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Netflix To Eliminate Profiles Feature

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-profile-for-you dept.

Donald Burr of Borg writes "One of my favorite features of Netflix, the video-rental-by-mail service, is 'profiles.' Profiles lets you create 'sub-accounts' for your friends/family, so that they can share in the video rental love. Each profile gets his/her own Netflix queue that he/she can manage with their own login/password. You can divide up how many movies get sent to you vs. the other profiles under your account. E.g. if you have a 6-out-at-once plan, you can choose to get 3 movies at a time, and have 3 other profiles each receive 1 movie. Unfortunately, the fun stops September 1, at which point Netflix is, for unknown reasons, going to terminate this feature. Why? To '...help us to continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.' Improvement indeed."

39 of 508 comments (clear)

  1. Yes, I received the same notice. by jggimi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I do not understand what cost savings Netflix would achieve by this reduction in service.

    1. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by something_wicked_thi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd imagine a substantial portion of their customers will now pay for two accounts. The rest will make due with one queue for two people. It'll also reduce their maintenance cost. Pretty sleazy, nonetheless.

    2. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 5, Interesting

      there's an up-side to this.

      lately, I've been THROTTLED (big-time). I just upgraded from a 3 at once plan to almost double that. and for the first few weeks, things came in the mail on schedule and on time.

      lately, though, things are being sent from far away centers; when I return discs directly to the PO, only some are showing up the next day at NF (I live in the silicon valley area and its ALWAYS a 1day hop from local to local!).

      there are many tricks NF is playing, but the short of it is: if you are a heavy renter, you get penalized.

      solution: go away and come back. at least that's what I have read. cancel for a month then re-join. you get a new slate and they stop throttling you (for a while, at least).

      lather rinse repeat.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    3. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by malchus842 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Well, this feature is what makes Netflix make sense for us. I divide up our plan into two queues - one for me, one for the wife & kids. They get what they want, I get what I want (I have less time to watch, so sometimes I have a movie at home for a week or more) and we don't get in each other's way.

      Fundamentally, without this feature, Netflix becomes a pain in the butt to manage for us. Right now, I can be sure that when I send a movie back, I get one of my movies. The same goes for the others.

      I'm going to cancel on Aug 31 (and have told them so) if they don't keep this feature.

    4. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by Immerial · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, I'd assume that's the main reason -- they want to force people to sign up for additional accounts. Well, if you gonna do that... you should at least make it easy for people transfer their profile data to a new account. To, you know... encourage people to do it.

      NetFlix you are doing it wrong!
    5. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by Fozzyuw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd imagine a substantial portion of their customers will now pay for two accounts. The rest will make due with one queue for two people. It'll also reduce their maintenance cost. Pretty sleazy, nonetheless.

      Actually, from a pure consumer standpoint, this change makes no difference. Netflix already has a pricing model such that, the CHEAPEST plan is 3 DVD / time. If you move from 3 to 4 out at a time, you actually pay more and from 4 to any other number, the price is the same (per DVD at a time).

      If you had 6 at a time and choose to go to 3 at a time with 2 accounts, you'll actually save money (mere pennies, though). Since it was a separate login/password for each profile, there's no difference between having a separate account, expect for the "master user" having full view access. For those who allow their children to rent, they will still just use one account and they'll have to spend more time on their end managing their queue and that's an unfortunate hassle.

      But I think you're right. I think profiles are causing a real PITA for the site programmers to maintain code and scrapping it all together will allow faster and more flexible programming models. They're probably finding legacy code such that the programmers are like "we want to do this but the way profiles currently work, it's preventing us from doing it without a complete programming change to the profiles system".

      Instead of sinking a large cost into fixing profile code, they're probably just going to scrap it all together so they can implement whatever new and shiny features or improve database speeds or whatever.

      I thought the feature was awesome, but from a "money" standpoint, I don't see how Netflix is doing this to "screw customers" out of more money, as their current payment plans emphasis 3/time movies over any other. Unless there's some research that says that 3/time people keep their movies longer than 6/time people or something.

