Update 9/9/12: If you have stumbled upon this post looking for a way to stream workouts make sure to click over to my review of www.workoutsondemand.com and enter the membership giveaway or take advantage of the 55% reader discount.
Good afternoon Netflix Users and Our Lady Readers!
It has been a few weeks since the removal of all of the on-demand workout videos from Netflix Instant Watch collection. Today I gave Netflix a call today to find out when we may have our workouts back. I spoke to Brent (who was not a great listener). I let him know I had called a few weeks ago and was looking for an update.
First he needed to access my account, so I gave him my information. Then he told me that the videos were removed following studios raising the price but user demand not meeting the cost increase. It did seem that he was able to access some information in their system that showed a “pending” status on some titles such as 10 Minute Workouts. At this point it seems to be no time line to return fitness videos to the Instant Watch customers.
He did direct me to instantwatcher.com where there are daily updates on what is popular, coming soon, and leaving soon. The site is a bit of a jumble and appears to be run by a third party. I couldn’t locate any coming soon titles. There were a few small Netflix badges off to the side but my favorite part was the full screen baner ad across the bottom for Hulu. Nice.
Once again I tried to throw my non-existant weight around. I told Brent that I write a blog and my post about the workouts being cancelled has been receiving hundreds of hits from internet searches (Welcome Googlers!). Once again my self declared celebrity status had no effect on the tone of the conversation. Sorry. At the end of the call I stayed on the line for the one question survey and chose the “dissatisfied” option. I generally don’t provide negative feedback to a specific customer service interaction but this time I really wasn’t satisfied at the end of the call.
AND THEN!
Not 30 seconds later I got an email that as per my request they have cancelled my Streaming plan. Wait? What!
Back on the phone I spoke to another, more alert, service agent. He made a few hmm’s and ahh’s when my account screen came up before putting me on hold to check on something. Once he returned my account was reactivated with no further action needed on my part.
UNTIL!
I got one email that my user name was changed and a second email that my password was changed. Both at my request. Now I can’t log in.
da;;lksdf09382q0-9 <——- head hits keyboard.
So I call back. After a several painful attempts to spell my eight letter email address for the customer service agent she tried looking up the account via my credit card number. With the account infront of her she tells me that I “forgot the 14.” ”I forgot the what?” “You forgot the number in your email.”
Readers, I have had the same personal email address since I was 12. It has never had a numeric character in it. When I told the customer service agent that the address was not mine and had never been she just said something to the effect of, “I’m only telling you what your email is here.” BUT THAT IS NOT MY EMAIL ADDRESS! Is what I wanted to yell. I didn’t.
We resolved the email situation and she gave me a temporary password – the highly secure and extremely popular 1-2-3-4-5 – which I have since changed. A quick glance at “my account” shows that my service is still marked to be canceled. awesome.
At this point I have to ask once again for my account to be uncanceled. She laughs when I tell her what has happened. I am not laughing. I will probably laugh about this in the future but I need about 24 hours to be irritated. While I am being irritated I need The Little Helping to be able to watch Thomas – instantly – via Netflix. Damn it! They have me where it counts.
If you would like to contact Netflix to ask for your workouts back
- Call: 1-800-585-7265.
- Contact them via instant chat: log in at netflix.com and click “help” in the upper right hand corner of their home page. Choose “Chat Support” under the “Don’t See What You Need” heading.
- Tweet: @netflix or @netflixhelps
Be polite but – for the love of your sanity – only give them your first name!
I’m really bummed out about it. I aboslutely LOVED the crunch yoga relaxing yoga video by Sara Ivanhoe and there where a few times where i came across a workout video that I loved and then the next time i looked it was gone which really is not a great feeling when you finally find something that works for you and you know itll help you get in shape becuase you love it and it vibes with you then poof gone XD I’m a reiki healer and I’m very sesitive so it can be hard for me to find an instructor and program that works for me on all levels. I decided to sign up for daily burn but its just not the same :/ oh well i’ll make a call.Thank you so much for all the info and updates on what happened and congrats on your amazing weightloss.
Peace & Blessings,
Sabs
irritated yogi
I liked that yoga video too. It would be nice to see these workouts return. Thanks for reading and your congratulations. Be well.
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I find it odd that most of the comments I’ve read have the customer service agents mentioning that they were also upset to lose the workout videos because they “use them all the time”…yet they’re surprised the videos are gone and have to look it up? I smell something from them that isn’t workout sweat.
