Netflix says sorry with 5 percent credit

Netflix has extended an apology, in the form of a discount, to customers in the wake of an 11-hour site outage.

On Monday, the Web's leading movie-rental service suffered its second extended outage in the past nine months. This time, the glitch led to customers receiving their DVDs a day late. For those who were inconvenienced, Netflix is crediting their account 5 percent.

"We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused," Netflix told customers via e-mail. "We will issue a (5 percent) credit to your account in the next few days."

Netflix has declined to say what caused the glitch, how many customers were affected, or what the total cost was to the company.

[zlguocius]

It's a happy dog that wags its tail.

Thanks for the news post. Small point: "it's" is a contraction; "its" is
the possessive.

[Grimathy]

5% big deal!

5% is nothing to a company that is making over 44 million dollars a month. Do the math, even if every one of their almost 7.5 Million subscribers was paying 5.99 a month for service (and I know I pay more than that!) they are rolling in the dough! I have the 13.99 a month service, so I'll get back a whole .70 cents, so at that rate, they end up paying 5.25 million out in "sorry" fee's. Wow, they are going to have to cut out a trip to star bucks next month :)

Kudos to the genius that came up with what is now Netflix, you deserve every penny for doing what Americans love most, watching TV, and to not actually have to go to the video store to boot? Whats not to love!

[Dead Soulman]

And ???

What do you want? A whole month free? Come on be reasonable. Please, don't tell me you're the same guy who sued them because he claimed that "rent all the videos you want" meant you can keep them all at home at the same time. If they're making money, and at the same time maintaining their customers happy, then more power to them. They must be doing something right.

[Fiddlergreen]

The math

Okay, so I finally clicked on "calculator" and did the math...11 hours out of a 30-day month is 1.52%. So the extra 3.48 percent they gave you back is bonus. Again, what site hasn't been down before? What have they done for you? How many times has a company screwed up and you had to chase after them to get some retribution? Stop being greedy when you're enjoying a service that is far superior to local alternatives and appreciate that a company had the morality to own up to its own problems without a major outcry for them to do so. I didn't know there was an outage until I learned about the 5%, as I'm sure is the case with many of their customers. They could easily have said "tough stuff, that's the price of doing business on the web" but they decided to be nice to you. If you're unhappy, quit and move on. I'm sure they will let you go if you complain about this. 5.25 million is a lot to any company.

[worddoctor36]

Netflix Customer

I'm a Netflix customer, get DVD's by mail and use the 'view in now' online system. The delay of a day or so and the site outage was noticeable, but not a great inconvenience for me. Like most of the pundits, I'm interested in what happened and why -- when the site returned, the rating system did not seem to be running and I wondered if it had something to do with that. In unrelated news, I cut back the number of DVD's I was receiving a little. Netflix offers unlimited hours of viewing their online content, and the catalog is growing. Also content available (free) on Hulu.com is competing for my time, a recent development. I'm still loyal to Netflix, but now is not the time to take customer bases for granted. Being more transparent would go further with me than 5% off.

[delf76]

Big Deal...

Netflix was a day Late getting my DVD out to me--big deal. While the 5% is a nice jesture, it really doesn't change my decision to drop or continue my netflix subscription. Just as long as this doesn't continue to be a problem with them.

[sg24ng09]

About Netflix

I just wanted to take a minute of my time and express my feelings about Netflix this company is the real deal I've been a member of Netflix for about 3 months now I have the program that lets you see unlimited movies online and floot 2 movies back and forth the day I send them out with in 24 hours or less I do get an email that states they did get my movies and with in a few more hours they send my new movies out its like clock work the price I pay is under $20.00 you can't beat that and one last thing I feel down the road this will be the way folks will watch the tv and movies in demand online without the cable companies involed whats so ever all we will need is a very stong connection for our computers and thats it wait and see.
Thanks Again Netflix

[Fiddlergreen]

Netflix is still good

Well, netflix was down for a few hours...who hasn't been? I'm actually impressed that they came back and did something about it. 5% may not be much, but who has done the math on how much 11 hours is out of a month? I have never regretted subscribing to netflix, and this episode has only reaffirmed my satisfaction with the company.

[ldtiry]

delay what delay

I'm a big Netflix fan and browse their site almost daily.....I never noticed a thing.

[drezjohnson]

Love the service...

I've been using Netflix for about 3 months now and I am very satisfied. To be honest I didn't even notice that the site was down. In fact, if not for CNET and other news sites I would probably not have known about it. This incident really doesn't affect my view on Netflix either way but I think a 5 percent credit is a good gesture. I'm still very satisfied customer.