For users of Profiles, I have good news to report: we will keep the feature with no plans to discontinue it.
We were persuaded by the well-reasoned, sincere responses of loyal members who very much value this feature. As someone who enjoys helping his four-year-old daughter manage her one-DVD-at-a-time, G-rated sub-account, I identified with these thoughtful pleas to maintain Profiles.
Because of an ongoing desire to make our website easier to use, we believed taking a feature away that is only used by a very small minority would help us improve the site for everyone. Listening to our members, we realized that users of this feature often describe it as an essential part of their Netflix experience. Simplicity is only one virtue and it can certainly be outweighed by utility.
As for improving Profiles, there are no definite plans in place yet, but, like everything at Netflix, we seek to make it better and we are open to suggestions. Non-users of the feature and new members will be able to access Profiles in 2-3 weeks. Existing users will be able to continue their use, uninterrupted.
We apologize for any inconvenience the previous announcement caused.
Enjoy.
-Todd
Monday, June 30, 2008
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«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 400 of 615 Newer› Newest»Do you know why profiles is not popular? You CANNOT find it anywhere on netflix? Where is it? It's not under "queue" or "your account" or basically anywhere. In fact if you search "profiles" in help, nothing comes back telling you what profiles are and how to access it (try it!)
Thanks very much! I appreciate your willingness to seriously consider your customers' opinions.
Thank you for listening!
Thanks. Though I'm not a member, I was thinking about signing up. Back when I still lived at home with my mother and brother, we had a subscription but no profiles. I enjoyed the service--when it was my turn to have a disk. When I'd heard profiles were going away, I said "That's the feature that would have gotten me to sign up." I won't promise anything, but I'm back to considering NetFlix again. I'll have to discuss it with the lady of the house. I'm about done with video rental places of the brick & mortar variety. Every time I go to a different location, they try to get me to sign up for a new membership. Why have five cards for the same chain in my wallet? For me, it's Netflix or nuthin!
This is great news. I've been a member of netflix for about 10 months and hadn't even heard of profiles until I heard the news they were going to be discontinued... now I'll take a look at them.
Thank you so much! It's so wonderful to see a company that actually listens to its customers! The profiles were the whole reason we chose Netflix.
Thank you for deciding to keep the profiles. I am going to go back from 3 at a time to 5 at a time.
However you have left a bitter taste in my mouth and I am going to keep my associates and adsence ads off My websites until further notice.
Excellent!! Thank-You very much for listening.
Good to know that my wife will still have her lions-share control of my account.
One bouquet, but one brick-bat ... My wife still complains that Netflix 'New Releases' shows a lot of older material, rather than actual new releases.
Are there different ways of showing new releases?
Netflix, it's great to see that you are actively listening and responding to your users. Thank you!
You've made me and my wife very happy this evening. Thanks.
That said, I reiterate what I said before -- the correct way to handle this is to implement your "better way" and provide a migration path. Do it as part of the web site redesign, maybe?
Thanks for listening! Just so you know you did the right thing, I'll tell you that I had already chosen our family's new rental provider and planned to start using it the last week of August. Because NF is keeping profiles, we plan to stay with NF.
Awesome news. Thanks for listening!
So many of the comments above apply to me here:
- This is a feature I really love
- Wow ... whining works!
- I would have switched to a competitor even though they don't have this feature just to show how disappointed I was
- The worst part was that I would have lost all my data...
- I would have had to divorce my wife.
Just got to say thanks like everyone else. This is a killer feature for my family and it definitely makes things easier for me and my wife (who doesn't so much enjoy the Saw movies..)
Please look at ways of making it easier to make a profile into a full fledged account or at least sharing the data out and this mess would have been a lot less of a hastle
Thank you, this is fantastic news. This is one of the many reasons we love Netflix- they listen to their customers :)
Thanks for listening.
Amen! Amen! We were seriously reconsidering also. Profiles keep peace in our family, I don't know how I'd keep it all straight if you had taken them away.
Sweet! For once a company that cares about it's customer's opinion? Wow! We weren't even vocal about it, we just had plans to cancel out NF account in Sept. I guess we won't have to do that now that the profiles feature will stay in tact. Yeah!
Scared me for a second.
I know I'm just one voice out of hundreds of comments, but having worked in technology companies before, I am certain there was a product manager somewhere in the building who said, "No, don't take this away, the people who use it love it." That person was right, and you need to give them a raise, promote them, and listen to them in the future.
Perfect!
yet another person saying thanks for keeping this element of the service.
Thank you. I was 100% going to close our account. I'd moved all the movies I really wanted to see to the top of my queue and that was to be it. I'm glad I still get to watch Netflix movies!
I'm very happy to hear that this feature will not be eliminated. It really improves the quality and convenience of the service.
