Dear Netflix: An Important Message from a Paying Customer

Obviously Netflix has too many customers and wants to get rid of some.

I agree with you on the Apple TV front though. There's a price-point concern of course and a QOS issue for the family network but I agree, it really could be a viable alternative if Apple would wake up.

I've been debating starting up a Blockbuster account. Why is that not an option for you?

Can anyone think of a single *good* reason to make this change?

Absolutely! By eliminating profiles, those profile users who REALLY want their own movies will be forced to get their own accounts, thus increasing Netflix user numbers and income.

I don't use profiles and had never actually heard of it. But then again I don't share my Netflix account with anyone.

But I am leaving Netflix anyway this month simply because my budget is tighter than I like it to be and things like Netflix, XM radio, and Audible.com subscriptions add up. So I'm going to swap Netflix for movies I can borrow from friends or from the public library, and replace XM and Audible with free downloaded content.

can't imagine many people saying:

Maybe not current customers, but new ones, who didn't know of the feature, will probably pay for the separate accounts.

Yeah, TJG, I've just switched to Netflix from Vongo, at least mostly. I share the accounts generally with my family, father right now, but we didn't know about Netflix's profile feature. I've also tried other pay-per-view online-movie services, e.g. Movielink and CinemaNow, and I don't like Movielink's customer service now that Blockbuster took over. Vongo's good (STARZ), but they said they'd call me to help with a technical problem on my desk top and never did.

I'm disappointed because I'm a netflix user and generally like them but this to me seems almost as stupid a move as when they admitted that they were acting slower to return the movies of some of their more active users, putting a new spin on the meaning of "unlimited" movies.

Incidentally did you know Netflx has a special arrangement/deal with post offices which is how they are able to get their stuff sent and received so fast? I was always curious about that so I asked a few postal workers.

That's interesting, Scott. I had a month or two of it taking 2 or 3 days for discs to be shown as returned, and 2-3 days back, rather than the usual overnight for each.

They got called on it when some users compared usage and shipping dates and netflix admitted it.
I wrote a story about it in 2006

There have been rumors for some time that Netflix was engaging in an activity known as "throttling".

The company has now admitted, in court documents, that it indeed does this deceitful action.

Since Netflix gets a flat fee for unlimited DVD viewing, customers who quickly return their movie are making less money for Netflix than those who return them more slowly.

So Netflix has found a way to tweak that a bit.

Just a personal history of disagreeing with the brick and mortar blockbuster's the customer service and policies. I actually had blockbuster online before Netflix, and switched because they constantly were "long wait" on movies that shouldn't have been out of stock. I've heard that's not really an issue anymore, though.

I was one of the earliest Netflix adopters (even had my initial plan grandfathered in when they came up with new plans...I had 4 out at a time for a little less than what new customers were paying for 3...) I, too, have always hated the brick and mortar Blockbuster's customer service and policies.

But, when I got my Wii, I made the switch. It was painful, and I hated doing it, but the ability to get one free game rental per month was enough to entice me. And I actually like the ability to return my envelopes in-store and take home a new movie that night. I don't do it often, but there have been times when I don't want to wait for the next movie in my queue, or I really want a new release *now*, so I just bring in and envelope and trade it for a new release. Done and done.

That really doesn't make sense. Yes, I have noticed that you have to sign back in when switching between queues, but it doesn't bother me. I get three movies at a time, one for me, one for my wife, and one for the kids. Now I'll have to be extra careful to keep my queue up to date and change it depending on when I send a particular movie back. My kids won't be happy if daddy gets 2 movies and they don't get any!

Argggh!! I switched from Dish Network to Netflix and have been happy (supplementing some TV via internet). Now I could possibly reconsider.

Having worked tech support I find the explanation plausible. The simple fact is the vast majority of people are clueless (at least where computers are concerned) and will get confused and frustrated over such things as keeping track of which profile they are on.

On the other hand, my impression was that the Netflix user base is at the more adept end of the curve. Of course that in and of itself might be what is at issue. As market penetration increases they are picking up less adept people who are reporting a poor experience because of it and are canceling. Not only is Netflix losing a customer but they are losing potential customers as they tell their friends and family about the poor experience they had with Netflix (there is a statistic out there that goes something like if you have a good experience you will tell 3 people but if you have a bad experience you'll tell 10). So, yeah if they noticed that this reason is a trend - I can see them pulling it. Granted not necessarily the best solution but possibly the most viable one at this time with their technology.

To my knowledge there is no reason to suspect Netflix of lying to its customers, so I'd give them the benefit of the doubt on this.

Too many members found the feature difficult to understand and cumbersome

As a Netflix user, I find that quote a little irritating. It's like they are saying "many of our customers are not smart enough to handle the Profiles option, so we're going to dumb down the whole site on their behalf."

so we're going to dumb down the whole site on their behalf."

This seems to be the action model for most of the country: media, education, shopping, the internet. We cater to the lowest common denominator. Sigh!

-Rob

Sigh!

Ditto.

I'm the only person in my household, so I don't need the Profiles feature. I did look into it though, because when I sign up for something I want to make sure I'm getting the most for my money. For anyone computer/internet savvy enough to sign up for Netflix and figure out how to set up a queue, setting up a second queue shouldn't be a challenge.

I will probably be giving up my Netflix subscription soon anyway. For me, the appealing feature of Netflix is the movies on demand, but their selection is mediocre at best. You would think they would make the most popular movies available to watch instantly at home to reduce shipping costs. I would be willing to pay more per month for unlimited (or at least medium-to-high volume) access to movies on demand without the option of any mailed DVDs, as long as the selection included movies that were released on video relatively recently. They wouldn't have to spend a penny of postage on me and no profile would be necessary.