Netflix was having some serious shipping and website problems Monday, and today our inbox is flooded with happy customers asking us to congratulate Netflix. Why?
Reader Eric says:
Consumerist,
This is why I love netflix. They had a shipping problem on monday. They didn’t make excuses or just try to slide by. They fessed up, and without my even saying a word to anyone at netflix, I receive this prompt email telling me that they are sorry and are trying to make amends. This is an example of good customer service.
Eric
Here’s the email that Netflix sent to Eric:
We’re Sorry Your DVD Was Delayed
Dear Eric,
As you may have heard, our shipping system was unexpectedly down for most of Monday. We should have shipped your DVDs but were unable to. Your DVDs were shipped today, Tuesday, March 25th, instead.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. We will issue a 5% credit to your account in the next few days. You don’t need to do anything. The credit will be automatically applied to your next billing statement.
Again, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your understanding. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1 (888) 638-3549.
-The Netflix Team
Reader Brad says:
The funny thing is, if they hadn’t sent this, I would have never noticed a delay.
But I think it’s important to recognize companies that are getting it right.
Thank you,
Brad
Reader Axel says:
Got this message in my inbox today….apparently Netflix had some shipping problems and they delayed the shipment of my movie by one day. Big deal, right? I probably wouldn’t even have noticed it, since I barely have time to watch my Netflix movies anyway. Well, Netflix still found it appropriate to give me a credit on my account because of the problem. Apparently they think that *they* should be the ones to be charged late fees, not their customers! Just another reason that I give them my business instead of Blockbuster.
Reader Ryan says:
This is great service. I wasn’t even aware there was a problem, and yet they fessed up to it and gave me a discount that I didn’t even ask for (or frankly, think was warranted). Good work Netflix.
Reader Elana says:
Sometimes it’s nice to see a company do something unexpected. To be honest, I didn’t even notice the shipping delay from Monday and wouldn’t have. The movie was my husband’s. He works odd hours and often doesn’t
get to his movies for a week or more, so a delay is no big deal. We didn’t complain or contact Netflix. Instead, I was totally unaware of the problem.This morning, I received this message, the only notification I had of the issue. The approximately $.50 refund wasn’t necessary, but it’s appreciated!
Good job, Netflix.
(Photo:Marike79)
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@shad0ws:
You should, you know, be careful with the snark.
Comcast To Baseball Fans: Sorry You Woke Up At 6AM To Watch Nothing, Here’s $2
Posted yesterday. Currently second from the top if you search “Comcast”.
Ouch.
@ct_price: If the “PR gimmick” of being good to your customers catches on, I for one will not be complaining about it.
@katylostherart: “i’m just wondering if netflix will be revealed as a wolf in sheep’s clothing when they finally put blockbuster out of business.” Why would they be? They were an awesome company before Blockbuster even got into the online rental business? The real question is will they survive the revolution to direct video on demand? Looks like they’re trying to position themselves for it, but we’ll see.
@Darkwish: As both a Netflix and Gamefly patron, I agree it’s annoying but I think Gamefly is waaaaay worse. I can’t go anywhere on teh interwebs without Gamefly ads popping up out of nowhere to bother me.
For those of you who try finding every nook and flaw in Netflix’s good gesture, I say:
It may not be a huge deal or anything, but it’s the moral that counts. They messed up Monday, they’re compensating by letting everyone know and giving them credit. Most people wouldn’t have enough noticed. Stop trying to turn it around and say this is just some stupid marketing scheme or something.
I too was unaware that Netflix even had problems on Monday. Had they said nothing I would have been none the wiser, and I probably am still none the wiser. The only thing that would make Netflix better is if they would stream their videos to my Tivo. My Tivo is my bestest friend.
I love Netflix. Sometimes I’m a heavy user and sometimes I’m not. I don’t usually care for new releases, so I haven’t noticed any throttling. For awhile, it seemed like the turnaround time was slower, but honestly, I think it’s the post office…
@ Bladefist-안녕
How did it not cost them much? A day of downtime and 50 cent credit on hundreds of thousands of accounts?
Blockbuster sucks–their incompetence forced me to try Netflix.
I’ll never go to Blockbuster again. Netflix pleases me at every transaction.
One never leaves Blockbuster satisfied–one always leaves with a compromise. I always get what I want with Netflix.
So far, I’ve had nothing but good from Netflix. More often than not, beyond good.
I used to go to Blockbuster’s all the time up until the late 90′s when I was finally fed up with their exorbitant late fees and, the straw that finally broke my back, being accused of not returning a video game that I had returned in their return slot. How could I prove I didn’t have something I had returned to them? I tried to speak with the management with no budging at all–I was told I had kept a rental. I finally wrote a check to their collections people with the note that read something along the lines of, ‘It was returned–if cashed, I cancel my membership.’ They cashed it–but they didn’t cancel my membership, of course–I kept checking. I just didn’t bother renting and eventually didn’t even bother checking membership anymore.
That was about the time I had noticed Netflix. I’ve been a Netflix customer ever since just after I’d quit Blockbuster’s in those same late 90′s when Netflix was still shipping in cardboard boxes, charging a rental fee PER disc and giving you the option to go online and mark off that you intend to KEEP the disk and pay the remaining cost of the movie you rented to have them ship the DVD case to you. I left Blockbuster’s a long time ago and never looked back–I never spent another cent at a Blockbuster’s again and I’m all the happier for it.
So! Much! Happier!
I like them because they are better than NO netflix.
But I am still holding grudge because a – I never get new releases …EVER. and B – I am one of the people the punished with a deliberate slow down, so i don’t get as many in the mail than the rest of you. [if you return them within a day of getting them, they put brakes on your shipping turnaround]
SO basically i like them they do their job okay, and I wouldn’t cancel my service because there is no reasonable substitute. but they still can’t be trusted.
