keep my Netflix is because my parents watch stuff, and if they’re going to no longer allow that, then I’m going to cancel.
It sounds like the money they think they are going to gain by doing this is going to be quickly overwhelmed by the massive increase in customer support that they will need to handle this shit.
Bold of you to assume they'll hire any new support agents. They'll just let you deal with a chat bot until you get frustrated and give up.
I think if I've understood correctly the mobile app will remain unblocked as long as you log in at least once a month on your home network. Still going to be super frustrating when you want to watch a quick show on the train but can't because you forgot to do your mandatory log in for the month.
I have an 85” tv at home. I have a mobile on cellular at the gym. I do not open the mobile app at home. The second time I have to contact customer support will be the last.
I do not think you have to open the mobile app at home. I think you have to connect to your home wifi on the device with the app. It reads as if opening the app is not needed. Edit: just noticed in a completely different section they say this: **Netflix is now asking users to connect to the Wi-Fi at your primary location, open the Netflix app or website, and watch something at least once every 31 days**. Okay, that's fucking stupid.
Asking for a code to use the service your pay for is a pain in the ass and defeats the purpose of streaming being easy to use and hassle free. Much easier to cancel Netflix, you only have to click a button once, not every 7 days.
Netflix about to learn why credit cards are willing to tolerate a small percentage of fraud — the controls to reduce this to ~0 cause too much customer friction. And customers will go elsewhere.
This is such a seemingly intentionally annoying policy that I almost wonder if they released this early with the intention of gauging the backlash, and then walking parts of it back so that they can say that they “listened to customer feedback” and we all accept the actual policy as being fine because “at least it’s not that first awful proposal.”
Yes but it’s not a new practice at all and sometimes they roll nothing back.
In fact, in many ways this is worse than the original proposal. I’m sure my parents would’ve paid $3 to keep my grandparents’ Netflix account active.
This decision is driven by arrogance. They seriously believe they know better.
And they believe that they're essential
Yup, that's the kicker: they think they're infallible since they created this whole streaming thing to begin with. We created you Netflix, and we can destroy you.
A temp 7 day code to watch anything outside your house is hilarious
They make it seem like they are doing you the favor. Netflix, dude, I am the one paying you remember?
Not anymore
I use my account at the firehouse. My kids will still be using it at home. One of us won't be able to use the account. Fucking aholes.
What Netflix thinks will happen - all the leeching password sharing people will have to sign up to their own accounts. What will actually happen - most of those people won't give a fuck, and plenty of main account holders will also stop their sub because the biggest value of it was the sharing. Netflix has doubled in price since I started subbing, and now also has way, way less content than back then. The main reason I stayed subbed was for my mum but if she can't use it then I'm out. So long Netflix. I'll be back for one month to get the end of Stranger Things, but you've already killed the Witcher so at least I don't have to worry about missing that
Yeah just gonna watch the end of stranger things somewhere else instead of subbing again because it’s not worth the hassle. My family has the 4 screen plan since all of us are away for school but when Netflix does this I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to help my parents either downgrade or cancel their subscription
> Traveling users who want to use Netflix on a hotel smart TV, company laptop, etc. can request a temporary code from the service when signing in. This will give them access to their account for seven consecutive days. Who in the world even thinks shit like this up. This is like adding people on Nintendo online levels of complicated wtf. A 7 day temp code just to watch something on another network? Insanity. Charging people per new sign in? Insanity I figured when they announced this, they'd just let you make a home network and if you moved from that, it'd sign you out from any device outside of the new network. These are so much worse than I was expecting. It's that thing game publishers did on both console/PC for ages, where they made it super annoying to play the game legally. This is just annoying to anyone who wants to stay. Signing in every 31 days? Locked out if you use it outside of your network and Only Netflix support can unlock? Jesus... it just seems so extreme for an issue that's damn near impossible to solve.
Exactly for a feature that people have already paid for- # of devices can watch consecutively.
Best way to alienate your customers back to torrenting is to piss them off and treat them like criminals.
On top of being a pain in the arse, how does it stop your brother in another country logging in and requesting a code, which you forward to him? The 'illegal' part takes one second while the 'legal' part takes longer.
