So, basically, Netflix is the anti-Apple?

Netflix is the anti-Blockbuster. I haven't set foot in a Blockbuster since I joined Netflix two years ago and I probably never will again.

If I watched more movies, I'd totally join netflix. I barely watch two movies a month.

netflix is awesome

I was surprised to see the email this morning. It was funny because I sent a dvd out tues and have never had the turn around take more than two days (one to return, one to ship to me) and just thought this morning-"huh, I haven't received my new movie nor an email stating they've received the other, I wonder if I forgot to put it out in the mail?" Then I get to work and see the email and figured out what was wrong, so it was perfect timing for me. I appreciate them being honest and proactively notifying users, I'm sure it easier than fielding thousands of calls about "where is my movie?"

Netflix has been nothing less than excellent in my 3 years of service. I wouldn't have even had known about their outage but they chose to apologize anyway. Now if i could only be more like netflix.

Ya this is pretty classy move. More great news for me, a class action law suit against netflix recently ended, and I'm getting a whole month free.

Netflix used to be crap. If you ask me, the consumers made netflix better. Their stock crashed years ago, and we fled to all these new start ups. As those start ups crashed, netflix got its act together.

Screw Netflix. We've had NO discs since Monday (the day we mailed the last of our three back), and absolutely NO email from them. And of those last three discs, one of them never made it to us, the Netflix site shows they shipped and received it back the same day. You'd think their marvelous operation would notice that it would be impossible for us to have returned it that fast.

When I didn't get the emails telling me that they received my movies, I was thinking the post office delayed them or maybe they were throttling me back so I waited another day. It was when I got two msgs about received DVDs, but not the third that I was concerned. That's when I saw the email msg yesterday. Of course I was also surprised I received a movie, but no email. So, I'm not too concerned as of yet, since I have 2 movies to watch this weekend.

All-in-all, they provide a great experience.

I could totally feel this with my sixth netflixy sense. I didn't get my movies when I expected them. They were delayed by two days. Oh well, had to watch more Arrested Development, I live a hard life. By the way, Nexflix is the best thing since sliced bread.

I noticed and has actually reported a return missing because of it. I'm hoping for a free month but I don't really care. It took us two weeks to return that disc in the first place.

Blockbuster will never achieve this level of customer service. It looks like netflix figured out how to gain the advantage in the market.

@linus:

I agree. I have ups and downs with my movie watching. I'll go 6 months without watching one then watch like 5 in one month. Each time I come to my up in movie watching I alwasy contemplate getting netflix, but then I tell myself to wait a month and see if I still want it.

This actually isn't the first time netflix has owned up and apoligized. If you search on the netflix tag there are 2 previous stories. No company is perfect but netflix is as close as it comes because they acknowledge mistakes and offers compensation (when none is really justified).

A little honesty goes a long way in ensuring customer loyalty. Nothing diffuses an angry customer faster than simply saying "yeah we messed up, but we'll do what we can to make it right".

@TVGenius: Usually, this means that the shipping label and/or envelope got mangled or returned to them. If you report the problem to them, they'll re-send it.

I've been with Netflix since 2003, and in all honesty I have never been angry with them. Occasionally irritated when they ship me Disk 3 in a series because disk 2 was unavailable for some reason ... but I got over it rather quickly.

Bravo Netflix.

@linus: ahh! but perhaps you would watch more movies if you joined netflix. damn causality dilemmas!
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it's good to know that there's still a handful of companies run by intelligent people that understand how to maintain customer relationships. good job, netflix!

For comparison, as of 1:05pm, Netflix Stock (NFLX): 31.59

Blockbuster (BBI): 2.46

@mac-phisto: I agree, but one must ask why didn't they email us and tell us? I think they are hoping some won't notice.

Yes, I got the same message and I'm hoping for a free month.

@mac-phisto: But I don't watch enough movies in a month to get netflix. But I see your point. I probably would watch more movies if I got netflix. But I really don't need to watch 5 movies a month...AH!!

Actually, if/when I get a bluray player, I see myself doing netflix. I think bluray disc are too expensive to purchase.

I <3 Love Netflix
I mail a movie back to them, have one day with out a movie, and then poof New movie.
Plus you can't beat the price as far as buying a movie from your cable company or going to the movie store

I think a lot of the goodwill towards Netflix is something they've built up over years of good service and good products. Since I've been a member so long (I want to say since 2001, but I honestly can't remember, somewhere around then) and I've had so precious few issues (I can count them on one hand) that I'm willing to let them have the benefit of the doubt. I absolutely believe that it's a problem beyond their control and that they're doing their best to fix it and will do their best to make it up to me.

Besides, lately I've just been watching season one of Doctor Who on their instant feature and it's taking up a lot of my time ; )

I've only been with Netflix with a few months and while I'm disappointed with what's going on, I understand technology can be a b---h. I was surprised yesterday when my next two movies came in the mail even though the website still has "shipping Tuesday" for one and "shipping Wednesday" for the other. So fear not fellow Netflixers, yours could be on its way, too.