I never had any doubt this would be the outcome. Why?? Because Netflix is and always will be #1 in customer service and value.
I must admit however I wasn't expecting a turn around quite so quickly and I was fully prepared to place my account on hold for a short time when profiles were deleted.
Thank you for listening to your customers. I too was going to leave after 8/30 because this was a key feature for our family.
This totally made my day. Although the initial announcement of discontinuing profiles caused a lot of angst within the community, it's great to see you really taking into consideration our opinions. I know everyone here appreciates your commitment to your customers. I certainly do. Thanks for listening to us! Keep up the good work.
Awesome news! It's great to know that Netflix hasn't lost the flexibility and innovation that it had 5 years ago. Keep it up!
Common sense rules the day. I was thinking about giving up NF for redbox, et al, when I heard about this. I never really got the whole "we're making a better user experience by doing away with a feature" thing. I could understand if it actually got in the way of the normal user's experience, but it didn't...it just sat there, out of the way, ready to be used by anyone who wanted it, not causing any trouble.
This is great that you are not taking this feature away, but let me give you hint as to why not many users use the profile feature. I can't find how to use it! Where is it? I have actually contemplated suggesting this feature to Netflix, because I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT IT!
Mike
Hah.. someone obviously thought that removing profiles would get you more accounts and therefore more revenue. They must have been blind to not see it would have actually got you less accounts, as people canceled their services in dissatisfaction.
A lesson to you all in keeping penny pinching accountants in line.
I used the Profiles feature once, and then dumped it. I never liked it, so I was OK with it going away. NEVERTHELESS, I was super-impressed with Netflix's response to the customer needs. To see them do an about-face based on the feedback they received shows that they really do care about the customer first. Even though I have no stake in this decision, I am glad to see thier response!
Daryl
Oh thank goodness. I am so thankful to Netflix users for speaking out against this change and more importantly for Netflix as a company taking note and actually listening. Way to set an example, Netflix.
Thank you SO much for reconsidering.
I will now stick with you guys post-Sept 1st.
The Davis Family says,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! You guys are awesome!!! Ü
Much thanks. I hadn't complained yet, but I'll give thanks now.
Losing profiles meant going back to the significant frustration over having to manually manipulate the queue in order to be "fair". That was so time consuming and required effort on both our parts to keep it up. And recommendations are near worthless when you combine the family and average votes.
Profiles mean recommendations work and each of us is responsible for getting the movies we each want in the mailbox - and no room to blame the other for hogging the queue (inadvertently or otherwise).
Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.
As someone who was going to cancel my Netflix account on August 31st and take my business to Blockbuster (even though I wrote them about a profiles feature and they said they didn't have one) - I applaud you! Thanks for listening to your customer base...now I don't have to sit through 5 Ken Burn's Civil War DVDs waiting for my wife to watch them all so I can get a DVD that I want to see! THANK YOU!!!
Thanks netflix for listening to the vocal minority that DOES use and appreciate profiles!
MissM
THANK YOU!!! Honestly, this is a feature I'd pay for, because it saves our family time and grief. ("What do mean, my movie didn't come today?!?") I thought others' suggestions of developing a tutorial sounds like a great idea.
I'm extremely grateful for this retraction - I truly dreaded leaving Netflix and am now glad I won't have to do this. Thank you Netflix for righting the wrong.
One more sincere "thank you" from Austin, TX!
Thank you, thank you! We can stop our comparison shopping, and stay with Netflix!!! Yea!!!
Fantastic news. Now, if you could just make one tiny change to your service related to profiles, I'd be tickled pink. My wife is the primary account holder, and I have my own profile under her account. She receives all the shipping and receipt notifications for my profile. While that might be a great option for parents who've given their children queues, it's a bit silly for an adult. There should be the option to have emails regarding a particular profile sent to an email address associated with that profile.
I hope that's possible some day.
Thanks for re-evaluating!
I'm among the people who never heard of this feature before. You know, I have so many movies in my queue that by the time they rise to the top of the list I often don't remember who recommended them to me. I think I'll make profiles for my top recommenders, so that afterwards I know who to thank (or blame) after I see a movie based on which profile I had the movie in. Wonder how I failed to notice that feature before. Anyway, thanks for not killing it.
Thanks I was pretty close to quitting netflix over this.
I do have one suggestion - re-enable the feature on the site soon! Now that I know the feature exists (and is staying), I would very much like to use it.
thank you!! my husband and I use separate profiles and have some differences of opinion when it comes to certain movies (didn't want to change the ratings and recommendations). so glad the profiles are staying!
so since you'll listen to "1-2 percent of [your customers]" (http://blogs.reuters.com/fanfare/2008/06/25/netflix-courts-heartbreak-with-end-of-profiles/) when are you either going to charge Mac and Linux users less for fewer features, or give them the same features as Windows users, namely Instant Viewing?! It's now clear that 1-2% of your customers are important to you, which is Linux marketshare, let alone Mac!
