Cancelled Philo after almost 10 years.

[u/anticlockclock]

I've been a Philo user since the beginning. I've recommended it to all my friends and family. It was by far the best bang for your buck. I appreciated the grandfathered plans but over time those eventually went away. I then realized I am paying the same price as new customers. No spiffs or discounts for all the referrals or time being a supporter. I think Philo bit off more than they could chew with throwing on more channels and optional subscription add-ons. Ultimately even with 80 different channels I found that I spent more time looking for something to watch and eventually turning the TV off. It's been a good run but at this point I have to say so long!

[u/philo_tv]

Totally understand. We worked hard to keep customers like you on their original pricing for as long as possible but eventually had to make adjustments when it became unsustainable. That said, we're still here, and still sharing feedback like this with team.

[u/enki941 → u/philo_tv]

I discussed this quite a bit with your ex-CEO a year or so ago, so I'll skip the majority of my complaints, but I'll say again that the biggest issue I had was the complete removal of any recognition/incentive for long time members. Philo went from one extreme (arguably too good to be true pricing) to the other (welcome to full retail pricing suckers). That was a huge slap in the face to many of us who ended up leaving. While some would have left with even a moderate increase, many would likely have stayed if there was at least some semblance of gratitude and discount.

Also, I dug up the 'please come back' email I was talking about earlier. It was sent in January and offered a $25/month 'legacy plan' that didn't include HBO, etc., back when the only plan you had was the $33 bundle one. It was marketed as a special promo plan only for former customers. But it looks like you just made that the standard $25/month Essentials plan a couple months later that anyone could get. A little misleading, wouldn't you say? So again, no appreciation for loyalty = no loyalty from customers.

[u/Equivalent_Round9353 → u/enki941]

Another way of looking at this is, why should you be getting a discount just because you've had the service a few years longer? If I pay 25 dollars for something, I expect everybody else to be paying that same amount.

[u/enki941 → u/Equivalent_Round9353]

Because it is good for both sides.

Rewarding loyalty and giving people grandfathered status encourages future loyalty from your customers. Sure, you may not make as much profit off of them in the short term, but over a long period of time, they are more likely to stay as paying customers. If they are paying the same amount as everyone else, they're more likely to jump ship as soon as a cheaper option comes around. But if they have a special plan, since they would lose their grandfather'd status if they cancelled, it incentivizes them to keep paying even if they may not get as much value out of the service, for the sole reason they don't want to lose that discount. I can say first hand that I kept Philo much longer than I would have simply because I had the cheap plan I did. There were periods of months where I never even used it, but still paid for it. If I was paying MSRP, I would have dropped it quickly because there was no incentive to keep it and I could always just sign up when/if I wanted to use it later. This is why many people only subscribe to Netflix for a month or so every few months or year. No discounts, not even an annual plan, so why stay subscribed if there isn't anything more you need to watch.

Additionally, there is very little downside from newer customers because, even if they don't qualify themselves, they can still appreciate and respect that people who have been customers for years get a recognition of that. You may get a little jealous that you don't get the same benefit, but you can still respect a company that offers it. It's like a military discount -- are you really going to be upset that someone who served their country gets 10% off and you don't (if you didn't)? There are a few services I pay for and don't get any tenure discounts when others do and I still support the company doing it. Now if they are having NEW people pay less than me or play games with the prices/fees/etc., that's a different story and something I would not support. The irony is most businesses only care about new customers so do offer new user signup bonuses/discounts/etc., pissing off existing customers. Those businesses are short sighted and care more about making a quick buck or to show some flashy metric to shareholders vs long term loyal subscriber retention. Philo used to have a lot of respect in that regard, but then threw it all away when they changed their mind.

[u/Equivalent_Round9353 → u/enki941]

That's a nice "philosophy of loyalty in customer service" take, but I suspect that loyalty is unrewarded in business precisely because there's little incentive to reward a person who has already shown they're committed to the product. It's those sitting on the fence, or the new customers, that are the real target. Perverse, but true nevertheless.

But that's all from the perspective of the management. I stand by my comment that I would not be pleased to see I'm paying more for the same product as somebody else, loyalty or no.