Netflix Refunds Your Money Without You Even Asking
If other companies were smart, and they mostly aren't, they would adopt Netflix's strategy of having periodic outages then apologizing and offering credits without their customers having to do anything. Whenever this happens (as it apparently did on August 30) we get a flood of delighted emails from their customers, many of whom didn't even notice the outage in the first place.
For example:
I tried to watch Netflix on my Xbox and it was not connecting correctly. I did not think to much of it and I found this in my inbox!!! YAAA For 3% credit without asking!!!!
and
I am seriously impressed with Netflix. I didn't even complain about this (nor was I planning to), the system detected the problem on its own. Now if only Comcast would do the same thing.
and
Awesome example of why Netflix is dominating the video market. The service was down for less than 5 minutes, but they still took the time to issue this email (and a credit, even though it's a small one). This just reinforces my decision to switch from Blockbuster On-Demand a few months ago.
It's a lesson other companies should learn. You can take keep current customers and maybe win some new ones simply by treating them fairly. It is possible.
(Photo:formatc1)
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And my kingdom for an edit button.
I got this email this morning also. Nice to see something like this.
boo...why did I only get 2%?
@Nothing Can Kill the Grimace...: I only got the 2% too but I think its because I'm only on their 2-at-a-time.
I wish there was netflix on the canadian xboxs
I was already going to resubscribe to Netflix later this year, but it makes my heart warm to know they're still awesome.
@Nothing Can Kill the Grimace...: Well, I did not get an email at all. And im on a 3-at-a-time DVD scheme.
I'M NEVER SHOPPING WITH NETFLIX EVER AGAIN. How dare they not reimburse me for service i did not lose in the first place :(
I got this email too. Was nice to see it.
Also nice to see the improvements of the xbox Netflix system too.
I got it, and didn't accept since it didn't really affect me (well, I tried to open Netflix on 360 and it gave an error, so I immediately retried and it worked), but it's awesome that they did it.
Not the first time Netflix does something like this.
@MostlyHarmless:
The question is...do you have an xbox attached to your Netflix account? I'm sure they know who is and is not on an Xbox through their service.
Netflix continues to give me great service. I'm canceling my DirectTV, and all other forms of TV entertainment (besides the cost of a DTV Antenna), but Netflix I'm keeping TYVM.
Also I'm not bothering with the credit ... I wasn't impacted, so they can keep their goodwill money :)
I'm currently on a free trial, and they offered to extend the free trial. It's probably only a couple of days (they didn't specify), but just thought it was an interesting and nice touch!
@Knippschild: Same here. I want my extra $0.17!
We should launch an EECB and a class action lawsuit!
@pecan 3.14159265: And what made you forsake Netflix in the first place? The Cult of N has no place for nonbelievers. Unless you agree to be branded with a 'N' on your forehead on re-entry.
Ref: [consumerist.com]
@MostlyHarmless: Hahaha. I stopped Netflix because I realized that I wasn't watching as many DVDs (even on the 1-at-a-time plan) as I thought I would, and I was getting too busy. So I suspended my account and found that I didn't really miss it. But now there are a bunch of TV shows that are on DVD that I want to watch so I'm starting it up in a few months when they come out and have had time to go through the waitlist. Everyone will be on disc 5, and I'll be on disc 1, hopefully.
It is funny that a company that corrects a problem quickly and cheerfully builds more goodwill and loyalty than if the problem didn't happen in the first place. I wish the other 95% of companies would learn from the 5%.
If you are a company, it is better to look upon customer service issues as a opportunity to build customer loyalty other than a problem. How many of these guys are going to be switching to Blockbuster now?
I was surprised they did it because it's too small a hiccup to warrant a phone call and I bet 99% of subscribers didn't even notice. Thumbs up to them.
I was just starting to think about canceling my Netflix subscription (I had recently eased back from my 4 DVD habit to just one) but with service like this I don't see how I could ever justify it to myself.
If I only got emails like that from SBC or Comcast when I have week long outages (Construction cut a cable earlier this year) I wouldn't be nearly so angry with them.
Netflix is also awesome about making sure your DVDs get to you on time. Recently I got an email from them saying that one of the movies in my queue (an obscure 1920s silent film) wasn't in the nearest Netflix shipping facility and might take an extra day to get to me, so to make it up to me they sent me the next DVD in my queue AND the obscure 1920s one!
So currently I am paying for the 3-at-a-time plan but have 4 Netflix DVDs in my house. Honestly, I wouldn't even have noticed the extra day, but it was nice of them to send me an extra movie. I don't have a 360 so I've never used that feature, but after my free extra DVD I am not surprised by the gesture.
I noticed as I was in a marathon session of Jericho... the episode I was watching was fine, but I could not open the next episode (or anything else). Honestly, I had problems the whole weekend with Netflix. Videos would constantly switch from high to low quality. The credit was a nice surprise, though.
My biggest complaint with Netflix so far is that there's no real way to get in contact with them by e-mail.
I got the email, was pleasantly surprised by it, and then proceeded to delete it because I didn't actually use the service yesterday. But awesome service!
Someone posted that this was a planned outage, I don't think that's the case?
I was affected by this in that for two nights I attempted to use the service and was unable.
First, I was told I needed activate my console w/ netflix and was pointed to www.netflix.com/help
Second, I was told there was a problem contacting the server (again pointed to the /help site)
After fiddling for a few minutes I decided to give up.
Next night I tried again, got the same messages--but since I was able to sign into Xbox Live I assumed this was a Netflix issue, after about 10 minutes of fiddling (using Xbox System Settings to check Network Connection, logging into the Netflix site to search for problems, rebooting the xbox, etc) it magically started working.
