An Apology From Netflix and a Name Change

Steve said:
Is it just me or does it seem like Netflix is trying to separate the DVD business so that when it is eventually killed off (has to be way more expensive than streaming) it will be "Quickster" that bites the dust, not Netflix.
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^Yes. I think they just want to do streaming, which I'm all for.
 
Steve said:
Is it just me or does it seem like Netflix is trying to separate the DVD business so that when it is eventually killed off (has to be way more expensive than streaming) it will be "Quickster" that bites the dust, not Netflix.
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The point I'm seeing, it is cheaper to change ownership of said assets and liabilities than for Netflix to shutdown it down themselves - costing them money in the process.
 
Ok, so lets look at this from a long time Netflix subscriber...

1. First you raise the rates. Still a great price for both BR\DVD and Streaming. But remember, Cable used to cost just $8.99 for basic cable too. See the trend here...

2. Now your going to split the BR\DVD and Streaming. So instead of 1 easy website, I have 2. Ok, so more work on my part. Also, since you are splitting the companies, you will have to hire twice as many people to support both? Great for the economy I guess.

There are a couple of issues with the Streaming side which have only lightly been discussed.

1. The content isn't that great. Perhaps if you like watching some older TV shows, or not up to date movies, it's fine. I've seen lots of people with children post how great it is to have Streaming for their kids. The Issue here is, that Netflix lost the Starz deal, so come Feb 2012 no more Disney or Sony shows. So how good is that Streaming looking now for parents? What kills me is that Netflix offered them 10x the original deal ($300million vs the original $30million) and Starz sill turned them down. Starz is on some obscure cable channel, so this is all extra income for them. So does Starz think they are some big name now? Hope they don't like the door hit them in the @$$ on the way out.

2. Perhaps if they had some announcements with all the new Streaming they are going to have in the coming months, it would make a difference. But veiled promises are just that. I'm thinking this will be more like the benefits of Hulu+ over regular Hulu (meaning not worth it at all).

3. The quality of streaming doesn't come close to Blu-Ray, and sometimes not even close to DVD. Again it depends upon lots of factors, none of which a subscriber can control. Not to mention the looming Bandwidth caps all the major internet providers are salivating for.

4. Finally, Netflix was a DVD then Blu-Ray company which had Streaming as a option. Now you are getting rid of the BR\DVD and keeping the Name. WTF is that $h1t!!!

Perhaps the people at Netflix didn't see the writing on the wall regarding RedBox, or the re-emergence of Blockbuster, or even take a look at Amazons service. Fire the dumb-@$$es in charge, and get people in there who understand the strengths of the company and will build upon them. Gotta love a guy who brings up all the failing companies of the past, kind of like he want's Netflix to be just like they are. Maybe they can hire Yahoo's former CEO, she can't do any worse. Or maybe follow the HP model, maybe they can make a Netflix pad...
 
I'm more tempted by the Blockbuster service flier we got in the mail, cheaper for what we want.
 
I was ok with the price increase (hell, I defended them on here a LOT) but this latest move is pure crap. 1 website, stream if they have it or get the dvd if it's not available for streaming. I don't want to have to go to two different websites if I don't see it on the first one.

I'm in full agreement with the two quotes below.

Team Obi Juan said:
2 websites, 2 queues, 2 credit card charges, 2 rating systems... so "dum".
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ND40oz said:
Yup, entirely too much work to manage now, I used to just add a movie to my DVD queue and it would let me know if I could view it instantly, either at that point or later on when it was available for instant viewing if I hadn't gotten it on DVD/Blu-ray yet. Now that's an entirely different website, great idea...
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Hastings said the latest changes will bring “simplicity” for subscribers, although it remains to be seen how customers will react because the news will bring even more changes to their accounts. For one thing, it will mean they will have to log into two separate websites and have two separate credit card charges. Ratings and reviews done on one site will not show up on the other.

Thanks for thinking all of your customers are idiots.
 
This is the most clumsy example of Corporate Damage Control I've ever seen. IMO, you never apologize for raising prices as long as you can maintain the same level of service.

