Angry Netflix Customers React to Qwikster Decision on Twitter and Facebook
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' apology for the recent changes at the online streaming service fell on deaf ears Monday as subscribers took to Twitter and Facebook to rail against the company.
Hastings' announced in his apology that he did not do a good enough job in explaining why Netflix raised its prices and that the company would be launching a new service called Qwikster.
Qwikster, to run on a separate website, will include video games and DVDs.
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Customers will be required to have two separate online accounts and two separate billing accounts if they wish to use keep Netflix and Qwikster, which has many customers crying foul.
On Twitter, @RaoulFOX5 didn’t think Hastings' apology was sincere. "Memo to @netflix ceo GREED Hastings, 'I'm sorry, but not really' is not an apology," he tweeted.
On Netflix's Facebook page, customers let Hastings know exactly what they felt about the service changes.
Robert Blum wrote: "This is so stupid. I didn't mind the price increase but now I'll have two queues and when a movie on my DVD list I'd instant I won't know it so it might get shipped - this isn't better it's worse. I'm done with these morons."
Karen Ellington agreed that there was no point of adding complexity to a popular service after raising prices.
"To get out of a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging," Ellington wrote. "Your service is now not only more expensive it is also harder to use. If the movie I want to watch isn't available for streaming, I have to go to another website to see if it's on DVD. Really? You should have added ease of use features, such as an ability to organize the queue, when you raised prices."
Bill Schaller took the company to task for ruining their popular service, angering customers, and failing to hold onto crucial streaming contracts with Sony, which ended their agreement with Netlfix and took its large library of movies with them earlier this month.
"You are utter morons over there in the potentate department at Netflix," Schaller wrote. "The entire world is either putting their hand on their face and sighing or shouting at their monitor incoherently as they read this email. It was not broken. You didn't need to fix it. Do you think anyone really wants to use two web services, where one was perfectly fine and usable?"
Schaller added: "You weren't losing money on the DVDs yet. Why not focus on getting better licensing terms for the streaming unit? Provide good news and service improvements, not bad news and an annoying restructuring and dilution of your core brand!"
Schaller was not the only to suspect that recent streaming contract problems were a factor in the separation decision.
Marv Cole wrote: "I guess the loss of your streaming contract with Starz/Sony and your recent crushing stock fall and subscriber exodus due to the price hike has nothing to do with the Trickster er I mean Qwikster decision."
Customers were not only angered by the extra complications, but even the new name, Quikster, was ridiculed.
Netflix account holder @etherbrian tweeted that the new name reminded him of a popular beverage mix for kids.
"Got an email from Reed Hastings this morning," he tweeted. "Eyes still bleary when I read it. Something about a Qwikster. I love flavored milk mixes!"
There seemed to be a few correlations between the new name and adolescence. Tokyo D wrote on Netflix's Facebook page that, "The name sounds like something a five year old would come up with."
For some reason, Quikster reminded people of everything except the "quick delivery" promise at the root of the name, according to Hastings.
David Engle wrote, "Qwikster is a stupid name, rhymes with trickster, and reminds me a of Amway spin-off called Quickstar."
Not everybody was so upset about the separation of the services and weren't affected by the new name.
Tom McAllister considered it a practical move that could potential make the service better. "I like it," he wrote on Netflix's Facebook page. "Improve my streaming and you're going to include video games. I'm on board."
McAllister then went on to take all the "complainers" to task: "Why are people complaining about two transactions? You complainers don't have to do anything! Stop whining, get over your selves, and actually listen to what they are trying to say. If you don't like it, you can cancel at any time. Nobody's forcing you to keep your Netflix."
However, McAllister was very much in the minority. Most people on Netflix's Facebook page seemed to share Bryan Sloan's sentiment.
Sloan wrote, "Just canceled my account. Your CEO is an idiot."
