Reed Hastings, Chief Executive at Netflix, announced last month the company would be putting its DVD-by-mail rentals on a separate website named Qwikster in an attempt to divide their growing streaming service from mail rentals. The move would have forced customers of both streaming and DVD options to visit different websites and maintain different accounts for each subscription. Customers also would have received separate credit-card charges. According to Yahoo!, due to the outrage from customers over this plan as well as the steep decline in stock shares, the company has had an about-face and has decided to drop Qwikster.
In a statement issued today, Hastings said “there is a difference between moving quickly — which Netflix has done very well for years — and moving too fast, which is what we did in this case. Consumers value the simplicity Netflix has always offered and we respect that,” he said.
Netflix said it will not rename the DVD service. U.S. members “will continue to use one website, one account and one password for their movie and TV watching enjoyment under the Netflix brand,” the company’s statement said.
Netflix has been dealing with major customer service issues since it announced, back in July, it was raising prices by as much as 60 percent, or $6 a month, for some customers who wanted to keep DVD and streaming subscriptions.
Hastings later apologized for the handling of the price increase but is sticking with that decision as the company works to build its online movie and television streaming service.