Thank you for not canceling profiles! One of the best things about Netflix. We are now canceling cable (not Netflix) and probably buying a Roku. Thank you Netflix from our whole family! We will continue to tell all our friends that Netflix is the best thing out there for enjoying movies and tv.
Thank you!
And excellent timing too... The plan was to shift to BB this week and you just saved us all that work. Staying home, where we belong.
I remain baffled as to how you could think removing Profiles was a good idea in the first place. To wit, any claim of low usage is evidence of your lack of promotion, rather than the feature's lack of utility. Any customer with children in the house should be using Profiles; those who do not most likely do not know about the feature. We're happy that you listened to our customer's response, but we now think of Netflix as the sort of company that requires this sort of response to find out what your customers need. There are much simpler ways to survey your customers that by threat. Couple that with the complete lack of planning for how customers could save or transfer the immense volumes of history, queue and rating data in their profiles, and Netflix comes off as arrogant and uncaring. Not the image I suspect you wish to project.
Cool! Glad that an online petition actually worked.
Thank you Netflix!!
Thank you for understanding! This is one of the only ways our family makes Netflix work and be 'fair' to everyone about which movies are shipping. :)
Glad I didn't cancel the account just yet. Spent the last week comparing other companys but now I don't have to. The profiles, and my account will stay right were they belong..at Netflix. ^_^
Thank you.
I am a relativly new member and therefore felt NO loyalty or remorse in my pending cancellation. I had already decided to join intelliflix as they have a similar subaccount program. NOW, I am glad to be able to keep my netflix account and not be bothered with the change. The other guys would have saved me a few bucks overall, but the hassle just isn't worth it. I applaud your decision to listen to what I still believe is NOT a minority of members and reverse your decision. Still, I will not be 'ranking' anymore vids due to this horror of an approach. I am afraid I will spend the time doing so for nothing.
Great job! This feature is of immense use to our family--our eight-year old needs totally different movies from our 13-year-old, who needs different movies from my wife and I. This is a big factor in keeping us as Netflix customers (we've been customers for years).
Thank you! My wife and kids really appreciate it.
Hooray! this made my day... I was lookign at my queue earlier, getting sad that I would lose all my ratings and the freedom of managing my own queue.
Thank you do much for keeping it!
Thank you. I was ready to look elsewhere, but will now happily stay. I'll probably even buy a Roku box, now!
Thank you, Netflix!
--Another loyal customer happily remaining one.
Wow, great news. I too had already put the plans in motion to cancel my 7-at-a-time plan when i could no longer break into 3 family accounts. I had even recently (before the bad announcement) talked about increasing the plan to 8 at a time for my house now that the boys are getting old enough to manage a queue. The profiles feature was the feature keeping me at NF. Thanks guys!
Glad to see we didnt have to dump a truckload of peanuts in the mail! (inside joke for you jericho fans)
Good move Netflix!
Now please show the same respect to your customers who were equally as upset about the removal/hiding of the Releasing This Week page - by either putting it back in an easy to find location or provide the improved feature we were promised in it's place - and we'll call the whole situation a bad mistake and move past it together huh... waddya say?
Let's be honest. Not everything that was said was nice. There were some pretty grumpy people saying some pretty grumpy things. So Netflix repents of their "final decision" and hopefully many of us users will repent of saying grumpy things.
Now that Netflix is back to making smart decisions, it is time for Netflix employees to start having sex again.
Enjoy!
Yeah, I'm no disappointed in Netflix!
Your reconsideration has saved my marriage! Thank you!
Great news! Profiles ARE the reason my wife and I came back to Netflix after leaving. To me this _IS_ the best feature of Netflix.
Thank you.
I was definately going to cancel come Aug 31st and go back to the ordinary way of Hollywood Video (on my way from work).
Profiles is the one feature that no one else can replicate.
So many have already said it but here is my comment- Thank you. We will remain with Netflix.
Thank you Netflix! We knew we could count on you. This feature meant the world to our family. It ended the family debates about what should be in the queue next. I knew you couldn't let us down this way! Not to mention that because of this exposure now so many more people are aware of the feature and will be glad to use it. =) Whenever you get around to making it better will be great but for now we are just glad our profiles are staying.
Thank you!!
Can you imagine the gf's Dawsons Creek mixing with my action flicks? I think not! You just saved a customer!
THANKS.
This is why Reed Hastings and his team are some of the best executives in the business. They make bold choices AND they change their minds when they realize they've made a mistake.
Thanks for listening!!!!!!