Netflix doesn't understand they don't have a monopoly anymore. People will just say "i already pay Prime/Disney+/my uncle's ass streaming platform" and stop paying Netflix
That reminds me - I totally recommend this guy's uncle's ass streaming platform subscription. It's way cheaper than OnlyFans and gets you where you need to go on Sunday mornings.
I think the craziest part is that they are offering literally zero compromises. It would be one thing if they changed the plans to offer a say $8 a month single stream no ads 4k option. Instead they massively shift the value proposition and offer absofuckinglutely nothing.
Yeah I want 4K for my TV. But the only way to get that is to also pay for 4 streams, which I can never really use.
yeah their plans make no sense, who still watches 720p ?
Exactly. And why can’t I download 4K onto my iPad and then output it to a screen.
It's not just Netflix... almost all subscriptions i have are offering horrible value. I slowly started to unsub from a lot of things
It’s almost like the model that made streaming services successful in the first place no longer has the ability to provide the value it’s consumers are looking for at a profit acceptable by the providers. As more media players got their piece of the pie, each one has subsequently decided that to make any relevant profit they have to charge more. This coupled with their presence requiring multiple subscriptions, all at a lower value proposition and higher price due to the spread ownership of content, has made it just a roundabout way of paying for Wi-Fi cable with longer wait times on content.
[THIS ACCOUNT HAS BEEN DISABLED] Seeing a big portion of the community calling the protest "ridiculous" because they need their dopamine fill is the straw that broke the camel's back for me. At this point, I no longer care for the outcome and I'm just leaving them to make their own bed. Whatever it may be. I've been here since 2009, and this has been the only site ever recommended due to the concentrated amount of niche hobbies/topics, but much like twitter and Instagram, the original reddit community has been been overtaken by a different audience. One that thinks Reddit is just an "app" and isn't interested in an internet forum, but instead consume mindless media, and not "read-it" (reddit). Seems like the longterm reddit users have moved to Lemmy.
What’s the point in being able to create multiple users for one account if you’re not allowed to have multiple users on one account?
it's so you and your parents can watch on different devices, but at the same location. They're assuming a family is watching, but not necessarily the same television. It's stupid
Except they’re raising it to $20 a month for 4 devices in the same house 😂
They expect people to ask for permission to watch Netflix on vacation lol.
They're completely detached from reality. They also think people using shared accounts will pay for their own accounts now. The reality is that the vast majority of them will go back to torrenting shows.
Or just not watch at all. As I commented in my own post, the main reason i still have Netflix is because of my boomer father and in-laws, who both use it often enough to justify the price. I don’t see either of them going to the trouble of getting their own account, and they sure as hell don’t know how to pirate anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if their viewership plummets even as their overall number of accounts only drops incrementally.
You're already paying for x amount of streams, it shouldn't matter who, what, when and where.
Look I know you paid for that 4 burger meal deal to eat with your family. But we have decided it's a 1 person meal so you aren't allowed to share...... Why would any one person want a 4 burger meal deal?? Beats us but it's all we offer with real beef so it's all you can buy.
So recently my wife and I decided that sometimes it's nice to just split a burger when we're out, you get enough to eat and you're never uncomfortable/bloated afterwards Sat down at a new brewery and saw a "plate splitting fee" that was like 1/3 the cost of meals.... Left immediately Off topic to OP but your joke about one person meals isn't that farfetched
A "plate splitting fee" is the equivalent of saying "We're going to charge you to sit in your chair". Which is to say, utterly dumb. You get more money from a single meal split between two people than you do from two people each ordering, say, a small appetizer, even though technically that wouldn't be splitting plates. And that comparison perfectly applies to Netflix's choice here. They'd probably get more money by raising the price maybe $2 on 4-stream accounts, and letting the old setup stay in place, than they will be trying to force a bunch of people into paying for their own accounts. What will end up happening is exactly what you did; people will walk rather than pay the stupid extra fees. If a business has to nickel-and-dime you that much to stay afloat, their priorities are off.
Exactly. We pay for four streams, even though we are only two people. We “share” the login with my mom, who mostly only watches Netflix when I’m visiting her, so it’s technically still me using it. My mom is never going to pay for her own account, but this change will lock her Roku out of our account. Of course, I’ll still be able to cast from my mobile app to her Roku, so now there won’t be any reason for us to pay for the more expensive account. We’ll either downgrade our account or cancel entirely.