The conspiracy-theorist in me makes me wonder if Hastings is forcibly trying to kill off the discs-in-the-mail service now.

1. crappy un-inspired domain name
2. requiring separate billing and log-in
3. separate ratings, no more cross-searching.

I was fine with $15.98/month this morning. (Streamin + 1 Disc)

Not so much now.
 
I didn't read this whole thread so not sure if anyone else mentioned this yet. This is just another example of giving the customers less. If you had the 3 dvd at a time plan before you got 3 streams. Now that the companies are separate even if you subscribe to streaming and get 4 dvds at a time you still only get 2 streams. They are further limiting what they give customers.
 
Powerhouse2k said:
1. The content isn't that great. Perhaps if you like watching some older TV shows, or not up to date movies, it's fine. I've seen lots of people with children post how great it is to have Streaming for their kids. The Issue here is, that Netflix lost the Starz deal, so come Feb 2012 no more Disney or Sony shows. So how good is that Streaming looking now for parents? What kills me is that Netflix offered them 10x the original deal ($300million vs the original $30million) and Starz sill turned them down. Starz is on some obscure cable channel, so this is all extra income for them. So does Starz think they are some big name now? Hope they don't like the door hit them in the @$$ on the way out.
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Yes, they couldn't resign Starz which hurts, but I wouldn't say the Starz is some small cable company. They're wholy owned by Liberty Media, who is a big name, number 224 of the Fortune 500 list for 2011. They could be looking at rolling their own offerings, verses giving Netflix a cut.
 
plunger said:
Hastings said the latest changes will bring “simplicity” for subscribers, although it remains to be seen how customers will react because the news will bring even more changes to their accounts. For one thing, it will mean they will have to log into two separate websites and have two separate credit card charges. Ratings and reviews done on one site will not show up on the other.

Thanks for thinking all of your customers are idiots.
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15,388 comments and counting by the second since he posted it last night? I think we already know customer reaction. Lots of this - :mad: and this - :( and maybe some of this - :confused: and a little bit of this - :eek: and maybe one - :)

Oh, its now at 15,466...

http://blog.netflix.com/2011/09/explanation-and-some-reflections.html
 
codeflux said:
"Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores"

I wonder why he hasn't mentioned Myspace, or another obsolete resource. Jesus, someone needs to tell this guy it's not 1999 anymore.
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Actually, his invocation of AOL and Borders was spot-on. Both of those businesses failed to keep up with a changing market, and therefore failed. And he doesn't want the same thing to happen to Netflix. Whether you agree that the recent changes will keep Netflix from treading the same path is an entirely different matter.
 
Hastings then went on to announce the company is renaming the DVD side of its business to "Quickster."
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I think they should change his title to "Retardster."
 
Hah, look at how the Blockbuster stock has gone up about the same % that Netflix has dropped. To be fair, Blockbuster stock is still near worthless.
 
I got Reed's apology, then put my DVD account on hold for 3 months and enrolled in a Blockbuster 1 month trial. Interesting that while Blockbuster is a little slower at shipping, Blockbuster has far better availability of disks than Netflix now. It used to be that Netflix had everything, although a month later.

Looks like I go with Blockbuster for disks and stream the occasional movie from bittor, er I mean Amazon since I have a Prime account.
 
I'd love to cancel my account today, but then I forfeit half a month's service which I've already paid for.

They really should credit me the difference or at least let me retain use of the service till the next billing point. Will cancel before October 8 and will also consider getting Blockbuster. BB seems to have several movies which Netflix doesn't (old movies).

Been a member for ~6 years and was on the 3 movies/month + instant.
 
Stock falls from about $240 a share to $140 a share in two days. Ouch.
 
J W said:
I'd love to cancel my account today, but then I forfeit half a month's service which I've already paid for.

They really should credit me the difference or at least let me retain use of the service till the next billing point. Will cancel before October 8 and will also consider getting Blockbuster. BB seems to have several movies which Netflix doesn't (old movies).