I was considering sending this in, as I got this letter too. 5% of $5 isn’t much, but I wouldn’t have noticed even if they didn’t do anything. But this is much better than Blockbuster Online! We had the three-at-a-time unlimited plan for a while with Blockbuster. There were times when we would have 30 or so movies in our queue with no wait listed, but for almost a month at a time, they didn’t ship us anything, and when we contacted them, they simply sent us a coupon for a free in-store rental and we had to wait another week before we got any videos in the mail. The next month, they downgraded our package to NO in store exchanges, and increased the price, without notifying us. We were extremely embarrassed when we tried to exchange a video. We were yelled at by the manager.
I just canceled my Netflix trial about a month ago. In the two week trial, I got one movie. They sent an email saying the second would be shipping from another facility and would be delayed, and they were right–it was two weeks between movies.
I canceled and wasn’t asked why. When I tried to explain why, the rep wasn’t interested. I got several offers to sign up again, at a special low price that was exactly the same as before. Now they have a clue? No thanks.
I actually don’t appreciate that Netflix just let me know about this notice today (Wednesday) instead of yesterday (Tuesday). I had a movie party yesterday with some of my friends, and the movies didn’t arrived. If I knew that they had a problem on Monday (as I said being advice on a Tuesday) I would canceled my party and everyone would be happy. At east I got a 5% off.
Now if only Microsoft could have dealt with the holiday Xbox Live outage this fast……
7.5 million customers x an average of .50 refund =
LOSSES THE COMPANY WAS WILLING TO TAKE TO AVOID EXCESS PHONE CALLS ABOUT DELAYS IN SHIPMENT AND BAD P.R.
I think it’s a good call.
I think it’s great that netflix admitted it’s mistake…now if they’ll only tell me why they skipped my first 13 queued discs to send me #s 14 through 16. You’re right Netflix, even though I just watched seasons 1 through 5 of Deep Space Nine I’d rather watch Lost and some documentaries than finish the series. You know best.
I think it’s neat they have a distribution center in Hawaii, according to the photo.
Netflix has been on my sh*t list for several months now. They keep sending me discs that have been sandblasted it appears, then I end up going a week or 10 days with ZERO movies while they re-ship.
A couple years ago when this would happen they would do that AND send my next disc that I was due as part of my plan.
Thinking of ditching and just going back to Hollywood video B&M.
Owning up pwns.
I really like Netflix. I have never had aproblem with them, and all of the disk they have sent me have worked just fine all the way through. I quit going to my local Blockbuster because everytime my wife and I rented a movie the darn thing always refused to play all the way through. I have also given Netflix several times as gifts.
@fluiddruid: Maybe it’s sad that being treated with consideration by a major company is so surprising and awe-inspiriting.
I was thinking the same thing.
@Echodork: If Comcast had been proactive and refunded $2 to everyone’s account, regardless of whether they complained or not, then it would have been a positive. Little things like that define the difference between a class company like Netflix and a market leader in sucktitude like Comcast.
@5h17h34d: That’s strange, because Netflix seems to still be following this policy in my experience.
In the last year I’ve had two problem discs: 1 was the wrong DVD and in another instance the DVD was cracked on arrival. In both instances they immediately shipped me a replacement DVD the day I reported the problem. In one case I got the replacement before I had even gotten the broken DVD in the mail.
@ilikemoney: “Should good deeds always merit an award?”
Yes. Yes they should. It is only through giving companies and people rewards and kindness that they’ll ever figure out that they NEED to be treating other people well.
Good actions should have good consequences. Always.
As for everybody saying “Is this above and beyond.” I repeat what somebody else said: you can’t please everybody. Above and beyond means they did more than what they needed to do. They didn’t need to do a damn thing about this, but they said they would be good people and thought about what they SHOULD do.
But in the end, it’s the small refund for the lost time that makes it above and beyond. They should send out letters, they should apologize (and during the outage, their page DID apologize, this is an extra apology). But giving money back from a simple glitch? Above and beyond.
My good-service story:
I was having an issue with the streaming feature on my computer. The first person who picked up the phone when I called the number knew exactly what was wrong, could articulate it clearly, and was able to talk about a few other facets of the issue, clearly showing he knew what he was talking about. He wasn’t reading from a script, and he clearly wasn’t stupid. I was flabbergasted. Front line customer service being smart and helpful!
Unfortunately, the issue I had couldn’t be fixed, but the knowledge of the guy on the other end of the line helped me understand why. It was nice to be treated as intelligent and not just a revenue source. I upped my subscription to the next higher level in the following month, and I’m glad to continue to support the company.
Ive been a Netflix member for many years now and havent had a single problem with them. At all. Not once. They have never hassled me about the two or three dvds that were lost in the mail.
I adore Netflix! They are so fast with the shipping, have a huge selection of movies, and have great subscription plans. I once had a movie that skipped, went to their website and reported the problem painlessly. When I had to put my account on hold for a couple of months for lack of funds for *extra* bills, a little part of me was worried about billing errors, but they were on the ball and didn’t charge me until I asked them to. I also love their “how are we doing” survey emails. More companies should take Netflix’s lead and step up to the plate with superior customer service.
I love netflix. They have always done right by me.
After I evacuated for Hurricane Katrina, Netflix credited my account for my current balance and at least one free month of service and sent three new DVD’s to my new address (after I reported that all three DVD’s I had out were still in my house in New Orleans). Every time I have had to deal with their customer service, they have been unfailingly polite AND actually fixed my problem.