This just in from Netflix:
Dear Greg,
We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.
Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.
While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.
More info: http://www.netflix.com/Help?p_faqid=3962
This sucks, my girlfriend and I love this feature. We get to share our Netflix account and can both queue movies without monopolizing the queue. For example, I currently have out Trial at Nuremberg, while at the same time my girlfriend has out Carmen Electra’s Aerobic Striptease. See Netflix, this is WIN WIN!
UPDATE 2008-06-30: Netflix has rescinded its decision to eliminate profiles.
We Are Keeping Netflix Profiles
Dear Greg,You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.
We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.
-Your friends at Netflix
43 Comments
Completely agree. I just got this ridiculous email with even more ridiculous “explanation”.
I may be switching to Blockbuster.
I know! I just received the email, and I’m composing a complaint right now. I’m glad I’m not alone in liking this feature.
yeah, it does suck. i’m in the same exact boat. two users, one household, big fan of the profiles feature.
oh, and i’ve sent off a complaint to netflix, but i could not find an email address to send it to, so i submitted it as a user suggestion, which is not quite how i wanted to deliver it.
@Paul: Did you find an email address for them? I looked, but only ever found a phone number.
Maybe I’ll call them. I could totally see canceling over this. Why take away a feature that WORKS, that people USE and LOVE, without any explanation for WHY or giving any promise of a better replacement down the line?? This is just crazy!
Same feelings here. I have already sent my complaint:
“I just received your email regarding discontinuing profiles. I wish to register my dissatisfaction with this decision. If you discontinue this extremely helpful feature, I will look elsewhere for my DVD rentals.”
@David
I used “contact us” under “suggestions”
i feel that netflix thinks that the individual profiles under one account cannibalizes their business model.
this truly stinks. I hope they get games instead. It’s just so easy to manage separate queues for me and my girlfriend. how will we comanage the queue!?
I totally agree, just made a similar blog entry, and started searching other blogs to see if other people are complaining, too.
I will absolutely cancel my membership when they remove this feature.
You can send comments using the form here: http://www.netflix.com/Suggest?type=2&lnkctr=cu_suggest
also weigh in on Get Satisfaction Here: http://getsatisfaction.com/netflix/topics/netflix_to_break_homes_by_eliminating_profiles
I completely agree this is terrible! Please everyone complain to netflix, and digg this story to spread the word.
Agree. My wife and I use this feature. She hates my movie queue. I will consider leaving this service for something else with profiles.
I tried calling – they basically tell you what the e-mail said (“it’ll improve the site for all users”)… Their solution is to print out your queue so you can re-enter it. They have no solution to the fact that all your ratings for the last three years will be trashed.
I asked why they couldn’t just spin the Profiles off into separate accounts, and they “the site wasn’t designed that way” Sure, that sounds likely.
Having all that info in there was what made Netflix great, I can’t believe they’d just delete them. Idiots.
Do they think people will sign up for multiple accounts instead? They’re mad. What are they smoking?
*fuming*
I agree – this sucks. I think they must be worried about too many people sharing a single account (like Greg and girlfriend); but all they are doing is making their service less consumer friendly. We use it similarly to others here – we have one queue for the kids and one for the parents. Mixing these accounts together will greatly reduce the value of the recommendations and searching functions for us.
Such disappointment. It was a good feature. I’m sure this came from the same group of geniuses that brought the “watch now” feature, which would have been good, except they forgot to make available anything worth watching. It feels like over the past few years there has been a shift from “we need to provide a service the customer wants” to “the customer wants the service we provide”.
I love this feature… Netflix will lose some customers..maybe
it will affect their bottomline.
I wish the negative publicity will make them change this decision.
+1 in the disappointed column. I’ve already written to complain! If Netflix think they’re going to charge individuals multiple amounts per family then they’ve got another thing coming…
I just called customer service and asked very specifically, “How will you improve the website by doing this?”
The answer was that the queues are usually so loaded down (he quoted 500+) with movies, that it is too time-consuming for the engineers to upkeep the system; he also said that not enough people use the feature to keep it going (I find that hard to believe, just by google searching this topic!). By getting rid of this feature, they will be able to focus attention on website in other ways. I asked if they had any plans to substitute it in another way (one profile, separate lists), but he said not at this time.
Anyone reading this – CALL and voice your opinion!! Their call center is open 24 hours. The rep I spoke to said he is able to make a note of the complaint; hopefully if everyone voices his/her complaints, the execs will figure out a way to make it work, instead of just getting rid of the feature.