      Cheers,
      Fozzy

      --
      "The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
    6. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sure it is. Recommendations. I love horror, my wife loves musicals. "Because you liked Saw II, we recommend Chicago". Sheesh, what a bunch of fucktards.

    7. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by Gewalt · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I dunno, I'm more inclined to believe they were hit with some kind of patent lawsuit, and just folded. Netflix operates on razor thin margins, so if there was a good chance they would lose the patent suit, it could potentially obliterate that margin.

      That's not to say I would put the slimeball tactic outside of the realm of possibilities, but that just seems less likely.

      --
      Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
    8. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by Fnord666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Any discomfort will soon be forgotten, and they may even be able to shed themselves of the dead-beat "customers" that cost them more than they make.
      I doubt that the customers using this feature are the ones they would like to eliminate from their customer base. I suspect that most of customers using this feature do so (like I do) in order to segregate out my selections and returns from my children's choices. They have a tendency to hang on to movies for a while before they watch them, or they watch them several times before sending them back. I didn't really care about it since it was their queue, not mine. Now it is everyone's queue and I will be sending things back in a shorter period of time. In addition, several of my friends have signed up for netflix for their households once I described this feature to them.

      This "downgrade" in service has reminded me to take another look at the market and see what other companies like Blockbuster are doing. If they are offering this service, I will probably send my Roku back and switch services.
      --
      'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
    9. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by something_wicked_thi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      God, I hate people like you.

      People who say things like, "Well, obviously, company $x is a business, so they can do whatever they want" or "Your boss pays you money to work, so you have to do whatever he says" are invariably idiots.

      NetFlix offered this feature. Some people bought the service in part because of this feature. Now it's being taken away. No discounts or temporary account upgrades or anything. Not even a way to migrate the old profiles to a new account. That's pretty sleazy.

      As for "dead-beat customers that cost them more than they make", that does not make someone a dead beat. That makes them thrifty.

      It is expected that both sides will act rationally. Customers will make the most out of their money, and NetFlix will cut features that cost them money. Calling their customers deadbeats is idiotic. But NetFlix is not handling this very well at all. They are taking something away without offering a thing. Customers are going to be pissed, and they've got a right to be.

    10. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by bilbravo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I would mod you up if I could, I agree wholeheartedly. Not only does it make things more complicated to maintain for 2 people (I can't imagine 3-4) the recommendations are also going to be screwed up (even more so) now.
      Sure, it isn't difficult to maintain one queue for multiple people, but it's inconvenient. The entire purpose of Netflix is CONVENIENCE! I don't have to go to a store, I can put movies in a list and drop them in my office's mailbox after I'm done watching. Thus the allure. Now they took away a very convenient feature.
      Redbox on the way home is sounding a bit more tempting now, goodbye Netflix.

      --
      Starmen.net
    11. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by Fozzyuw · · Score: 5, Informative

      The CHEAPEST plan is 2 DVDs a month. =P

      Wrong, the cheapest plan is 1 DVD with 2 per month. The cheapest per DVD plan is 3/time.

      • 1 at-a-time (2 a month) for $4.99 ($2.50 / movie flat rate)
      • 1 at-a-time (Unlimited) for $8.99 ($9/movie/time)
      • 2 at-a-time (Unlimited) for $13.99 $7/movie/time
      • 3 at-a-time (Unlimited) for $16.99 ($5.67/movie/time)
      • 4 at-a-time (Unlimited) for $23.99 ($6/movie/time)
      • 5 and up are all $6/movie/time

      The 3/time plan use to be $6/movie, but they dropped the price of that plan by $1/movie as a move to bring Blockbuster Online members back as Blockbuster raised their rates (twice) and by some plans, a massive amount (like 66%).