Thank you. We have absolutely no other problems with Netflix. It's works very well. My family is glad you decided to keep this feature :)
Yay!! Thank you!! This makes me so happy. The profiles feature is a major reason why my family likes Netflix. I was ready to quit our membership rather than deal with one queue for our family of 5, so this is great news!
Thank you NetFlix! You have me, my wife and our 4 year old daughter very happy!
Oh, by the way, this article is for some reason not showing on the page page.
I voiced my surprise and disgust at your "final" decision to axe profiles; now I want to express my surprise and sincere thanks for listening and changing your mind. You've retained this customer and his family only by retaining profiles.
I hope you noted the many folks that said they had never heard of profiles before this firestorm. I really believe you need to tout it much more prominently. For a multi-disk account, it is most definitely one of your best features that sets you apart from your competition. It is the only reason I stay and one of the biggest selling points I make to others.
I'm still a bit floored at the original plan to simply delete all the personal data you encouraged us to spend time building up, as well as the way this entire thing was communicated and handled. But this was the best outcome I could have hoped for, and actually quite surprising, given the "finality" of your previous statements.
Thanks for giving me back my reason to stay with Netflix.
Thanks, NetFlix, for doing the right thing here!
Like so many others, I was sadly resigned to canceling our account with the demise of profiles -- we use them for separating movie and TV show rentals (which we watch at totally different speeds), and the hassle of constantly manipulating the queue to get the "right" DVD next outweighs the convenience of NetFlix vs the video store for us.
I agree with fletc3her's recommendations about profile improvements, and with others who suggest publicizing this killer feature more and including a tutorial. These are great ideas. At least for us, profiles are THE differentiator of NetFlix versus other services.
Finally, I sincerely hope the NetFlix crew is using this debacle as an opportunity to learn. The profile cancelation scare shook my previously solid faith in NetFlix as a Company Who Gets It, especially how disorganized the announcement was -- no replacement feature, no good way for people to migrate their data, just dropping customers off a cliff. Thanks for taking the first, biggest step to restoring customer trust, but please follow up internally so that something like this never happens again.
Hooray. Thank you.
P.S. I echo Bruce Anderson's suggestion that you have the option to be able to send a copy of email notifications to an email associated with each queue, instead of every notification being sent only to the main queue.
But seriously, I'm just happy you're keeping profiles and that's the most important thing - this would just be a nice-to-have.
Looks like I'll be keeping my account after all. This is the only feature keeping me from using other services!
Thank you for listening to feedback - this is EXACTLY how companies should respond to customers. My faith and investment in Netflix is significantly reaffirmed.
Thank you for listening to us! I am now pleased to remain a member.
Thanks for keeping the profiles. We were seriously considering leaving-voting with our $$. They are an important feature for many of your customers and I'm glad you saw that. Too bad the whole thing was handled so poorly by you guys. There must be a better way for you to decide if a feature is that important next time-beFORE causing so many to be discontent.
Thank you so much. We love this feature and are glad you decided to keep it.
Thank you Netfliz - for continuing the simplicity and user friendly nature of your service. It is great just the way it is - no need to change anything!!! This, and the outstanding service and price, is the reason we left the local video store, and hope that you will continue the profiles long into the future!!
Thank you. We will be keeping our account after all!
Thank you Netflix for not making my husband and I share a Queue. All across America, families are sighing with relief. We sincerely thank you for listening.
Thank you for not being assholes. It was pretty dumb to suggest this in the first place. At least you recognized and corrected your mistake before too much harm was done.
Thankyou very much!
Again, Netflix displays why I love it so much. Adaptability and loyalty to their customers. Thank you Netflix!!
We already switched to Blockbuster, but are switching back now. Thank you.
Thank you. Here's my .o2.
We left BB for NF and they gave us a big middle finger as we walked out the door. They increased our price (just OUR price, not our friends or families') and stripped privileges for 2 years. I was very disappointed to see that you guys were starting to do the same. However, thank you for not giving us a giant middle finger. Believe me, I do, do, do appreciate this.
Thank you! As a long time member and stockholder, I'm relieved to see that in the end, Netflix does still care about its customers. I hope the initial decision-making process will be re-evaluated to make sure nothing like this happens again. My family and I will be staying with Netflix after all.
Thanks again for this. If i can get the lady do approve the expense, we'll up our account from 3 to 4 as a show of support for good business.
Thanks!
I feel it is important to share my gratitude that profiles are staying, just as I thought it important to share my displeasure at their proposed leaving.
Thank you Netflix for listening to your customers.
I wrote a courteous e-mail describing deep disappointment. I am very, very thrilled to see Netflix listened to us and is big enough to just come out and say "our bad".
Kudos, and THANK YOU.
Thank you. Our whole family thanks you and appreciates that you listen to your customers
This is great to hear, though I have to admit: I didn't even know profiles existed until I heard people complaining about this. I think the reason you found it to be an underused feature is because it's not very well advertised on the site.
