Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO at Netflix, has issued a formal apology this morning in regards to the robust feedback received from the Netflix service separation two months ago.
He opened by apologizing for not validating the service changes. He mentioned that the switch to streaming media from DVD rentals was both a surprise and an obligation, as it were, to ensure that both of those services were upheld to meet necessity and popularity.
He also previewed the official changes that are coming to the DVD aspect of Netflix. The biggest feature change, after the rename to Qwikster, is the potential upgrade of video game rentals to an existing Qwikster account. He clarified it would be similar to upgrade to a video game account as it is to upgrade to a Blu-Ray account.
He closed the letter by saying that price changes are not going to happen with this official split of services. But, he did state that "If you subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix." Qwikster.com and netflix.com will not be integrated either, which falls synonymously with the service split as well.
"Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions."
His words that closed the letter are more true than we can comprehend. The Netflix franchise has made millions of dollars over the last ten years, and the amount of customers they have lost from this service separation is nearly one million. They have a lot of ground to recover, and many more customers to appease.
In addition, Hastings also has a lengthy blog on the subject to see what more people have to say about the subject.
We encourage you folks to express your thoughts on this, especially since they’re going to be integrating video games into the Qwikster service.