Awesome. Before I was even aware of the problem I got the email. Sad though, that when a company acually takes responsibility it's seen as messianic in relation to others, when it should be expected

I'm rather new to netflix but I've been really enjoying the service so far. I just sent a movie back to them a couple of days ago and my account hasn't been updated for that yet. Then I noticed an odd thing where my next movie was in the list for "processing" but it still showed that I had the one at home that I sent back to them. Now the movie that said "processing" is not in the list, nor back in my queue. If they send out my husband's movie before the one I wanted I'm going to be pretty miffed.*

*We have the two out at a time plan, and we have our queue arranged where every other one is my movie or his movie. He's still got a movie at home so the next one up was mine.

i got the email after i got my shipments. over all i'm pretty freaking ecstatic with netflix customer service.

now if they only made it so i could watch instantly on my mac, i'd be in couch potato heaven.

The take-away lesson for companies here, is that if you establish a good customer rapport, then you build up social capital with your customers. If you then stumble, your customers won't crucify you for it. If you treat your customers like an ATM (I'm looking at you Verizon), then they are happy and gleeful to see you stumble, and they will pile on.

I guess I'm worried that I'm just out a week of movies because I'm currently using my free month from the settlement, but I haven't used my account in months, and don't plan to use it after the free month is over, so I won't have a billing statement they can credit...We'll see.

KUDOS NETFLIX, I JOINED Today....

Wow, my picture was used.

I love Netflix, and haven't had any major issues since 2003.
This outage hasn't even affected me, since I haven't watched any movies this week. Honestly, discs that get cracked in the mail are a bigger issue to me than a week of slow shipping.

This isn't that big of a deal to me, since this is the first time that their entire shipping/receiving/email system has gone down.

A lot of companies could learn from Netflix, what awesome customer service! Despite the delays I have been more than happy with the service, it is nice to get a stream of movies and not drive to the video store anymore to get it and return it.

Stay classy netflix!

I sent this tip in too. I got this email yesterday morning and thought "Wow what a great company, I wouldn't even have noticed! I guess I'll just watch them Friday instead of tonight." But when I got home from work, the disks were in my mailbox. I can't believe I held out for so long before getting Netflix.

@Bladefist: Maybe someone can disprove my theory: Have you logged in since Monday at least once? It just sounded like people who don't log in are getting the emails. I haven't received emails, but I've logged in at least once a day since Monday and have been seeing their giant warning message at the top of the page for the last 3 or so days.

They are now shipping. Here's their message:

Our Shipping Centers Are Mailing DVDs

Delayed DVD Shipments Are Being Sent Today (Friday)

Click here to learn more

We're happy to report that all of our shipping centers are resuming normal operations (after 3 days of issues). If you should have been shipped a disc Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, it will ship today (Friday).

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. To all of you whose shipments have been delayed, we'll be automatically applying a 15% credit to your next billing statement. Or, if you are new to Netflix and your first shipments have been delayed, we recognize that this is not a good way to begin your Netflix membership and we'll automatically extend your free trial by a week.

Again, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your understanding.

@Kimaroo: Depending on how much of a hassle it would be and how many movies are on your queue, what you could do is create a new queue and then there wouldn't be the issue you describe. My husband and I have two separate queues and he gets his movie when he returns his and same with me and my queue. It's nice. Saves either of us ending up miffed. :)

Not everyone's happy with them. If you go over to the comments on the posts about these issues at Hacking Netflix, you'll see a lot of people practically foaming at the mouth from anger.

Frankly, I think they're overreacting. I'm disappointed at the problems (and that I won't have more DVDs with which to kill time this week), but really, I'm just going to wind up reading more.

I will say, I'm surprised their system got borked so badly that it's taken them almost a week to fix it. I think some IT folks are going to be hung out to dry when all is said and done.

@cordeliapotter: The new message on the site when I logged in this morning says that if you're in a free trial period, it will be extended.

@RodAox: What's with the random caps?

Netflix has a better rental program than Blockbuster in my opinion in terms of movie selection and turnaround.

The only reason why I stay with Blockbuster Total Access is that I am getting a really good deal.

Is it just me or did today's Blockbuster post disappear?

@synergy: I logged in once since monday, but received no email. It cant be my spam box either, because I receive netflix emails all the time.

While I am against services like Netflix and Blockbuster, go library!, this is pretty interesting.
And Netflix is just plain insane. They don't need to notify anyone about delays. So what if the DVD comes a day later? Mild applause. Now where's that "gift" they gave to their customers the last time? And why hasn't Amazon done the same thing?

this is ridiculous....i have been experiencing intentional delays from this asshats for years.

if i return my disks to quickly they deliberately sit on my next rental for up to a weekend.

they do suck, but they are better than the alternatives.

@Bladefist: You're getting a free month? All I'm getting is an upgrade to the next tier for a month. :/

I'm happy that they were honest also. I expected two movies to arrive today, and checked the site when they didn't. I do hope they arrive by tomorrow though... I was looking forward to them!

At least I'll get a $2.55 credit. (ha)

I love Netflix. I switched back after trying out Blockbuster about a year ago and have no plans of shucking Netflix. When there is an issue, they promptly resolve it and compensate without even being asked! Now that's customer service!

This is why I'll be a netflix customer as soon as the deal with xbox goes live.

@corsec67:
"Honestly, discs that get cracked in the mail are a bigger issue to me than a week of slow shipping."

You can blame the post office for that. Our mail carrier at work said that happens when some numbnuts tries to "sort" it with the machine.

I LOVE Netflix. I joined several months ago and I haven't regretted it. This issue didn't really affect me, since I have had 'Lawrence of Arabia' for over a week. I have only had time to watch 1/2 of it because it's really long. So the best part is the no late fee thing! :D

I don't watch movies or television, I only read tomes from the Middle ages written in the original Middle English.