Andrew Heinzman
It’s easy to forget that you’re signed up for a streaming service, even if it’s charged you $10 a month over the past two years. Netflix plans to save its customers from this frustration by canceling accounts that have gone a year or two without watching any shows or movies.
The company says that it will start emailing customers who haven’t watched anything a year after subscribing—probably to weed out people who forgot to cancel after their free trial. If customers don’t respond to Netflix’s emails, then the service will end their subscription.
But customers who used to be active on Netflix will have to wait a lot longer before their accounts are automatically cancelled. Two years, to be specific. I’m not sure why Netflix is waiting longer to terminate formally-active accounts, but it may have something to do with user data (or, you know, money). Netflix says that the preferences and watch history of canceled accounts are retrievable for 10 months after cancellation, so long as you sign up with the same email address.
Netflix is taking a step in the right direction, but some may argue that it isn’t enough. Does Netfix really need to wait one or two years before deciding that an account is inactive? Couldn’t Netflix “pause” accounts after just one month of inactivity? And shouldn’t inactive accounts get some kind of refund? Hopefully Netflix and its competitors will improve on this idea in the future.
Source: Netflix via TNW
