This seems like a perfect example of a company that is too focused on what Wall Street thinks and not being able to deal with the bigger picture and plan for the long term.
Netflix kills Qwikster
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Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#12At my friends today I checked the Netflix streaming catalog on her Roku. I was wondering if they were offering any better content, but nope it's still the same B grade level junk I canceled the service two months ago for.
I know their content problem is not completely their fault, though if they offered higher priced plans I'm sure their content selection would improve. Different price points should be offered from $8 to $25 or maybe $30.
Overall between these bi-polar business decisions and continual lack of good content I'm happily getting my content fix from other online outlets. I was a huge fan a year ago but in the summer it started to lose it's appeal.
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#13Wouldn't market questionnaire testing of just 100 people saved them this expensive juggling act?
Anyway, I fear streaming price increases next year for sure as all the media outlets start to gouge netflix and they pass it on.
Best thing netflix can do is make sure consumers know which distributors are purposely giving them horrible contracts and that it's not netflix's fault.
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#14As an outside observer, Netflix appears to be in a state of panic over the content providers playing hardball with it. Much like Google, Netflix has such a huge lead nobody wants to give it a fair break anymore. In many cases, companies won't even give it an unfair break. Without the support of content providers, Netflix went from disrupting the cable TV industry to playing catch up with HBO. Its only hope now is to…
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Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#15At least they have the nuts to change it back
To me it seems like they are nuts - just wait for the upcoming SNL skits and late night talk shows having a field day with this!
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#16[deleted]
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#17For now, they're far enough ahead of any real competition that the flip-flopping won't be too harmful in the short term. They have a great product and they know it. And, this isn't the first time Netflix pissed off customers. A few years back they tried to eliminate the ability to create multiple queues in one account-- they used some ridiculous excuse about technical issues. However, once Amazon and other comers sta…
Though it should be said that blockbuster is now running ads that criticize quikster's move and the price increase
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#18As a customer, I'm happy. I loathed the idea of maintaining separate queues, to the point where I started writing a unified queue web app in preparation.
As a developer, I wonder if they're still sticking to their plan to make the API streaming-only? [1] As much as I didn't like the idea of Qwikster, I was hoping it would provide a dependable DVD API.
http://developer.netflix.com/blog/read/Upcoming_Changes_to_t...
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#19While this rights the ship, Netflix made the colossal mistake of rocking the recurring-billing boat. Smart businesses know that when you've got a customer setup for recurring monthly billing, there's a certain percentage of these customers who will continue to pay even though they're not actively using the service. Part of it is laziness of figuring out how to cancel. Another part is the thought that they may someday…
We switched to the streaming-only plan before our billing cycle and have been happy ... We weren't good at quickly watching the DVDs and returning them anyway plus we saved a buck a month. How did other HNers respond to the price hike? I would expect this group to be dominated by streamers anyway.
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#20OK. Netflix really doesn't know what it's doing.
That was my first reaction too, but this was really a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation for Netflix. People were pissed at the change, and changing it back makes Netflix look bad. So, might as well take the option that users prefer.