Netflix Issuing 5% Credit to Subscribers for Downtime

Netflix sent out an e-mail this morning to inform customers of an automatic 5% credit for the 11 hour service outage on Monday.

Here's the e-mail:

Do you think this was the right thing to do? Would you have preferred extra DVD rentals instead?

Thanks to Bucky and Sean for sending this in.

Comments

[prozac]

I'm not sure what 5% of anything will do and who wouldnt love a free rental. With that said NF did'nt have to do anything so I guess this is nice. 5%????

[Nancy T]

I must have my head in the sand, but until this morning I wasn't aware there was an issue. I am a 3 at a time subscriber and have always been pleased with the turnaround of my DVD's, as well as any customer service necessary. I will say I thought about it once yesterday wondering where my new DVD's were but then received the shipment notices. 5% is fine with me, I would have never known anything was wrong unless I received the notice.

[Miriam]

I checked my inbox and didn't receive a credit e-mail.... strange.

[David]

I had all three of my 3 at a time DVD's @ home anyway..so no loss to me..I just could not get in to shop for some used DVD's

[TPOLMike]

I didn't get one, but I didn't have any DVDs that were supposed to get shipped. I would assume the credit is only those customers who were affected, as I was not affected.

[Jeff R.]

I also didn't get an email, but I also was not affected by the outage.

I agree with TPOLMike, these were likely just to those who were affected.

[CJ]

I also didn't get an e-mail, but I think this is a nice gesture on Netflix's part. Though honestly I think it's unnecessary, I understand they won't always be able to be up and computers have problems occasionally.

[Becky]

It's overkill.

But it's nice.

[Adam]

Nice gesture, but since it gets auto-deducted from my account I have to do math and figure out what 5% actually is. Sounds trivial but it's a pain. Not that I got an email -- I assume it's only for people who were due to have movies shipped.

[george]

Nice gesture, but really unnecessary. From a business perspective, you never give away money. Once its in your cold hard wallet, you never let it out.

You make up for it another way. Like Microsoft sending the signed Xbox to the guy when Microsoft messed up.

Or giving an extra DVD rental.

Or putting a "sorry" stickey in their next rental.

[Andy Mason]

I think it is a nice gesture on Netflix's behalf. I would have been happy with an extra rental credit too, or even just a nice email apologizing for the inconvenience.

[Tim]

Is anyone else having issues with the order they're sending movies in their queue? I've had a classic movie at the top of my queue. It says it's available now. So far, I've gotten 6 movies from further down in my queue rather than this movie, including new releases and blu-ray movies. They also seem to be randomizing my queue. I seem to be getting movies 5-7 with regularity. Anyone else seeing issues like this?

[kh]

It's a good gesture, but although I didn't have any DVDs that were showing as shipping on Monday, I think it's clear that mine have been delayed. Of three discs I mailed on Saturday, which would normally have been received Mon. or Tue, two are just showing as received today and one is still not there.

[BoB]

I received the email and I WAS affected. All 3 of my discs were there Monday (included one I never received - assuming the label was ripped off in shipment).

I guess the 5% will be compensation for the 2 lost days. According to NF site, none of my discs will be shipping until today. I see some people had discs shipped yesterday - not me.

[Bruce]

It seems equitable to me. In a straight four week month there are 20 shipping days, so a 5% credit is exactly right. I had three movies that they received on Monday, 2 shipped on Tuesday, one is going out today from the Midwest, so I won't be getting that until Fri/Sat. So far I have not received any e-mail or credit, but as an oft-throttled heavy renter, it wouldn't surprise me if they deemed me unworthy.

[Im Not A Turnip]

I didn't get the email nor do I need or want it. My discs were in the mail on Monday and replacements shipped on Tuesday as usual. No interruption for me.

[THE BLOB]

I think someone pointed this out earlier, but mathematically an 11 hour outage should only be about 1/62, or about 1.6%, so they are giving us more than three times what we deserve at 1/20 = 5%. A 5% refund would only be mathematically justified by a 6 day + outage. Just be thankful that's not what happened, haha!

[THE BLOB]

And technically Netflix isn't giving away money, they are refunding accounts electronically, so they are basically just electronically notifying a banking service that they should acknowledge another four or five dollars is in there. What a world we live in.

[Bruce]

"A 5% refund would only be mathematically justified by a 6 day + outage. Just be thankful that's not what happened, haha!"

Sorry Mr Blob, you're math is a little suspect. While the outage was only for 11 hours, it interrupted an entire shipping day, so if you had a movie that should have gone out that day, it was like Netflix took the whole day off. Second, NF only ships 5 days a week, while your math assumes a 7 day a week schedule.

As I said in an earlier post, assuming a straight 4 week month (even though most months are slightly longer) there are 20 shipping days, which means a 5% refund is exactly right to counter a missed day. Oh, and I just got my e-mail credit notification so I guess NF doesn't hate me.

[Nick]

5% is a good gesture, as others have said. But it really wasnt necessary.
If one would read the posts from yesterday about the outage, and the responses, one would assume that from the peoples attitudes, netflix had canceled everyones membership.
People were going crazy yesterday over the outage. If it really caused that much "pain" to you, you really need to look at your life. Yes I was supposed to have a movie going out yesterday, but things happen. Im amazed that im still only paying 15 bucks a month. And im happy that netflix still provides such an amazing service to begin with.
Yes it was "horrible" as some people put it, but things happen, and as a 5% refund, it seems minimal, but its not the most important thing in my life.
Where are all those people from yesterday calling for the lynching of netflix? What do they have to say now?
At least netflix has the balls to say that something went wrong and apologized for it.

[Blazie]

I really didn't care that it took an extra day to get my movies, but it was great that Netflix did this anyway.

[profpudwick]

I agree with George that Netflix has gone beyond what was needed. I would have mailed an extra disc, not given up revenue. Their gesture is hard core!

Bruce, you missed Mr. Blob's additional innumeracy in his following post, where he identifies 4 or 5 dollars a month as 5 percent of his monthly fee. Let's see,

1 / .05 = 20

and 20 times 4 or 5 dollars is $80 or $100.

Mr. Blob, just what kind of monthly plan do you have?

[keith]

Im having issues with my queue too. Titles 4 and 5 are shipping today instead of 1 and 2. Totally sucks is that 1 and 2 are the last two discs in a big TV show marathon I have been running. Oh well.

[BoB]

Well the NF site just had a MAJOR facelift/update.

I guess we now know the cause of Mondays shutdown - a failed update rollout!!!

[profpudwick]

BoB I had the new site earlier and now I have the old site again.

New site looked great but I was happy with the old one. How do you like the new version?