Netflix shouldn't have caved and should have displayed a simple graphic about the slowness in their player along with the number for Comcast support. Displace the anger and support issues around the slowdown to the proper party, the one that's at fault. Cost them some customers.
Of course, the problem with that is that Comcast has a monopoly in many areas they serve. Just like Time Warner does. And folks simply can't switch. So, even though Comcast's customer satisfaction rates are absolutely abysmal, they don't lose customers over it.
Your solution would make more sense. Netflix should charge Comcast customers more and itemize it on the bills as a 'Comcast Network Slowdown Tax'.
As a Comcast customer I would have called and complained. If enough people complained, it might have had some effect. However, in my area, there's only two choices: crappy DSL from AT&T and Comcast. There's really no comparing the two services. I had the DSL offering for a few years and it was absolute crap. With Comcast I get amazing speeds, but when service is needed, it's Comcast. In other words, it's horrible. Here's what happens when you call them due to an outage:
You tell them you power cycled the modem. They make you do it anyway. You ask them to do a traceroute and they either say "I don't know what that is" or "I can't do that" or "Yeah, we'll get to that after a few other things".
Last time I called, 20 minutes into the call he does a traceroute and finds the problem is a few hops from my house. Yeah, he wouldn't do it it first thing, so he wasted a bunch of time.
Sometimes, if they won't do the traceroute, they'll send someone out, in a 4 hour window, only to tell you when they get there at the problem is not near your house. Or, the problem is fixed by the time they arrive.
It's one of the most frustrating customer service experiences you can have.
I agree that Comcast is horrible but you can't expect them to skip the most basic troubleshooting steps. That probably solves the problem for most non-technical users who call in.
A traceroute takes a few seconds. 99% of the time I call it's mainly to tell them to please track down the problem (outside of my home... only once over the years was it my modem) and fix it. To have to wade through 20 minutes of prelims, when a 20 second command could make it obviously unnecessary, that's just dumb.
The fact that you thought I was suggesting skipping the basics is bewildering.
I deal with the same issue on Verizon. I found that using LiveChat, the support there seemed to be more tech. focused. If I start by sending a screen shot of my traceroute, I usually can get what I need within a few minutes.
It would be great though if there was an option in general to say, look, I'm an expert, I've tried this, this, and this already. But I see lots of reasons why this wouldn't be practical.
I think that's what we all wanted them to do - except for the frustrating few on here that seem to think what happened was right and natural, at least - but I'm not sure it was the correct thing to do for Netflix. I see this as a 'fix it, then make it better' attempt by Netflix. They stemmed the bleeding with a large (the largest?) subscriber base, and now they are looking for alternative long term solutions through public campaigning, product development and probably political means.
At the end of the day Netflix is a business trying to sell product. Taking their ball and going home when the market bullies them seems like corporate martyrdom to me - not a successful growth strategy.
You must keep in mind that all it takes is a another player attempting to enter the movie streaming market (e.g. Amazon) that is willing to pay the ISPs. This just creates a whole slew of issues that Netflix might not be willing to deal with.
Of course, the problem with that is that Comcast has a monopoly in many areas they serve. Just like Time Warner does. And folks simply can't switch. So, even though Comcast's customer satisfaction rates are absolutely abysmal, they don't lose customers over it.
Your solution would make more sense. Netflix should charge Comcast customers more and itemize it on the bills as a 'Comcast Network Slowdown Tax'.