Did you get that strange, apologetic email from Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, last night? It hit just as I was going to sleep on the West Coast and I didn’t fully process, at the time, the fact that my Netflix service was about to become two separate services that I’d have to access on two different websites. And now, in the bright light of day, I have to say I’m not too thrilled about the idea.
Netflix’s streaming service will remain under the Netflix banner, while the DVD service will now go by the name of Qwikster and be accessible on qwikster.com. Pricing will remain the same for the two services, but I guess the logic is that people will better grasp that they’re paying for completely separate things if they have to go to different sites to access them.
Hastings apologized for how the company had handled the sixty percent price hike they put in place this summer when they separated their fees for streaming and DVD services. His apology was not for the price increase, but for not explaining as well as he felt he could have to their subscribers, a million of whom dropped the service after the hike.
Somehow, in Hastings’s head, the problem was all just a misunderstanding, not their customers deciding that they shouldn’t have to pay more than half again what they’d been paying in order to keep the same services. If customers had only understood why it was happening, then they wouldn’t have been upset, or at least, that’s what Hastings seems to think.
Whether the company’s guess as to why their customers were so upset with the change is right or not, it seems odd that they’ve decided that making their service more complicated and less convenient is the solution. Now, if you have both services, you’ll have to check two websites to find the films you want, instead of one. Not to mention the part where you’ll have to remember how to spell, “qwikster.”
What do you think? Is this a smart move?