If you want to make a suggestion, suggest they limit the total number of movies in a queue. Hopefully if they get enough similar suggestions it might motivate them to find a way to make it work. Also tell them you’re seriously considering switching to another provider (I contacted Blockbuster to ask if they have this feature – waiting on email response).
I just submitted a complaint to the ‘suggestions’ section as well. I was hoping that someone had more info about these “improvements”!? I’m so pissed. I’ve been a customer since ’02 and profiles has saved me a GREAT many arguments with the hubby. Ugh — not looking forward to going back to a single cue.
Does Blockbuster do profiles?
Thanks Rachel! I’m on hold right now…
It is my guess that this will be accompanied later by announcements that they are beefing up thier online viewing selection and that they will be pushing to get people to buy the set-top boxes for viewing on-demand style.
That is the only concievable way I can think that this will work in their favor…and ours (after we shell out $100 for the sete top box or rent one from them).
If this is the case, I can see canceling my cable movie cannels in favor of this…if the price remains reasonable and doesn’t roll over to a pay-per-view type system.
Just got off with customer service and I got pretty much the same answer as Rachel. “Less than 1% of our customer base uses the feature… Just having the feature consumes a lot of server & storage space…” The rep encouraged me to use the ‘suggestions’ link to submit my feedback.
Oddly enough (and against the odds provided by NetFlix), the rep also used the profiles feature. Hmm. It sounds like either 1% is an underestimate or there is an accounting flaw somewhere.
The only reason I can think of for them to kill this feature is because currently you can ship different queues to different locations. There going to make all the people using that aspect of the profiles feature buy their own netflix accounts. And I bet in a few months they’re going to return the profiles feature without that alternate address feature. Meanwhile, the 99.9999999999999999% of users who don’t use an alternate address just got screwed by netflix, and if you’re like me, also switched to Blockbuster.
Sometimes I like to fool myself into thinking that companies like Apple and Netflix actually care about the loyal consumer, but then they pull a stunt like this and I remember they’re just as greedy and impersonal as micro$oft.
Congratulations Netflix, you just lost a customer.
From the above comments, it seems the canned response is:
“Less than 1% of our customer base uses the feature… Just having the feature consumes a lot of server & storage space…”
If these seemingly contradictory statements are true, this answer points to poor implementation of a great idea by Netflix. Why would such an under-utilized feature be such a burden on system resources?
It seems a better solution would to be to set a limit for the total amount of queued movies for every account. Profiles belonging to each account would queue movies that would count towards the account’s limit.
Then again, I doubt the canned response is the real reason. It’s perceived lost revenue. Oh well, I guess Netflix won’t be too bummed when they lose their “1%” of profile users this fall.
someone should start an online petition
What burns me is the cavalier attitude they have towatrds their customers.
I sent this msg to them; but I doubt they care:
Re: the profile feature being eliminated–
1) Bad call….you are making your site less valuable to me, my teenagers, and my spouse: all of whom maintain separate queues.
2) Will my monthly fee be reduced since I am getting reduced functionality? That only seems fair.
3) And This “answer” is insulting and disdainful of your customers:
“While it may be disappointing to see this feature go away, this change will help us to continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.”
There is no answer there. Are your customers so annoying to you that you can’t even bother to come up with an answer to the question: “Why”.
If the answer is that you do not trust your customers, then just say it. If you are not going to answer the simple question “why” then either don’t ask the question or simply say “because we can.” at least it is an honest answer.
Sheesh
1% must be wrong. If people aren’t using the feature, make it more obvious to them! It’s not because people don’t WANT to use it, it’s because they probably don’t even know it’s there.
It makes NO sense to have a single queue to share with my fiance, let alone those who have more than 2 people on the account. Why would I want to view recommendations that wouldn’t even be for me? Why would we want to combine our ratings? If all we were after was simply viewing movies together and didn’t care about discovering new films, this feature wouldn’t bother me.
But I use Netflix ALL the time. Since 2005. Sure my queue is over 200 movies long, but this usually guarantees I’ll be a Netflix customer for years to come.
If it’s too much data bogging down your system, GET A NEW SYSTEM! Don’t take away the system unless you plan on losing your customers. And that’s funny, if only 1% of the people are using this feature, then how is it bogging down their systems?
Combining queues isn’t going to make people’s queus any smaller anyway!
Netflix, this is a terrible idea. I will have to find alternative ways of watching and discovering new films if you decide to go forward with this. If you do, put something in place of it that works the same way, just more streamlined and easier on your servers. Just don’t leave us in the dark. Otherwise, we’ll leave.
I just browsed what I could of the Blockbuster website without paying and I haven’t seen any mention of multiple queues. Either Blockbuster is doing as good a job as Netflix at advertising this feature or the feature does not exist all together. Does anyone have a definitive answer on the matter?