Netlfix says that workout videos were removed because user demand didn’t meet the cost increase, but I think user demand would have skyrocketed if Netflix had made it more obvious that they offered workout videos in the first place. Too late now! I still love you, Netflix!!! Adding the 8th season of Desperate Housewives this fall makes up for your removal of workout videos!!!
just called netflix, they didn’t renew and there still isn’t an estimated time frame
I have to say, as a former Netflix employee (a few years ago mind you), everything I’ve read as to what they have to say for themselves regarding this is basically script. I, personally, would take it with less than a grain of salt. Definitely continue to let them know what you want, that may still make a difference, but until those titles are back, the employees know nothing that can help. Which isn’t helpful
Thank you for your comments Michelle. It is nice to have a little window into how Netflix operates.
Netflix’s response as of 11/30
Netflix Kimberly
Ok so our contracts for those and all of our other exercise titles just expired and we’re in negotiations with the studios as we chat now to get those back because they were so popular, personally, they were a part of my daily routine so I’m right there with you! Customer feedback helps us out tremendously in these matters too! Just for the record, would it be safe to say you’d like to see them back in our library?
Safe to say I answered yes.
I appreciate you fighting the good fight, Rose!
Great Britanee thanks for sharing your update!
November 26, 2012:
New company line from Aaron is that the creators of the videos get paid when folks buy the videos…and if they had them, we would have to pay more.
So Netflix may be changing their tune. Thank you everyone who has posted their own update. It is all very interesting to follow.
I found your blog when searching for “nexflix fitness vidoes.” First link! I don’t see the chat option but I tweeted them. Let’s get this back!
I chatted them up, as per your suggestion. Here was their response (as of 10/23/2012):
Our streaming rights to our workout videos at the moment. So anytime the license to stream expires, we have to renegotiate the terms again. The titles that are being renegotiated need to be pulled off our site until we come to an agreement(per the studios) So after they are renegotiated(it can take several weeks to a couple months), we will put them right back But sometimes if we couldn’t come to an agreement or the studio wishes to peruse DVD sales for that title, we end up loosing it. With all the feedback we are getting, I am sure they are hearing all the great customers such as your self.
It looks like neither the netflix employee you talked to nor the worker that chatted with the author of this blog knows how to spell “lose,” and that really bothers me.
If you have Comcast On-Demand they apparently have a couple dozen workout videos available for free. I haven’t checked any of them out yet, but the organization of the videos is at least a lot nicer.
Whew! I’m glad to know the workout videos really were on there. I thought I was losing my mind when I couldn’t find any of them! There used to be a really nice selection of workouts there. Netflix is messing up big time!
Thanks for posting this! Sharing in your frustration!
Appreciate the documentation of this (and the original post written). Thought I’d gone a wee bit crazy when I couldn’t find them.
Hi, I just talked with an agent on the phone and the explanation line is still the same. Check back online and “you might be pleasantly surprised to find them again in a week or in two years.” of course she didn’t say it that way but it sure sounded like it.
I’ve worked in customer support, still do occasionally and their response is typical blah blah to keep the customers at bay but most likely they will not get it back and are not doing enough to get it back. Why would they loose these licenses in the first place! If they are really concerned about upset customers they could have found other studios before the current license expired.
Very frustrating experience with Netflix, yet again! and I am reconsidering renewing my account and definitely will get rid of all the stock I am holding in this sinking company.
I just called their customer service and the agent was saying that they could add a few specific videos I had most commonly used back to my instant queue. She said it would take a few days for this to process… We’ll see – I’ll write back with the verdict on my 1-2-3 Pilates!!!
You know, I really get disappointed in people when I see blog’s about this type of thing. Their customer service skills are great. And their response isn’t “typical blah blah” do your research and you will find that it is absolutely the truth and the way that it works. They aren’t going to be able to keep licenses for titles that are selling off the shelves. If they sell in DVD form well enough then they aren’t going to be able to keep them on a site like Netflix that’s so inexpensive. If you don’t want to deal with things like this then buy the videos. Or, get the DVD plan from Netflix. Stop trying to have everything available for unreasonable pricing.
If you watched some of these titles you would know that they aren’t great workout videos and definitely would not be selling off the shelf. And as someone who works in the film industry there is no possible way that all of these titles were under the same licsene. Also, did you even read the part where her account of cancelled for no reason. That sounds pretty bad to me.
