Appatic

On October 10 of 2011, Netflix decided to revert the decision of separating DVD by Mail in the U.S.A to a new entity to be called Qwikster

Now, i do not live in the U.S.A, so my opinion on this is from an outsider view. But man if there was an excessive non-stop whining about both the price change made by Netflix months ago and Qwikster, that would separate the business of DVD-by-Mail of the Video Content Streaming.

If that was not a "first world problem", then i don't what could it be called. The reason i say this is because in the case of Mexico and Canada. We could only have dreamt to have those kind of services working the way they do in the U.S.A for such low prices, thanks to the quite incredible USPS.

But anyway, i know that opinion will maybe make some reading this a bit angry. But i can only call it like i see it. Also considering how much things like regular Cable or going to a single Movie or even something as simple as eating at Popeye's or wherever cost.

Now leaving my own rant on that aside.

What Netflix should had done to avoid this Netflix - Qwikster Two-Parter Disaster?

1.- Streaming should had never ever been free

They were wrong wrong wrong in giving it away at first. Even if they had charged for it something like an extra $1.99 or $2.99 for it would have made NetFlix customers to been used to the idea of Streaming and DVD-by-Mail being two different services.

Making it a whole easier for doing such a dramatic -- yet necessary -- price change as they did,  possible without people getting SO riled up. Yeah, there would have still being defections. But they would have been minor comparing to what happened.

2.-Do the Price Change and the separation of DVD-by-Mail at the same time.

Even without they having the caution stated in (1). If they were going to do a dramatic shift. then they should have done it at the same time. Not wait until people anger starts to wane and then piss them off yet again. Who thought that one out?

3.-Put DVD-by-Mail with a better brand

Ok, lets obviate (1) and (2) as if they never even passed up the mind of +Reed Hastings

Qwikster, Qwikster?, Qwikster!!!??.

What a horrible name and brand. Why not MailFlix or DVDpost or Anything more descriptive of the service?

That alone would had made a little bit of a difference. Yeah, acquiring a better brand would had been harder and more expensive. But it was worth it.

Oh well, i actually do supported the rationale of both decisions as they are not really Reed's fault. And they were no-brainers. But he may have forgot about emotions being at a high in the present times of economic crisis. Not just from customers, but the press, bloggers and even wall street. The later hiring people to feel for them in order to know when to be mad --of course ;)

4.-Offer Some Choice In The Account Management

(1), (2) and (3)? Never even considered.

Bringing us the closest to our actual reality and present situation.

Back when they announced Qwikster and apologized. They could have simply said that there would be an opt-in option to keep your account bridged. And for encouraging the separation of accounts, they could have offered a way to backup your ratings and account info to be used in Qwikster.

= Problem not solved, but minimized by a good enough measure.

Instead, they went for a Catch-22 situation not once, but twice. And i bet they still were as shocked the second time as they were the first on how bad both situations went.

They counted too much on their "We are really the only good choice for Movie Streaming and DVD-by-Mail. People will have to eat that bullet" mindset and attitude.

Linkage

DVD's Will Be Staying At Netflix.com      <—Netflix Official Blog

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