One Big Clusterflix

I'm a loyal user of Netflix, but I gotta tell ya, when the terse email came a few months ago saying they're raising rates and splitting services, I was irked. That could have been done some much better - and the socialmedia-sphere let them know it. Netflix-bashing exploded over Twitter and Facebook, making Netflix drop its customer projections by 1 million. Its stock also tumbled. Ouch.
  
Well, today I got an email -- from the CEO himself! He apologized and explained why they did what they did. That was supposed to make everything better, right? Oh you're splitting the company, renaming the most-established half, and creating two separate websites for each service that won't talk to each other. Fabulous. Now that it's explained, I'm totally on board. If you missed it, that was sarcasm.

Today, Twitter again comes alive with response. Mashable tweeted this article about Qwikster, the new name of the DVD-mailing portion that will be the "formerly known as Netflix" part. Problem is, the current @Qwikster Twitter handle is owned by a highly-effected muppet who has gotten quite a few new followers lately, and likely has no idea why.

Other funny people chimed in, like this:

 

I made this screenshot!

So, a price hike that could have been less traumatizing for its users again lives in infamy in the Twitter-verse. Consumers know prices are going to go up -- we don't like it, but if we love your product enough, we deal with it. Netflix simply could have explained the split, and branded it as having more options (hooray options!). Today's email from the CEO admitted the streaming audience is pretty darn different than its DVD-delivery subscribers; they should have addressed each separately and been a little more transparent on out outset. Now we're just left with a bad taste in our digitally streaming or DVD-receiving mouths.

I won't cancel our Netflix subscription, but I certainly won't pay two separate companies. I'll choose one and they'll get less money from me than they did a few months ago.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Qwikster.