Just when you thought they couldn’t get any more consumer unfriendly, Netflix outdoes itself.
Remember back in July when we covered their announcement of the split streaming and dvd only plans? Well, your friendly neighborhood Elf waited to see if they’d respond to the public outcry but nothing came.
Until today.
If you’re a Netflix customer like me you probably woke to find an email from the CEO, Reed Hastings, sitting in your inbox (copied on the Netflix blog here). Termed an “apologyâ€, the letter was actually more of an explanation of it’s un-compromising stance on the plan split and price increase and also an announcement of a new company launch to take over the dvd-only service, Qwikster.
Not only will you now have split plans and bills (if you want both streaming and dvds by mail) but you’ll now have to manage your accounts and queues from separate websites. That means that when you search for something on one site, if you want to add it to your other queue then you’ll have to hop over to the other site and search for it again there. If you change your payment info on one site, you’ll have to remember to change it on the other.
Had this letter come in July or early August, it might have been better received. Coming a few days after the company announcement that it won’t meet subscriber projections this quarter and its stocks falling at the end of the week, it’s almost an insult. This isn’t a letter to apologize to customers. It’s a letter intended to appease investors and stockholders.
The worst part? Netflix isn’t even listening to customers. Instead they seem to have ears only for their investors. Personally I’m now convinced to drop my streaming service and stick with dvds. True, I plan on getting a blu-ray player one day but I’ll try out other services before I even look at Netflix again for streaming video.
Do you think Netflix and Qwikster will survive this latest customer backlash? What are your thoughts on the latest in this ongoing drama?