Now that I know it exists, I'll be using it, since it'll make juggling between different movie tastes in my household MUCH easier. Thank you for listening to your customers!
Thank you and god bless american capitalism!
Kudos!!!!!!
You really do listen, that ROCKS!
Thanks, like many others, we were planning on cancelling, but will be staying!
This totally rocks!
Now I can stop saving for my encounter in divorce court!
Good choice. I shot off an angry letter about this removal because it honestly looked like one of the stupidest business decisions ever. Not sure why someone would want to remove a feature that clearly can help anyone who has multiple people (who are of different ages/tastes/etc) using one account and is not available from other services.
Thank you for listening to your customers!! (And for helping to maintain domestic tranquility in countless households).
Oh, Bless you, bless you, my child.
Whew! My wife just told me the news that the profiles was going away and I was coming upstairs to call and try to reason with the customer service representatives. I was so dismayed. We even had friends who were about to sign up for this feature alone! I am going to call them and tell them this news after writing this.
I am confident that you guys will come up with a solution. Maybe have the profiles feature opt-in, so that for the basic user, they don't even know that it's there. I know your IT team can figure out a way to cater to the passionate profile users (like our family) and the people who want it simple or aren't as comfortable with computers.
Good job!
Thank you - we'll not be downgrading our account now. We might even upgrade over the Summer, depending on how many movies we end up watching!
I normally hate being redundant, but I also want to say thanks to Netflix for listening to us. I was ready to cancel as well, I even had it on my calendar for August 31st. I'm glad I gave them a chance to change their minds!
I just wish I could have been in the room with the people making that decision and see the surprised looks on the faces of the people who supported getting rid of profiles and the looks of smug satisfaction on the faces of the people who opposed it :-).
THANK YOU. THANK YOU.
"Once more [Netflix] will rule the galaxy. And...we shall have...peace."
I was really not looking forward to canceling my account, now I don't have to. Thank you for listening to your customers!
you realize that hitmen everywhere are now returning the deposit on the contract to kill you, right?
I have an account, but don't use the system. I am, however, glad that you made the right decision
To Bruce Anderson:
What you and your wife can do is set up a rule for your wife's email that looks for a specific word in the body of the email. If that word is met it will forward it to your email address.
You can change your profile name to that word (something that wouldn't normally be in an email body like brucenetflix (one word) or something like that. That way you will get your notifications and after the rule is set there is no extra work on your or your wife's part.
Thank you!!!
Thank you very much, very good decision.
Best,
Stefan
I'm really glad to hear this. I was quite concerned that you were removing the functionality. My wife and I like to keep our queues separate.
Thank you for your responsiveness to your customers. It is rare in our world that companies respond like this. You have made a loyal customer even more loyal!
Nice to know some companies have hearts.
so my question is ... Netflix first said that they had to get rid of the profiles because they wouldnt be able to keep updating and adding new features because of the difficult code written in the program.... Are we not going to get udates now because of all the whining and crying?
Thanks for listening!
Excellent. I guess my account will not be getting cancelled after all.
Thank you so much for doing the unexpected... actually responding to customer input with more than a canned response and no action. If more companies did this we would have far less to complain about.
To quote a comment from another site, "And just like that, my marriage is saved."
Thank you for listening.
As a member that left a somewhat dissatisfied comment on Todd's post, I appreciate Netflix responding to their customers' concerns.
This is absolutely wonderful news. My wife (who has the queue that was going away) was already trying to reposition her bad movies into my queue and I was getting scared that I might have to rate 27 Dresses under my identity. Thanks Netflix for listening to your customers...you've definitely made our day!
Thank you! This is a better decission. I was very upset when I heard you where getting rid of profiles. Now I can be happy again!
Thanks! We spoke....they listened. How cool is that. Shows why Netflix is #1
you saved my account as well! thank you so much!!!!
Yay! This is great and definitely a key feature when a family has different movie tastes (I like romantic comedies and my husband get nauseous watching them).
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! What a relief. I am so glad you heard the voice of your customer and reconsidered. 5 stars, Netflix! Five bright, shining stars! :-)
triple thanks,
really i felt like i hit the lottery when my wife told me the great news today that you descided not to cancel profiles. it really means a lot that you listened to us. i can go back to singing only praise about Netflix. thanks a ton.
Thanks. I'm *very* glad you decided to take the right course of action with this. I had changed from 4 at a time to 2 at a time in protest (and I would have canceled come Sept 1st). But after all of the fuss, my wife has decided that she wants a second profile for her exercise videos, so now we're upgrading to 5 at a time.
I bet if you had paid closer attention, you would have noticed that a lot of people with profiles have the more expensive (i.e. profitable) plans... only *because* profiles makes it worthwile to us.
