The story of how Netflix ticked off its customers more than just about any company in America that didn't spill an inconceivable amount of oil in the Gulf of Mexico begins with a rather innocuous press release. Rather than contact their users about the price hike themselves, <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/netflix-to-offer-new-unlimited-dvd-plans-and-will-separate-streaming-and-dvd-plans-in-the-us-2011-07-12?siteid=nbsh" target="_hplink">Netflix first put out this release</a> and let the news outlets disperse the story of the pricing overhaul for them (they later sent emails, but after everyone had already heard about the price hike elsewhere). The change: Netflix eliminated the $9.99 1-DVD-at-a-time + unlimited streaming plan in favor of two separate plans: $7.99 for 1-DVD-at-a-time, and $7.99 for unlimited streaming, with no discount for combining the two. And thus the rage began to form: Netflix allowed the news media to notify customers of its price hike. The consumers did not shoot the messenger, however; rather, they approached, fully-loaded, the corporate entity they saw as the villains, as Netflix was about to discover...

PR Newswire/MarketWatch