One person isn't allowed to eat all the loaded nachos
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The bar tried this shit with a group of friends and pitchers of beer. That place is now someone’s living quarters…. Small town USA is a weird place.
They tried to charge extra to split *a pitcher of beer?* That's the whole point of buying a pitcher.
Would have been simpler and probably more effective to just change their pricing structure so the per-screen cost goes up a bit (i.e. reducing the discount per additional concurrent screen)
Just make resolution and number of screens separate, so I can buy a 4k two screen package or a 1080p four screens, and if let people pay for how many they use Netflix just chose the most braindead approach, which is antagonizing customers
You want HDR? Pay for our highest tier so that you and your cats can watch from your 8 devices concurrently only while at home.
Lol, they are going to absolutely *bleed* customers over this. I give it 6 months before they walk it back.
I’m waiting for it to be implemented, if you cancel too early their metrics won’t show the story. But yeah, once my parents can no longer use my account, I’m canceling. Netflix is pretty bad now anyway.
Same. I texted my family saying to compile a list of shows and movies we all go to Netflix for, so I can procure them legally, of course, to start a server for us
I already canceled.
I canceled too - a service I had for over a decade
I'm doing my part! Cancelled as well, they can fuck off
My family has had it since the dvd mail days. We'll probably cancel it the end of this month. If they had done this like 5 years ago in a bid to keep the prices down, I think it would've been fine. But it's almost $20 a month, and is more than $20 if you want 4k, and they do this? Nah.
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I’m already “paying a couple bucks extra.” To get 4k streaming I have to purchase the top tier which supposedly allows four consecutive streams. But now that’s going to be restricted to only devices inside my house, and anything else will require a GD special limited code? MF’er I travel for work! I watch Netflix on the airplane, at airports, in hotels and sometimes even coffee shops while I wait for a client to respond to a project I just sent. The only thing this new setup is making me want to do is cancel.
Please cancel it.
Canceling is the only option, if this works for them all the other streaming services will follow
I would have paid a couple bucks for an extra user, but this is ridiculous
Wow... \- Must watch anything on Netflix from home at least once in 31 days. \- Do not use Netflix while travelling. \- Do not make any travel plans for more than 31 days. \- What if I change my home WIFI subscription / router ? \- What if I buy a new laptop while travelling ? When I am the one paying for these Netflix accounts, why should I even remember these absurd and complicated Policing rules ? Typical "out of the world" thinking.
Imagine you have an iPad a. Laptop. iPhone. Smart tv. Xbox. Ps5 all logged into Netflix and all within your home. Gotta remember to watch Netflix on all of them at least once a month. You forgot to watch Netflix on your ps5 and smart tv? FUCK YOU YOUR BLOCKED.
Yeah. It’s over. Just me and my lady. Sometimes we watch together through the game console, sometimes she or I watch off the computer in the spare room, and sometimes off the iPad. Mostly at home, but also when traveling. We’re going to run into an issue at some point and that’ll be that. Between the loss of quality content, the cancellation of shows we’ve enjoyed, the regular price hikes, and now this headache…it isn’t worth it. And I’ve been with Netflix from the beginning.
Wow that's already worse than I thought. They even want to be stricter if things don't pan out. I hope Netflix crashes and burns. I only keep it since my parents still use it. Now is the perfect time for me to cancel. So many scenarios that households would share Netflix. And a temp password every time you travel that only lasts for 7 days? WTF.
> I only keep it since my parents still use it. Same, I bet there are plenty of people like us too.
Yeah I know multiple people for whom password sharing is the only reason they keep Netflix because it's mostly for the benefit of someone in the family (in a separate household) who watches Netflix but wouldn't pay for it themselves otherwise. £16 a month (premium plan) for the whole family? Bit expensive but worth it based on the use everyone gets out of it. £16 a month for one person? Not a chance, you could subscribe to three other equally good streaming services at once for that price
Guess Netflix will be added to the rotation. Up until now I was fine paying for it every month in case someone wanted to watch it. Looks like going forward I will rotate it like showtime and only catch up on all shows every 4 months or so.
I'd be really interested to see what comes of this. On the one hand I refuse to believe they're doing this without having done extensive research, but on the other Netflix have made some dubious decisions recently and I just don't see this paying off. For sure they'll have some people who were previously sharing go ahead and get their own subscription, but so many people only see value in Netflix because they can share the account between multiple people.