      Tossing out the limited number rental, lowest tier plan, the best deal for any Netflix user is 3/time, assuming you pick a plan that allows you to watch the same number of films a week as you plan allows per time. Meaning, 1 movie a time means you'll watch 1 movie a week, 3 movies at a time and you'll watch 3 movies a week. Which I think it probably about what Netflix expects you to watch and will throttle people to this degree.

      The difference is very negligible. That would amount to a cost of $1.41 a movie for 3/time and $1.50 per movie for anything above that. (Assuming the watching habits I described) To round out the numbers, it's $1.75 per movie at 2/time and $2.25 per movie at 1/time (based on a standard 28 day / 4-week month which obviously isn't an exact monthly schedule given most months have more than 28 days)

      --
      "The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
    12. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by E+IS+mC(Square) · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Exactly. I have over 1000 movies rated under my own profile which is secondary to the main profile of my wife. Now if they do this, not only will we lose ability to maintain separate queues (which is very important, because our tastes are not completely overlapping), I will lose all the ratings which was essential to get new suggestions. New suggestions were one of the main resources for me to find new movies according to my taste.

      I am a big fan of Netflix for all the good reasons, but this decision is almost a deal-breaker to me. Give me a fucking chance to get my history and data back.

    13. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I realize that there was a legal settlement a few yrs ago with NF.

      but they have NOT changed their ways, not in any significant way. read their TOS - they have the slipperiest weasel words possible.

      they STILL do ALL the things they were accused of. they have not changed one bit, other than their WORDING on their site.

      its deeply built into their business model, I guess. but its still WRONG to say 'unlimited' when its clearly not at all unlimited.

      I live 20 minutes drive from their los gatos main center. I drop my dvd's in the mail AT THE POST OFFICE early in the AM. I am 99.9% certain that each one does get from sunnyvale to san jose in a day. there is just no way in hell it can take more than that; so why do discs not show up as 'received' until about 2 days later?

      and even then, some of them 'downgrade' to shipping tomorrow over the course of the day. I check NF at 7am and I see that 2 have been received and are said to be shipping today. but later in the day, mysteriously they change to shipping tomorrow. yet my queue has over 300 entries!

      they are still throttling. and they are lying thru their teeth about it every time they deny it.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    14. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by zoward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, if you gonna do that... you should at least make it easy for people transfer their profile data to a new account. To, you know... encourage people to do it. That would be openly acknowledging that the real reason they're making this change is to force you to have two accounts. They'd rather be able to claim they're doing it to "improve the Netflix website for all their customers", even if the reason makes no sense.

      --
      "Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
    15. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by niktemadur · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Whenever the bank, phone company or any other large corporation sends me a form letter that begins along the lines of "In order to provide a better service to you, our valued customer...", immediately I recoil, 'cause I know I'm just about to be hit with some sort of diminished service.

      Take the airliners a decade and a half ago. "In order to provide a better service to you, our valued customer, we will eliminate the olive from the salad in our in-flight meal", all because some smart ass junior exec figured out that the airliner could save up to twenty thousand dollars a year, from a budget of billions, by eliminating the olives. Slippery slope from there, pretty soon the whole salad was gone, and all we were left with was boiled peas, know what I mean?

      --
      Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty
    16. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by cshabazian · · Score: 5, Informative

      I also emailed them with my dissatisfaction with this choice. A good email campaign (no flames, just "I'm disappointed and will vote with my dollars type of email) can help.
      Here are the addresses I sent to:
      Leslie Kilgore - VP Marketing : lkilgore@netflix.com
      Reed Hastings - President: rhastings@netflix.com
      publicrelations@netflix.com

    17. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by cshabazian · · Score: 5, Informative

      oops, forgot the updated/correct email for Reed:
      reed.hastings@netflix.com

    18. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by bigdavesmith · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I wouldn't even mind paying more. The real problem with this, at least for me, is that they're basically lying to me as a customer. If I got a notice in my email that said "Hey, look, we're either going to have to charge you $3 more a month for this feature, or get rid of it because we're not making enough money." I'd be way cooler with it. Telling me they're improving my experience by ruining it is just plain treating me like an idiot, and I can get that kind of treatment just by driving down to blockbuster, which is where I'll be going September 1st if they seriously do this.