Been a member for ~6 years and was on the 3 movies/month + instant.
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Cancel now or be converted...lol

Seriously, they SHOULD have grandfathered everyone in that currently had paying plans to keep the same plan...Similar to what VZW did, only not with data packages.
 
Tzzird said:
Stock falls from about $240 a share to $140 a share in two days. Ouch.
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In 20 days actually ($240 on Aug. 31st. after the new service to Brazil was announced) but still.
Greed Hasty is indeed directly responsible for a capitalization loss of $6.6 billions in 20 days (assuming there is 66 millions shares as per wikipedia.)
 
Wow, I just noticed it almost reached $300 on July 13th, so make that a $10.5 billions loss in 2 months.
The CEO should start packing his things...
 
Steve said:
Is it just me or does it seem like Netflix is trying to separate the DVD business so that when it is eventually killed off (has to be way more expensive than streaming) it will be "Quickster" that bites the dust, not Netflix.
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They actually said they did not want to be in the DVD business because it was not a profitable business model. They said their business wanted to be exclusively streaming but DVD mailing was a way to help bridge the gap between the old school die hards and the geeks. Gets the Netflix name in front of more people, on their counter top and in their head. They said this yes so no it's not just you.
 
BrinNutz said:
Cancel now or be converted...lol

Seriously, they SHOULD have grandfathered everyone in that currently had paying plans to keep the same plan...Similar to what VZW did, only not with data packages.
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They can't do that, because they are spinning off the DVD business. You want grandfathered into a dead deal?
 
tesfaye said:
Makes sense, but I doubt they will ever admit to it.
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tbh they already have.

Since day one they wanted to be a streaming company. Its pretty well published that they have been wanting to make this push. There is really not much left in terms of growth in the DVD market.
 
So I just got the email and read it. My first thought was, unbelievable. By seperating the dvd from streaming you now have seperate bills..so now your netflix bill is 7.99 or whatever and now you have a 7.99 qwikster bill. Your netflix bill no longer is increased you just have a seperate bills now. Now the consumer doesnt see one large netflix bill but 2 smaller seperate bills. Thats the impression I got as to why they seperated the whole thing. Your still gonna pay that big increase. I cancelled my netflix as soon as I heard the increase was coming. The streaming content sucks and I was hardly using the dvd part. I just watch new releases now from cable which might be once a month if that. That guy is just a pompus ass thinking he can get away with the increase because the consumer is dumb and likes smaller seperate bills. He's still gonna get his increase and is probably laughing about it right now.
 
BrinNutz said:
Cancel now or be converted...lol

Seriously, they SHOULD have grandfathered everyone in that currently had paying plans to keep the same plan...Similar to what VZW did, only not with data packages.
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Well I suppose it will prove the same point if I cancel within the month. I just hope I don't forget.
 
Omegas said:
I've been told my a few BB managers, Netflix's recent choices have been the best thing thats happened to BB in years. You say pickup the crumbs, BB seems to be grabbing the whole loaf with both hands and is heading for the door.
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We have been Netflix disc customers for over 9 years and we switched to BB yesterday and actually bumped up a to 3-disc plan for the trial period. We will probably drop Netflix streaming as well in February when the Starz deal ends because honestly, that's all there is to watch other than TV shows we can just buy on DVD and resell. I really, really like the idea of getting BDs again. I dropped that after the ridiculous price premium Netflix introduced.

After all of these missteps I honestly think this numbskull CEO stumbled onto a multi-billion dollar company. Either that or too much H&B has clouded his judgment. Dunno.
 
LOL... stock tanked yesterday for obvious reasons.

Now today, we are only 35 minutes into trading and tanked ANOTHER 4.5% down.

Loooserrrrrrrrr
 
For anyone who hasn't seen this:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/netflix


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lol
 
Looks like there is only 52.54 million shares around, so it's "only" a $8.5 billions capitalization loss since July 13th at the current price of $133-134 a share. It even went below $130 a few times today.
Over half of all shares (28 millions) were sold in volume today, or rather many were sold and purchased several times over. And the trading day is not over yet.
 
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