SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Some Netflix customers called it a slap in the face. Others a betrayal. Many threatened to drop the movie service.
On Wednesday, many of them vented on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, seething over Netflix Inc.’s decision to raise its prices by up to 60 percent for the millions of subscribers who want to rent DVDs by mail and watch movies online.
“I can definitely afford it but I dropped them on principle,” said Joe Turick, a technology engineer in Monroe, N.C., who has been with Netflix for about a decade. He cancelled his subscription within an hour of learning of Tuesday’s price changes and plans to try competitors.
By Wednesday afternoon, more than 40,000 people had responded to a post on Netflix’s Facebook page announcing the change, with some saying they would switch to rivals such as Hulu.com’s paid service and Redbox’s DVD-rental kiosks.
Outrage bubbled on Twitter, and a posting on Netflix’s blog about the new plans had garnered 5,000 comments — the limit allowed by the site’s host, Google Inc.-owned Blogger — which included many seething comments.
Netflix said company officials expected the intense reaction.
“Everything Netflix does is with extensive research and testing and analysis, so we expected some people to be disappointed,” company spokesman Steve Swasey said.
While thousands complained on Facebook, Twitter and other websites, it’s clear that plenty of Netflix’s 22.8 million U.S. customers are not upset about the change.
In online postings, a number of users concluded that, even at the higher price, Netflix is still a better deal than competitors.
On Tuesday, the company said it was splitting up its two services, which means that subscribers who want both streaming video and DVD-by-mail access will have to get separate plans that cost at least $16 per month total.
Netflix had been offering both services as a single package that was available for as little as $10 per month. The price changes took effect immediately for new subscribers, and will begin Sept. 1 for current Netflix customers.
Netflix isn’t changing the $8 monthly price for an Internet streaming-only option.
However, instead of charging $2 more for a plan that also offers one DVD at a time by mail, the company will charge $8 for a comparable DVD-only plan. That brings the total to $16 for customers who want both services.
Customers who want to rent up to two DVDs at a time with streaming will pay $20 per month, or 33 percent more. Those wanting three DVDs at a time with streaming will pay $24 per month, or 20 percent more.
While the changes will help Netflix bring in more money to cover rising costs it faces to cover buying and shipping discs while licensing more content for its streaming library, they also put off a number of subscribers — at least in the short term.
Swasey, the Netflix spokesman, would not comment about how many subscribers have actually canceled their Netflix subscriptions, saying the company will discuss subscriber metrics during its quarterly earnings call in late July.
Chris Caggiano, a professor at The Boston Conservatory, isn’t planning to change his Netflix plan either, even though he’ll pay $20 in September — up from $15 currently — to have unlimited streaming and two DVDs out at a time.
“Prices go up. I don’t see the big deal. There’s this huge hue and cry — it’s like the end of the world,” he said.
And Netflix, Caggiano pointed out, is a for-profit business.
“This is not a public service,” he said. “And, as many people are deciding to do, you can go elsewhere.”