    19. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by zippthorne · · Score: 4, Funny

      Psah. We had to bring our own sand. Hot. And bags were strictly banned from flights, so you carried your sand in your hands.

      And that's the way we likes'd it.

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
    20. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

      "In order to provide a better service to you, our valued customer...", immediately I recoil, 'cause I know I'm just about to be hit with some sort of diminished service.
      Come on, that's a sweeping generalisation.

      They might just be going to charge you more.
      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    21. Re:Yes, I received the same notice. by Keyslapper · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, for those unsure how to begin, please feel free to take this (under the free as in air license) and modify it to fit your taste:

      Dear Netflix Team,

      I am writing to acknowledge an email I received regarding recent changes in Netflix service. Specifically, the fact that profiles will soon be eliminated from Netflix services.

      I would like to express my dissatisfaction at this decision. As a software developer, I realize that maintaining special services are often more costly than they would appear to those enjoying them, and I don't presume to know the efforts behind the excellent service my family and I have been receiving from Netflix thus far.

      However, I would like it to be known that the profile feature was the single most important deciding factor in my decision to become a Netflix customer. The ability for different members of my family to control the flow and content of their own queues is invaluable. The loss of this feature will very likely affect my decision to remain with Netflix. It is my sincere hope that this decision might be re-evaluated.

      Best regards,

      Etc.

  2. Not a good sign by Monoman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Based on the information coming out on this it doesn't look good. Did they research how much this would piss off the current customers? It is coming off like they don't care. Perhaps the profile feature is causing bigger problems behind the scenes. If it is the later then they should find better programmers to work around the problem(s).

    --
    Keep the Classic Slashdot.
    1. Re:Not a good sign by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Pretty sure Netflix CEO Reed Hastings knew this would go over badly.

      He exercised 2,500 options and then sold off 10,000 shares just last week.

      See: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/06/13/ap5115170.html

    2. Re:Not a good sign by PLBogen · · Score: 5, Informative

      I called NetFlix and they informed me that it was a technical issue. The programmer's new upcoming features apparently are buggy when interacting with accounts with multiple profiles and instead of fixing the bugs, the programmers decided to axes profiles.

  3. I'm not sure how it improves things... by Inari · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My family uses it and its only been a positive. I'm betting a bean counter marketing type suggested that it might force me to get separate accounts if I couldnt use the separate queues.

    1. Re:I'm not sure how it improves things... by ArieKremen · · Score: 4, Interesting

      We are using this feature to manage two queues: one for our kids and one for the adults. It has been a great feature. Before it was introduced we have to continually micromanage the queue, hold on to disks to 'work' the systems (postal and Netflix), and suffered the occasional disappointments.

      The profiles allowed us more flexibility and better service. I think that Netflix is trying to increase revenue without increasing their monthly fees. Downgrading our plan and subscribing to another minimal would cost us at least $2.00/month. It is definitely a hidden cost increase.

      Has anyone here had experience with the Blockbuster service? Does it support queues and how is their selection?

      --
      -- Cave quid dicis, quando, et cui
  4. Bad Move by bullet618 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think they're trying to get people to pay for more than one account. I don't know what features they could be adding that would warrant dropping sub accounts. I have a funny feeling this is going to backfire and they'll lose more people than they gain.

  5. Someone will greasemonkey it. by FirstNoel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd give it a week and some skilled firefox hacker will create some addon to put it back in from the user side.

    Sean D.

    --
    "Hmm. I am to metaphor cheese as metaphor cheese is to transitive verb crackers!"
  6. The so-called reason by g051051 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    According to their customer support, this was a feature only used by 1% of subscribers, but was a significant drain on resources, increased maintenance difficulties, and slowed down adding new features. I don't particularly buy most of that, but if the 1% thing is true, then I can see how they'd make that choice. If more of that 1% convert to full subscriptions rather than cancel, it'll be a win for them.

