Dear Netflix:

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Get a grip.

Dear Dee Jay,

I messed up. I owe you an explanation.

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing.

For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn't make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us). So we moved quickly into streaming, but I should have personally given you a full explanation of why we are splitting the services and thereby increasing prices. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do.

So here is what we are doing and why.

Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD. DVD is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection of movies.

I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail. We need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolves, without maintaining compatibility with our DVD by mail service.

So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures, that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently.

It’s hard to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”. We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming.

Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, but now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow. A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated.

There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!). If you subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix. The total will be the same as your current charges. We will let you know in a few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready.

For me the Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy. The new envelope is still that lovely red, but now it will have a Qwikster logo. I know that logo will grow on me over time, but still, it is hard. I imagine it will be similar for many of you.

I want to acknowledge and thank you for sticking with us, and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly.

Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions.

Respectfully yours,

-Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix

p.s. I have a slightly longer explanation along with a video posted on our blog, where you can also post comments.
That might be the gheyest mea culpa I've ever seen.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
I'm into the streaming and don't care to deal with DVDs. If they had their entire inventory available for streaming, I'd gladly pay a higher price for it. But Reed Hastings needs to grow a set and stop with the Mr. Sensitive Ponytail Man crap.
 

Sherlock

Casserhole!
I'm into the streaming and don't care to deal with DVDs. If they had their entire inventory available for streaming, I'd gladly pay a higher price for it. But Reed Hastings needs to grow a set and stop with the Mr. Sensitive Ponytail Man crap.

I just signed up for the streaming service this morning but the selection sucks. I'll probably be cancelling before the 1 month free membership is up.
 

Sharon

* * * * * * * * *
Staff member
PREMO Member
People are making too big a deal about the price increase.*

It's still cheaper than driving to Blockbuster or sitting through one movie in the crappy Lex. Pk. or Calvert theatres. Plus, you don't have the ignoramuses talking or kicking your seat.

*Electric has increased more over the past few years and I've yet to hear of anyone who has decided to turn their lights, AC and heat off in protest. :lol:
 

Christy

b*tch rocket
People are making too big a deal about the price increase.*

It's still cheaper than driving to Blockbuster or sitting through one movie in the crappy Lex. Pk. or Calvert theatres. Plus, you don't have the ignoramuses talking or kicking your seat.

*Electric has increased more over the past few years and I've yet to hear of anyone who has decided to turn their lights, AC and heat off in protest. :lol:

:yeahthat:

I still love me some Netflix and I use both the DVD service and the streaming. I haven't been to an actual movie theater in ages. If it weren't for HGTV I'd probably cancel my cable service. THAT is what's the ripoff. Hundreds of channels of crap I gotta pay for.

It would be nice if netflix had more current movies on streaming but it's still a pretty decent deal IMHO. :shrug:
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
People are making too big a deal about the price increase.*

It's still cheaper than driving to Blockbuster or sitting through one movie in the crappy Lex. Pk. or Calvert theatres. Plus, you don't have the ignoramuses talking or kicking your seat.

*Electric has increased more over the past few years and I've yet to hear of anyone who has decided to turn their lights, AC and heat off in protest. :lol:

:yeahthat:

I still love me some Netflix and I use both the DVD service and the streaming. I haven't been to an actual movie theater in ages. If it weren't for HGTV I'd probably cancel my cable service. THAT is what's the ripoff. Hundreds of channels of crap I gotta pay for.

It would be nice if netflix had more current movies on streaming but it's still a pretty decent deal IMHO. :shrug:

:yeahthat:
 
People are making too big a deal about the price increase.*

It's still cheaper than driving to Blockbuster or sitting through one movie in the crappy Lex. Pk. or Calvert theatres. Plus, you don't have the ignoramuses talking or kicking your seat.

*Electric has increased more over the past few years and I've yet to hear of anyone who has decided to turn their lights, AC and heat off in protest. :lol:

I didn't cancel over the price increase. I cancelled because I don't use Netflix to stream, only DVDs. For $5 a month I get 2 DVDs, one at a time, have to wait for shipping. With RedBox, DVDs are $1 per disk, $1.50 for BluRay. I can take as many at a time as I want, no waiting on shipping, movies available before Netflix can get it to me, there's a kiosk within a mile of the house no matter which way I'm going so it's not inconvenient at all. If I go into a lull and don't watch movies for a while, I'm not losing money with a Netflix subscription.

RedBox just makes more sense for me right now.
 

Sharon

* * * * * * * * *
Staff member
PREMO Member
I didn't cancel over the price increase. I cancelled because I don't use Netflix to stream, only DVDs. For $5 a month I get 2 DVDs, one at a time, have to wait for shipping. With RedBox, DVDs are $1 per disk, $1.50 for BluRay. I can take as many at a time as I want, no waiting on shipping, movies available before Netflix can get it to me, there's a kiosk within a mile of the house no matter which way I'm going so it's not inconvenient at all. If I go into a lull and don't watch movies for a while, I'm not losing money with a Netflix subscription.

RedBox just makes more sense for me right now.

I get it. :yay: I was thinking more along the line of those who quit to protest the price increase.

Redbox wouldn't work for me. I don't want to drive to it and I may not watch the movie for a few days, depending on how my schedule goes.

Did anyone else's Comcast bill go up $20 two months ago with no explanation at all?
 

MrZ06

I love Texas Road House
My netflix bill went up $3 per month. thats not a big deal to me. I get 3 movies at a time. I always have soothing to watch. in the rare case that I am out of movies and waiting on one to be delivered I can always stream a movie.
 

Hank

my war
My netflix bill went up $3 per month. thats not a big deal to me. I get 3 movies at a time. I always have soothing to watch. in the rare case that I am out of movies and waiting on one to be delivered I can always stream a movie.

That does sound soothing. :buddies:
 

Cowgirl

Well-Known Member
I called to cancel Netflix the other day and told her (the rep) that we'd just use Redbox since they have newer movies faster and only $1 per night. She didn't care and said that would be a good option. Great service. :rolleyes: Our Netflix went up to $20 (for streaming and 2 DVDs at a time) and I think that's nuts. It was only $14 when we first joined. Sorry, but we'll be able to get 20 movies from Redbox before we reach the cost of Netflix. I can understand them wanting to make separate businesses for the DVDs and streaming, but why the price increase? And they need to make ALL of their movies available online. I'd pay more for that.
 
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