However, I'm afraid you've lost a lot of brand loyalty over this debacle. For example, many of us still think that your explanations are either a load of BS, or just plain lazy and greedy. I would like to repeat what julia said above:
The profile cancellation scare shook my previously solid faith in NetFlix as a Company Who Gets It, especially how disorganized the announcement was -- no replacement feature, no good way for people to migrate their data, just dropping customers off a cliff. Thanks for taking the first, biggest step to restoring customer trust, but please follow up internally so that something like this never happens again.
Thank you for leaving this feature intact! Our son loves picking out his own movies and having them delivered in his name. We were disappointed when we thought we'd lose his profile and have to start juggle his movies w/ our movies. We have been loyal customers for 3 years and love your service. Keep up the good work.
thank you soooo much. :-D I'm so glad we can stay now.
Thank you so much! Having profiles is so important to me and my family. I appreciate you listening to what your customers want!
What a crock. Get your brand a little buzz, then come out smellin like a rose? "Awww lets hug, you really *do* care what their loyal subscribers think." Please...
Here's a though Netflix, why not open your web service up to everyone? Here's an excerpt from my blog post:
Here's what I think Netflix should do. They already have a tremendous web presence and the HANDS-DOWN BEST tool for finding, tracking, commenting on, and rating movies. Open the whole system up to everyone, subscribers and non-subscribers a like (right now, if you are not a paid subscriber, you can't search, rate, queue movies).
What it would cost:
-A couple servers
-A couple full-time web-coders
What Netflix gains:
-People start using Netflix to discover movies, rate them, leave comments. They make Netflix where the store their movie list (everyone has one). Let's call it 1 million new eyeballs, each visiting Netflix an average of once per day, 365 million hits a year. Those are conservative numbers.
-Netflix can implement advertising on the pages of non-subscribers. At the low-end of web advertising, you can expect $12 per 1000, so Netflix is looking at $4.4 Million per year.
-Occasionally, one of those folks will subscribe for a month, buy a used movies, or Netflix could even develop a pay as you go plan, say $3 per movie, per week. That's $12 per month, more than their lowest subscription plan and less than Blockbuster charges for 2-5days.
-More ratings means a more accurate rating system for everyone. And once again, rating are personalized. Unlike IMDB, or rotten tomatoes, a movie rated 3 stars for me may be rated 5 stars for someone else based upon Netflix's individualized weighted system.
-Netflix becomes the de facto name associated with movie rentals. Blockbuster is gone. IMDB becomes the second stop, rather than the first, for finding out more about your favorite movies.
Thanks very much, we use Netflix exclusively for our tv needs (shut off cable), and we didn't know about the profiles feature. When we heard it was being removed, we realized how very useful it will be to us.
We will be splitting movies off from series DVDs, since we like a few of each. That really makes it easier to deal with the queue positions.
Thank you for keeping the profiles. I think the reason some people don't know about it is because it's hard to find the settings for. At least for me it was... It takes me 5 minutes just to find where to set the amount of DVDs each profile can have.
Thanks!
Yay!! Thanks for this. I was not one of the folks who contacted you, but I am one who is delighted to hear from you in this instance. Thanks.
Sandi Martin
Seeing that this feature is staying is why I signed up for a netflix account today!!!
Thank you for listening to us Netflix!!! It's funny how bugged we can get over something like this, but bugged we were - and I am thrilled that you are rescinding the decision to elimminate this great feature. I've always been a very loyal NF customer - - talked you up to everyone. Now I will stick around and continue to champion your service.
Thank you so much for keeping this feature!
Great news. And once again all is right with the universe.
Mostly.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I am glad to see Netflix keep this feature. G-rated only, SciFi, and chick flicks can now continue to flow (but be separated) in our household!
Another voice in the chorus: thank you, Netflix, for listening to your customers on this one. You've earned my continued loyalty.
Woohoo! I am delighted to hear that you have re-considered your earlier decision and decided to keep the profiles feature. Thank you for listening to your customers and making a smart decision. I hope to see the profile feature continue to stay active, as well as be improved upon.
Thanks for keeping the profile system. I would have sorely missed it!
Thank you so much for taking our comments seriously and reconsidering your decision. Profiles keep the peace in our household, and I'm so relieved we won't have to fight over who gets the next spot in the queue.
Thank you for keeping the profiles, that totally made my day!
My brother and I have separate profiles, and though we have similar tastes, we don't always agree (and it's fun to see where we totally disagree).
What are profiles, and why are they important?!
I'm not going to say thank you. The decision to remove the feature was idiotic and keeping it is the only reason I'm not cancelling my service.
Thanks guys!
