Oops. Netflix Says It Will Retain Multiple Profiles

In a turnabout, Netflix says it will retain one of my favorite features—multiple profiles on a single account. The profiles allow different people, or pseudo people, to set up their own queues for DVDs they want to order.

In my house, that means a queue under my name for movies, another for TV shows, and one for the kids. A returned disk triggers a shipment from the appropriate queue. Before I discovered profiles, I had to scramble to keep the right mix of movies coming to the house.

Netflix had said it would drop the feature for the sake of simplicity. Apparently, not many subscribers had set up profiles.

But Netflix hadn't done much to promote the option. I discovered it only when I complained to a Netflix PR person about juggling different demands on my queue, and he pointed out the profiles feature. It made Netflix easier to use.

To add insult, Netflix offered no simple way to combine the profiles it was taking away. We were going to have to print them out and type them into a single queue. Yuck.

The feature wasn't used by many, perhaps, but those who have discovered it love it. The outcry was loud. Netflix reversed course with an apology.