Anybody thing there would be value in starting a mass suspension of account movement? You can suspend your account for up to three months w/o having to pay your bill or lose your account-could act as sort of a boycott. Think it could be effective?
Hey I cam across this petition thing. If those think it serious enough they can sign it and follow one of the numbers if they do it.
http://www.petitiononline.com/netflix0/petition.html
If I were Blockbuster, I would hire as many engineers as necessary to implement this feature by Sept. and take full advantage of this opportunity to grab market share. Competitors don’t send their customers frantically looking for alternatives too often.
As both part of the “1%” and as a product manager, my mind boggles at this move. Even if Netflix wants to focus on more long-term-profitable features like on demand, alienating today’s passionate fanbase to do so seems counterproductive.
I also just received this email and sent Netflix a note saying I would cancel my subscription if this happens. Like others out there my wife and I have very real differences about what we watch and what we like and for the last several years the profiles have let us have a Netflix account that reflects those differences (although we also have a que for TV shows we watch together, maybe that is part of the problem?) There is a Blockbuster in our town and I will certainly be switching over if Netflix follows through on this foolishness.
It seems to me that the 1% of users number is a bold faced lie. Every single person I know with a Netflix account uses this feature.
I just put my account on hold. If you feel strongly about this, you should do the same (or cancel!). The only way they will change their minds is if they feel it on their bottom line.
Well, I guess I’m done with NF (after 8 years) dropping this feature is just plain stupid.
If I have to interleave stuff I’m watching (like The Wire) with the garbage my wife rents… forget it…
/John
I certainly don’t want my husband’s ratings to be mixed in with mine since we have very different tastes in movies and tend to score the ones we have in common quite differently. This is ridiculous. I like the suggestion of limiting the number of movies in each queue instead of doing away with multiple profiles.
Does anyone know of a similar movie rental program that has multiple queues? If so, I think we’d consider switching companies.
Petitions don’t mean anything. Hit them where it counts. Money is the only thing this monster will understand. Here is my plan: On sept 1 if profiles are eliminated I will suspend my netflix account and take free trials one after another from other providers for as long as they will last. If netflix doesn’t give in and re-instate profiles I go with whatever new provider impressed me the most. Complaining is one thing, real actions is another. Read and Heed!
If you are worried about loosing your ratings, I recommend using this tool to back them up:
http://tenhanna.com/greasemonkey/
I just used it to back up the ratings on three profiles of mine and it worked great. It will create tab-delimited text that you can save locally.
In a perfect world, this output could then be used to import into some other rental service. I have already contacted Intelliflix (http://www.intelliflix.com/) customer service to see if they would be interested in providing this service. If so, I’m going to try them out as their service looks very promising and has the separate user profiles under one account and ability to restrict profiles by movie rating. It would probably help if more people contacted them as well.
If you are going to try the above referenced tool, I would do it ASAP as it is possible that Netflix could make some site update that would render it useless.
Good luck!
If you want to save or copy ratings and queued movies to another account, you can use netflix_mover.
Good news. They appear to have rescinded this policy decision.
Thank you Netflix! You’ve decided to keep profiles! I feel like I just avoided a nasty breakup with a really good girlfriend. As a ‘thank you’ I raised my subscription to the next level. You’ve proven that you really are the best! Thanks again!
If you’re interested in an easy way to save your ratings, you can use a service I crated called “Save My Ratings” that allows you to download a CSV of your ratings from Netflix and other movie sites.
You can also copy your ratings from Netflix into Amazon, Blockbuster, Yahoo , RottenTomatoes…etc.. or vis-versa. I currently supported movie sites include Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster, IMBD, Yahoo, Flixster and Rottentomatoes.
Check it out Save My Ratings
Feedback is appreciated.
Cheers,
- Alan
5 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[...] the announcement, it took less than 24 hours for SaveNetflixProfiles.com to launch, bloggers are furious, and the real hardcore fans are absolutely livid. Who will triumph, and who will break? Read [...]
[...] the announcement, it took less than 24 hours for SaveNetflixProfiles.com to launch, bloggers are furious, and the real hardcore fans are absolutely livid. Who will triumph, and who will [...]
[...] the list and replace it with who knows what. I don’t think I am alone either. At least Greg Albrecht agrees with me as [...]
[...] Greg provides an excellent description of their poorly thought out strategy, and Stephanie mirrors my opinions. Then lo and behold, I received this email yesterday afternoon: We Are Keeping Netflix Profiles [...]
[...] are equally distributed between us. NOT HAPPENING. I’d rather cancel and others feel the same [...]