Towards the end of January and beginning of February, the well-known streaming service Netflix announced on social media that they were ending their allowance of password sharing on accounts. The way they were going about it was banning accounts that had devices logged in that were not at the home place that the account is connected to. And Netflix was going to automatically determine where the account is connected to through IPs and internet connection. Then, every 31 days if a device is logged into the account and is not connected to the home place then the account would be banned.

After this announcement, Netflix received backlash all the way to people canceling their accounts before the change was put into place. Many even wanted to clarify with Netflix if their college student children, who do not live at home, could still use the family account. The answer was no. Then more questions came into play with military people and families, traveling jobs such as nurses, and way more situations. The answer to all of these situations and problems was no, they could not use a shared account. This led to many people canceling their accounts with Netflix and complaining that they pay for so many screens, they should be able to share their account with whomever they choose.

The next step for Netflix was taking back what they said. They released more social media posts saying they did not mean their statement how it came across and that it will not work that way. This was a direct result of losing money from people canceling their accounts left and right To be fair though, whoever came up with the idea of trying to obtain more money did not realize the outcome of it. But the fact of the matter is it cost them more money than they thought they were going to make.

This was going to send Netflix to the grave right next to BlockBuster. They were already on thin ice with many users due to price increases and show options, but THIS was the final straw for many users. And as Netflix saw the outcome of its threat, I think they need to prepare a strategy to make users come back and stay with them. Personally, lowering prices and bringing shows back would be the best options, but I understand it does not always work that way. If Netflix pulls any more funny business, my family is canceling our account and moving straight to the other popular streaming services and giving them my money solely. Greedy does not work in this situation, sorry not sorry Netflix! Do better now and care for your users.