Hulu has quite a few streaming exercise videos – looks like I’ll be using them even more!
Thanks for writing about this. I called the company and got the same answer about licensing. I asked how that can be for all fitness videos and was told that they might all be from the same company. I’m not buying that. He said that when Netflix gets rid of a title it is because the people that they rent the title from don’t want Netflix to have it anymore. I will say this though, the guy that I talked to was very polite and I was not on hold at all. My call went right through. I am unhappy about the lack of fitness videos and the way they website is now layed-out, but their customer service is spot on. Hopefully we can get the videos back if enough people call.
Le sigh. I miss the workouts. It’s a rainy evening and the boyfriend just left, and it would be the perfect time to get in an ab workout, but Neflix is sad. Well, at least I did my part and contacted them about it in hopes that if enough people do, then maybe they’ll realize that the demand is there and they’ll bring them back. I at least got a friendly person who likes using workout videos herself (supposedly) and she said she’d pass along the message to the right people. So here’s hoping. Here’s the transcript:
Netflix Jessica — Hey.. This is Jessica! May I ask who I’m chatting with?
You — Alexandra
Netflix Jessica — Hi, Alexandra! What can I help you with?
You — I did my usual search today for fitness videos, and it appears that ALL of them have mysteriously disappeared from Netflix
You — I was hoping that they will be replaced soon
You — I have done a google search and found many other people looking for them, too
Netflix Jessica — Hm, That’s strange! I can totally look into that for you.
You — Thanks
You — I read online that the licenses expired and they were hopefully going to be replaced soon, but apparently it’s been over a month now and they’re still gone
Netflix Jessica — Ah, Okay. It looks like our contract has expired. We occasionally lose titles due to studio licensing decisions, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t get it back. I’d say just keep an eye out, you never know when we might surprise you and throw it right back into your Recently Added section.
You — I hope so. I’ve been surprised to find hundreds of people online who really miss them and think that those such videos are a huge asset to Netflix and really add a lot to the experience
Netflix Jessica — Oh, I totally agree! I use them frequently so I can definitely understand what you mean.
You — Is it possible to make a note somewhere that more people are asking about them? Someone had said they called netflix and they said they didn’t think the demand was strong enough
Netflix Jessica — Totally! I will take your feedback and make sure it gets to the right people!
You — Thank you, I appreciate it
Netflix Jessica — My pleasure, Alexandra! Is there anything else I can help with?
You — That’s it, thanks
Netflix Jessica — Anytime! Have a great day!
Thanks for sharing Jessica. It looks like nothing has changed with their official line.
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Hi! Googler (and fellow blogger) here. I am so pissed. I finally had all three kids asleep without me being exhausted, planned to workout…and NO workouts on my Netflix. I swear, this is worse than when they doubled their prices.
Thanks for sharing, I was wondering what happened. Hopefully Netflix will be nice and bring workout videos back soon. I’ll definitely contact them about it, thanks for your help! You might try http://www.gaiamtv.com/. I’ve been subscribing for about half a year and am pretty happy with it. The focus is on yoga and pilates, but there’s a fair amount of regular workouts too.
Jeez! You’re a saint for putting up with such annoyance. It’s a shame to hear about their customer service shenanigans. I really do hope Netflix gets some workouts back on instant streaming–I just discovered that option about a month prior to them taking it away again! Boo.
Thanks! I didn’t feel very saintly at the time but I’ll take the compliment!
I hope so too but I’ve got an alternative to share soon. Stay tuned.
Thanks for the post!! They have also pulled a lot of exercise dvd’s. Ugh. They will be hearing from me.
Thanks for blogging about this. I’m traveling and thought I might hit up a streaming workout video while I’m on the road. I fire up my computer and no dice. I wasn’t sure if it was some sort of customized search “feature” since I was using a different device (my computer instead of my tv) or if the videos were in fact gone. Apparently they’re gone. Bad move Netflix. They started off as a good service but I feel like it’s gone downhill lately. Not sure if it’s their fault or if copyright laws are to blame.
Hi Erin! You get a gold star for at least trying to stream a workout while on the road!
If you are still looking for a workout to stream check out http://www.workoutsondemand.com. I have been previewing the site and will post my review next week with a fun give away from the site. So far I am enjoying it and you might too.
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