I woke up this morning to an e-mail from the co-founder and CEO of Netflix. Yes, I know I am as special as the thousands of other subscribers who most certainly got the same e-mail. Normally I wouldn't read lengthy e-mails but this one caught my attention in the first sentence where he mentioned that he lacked respect and humility during their prices
changes hikes! In the e-mail, co-founder and CEO, Reed Hastings explains that they are separating the two services. The streaming services (which I canceled when Netflix ended its $10-per-month DVD-by-mail + Streaming package and began charging $8 per month for streaming and $8 per month for DVD-by-mail service) will still be called the original Netflix, but the DVDs by mail will now be called Qwikster. The downside to this is that now instead of adding movies to my queue at Netflix.com I will have to go to a different website, Qwikster.com and the e-mail said that the two would not be integrated. While I am not sure exactly what this means, I assume that if you are doing both services you will have to rate things twice, enter your credit card info twice, etc. There will be two separate billing charges on your bill, but it will be the same amount (at least for now). An upside to the change for those of you who are gamers, is that in the near future they will offer games for Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games by mail.
I just wonder if this change will be for the better?
I think that Mr Hastings should have announced this change before he announced the price hike. This explanation might have satisfied some customers. Personally, I would have still canceled the live streaming service. In my opinion, for now it's not worth the added cost. Maybe in the future, as these changes are integrated if there are newer movies offered, I might bite but for now we'll just do the DVDs through the mail. One thing I will say about the service is that it is very quick. Why can't the rest of the USPS be as fast? I also respect the fact that he knows he messed up AND is willing to admit it. I just wonder if it hit him in the pocketbook a little too deep?
So, what do you think? How many of you stuck around through all the changes? Do you think this change will be good or bad? What are your thoughts? By the way, the e-mail did state that the envelopes will still be red, just have the Qwikster logo on them instead of Netflix. There is a more lengthy explanation with a video over at the
Netflix blog if you're so inclined to read.
Netflix DVD Service Now Qwikster
http://www.crazyworkingmom.com/2011/09/netflix-dvd-service-now-qwikster.html
