Netflix Shipping Problems Persist -- No Movies Shipped So Far Today
Netflix VP Andy Rendich posted the following update on the Netflix Community Blog earlier today:
Hi, it’s Andy again. Unfortunately, we continue to experience significant shipping issues as of Thursday morning. We were able to ship some DVDs from about half of our distribution centers yesterday but we haven’t yet been able to resume shipping this morning. Our engineers continue to work around the clock to restore normal operations. In the meantime, we’re notifying affected customers via personal email and we’ve posted a notice on the Netflix Web site. We’re as frustrated about this as you are and we once again apologize for the inconvenience. In any case, I’ll update you again later today. Thanks for your patience.
The Netflix website is still fully operational, and streaming movies are available, but Netflix spokesperson Steve Swasey told HackingNetflix that all 55 shipping centers are impacted by the shipping problems. He further said that they have not figured out how they will compensate members for the outage.

Right now in my queue the DVDs waiting to ship say "Shipping Wednesday". I hope that's just another glitch.
Posted by: kh | August 14, 2008 at 04:44 PM
Reed Hastings must have Microsoft software programmers working for them. That would explain the outages.
Posted by: ScottZ | August 14, 2008 at 04:56 PM
I think it's pretty obvious that Netflix' throttling software has finally grown self-aware and taken over the entire system. Serves them right.
Posted by: Ripvanryan | August 14, 2008 at 05:10 PM
Ahhh, sorry guys I think this is all my fault. Here is the last movie I returned to Netflix before it all went to hell:
Netflix Receiving We've received: Chaos
Mon 08/11/08 9:40 am 10KB
HAHAHAHA that was sooooo funny. LOLOllolol
Posted by: Darin | August 14, 2008 at 05:16 PM
I just received 2 DVDs, mailed from lansing MI yesterday.
Posted by: monkeyboy666 | August 14, 2008 at 05:24 PM
Now if only Microsoft's stupid DRM implementation would allow me to update & WatchInstantly without hanging & crashing, I could actually use the service.
Posted by: Mike | August 14, 2008 at 05:26 PM
I am not mad, I'd just prefer to know if things have been shipped to me or not. For a few hours yesterday, a DVD was in my "Shipping Today" area, and it disappeared and now it just says "Next Avai. Shipping Friday". So, it looks like it got deleted out of my queue by Netflix some how, not too happy about that, been waiting on that DVD for 2+ months now.
Just a little honesty would be nice.
Posted by: MCW | August 14, 2008 at 05:30 PM
Just think, in 50 years we'll be able to look back and say we were there for the great Netflix crash of 2008. Why, if we wanted to rent a movie, we'd have to walk uphill both ways in the pouring rain to get to Blockbuster!
Posted by: Chris O. | August 14, 2008 at 05:40 PM
I know how they can compensate me....
Upgrade me to 5 @ a time for six months!!!!!
Posted by: LB | August 14, 2008 at 06:01 PM
Thanks for the update and following up with someone from Netflix. That's what I expect from this sort of blog. Again thanks for keeping us informed.
Posted by: Robert from Dallas | August 14, 2008 at 06:20 PM
Movies in my queue still say "shipping Wednesday" but I got them today in any case. Huzzah!
Posted by: MurryD | August 14, 2008 at 06:27 PM
Anyone else notice that in the new releases page you can now show movies that came out in the past week again. It still has the new format, but one of the rows lets you show only movies from the past week. Maybe that has something to do with the outages?
Posted by: | August 14, 2008 at 06:39 PM
@LB, Uhh Please explained to me with logical reasoning, HOW you deserve 5@ a time for 6 months, when the DvD shipments have been delayed for 3 days..? I don't know what world you live in that something like that Actually happens.. But in the real world you get a fair compesation or no compesation, be happy netflix isn't just telling you to suck it up.
People like you make customer service reps. hate coming to work and trying to fix issues with the general public.
Posted by: MP | August 14, 2008 at 06:41 PM
Netflix IT should do some research on the following terms: ITIL, redundancy, failover, disaster recovery, insourcing. I've worked on plenty of websites that required us to shell out cash to our customers back for outages. Pay up Netflix!
Posted by: Adrenochrome | August 14, 2008 at 08:33 PM
I'm on the 8 at a time plan. I have three movies in my queue that are "shipping Wednesday" and one processing. Here it is Tuesday and nothing in my mailbox.
Posted by: Claude | August 14, 2008 at 08:34 PM
The compensation has to be more than a movie or two. Over the last few days of receiving nothing, it has cost me at least 4 movies.
A 50% of a month credit would go a long way for customer relations.
However, when is the last time they cared if I was satisfied or not????
Posted by: patchouli | August 14, 2008 at 10:00 PM
I should have four movies at my house right now that are not because of the outage.
Posted by: Claude | August 14, 2008 at 11:30 PM
Re: Chaos. Is that the Jason Statham/Ryan Phillippe movie? Aw, come on, it wasn't THAT bad, LOL. ;-)
Posted by: Peter | August 15, 2008 at 09:01 AM