Entertainment
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
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Netflix changing to Qwickster
I just got this email...interesting. I do like the video game option, but I have a feeling my old $15 per month for entertainment budget will now be more like $50 if I upgrade!
"Dear Customer,
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."
Re: Netflix changing to Qwickster
My new bff Gayle Forman!
“You can have your wishes, your plans, but at the end of the day, it's out of your control"
- Gayle Forman
"People talk about escapism as if it's a bad thing... Once you've escaped, once you come back, the world is not the same as when you left it. You come back to it with skills, weapons, knowledge you didn't have before. Then you are better equipped to deal with your current reality."
- Neil Gaiman
Married Bio
We got the email too. I'm curious about the video game option. We had Gamefly for a short time and it took forever to get some games so we dropped it.
One of the perks of the shared website that I like is that if something in my mailing que becomes available on Instant, the Play button pops up to show me it's on Instant and it automatically adds to that que. Will this still happen? I'll be a little peeved if it doesn't.
Hopefully they'll make updates to Instant faster this way. The website has a great 'Just for Kids' channel/tab that I'd love to have on the actual players. And I'd really like to have the subtitle option on all players.
I dropped my DVD option but kept streaming. I was considering adding the DVDs again in a couple months, but this means I definitely won't. Two different websites to deal with... and one has a really lame name.
I wonder what is going on over there. They were doing so well but are lately making some terrible decisions. Adding video games is good but everything else sounds like a very bad move. I can picture several older people like my parents, who subscribe to netflix dvds, not understanding the change and dropping their subscription when they suddenly get billed by "qwickster".
I think it will not allow you to add to different queues, because they are separating the services into two different websites. Now even ratings won't be shared between the sites- which is bad because one of Netflix's claims to fame was their special rating/recommendation algorithm.
This is where I'm heading. I put us on vacation hold while I decide.
I love foreign films and loved the 1-2 DVD at a time. I'm not impressed with the streaming, but it is great for LO and watching Family movies on family movie night. I can't decide between the two- either way it will get less use in our house and I don't see paying more for using something less.
THis new plan without the integration of the websites is the nail in the coffin IMO. Hopefully the backlash from the public will make them think twice.
Plus the name sucks.
Qwikster makes more sense for the streaming name, since those are the movies you get to watch quickly, and not have to wait for the mail. But I guess this is because their ultimate goal is to be streaming only, and not deal with the dvds, they want the streaming side to maintain the Netflix name.
I kept DVDs and dropped the streaming option because I watch movies on my laptop during downtime at work and do not have internet access there. So streaming is useless for me. When they do move to streaming only, that's when they are going to lose me as a customer.
Funny that I think they just made a bad situation even worse with this new contrite email message. Probably will lose another million customers.
Lol seriously? Is it that hard to maintain it? It's like maintaining two different accounts wether it's email or what have you. All it is, is adding a extra steps that wasn't there before because they no longer want to deal with dvd's. True though that they could have done better with the name and more then likely will loose the elderly because either A) Don't understand the change and rather not deal with it or
Not at all computer savy and just cancel it. Either way it's a lose lose for them when it comes to elderly folks
I was thinking it was a terrible idea to take the Netflix name off the item that they are really known for, DVDs. Their streaming is getting better, but when you hear Netflix, you think of getting a DVD in a red envelope in the mail. However, I can see the 'Net' in Netflix linking more to the Internet option of streaming.
Bad idea overall. Make users create two different accounts within Netflix if you really want to split the two options, but changing the name if weird.
I don't get the problem with the older generation. If they're computer savy enough to maintain their que online to begin with, I don't see them having a problem making an adjustment to the new stuff.
Otto
My (New! Improved!) Blog
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We already dropped streaming and now will drop the DVDs.
Qwickster? Really?
If I didn't work for a call center and deal with the elderly occasionaly. I would agree with you but you be quite surprise as to how many you would think they could do it even though they used it in the first place and not have a hard time with the other but they always do lol
Exactly my point! I'm not an old person either and can maintain many different log ins for bank/email, etc. But my point is, why do I want to go rate something on Qwicksters website, and then 3 weeks later Netfix gets it on streaming, and now I have to rate movies on two sites. Or, in my recent happening, I had the Felicity show dvds in my que. I think just in the last week they got put on streaming as well. I would not want to get a dvd in the mail only to find out its now on streaming. It's complete inconvenience. The whole point in my opinion is a one stop shop super easy access and maintenance of my account regarding all things movies.
I'm also upset about the change. When they changed the pricing for both the streaming and DVDs I canceled my streaming option since it would never work properly.
I'm still thinking if I should keep my DVD service. The last thing I want is for them to change the price again but it seems like that will stay the same.
Miles (6 year old Maine C00n mix), Boots (5 year old Lab mix), Darla (4 year old GSD/Collie mix), Frankie (1.5 year old DSH mix), Peanut (15 months old - 09/11), and Bean (arriving Feb 2013).