Wow. I'm really surprised you guys kept the queues. I wrote a letter in figuring it probably wouldn't make a difference but I'm glad to see you guys took even a smaller portion of your members concerns to heart. Viva la Netflix!
I'm so glad to learn that you guys know how to listen to your customers! I was shocked and dismayed at the original announcement, and am thrilled I'll still have a good reason to lob a couple dozen bucks a month your way!
THANK YOU JESUS for saving my netflix profiles!
Awesome! Thanks so much. Now we don't need to downgrade / cancel.
My husband and I would just like to say thank you very much! Our faith has been restored in the almighty Netflix! I can finally rest easy knowing I won't have to watch his stupid movies, or have titles like Beerfest recommended to me. Thanks again!
Everybody already said it. People on BOTH sides of the corporate border make strong brands and strong companies.
Listen to your customers and you'll rock.
I have to say that when profiles first came out I was all "cool feature, irrelevant for me, but what a life-saver for families"...but this whole dust-up has actually inspired me to give the whole genre-separating use a whirl. I will be patiently waiting my 2-3 weeks and will again find myself oddly proud to see the Netflix transaction on my bank statement this month.
Guys, seriously, this is a really great service and I've always had the feeling it was manned by actual people. So I am happy to ignore the gimmicky "friends" features and those weird purple icons for good customer service and a heart in the right plac. Keep up the good work!
Thank you! We are quite relieved, and will continue to be happy customers as August comes to a close. Of course, we'll be even happier when you get that Silverlight player you showed off last year at MIX! ;-)
That's not to say we're still not a touch concerned that you tried to take away a core feature, but we are happy that you listened to us (and, of course, your other customers).
How about giving users a way to delete profiles? I've got one I don't use, and the advice is "set the dvds to 0". What? I just want to remove the clutter. That's why I believed that Netflix hadn't touched profiles in ages.
Yay! My wife and I are very pleased with this outcome, and are now more than happy to continue doing business with Netflix. With this reversal i can say that Netflix's reputation for superb customer service has been preserved.
This is such great news that I went back and renewed my netflix membership. Sadly, I found that my profiles had already been removed. I seriously hope they will recover that data for me. I'd be sad to lose all my movie ratings and queue data.
wait...so you were going to take the service away September 1, but now that you're keeping it, people who haven't been using it can't start using it? Forget 2-3 weeks, why not let me and the others who didn't even know the feature existed start using it now?
Sometimes you can't win for losing, but I hope at least the feature is new & improved when I'll be allowed to start it up in a couple weeks...
Thank you for listening to us. While I greatly appreciate your final decision, it would have been nice to have heard from someone before this. This discussion has been one sided for a long time, the same as the one over the RTW page.
Please make a greater effort to communicate with your customers because they will just get more upset at being stonewalled. Thanks again for changing your decision!
Thank you for listening. This is very good news.
And I agree with those who said that the feature needs to be more publicized - I never even knew about it until my fiancé happened upon it one day and realized it was the answer to our every Netflix prayer! (He used to forbid me to rate any "girly movies" for fear that any of that genre might be suggested on our page ...)
I think the next step should be to allow all of the profiles to view online movies instantly, as that also affects one's ratings and suggestions. But hey, I'm not complaining at this point. =)
Thank you again.
What idiot decided to get rid of it in the first place?
I am so glad you changed your mind and are keeping the profiles. It is nice to utilize a the services of a company that actually listens to their customers. Thanks for providing a great service.
DeJohn030
Well hallelujah!! I was unhappy when I heard profiles was being removed -- and very pleased that the decision was reversed!!
Thank you -- I was thinking of leaving netflix after 8+ years which I don't have to do so anymore
As one who commented on your previous announcement, I'm very happy to hear that you've changed your mind. You've done right by your most vocal users, and that will pay dividends.
Nice job.
Hooray! Thank you!
Good news. Now how about an update on the issues facing Mac and Linux customers? Give us an estimated time. Give us a plan where we're not paying the same for less. If you continue to ignore us, you will lose us. That's all there is to it.
This has been an absolutely brilliant publicity stunt. LOTS more people who pay attention to tech news (including *all* current subscribers) now know about Netflix's key differentiator: profiles. And Netflix comes out smelling like roses because they "listened" to customers and they never actually took it away.
I'm sure they'll get lots of new subscribers because of this, as well as having current subscribers become more loyal/dependent because of using this "new" feature (and maybe upping their plans). Again, brilliant.
Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but the original plan to do away with profiles was so seemingly bone-headed it's hard to imagine this wasn't the endgame they always had in mind. Bravo.
By the way, I'm hooked on profiles like it's a drug and probably would have dropped my subscription on 9/1 in protest.
Thank you for keeping the feature we use so much.
Thank you Netflix. Though, I am wandering what "better ideas" you may have had to make it easier. The only reason why it's probably too complicated for some is that maybe you need to make it more noticable (a big button maybe?). Anyway, thanks again for keeping it!