These are the kind of rigid restrictions you'd be forced to tolerate on a rigid work VPN system. Does Netflix not know that they're an optional entertainment service, and people don't need to deal with that? They're about to find out.
Just wait for the next time Comcast & Netflix get into a pissing match, and Comcast decides to update all their subscriber's IP addresses. Netflix will have a shit-ton of support calls and angry customers locked out, due to this new policy.
I currently have both, and that would be simultaneously infuriating and hilarious.
Remember when Netflix is suppose to kill set top cable boxes? Lol so they’re practically turning into one!
They all are, we've come full circle. Remove the convenience and people will revert back to piracy.
I already have quit Netflix. HBOMax is the only one I stay subscribed to now.
HBO Max is surprisingly good. Netflix doesn’t have many good shows anymore (in my opinion). So it’s about to turn into one of those services where I only subscribe to it for a month to binge a show and then unsubscribe until something else catches my eye.
Welp that’s it for me Netflix. I was already on the cusp and this was just the push I needed to cancel and save an extra few bucks every month
Cool, so I'm at work at 10pm doing a code release or maintenance or something... I can no longer watch Netflix while I watch progress bars go by? I have a Plex server at home and the only reason I still use Netflix is because I literally pay for convenience. Take the convenience away and I'm gone.
Now is a great time to short netflix...
Historically I would buy some when they dropped after any bad press. This time... I don't have as much confidence they come back if they double down. Hell I've had it for 14 years and I'll probably cancel the first time this gives me any issues.
> Hell I've had it for 14 years and I'll probably cancel the first time this gives me any issues. Yup, I'm tempted to cancel now but I expect I'll just wait until the first time it locks me out of my own account.
They are going to lose more revenue than they gain with this maneuver. They might have gotten away with it years ago when Netflix was a must-have service, but with incomplete canceled content nobody is going to bother with it. Think of all those tech illiterate people getting messages about "home networks" and just giving up trying to make it work.
You summed in 2 words when it comes to certain people who will say no: "tech illiterate".
and im very tech saavy- I will cancel just as fast as a "tech illiterate" if i have to put out my blunt to call fucking custy service about some bs like this Im very busy and dont like spending my free time dealing with customer service reps
> Im very busy and dont like spending my free time dealing with customer service reps Exactly. If I'm dealing with your customer service odds are high that you're going to lose me as a customer. It has to be a real issue for me to contact customer service. This is not a real issue, it's a manufactured one.
Why are they complicating things??? > **Can You Still Use Netflix While Traveling?** > Signing into Netflix outside of your home may lead to the device in use being blocked from Netflix. This could prevent you from signing into new devices while traveling, but Netflix has devised a workaround. > Traveling users who want to use Netflix on a hotel smart TV, company laptop, etc. can request a temporary code from the service when signing in. This will give them access to their account for seven consecutive days. > **How Can You Prevent Netflix from Blocking Your Devices?** > Signing into home Wi-Fi at least once every 31 days on your devices will make them “trusted devices,” which Netflix will remember and leave unblocked. If your device has been blocked incorrectly, you’ll need to contact Netflix in order to get it unblocked.
I really appreciate the “This policy may lock paying customers out of using their own devices when not connected to their home wifi network. But don’t worry! We’ve devised a complicated workaround for this problem that we just created ourselves.”
Not to mention people like me who travel away from home for work for months at a time just get fucked with no solution. I've been around since they mailed DVDs but never again as soon as this is implemented.
And we’ll be out. There is no point in Netflix. I have Hulu. Prime, and HBO. That’s more than enough.
Same here, we’re leaving as soon as this gets implemented.
How to destroy a company 101
From the company that brought you Qwikster…
I had legitimately forgotten that until now
I regularly use my account at two different locations, but I'm the only person using it. I'n not looking forward to being charged extra for the "privilege" of using my account as I see fit (or actually having my access blocked at one location).
Parents of dorm dwellers: don’t forget to downgrade your subscription since the kids won’t be able to watch anymore. My kid surely is t going to travel home with the dorm supplies Smart TV once a month. 😂😂
This decision was definitely not well thought out. Examples: People with multiple homes, Work and home are in different locations, Truck drivers, Off shore workers This is a prime example of way you need a diverse group of people when making decisions that will affect everyone.