I didn't bother trying Netflix support because 1) I figured this was an issue on their end, 2) I had already wasted time trying to get it going, I wasn't going to spend more time trying to navigate tech support hoping to get an answer--at least not until the problem was on it's 4th or 5th day.
It would have been nice to get a more helpful message about what was wrong while it was broken. The 3% credit is nice enough and was unsolicited, I did opt for it since I was affected, I would have not opted if I was not affected--just like I honestly report when I lose a DVD and pay their $20 fee vs. lying and saying it was lost in the mail.
As a stock holder in NFLX I really hope the PR boost is worth the 3% revenue loss, or at least that they kept the loss contained to Xbox live customers only :)
They did a similar discount with a very obscure hard to get dvd we had in our queue. When it finally came available to us they sent it outside of our normal plan (we have 2 dvd's at a time) so when we received it, it did not count as one of our dvd's out. We basically had a 3 dvd plan while we had that particular dvd. That type of service is why I've been a member since Jan 2002.
I got the same email. thanks Netflix.
One thing I've noticed--there are certain older TV shows that are not out on DVD yet that Netflix seems to already have available on their Watch Instantly list.
I don't really understand how this is the case, but hey, works for me :)
I got the email. I did notice it barely but didn't think about it. I logged on to see if anything was new o nthe xbox list and only could view my recently watched and instant queue. Then I played a game and tried again about an hour later and it worked. I use them enough though so they can keep their 3%.
The movie at the top of my queue apparently wasn't available at the nearest dist. center, which meant it was going to take an extra day or so to get to me. Netflix took the liberty of sending me the next DVD in my queue as well (so that I had 4 DVDs out instead of 3) so that I would have something to watch while I was waiting for my original DVD to arrive. I certainly wasn't expecting anything like this, nor would I have been inconvenienced, but it's nice that they put in that tiny bit extra to make sure I was happy.
@emis: If you were referring to my comment, I must say that I did not mean it. I was hoping that someone would get the joke about "Planned Obsolescence" practice that many companies have.
That and a brand new conspiracy theory that Netflix is doing this intentionally to garner PR, so more people join in completely charmed (like google) and once they have a big enough base, then they can set their Grand Plan in motion.
Netflix is neat and all, but I do not trust their billing whatsoever.
I got a free trial month from a friend a few years back. being poor and unemployed, it gave me SOMETHING to do for at least a few hours a day. I entered my bank card number,, and the expiration date incorrectly and it still accepted the card.
There was no mention of a $20 hold on the account for the trial. I called and asked about it and they explained. OK, fine, I understood. They added a second $20 hold to the account sometime during the trial period which overdrew that bank account. Day before I had any money to deposit.
My "free" Netflix trial cost me nearly $50 for the overdraft fee and extra charges without knowing it had overdrawn. If there wasn't the 2nd mystery hold charge that no rep could explain I wouldn't have overdrawn at all. No explanation, no apology, and they didn't release my money from hold for nearly a month after the trial ended besides.
And the fact that you can use invalid billing credentials and still get charged really, really made me paranoid.
@Xerloq: I don't think damages are enough to be legally justified sadly :(
Does anyone have a dime, a nickle and two pennies I can borrow?
i use netflix on xbox pretty much every day and did experience the outage. it was annoying but this credit more than makes up for the inconvenience. add this to the list of reasons why i'm so happy i left blockbuster behind.
@Ratty: Sounds like the problem is really with your bank for overdraft fees over a mere hold. Debit transactions won't cause me trouble until they post as an actual debit!
I have had 2 outages last month watching Netflix on my TiVo series 3. I am pretty sure the first one was on TiVo's end, but this weekends was at Netflix. We were in the middle of a Lost episode (we have been watching every night for about 3 weeks) and we finally resorted to Hulu to finish.
To top it off, I didn't get an email with a credit, although I have a grandfathered rate. My Netflix subscriptions has been continuous since December of 1999, so I doubt I will cancel over this.
@pecan 3.14159265: Yeah, I have those phases where I have the same 3 DVDs for months. But I do use the watch instantly feature almost every weekend. And then the 3 DVDs come up very very handy when I decide to watch a whole season or even the whole series in one go.
@aloria: Yeah! That happened to me once as well. I was like "gee thats nice". Especially considering I wasn't waiting for it with bated breath.
Though it would have been a bummer if this happened on the last day of the week, and the top 2 in my Q were Disc1 and Disc2 of a season. That would have crapped up the weekend :P
@emis: I don't know if this is the case, but DVD production costs money and time, and you have to involve actors if you want to do any commentaries or special features. If you just wanted to put it out there, though, it would involve practically no production cost for Netflix to encode the footage to be ready for streaming. No need for special features.
@AustinTXProgrammer: There shouldn't have been a 2nd non-disclosed hold, nor should Netflix have been able to charge a bank card with an invalidly entered expiration date. Those are my big issues.
They showed up as actual $20 charges from netflix on the online statement which were later credited. netflix called the first one a security hold.
@MostlyHarmless: Do you know how well the watch instantly feature works for slower internet connections. I used to have FiOS and it worked perfectly fine, but now I have much, much slower internet and I'm having problems streaming off Hulu.
i got the email, but didn't experience the outage. as much as i like to save money, i'm gonna let this one pass because i am more than pleased with their overall service.
I am glad they did this .. i was ready for a Heroes season 3 marathon and it kept telling me my internet was to slow .. i get Comcast best plan with 50mps down .. I thought my router was busted
@javi0084: This is true. I've been a Netflix subscriber for 6 years, maybe a little more? and they have refunded part of my monthly fee just for their website being down for a while. This is truly a classy, customer service oriented company, and I'm sticking with 'em.
@morgasco: Same here. I was so impressed at their offer I decided not to take them up on it seeing as I had no idea the service was even down.
Planned Outages! That's and Outrage!