Thank you! We will definitely stay with netflix now. You've got our loyalty for long time ahead.
Great - The Public speaks and Netflix listens
Yay for Netflix! That's the company I know and love
Can we get the ability to delete profiles now, please?
Thank you very much! I'm so pleased.
This is exactly why I *like* giving my money to a company like NetFlix, vs a certain blue & yellow competitor.
If profiles aren't used by many people, I'd think it's largely b/c not that many people know about them.
Given what you all know about people's preferences, you should be able to identify "split-personality" accounts, and send a targeted "Hey, try this..." email.
Anyway, many thanks for making the right call.
Thank you! I was just roaming around the website looking for the cancel feature after we heard the news that the profiles feature was going to be eliminated. Glad I ran across the blog and saw the update. We'll stay now. The profiles feature is a "make it or break it" feature for our family.
Thanks for listening!
Thank you thank you thank you. We were waiting till the end of August before switching to Blockbuster in the hope that Netflix would change its mind. I'm glad we waited. I'm still a bit nervous because Netflix was so nonchalant about reducing the level of service. Still, leaving it alone is enough to make us satisfied Netflix subscribers once again. My confidence is shot though.
-Turc
Thank you Netflix!! Finally a company that listens to it's customers.
This is great news. I was really dreading having my girlfriend's movie preferences mixed into mine. Creating a separate account wasn't a viable choice either. I'm still slightly annoyed that cancelling the Profile feature was even considered as well as the way it was ultimately handled, BUT at least the public outcry has reversed the decision.
... or maybe this was a major corporate conspiracy and viral marketing tool to bring awareness to their service .... the plot thickens.
I haqve to agree with Sean. I thought Netflix's explanation was bogus.
I can't believe that such a small percentage of your customers use the feature when it is essential for accounts that include children. How else do you manage a steady stream of appropriate movies???
Perhaps if you advertised the feature more prominently on your homepage and offered easy instructions, you'd increase market share and take business from your "competitor" (who does NOT offer profiles...I checked when I first heard you were doing away with the feature).
Now I can delete the e-mail I was prepared to send you when I cancelled my account in September.
Thank you so much for your decision to continue the Profiles feature. I was really dreading the day when I'd have to cancel my account if the planned changes had been implemented. Netflix has once again shown its outstanding dedication to its loyal customers.
As for suggestions, I think more people would use the profiles feature if you made it a more prominent part of the interface and improved the ability to switch between profiles.
Well done :)
Thank you. I had begun to lose faith in your drive for customer-oriented service. It is good to know that you are still the company my family started doing business with five years ago.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Thanks for listening Netflix! :)
Thank you! This is indeed an essential part of our families Netflix account. Without it, we would not have continued to use this service... and that quite simply, would have made me very sad. I love your vast spectrum of choices and, for our family where everyone is into VERY different movies, Netflix is the clear choice.
Thanx again.
~ JJ
ok, let's slow down a bit - it seems the majority of the responses here are "hey this proves netflix can do no wrong!"
is it really that easy? am i one of only a few who are left with a bad taste after this?
why was the decision taken in the first place? we've still never had a reasonable explanation for that, but whatever it was, surely it was a bad decision?
what's to say a similar decision isn't around the corner? what's to say in a few months they won't kill the profile feature for real - surely second time around they won't get as much flak and they'd be home free?
is nobody concerned with how little the cared for those of us whose data they would just delete? how easily they could just wipe us out.
and worse yet, if you take us measly customers out of the equation, the data that they were about to delete was arguably the most pristine data they had as they could be reasonably assured those ratings weren't a best-guess between several family members, but actual ratings from one single person, probably a movie-buff at that.
arguably this data should be very very valuable to them as it would have the biggest chance of producing accurate recommendations for everyone else. as a business decision, to wipe this data is just mind boggling - nevermind the actual users behind it.
this worries me greatly. how can you just throw your arms up in the air and say, hey - they listened, the world is all peachy and wonderful.
please slow down a bit, and think about it. this ain't good. any way you slice it. it could have been worse (actually going through with the decision)... but this ain't good. it really isn't.
i will stay on my now reduced plan, and i will keep my newly opened account with greencine. and i will not be promoting netflix to friends and family and anyone who would listen as fervently as i used to. infact, i will warn them that netflix is likely not to be trusted, they will not safeguard your data and will make bad decisions at a moment's notice if there's a buck to be made.
i am bitter...
this will take some healing.
Thank you very much Netflix for listening to your customers. You have renewed my good feelings toward your service and I will update the friends I had previously complained to. Good work!
Thank you very much!
Profiles are essential to our enjoyment of Netflix, and something that distinguishes you from the other services.
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