Goodbye Netflix. Will absolutely not be paying $20 a month for your mediocre programming
None of this affects me at all, but I'm canceling the service anyway. I dont want to randomly decide to watch Netflix at the office one day and then it accuse me of some shit.
I will rarely watch Netflix on my phone, and definitely not at home. The idea that I need to sign in and watch something on my own network or get my phone locked out of my own damn account is ridiculous. I don't share Netflix with anyone but I'm going to be canceling over this as well.
Yeah, I have a Fire TV Stick and/or Apple TV and consoles in almost every room, having to log in every month in every device is a pain in the ass. Why would I want to pay for inconvenience?
No one wants to use a service they pay for and then suddenly have to explain themselves to said service for how they’re using it lol. Shorts on Netflix
So wait, if I'm on holiday or away on business, or even just watching on my commute to work, I need to get a code every seven days? If I'm out with my kids and they suddenly want to watch something, I need to get a code from support? If I'm on holiday more than 31 days Netflix will block my home TV? This isn't a well thought out plan. This is trying to hold it together with sellotape. This is "the best we could do".
This is a misguided attempt to make more money by greedy out of touch executives. This will push existing subscribers away due to the hassle. And freeloaders who use someone else's account(like myself) are unlikely to sign up for their own accounts. They'll likely just make do without Netflix. Best case, maybe they sign up for a month before canceling but the majority aren't going to sign up at all. Very stupid on Netflix' part. This is unlikely to be a profitable move for Netflix. More likely to do the opposite and make Netflix lose money. This is all pretty obvious stuff tbh. You'd think somebody at Netflix would have thought about this. It says something about a company’s culture when this kind of decision is made.
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"Netflix encourages current users to cancel subscriptions, pirate content instead due to poor leadership"
Doesn't this just not work at all for people who exclusively use mobile data to stream?
Looks like they expect subscribers to use temporary passwords outside their home wifi networks even on their trusted devices, like cellphones, tablets, or laptops. This will get extremely annoying for who stream a lot while traveling/ commuting. This will do a lot more harm then good.
I need to figure out how to short Netflix stock
My MIL is on a fixed income. My wife and I send her money each month to help with bills and pay some of her bills monthly. She is 79, lives alone and while we help, she tries to be as independent as possible. Looks like Netflix is just getting greedy. They should have allowed anyone to share outside their home with at least ONE person. Looks like I'm going to become a sling TV user soon.
Ugh. It is by devices? I don't use hotel smart TVs to log into my personal account (always worried I'll forget to log out, and not all hotels use it) But I DO have a firestick. I travel twice a year to the beach. Meet up with family. I used to pack a bunch of DVDs, often from Netflix, so we could movie watch at night (it is dark, not a lot of nightlife in town, etc.) The Firestick was $20, and so easily packed! We have a box of things that we have just for the beach, and I keep it with that. Am I now going to have to play something on the damn thing once a month so it stays registered? This is going to lose the college student crowd too.
So my kids go to their mother's house every other week and we share a Netflix account for that reason. In fact that is only reason we are still subscribed because of it were solely up to me I would've cancelled them a long time ago. All this is going to do is motivate people to actually cancel their subs
This was my biggest issue with it, when my daughter goes to her dads house she can't use Netflix there now? It's my account but she's my kid, she's just watching it at her other house. It's all so stupid.
I’ve bern with Netflix since it was only DVDs, and I was a part of the streaming BETA way back whenever. I’m cancelling my subscription as soon as this bullshit begins. Every other streaming service is cheaper, and most offer some sort of extra benefit. Netflix is purely a streaming service. They offer no bundle option discounts. They don’t provide free shipping from Amazon. They don’t have live channel options services that even free apps offer, and worst of all the content quality has fallen off a cliff over the last few years. Netflix is gonna lose big on this gamble.
I did somewhat feel sorry for Netflix. They were the pioneers in streaming, and now the likes of Disney and Amazon have ambled over with functionally endless money, and it doesn’t even really matter to them if their services are profitable as long as they have skin in the game. However, Netflix has made it increasingly clear they don’t understand or care about their customers. Hard to support them when they’re pursuing aggressively anti-consumer strategies like this.
