I’ve been a Netflix customer since about a month after the service was offered in Missoula. I’ve loved every minute of it. My girlfriend and I now share an account - watching movies is something we like to do together. She has her own queue and I have mine. It’s a great way to change who choses movies so no one dominates the decisions. And then today, I got this from Netflix:
Dear Cody,
We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.
Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.
While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.
If you have any questions, please go to http://www.netflix.com/Help?p_faqid=3962 or call us anytime at 1 (888) 638-3549. We apologize for any inconvenience.
- The Netflix Team
Hmm. This is one of the best features Netflix has. I can’t imagine why they are eliminating it. I’ve loved watching Netflix masterfully dismantle Blockbuster and rework the movie-rental industry. This, in my opinion is the first mis-step - the first time they are rolling back customer service. I hope it’s not the sign of a trend.
[Update] - I called late last night and the wait time was 15 minutes - the operator explained that that they were fielding a lot of calls on this issue. Netflix is hearing from people on this - now we find out if they’ve learned the lessons of a competitive environment with equal alternatives waiting in the wings to scoop up disgruntled customers. Blockbuster has got to be feeling a bit like Rehberg and Baucus did the night of the primary - like they’ve been handed a gift. In the mean time, there’s a pretty long Netflix Discussion here and you should definitely head over to Digg to read the comments there (and, if you have an account, add your voice). There’s also some interesting discussion at Slashdot. We’ve got until September 1.
Posted in pontification | | Write a Letter to the Editor
i’m in the same exact boat. two users, one household, big fan of the profiles feature. it bites. i submitted a letter of complaint to them and hope that there will be many others who do the same.
I called them. The lady on the phone was really nice. She said that the reason they’re scrapping them is that no one uses Profiles. I told her that’s not a reason to eliminate them; it’s a reason to actively promote them.
Within a couple of hours of sending out the emails announcing the cancellation of this feature that nobody users there are already 13 pages (and counting) of angry user comments at their forum: http://community.netflix.com/forum/topic/show?id=1993323%3ATopic%3A194695
It’s interesting that there would be such a quick and vocal response by so many users (many of whom like me signed up for the forum account for the first time tonight in order to complain) for a feature that nobody users.
Thanks for the link. I’m heading over this morning.
I can’t even manage one queue much less two. It just seems like so much work. Once a month my wife and I have to spend about an hour on Saturday morning and sit down and figure out what we want for movies. We try to read all the reviews so we don’t get hit with anything Sick or Stupid (the two main genres of Hollywood movies), but it seems to take forever to get a list together.
Here‘s the ironic part. We’ve been Netflix subscribers since the company started. We’ve always had the minimum subscription of one movie at home at a time. Because we live in the sticks, and because back then movies were returned to Denver, we were lucky to get one new movie a week. But now Netflix has a service center in Butte and the turnaround on a movie is like less than three days! So our queue gets sucked down even faster.
I’m almost at the point where I wish Netflix had an Auto-Select Option, some program that would just send us movies automatically based on criteria we stipulated, such as Sick or Stupid = No.
Lay-Z-Boy, you’re headaches exist because you’re trying to manage two queues in a single list. Giving your wife her own list means less work for both of you - plus as she picks movies and rates them, she’ll get her own unique recommendations. You should give Profiles a shot, maybe you’ll like them (and then be bitter as hell on September 1).
Let Netflix know that they are making a huge mistake! Take action both online and offline at http://www.keepnetflixprofiles.org!
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