    1. Re:The so-called reason by faloi · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I guess your family has homogeneous movie tastes. My wife and I have pretty radically different tastes in movies. Most of the movies she likes, I don't like. Rather than add movies and bump stuff she wants to see off the queue, I could maintain my own queue. The onus was on Netflix to keep up with it. Going forward, it's going to be on us. And the fall-back movies if the one of the ones at the top of or queue can't get shipped is going to be a craps shoot. Maybe she'll get a movie she enjoys, maybe all the ones that come won't interest her at all.

      The only thing I didn't like about the separate queues was that only the primary account holder could browse the instant movies. My wife never used the feature, and I avoided rating movies I watched for fear it would distort the movies picked as ones she'd like to see. Which brings up another point...how can multiple family members track movies they like nowadays and have accurate recommended features? "This one's a special case...apparently she like romantic comedies and really bad horror movies!"

      --
      "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
  7. First time for everything by Anita+Coney · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've been a Netflix subscriber for over four years. This is the first time they've ever taken a step backwards. And their complete lack justification is very strange.

    --
    If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
  8. For your convenience ... by richg74 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Why? To '...help us to continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.'

    Touching. I'm reminded of a sign I once saw on the door of a bank branch, some years ago while I was living in Boston:

    For your convenience, this branch will be closed Monday, mm/dd/yy, a legal holiday.
    For my convenience. Heartwarming, isn't it, how these folks are always looking out for us.
  9. Lovefilm by Stephen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's strange because Lovefilm, the dominant DVD-by-mail company in the UK, has only recently introduced this feature.

    --
    11.00100100001111110110101010001000100001011010001 1000010001101001100010011
  10. Now I get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I just called Netflix customer service to ask for clarification on how this helps improve the web site. The rep responded that they needed to free up programming space for better features, and that it's really a tiny, tiny percentage of people that use profiles to separate queues. (Slashdot and Gizmodo, the two sites I checked for reactions to this, are apparently chock full of tiny, tiny percentages.)

    When I told her that I'm a programmer and I don't understand what it means to free up programming space, she was quiet for a moment and then said, "This is really a decision that they've already made, so it's not like they're going to change their minds."

    I'm all for freeing up programming space. Statistics show that programming space will be all used up in the next 10 years if we don't start conserving it.

    1. Re:Now I get it by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Netflix, 2008 -- "One profile should be enough for anyone"

  11. Cope by dazedNconfuzed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think profiles are causing a real PITA for the site programmers to maintain code and scrapping it all together will allow faster and more flexible programming models.

    My boss' response to that kind of reasoning? backed up by the marketing department, CEO, and customers? "Cope."

    Massively degrading the user's experience is not excused by programmer's convenience.

    --
    Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
    1. Re:Cope by bughunter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      First you'll have to prove that it's a "massive" degrading of the users experiance.
      A manager's next response: "Pardon Me?? You have the burden of proof here, not marketing. If you continue to demonstrate such arrogance, you'll be out of work."

      I'm an engineering manager, and agree with the grandparent. We're not in business for the convenience of the engineers. If you can provide a marketing analysis to support your argument, I'll listen. If you can produce a cost/benefit analysis to support your position, I'll listen. If you can produce an ethical/moral/legal justification, I'll listen. If you're whinging because "it's not convenient," all you will do is piss me off.

      This seems like a rather poor move, marketing wise. I'm annoyed that I have to move my wife's 200+ movie list over to my main profile, which is never used. But if its simply for the "convenience" of the engineers, I'll be royally pissed.

      --
      I can see the fnords!
  12. Re:Does Blockbuster offer profiles? by Garc · · Score: 4, Informative

    They do not. The profile is the reason my family switched back to netflix after leaving them for Blockbuster.