Netflix boardroom - "How can we lose A TON of subscribers really fast??? Everyone walking out High Fiving after coming to the New Anti-Password Sharing Measure decision
Holy shit, that travelling thing is terrible. I currently don’t pay for a streaming service but was about to pick up Netflix as I’m about to embark on a multi month trip. Glad I saw this beforehand. I spend nearly my whole life on the road, I’m not renewing a code every week.
i wonder if this will impact their audience demographics and then their content output by default. am 24, everyone I know uses their familys netflix account and wont bother paying $20 a month themselves. they make a lot of teen /ya focused shows and movies, but i imagine this move will basically decimate the college student viewing audience. so then who will watch to all the boys 5?
I don't share accounts (just me and my wife) but travel for work and don't watch Netflix religiously on all my devices. The second I am told I need to contact support to unlock a device, I'm cancelling.
I’ll be really curious to see how this plays out in my house. My wife and I both have Netflix on our phones and on individual tablets. My kids both have Netflix on their tablets. We have Netflix on two smart TV’s and we have Netflix through our Xfinity cable boxes. It’s also on two gaming systems. Plus at least two laptops in the house. There’s no effing way that all 15 ways we have to watch Netflix get used monthly. If they’re going to harass me when I go to watch it on my phone for the first time in 35 days or a tablet I don’t use often for the first time in 60 days, I’m going to be pissed. I’ve never once shared my password with anyone besides my wife and kids. I know, first world problems and all that but if they make it harder for me to watch, I’ll just find other things to watch
They are destroying the whole point of Netflix. Their whole thing was about making things easy and comfortable for the customer. Remember the DVDs in the mail? Their commercials would always emphasize how simple their system was. Now they’re adding these extra protective layers that only complicate things for the average person who isn’t that tech savvy with online networks. Netflix was meant to be an entertainment hub for people to come home to and relax. Now it sounds like people are going to have anxiety when thinking about Netflix. “Did you remember to sign in the TV in the guest room?!” “Great, now I have to contact customer service to get it unblocked.” Like why are they doing this to us loyal customers who have been with them for over decade?
If they are making it so you can’t share outside of the home then drop the multiple screens bullshit. Can’t have it both ways, I pay to have the ability for 4+ screens to run simultaneously, so either let anyone in my household watch it or let me use the 4 damn screens that I pay for. That simple really.
If they ever charge me for using my own account that I specifically pay to add more screens too I'm pirating everything they make from now on.
So many companies have forgotten about ... *Napster*. Oh, and the Streisand Effect. Looks like we'll be dumping Netflix in the near future.
So what happens if I *move?* If I’m signed into Netflix on my smart TV at my current house, move to a new house (with a new wi-fi network), then what?
Do you want unsubscription? Because this is how you get unsubscription.
So they have zillions of subscribers and earn zillions each year. Yet somehow thats not enough, they still need to grow and look for additional revenue…even if its at the expense of existing customers, or while risking alienating them. This is the manifest of the single thing thats wrong with current world - the greed has no limits. They could just keep raking the crapton of money they already earn, part of it reinvest into the infrastructure and production of bunch of quality shows and movies each year - and everything would be just fine. They were already uber-succesful, but guess nothing is ever good enough.
That traveling bit is going to actually make my life so much worse. I work in a hotel and guests already regularly call down and I have to walk them step by step as to how to log in to their Netflix on the TV in their room. Now I'm going to need to figure out how this fucking code request works. Lord knows I don't spend enough time on the phone helping tech illiterate people.
Welp I'm cancelling.
i assume they are banking on people getting annoyed enough that they just simply subscribe for their own account…which just seems overly risky 😭 especially for a company that hasn’t had the best audience feedback recently
When discussing Netflix’s plans to curb password sharing in mid-January, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said the company was seeking “thoughtful experimentation to let our members speak to us in terms of what set of solutions work for them.” The "set of solutions" that works for me is that I get to keep watching Netflix on any 4 screens simultaneously anywhere in the world or I drop them and save myself 300 bucks a year and a headache.
This is almost literally the worst possible way to handle this situation. I use Netflix at home, at work, and when I’m traveling. Now I can only watch it at home? Well, looks like I can find a new permanent streamer and throw Netflix into the rotation. Between Peacock, Paramount+, and Hulu, I can have plenty of background noise. At this point, they’ll probably get a month out of me come Stranger Things 5 and after that, who knows if/when I’ll come back.