Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Netflix Shipping Delay
Hi, Andy Rendich here. I head operations for Netflix, which consists of shipping DVDs to our members. We received and were able to process incoming DVDs this morning but, due to a technology issue, we weren't able to send emails confirming DVD receipt and we won’t ship any DVDs today (Tuesday). Our goal is to resume shipping tomorrow (Wednesday). Members who should have been shipped a DVD today will automatically receive a credit to their accounts, which we will communicate in personal emails. Our apologies for the delay.
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62 comments:
I just got off the phone with Netflix service because my account was on hold and my Roku would not work. I asked them to give me some idea when I could expect my account to come off hold and they told me "They had no idea and that I should call back tomorrow." I've been without my Roku or DVD shippment for two days....
B. Crowder
The one day I want to get -need- to get a movie when they say I will and they have a problem! I'm going to see The Dark Knight Thursday and I was looking forward to watching Batman Begins on HDDVD tomorrow.
That would explain a bit. I'm disappointed my DVDs won't arrive tomorrow- but I'm of the understanding mind that these things happen. I'm glad to see you're offering a credit for those affected by this. Hopefully it wasn't bad and things resume normally tomorrow.
I had one DVD that was supposed to be shipped on Monday (yesterday) and another one on Tuesday (today), but neither of them have been actually shipped. What's going on?
Thanks for the update. I don't think anyone's going to lose a limb because they don't get their movies TODAY. Perhaps a good chance to pick up a book? Netflix overall is a GREAT value, and it keeps me from having to go to Blockbuster. Rock on!
What great service. You could have just blamed everything on the post office for the delay.
Way to go (Again!) Netflix
go to hell anon.
you pay good money for dvds.
you expect good service.
Anon you gotta chill out. I've had shipments from Amazon delayed weeks. Life is too short to worry about one day. Seriously, just read a book.
I upgraded my account to 4 at a time during my free trial expecting the dvd to ship a few hours later and it said we expect your dvd to ship today (Tuesday since I upgraded at like 4 or 5 am) so I thought my plan was working, I said ok and logged out. Then later that day went to add a movie to my queue and it said we expect to ship your dvd tomorrow lol. I have and always have over 100 dvds in my queue at one time so it wasn't a lack of queue that caused it. Now I know what happend but oh well still got two dvds to watch no big deal at all.
I sent all 3 of my movies back Monday morning first thing and never got my e-mail on Tuesday. Its not a major problem, its just movies folks, and I thank Netflix for being honest about the problem and issuing a credit to customers like myself who were inconvenienced by this.
To those complaining, I suggest you be happy that a company such as this is as honest and forthright with their customers. Most companies would have just laid the blame on your post office and taken no responsibility.
Great to see Netflix take the time to make this post on their blog.
I really hope you drive blockbuster.com into the ground.
How's this credit going to work?
I just tried to call Netflix support and there is a 9 minute wait to talk to someone.. Also, I had to update my credit card information again for the third time.. I'm not sure what is going on but their system software is all screwed up. This is the third day at my account has been put on hold and I don't see them fixing this anytime soon... Plus no movies are going out..
butch
You've had all three of my movies since Monday, yet still have not sent out an replacements. This has been going on every week for a month and a half and I am SICK of it.
I'm looking into Blockbuster right now.
I'm looking into Blockbuster right now.
You might as well go to blockbuster....
However, I wouldn't.
LOL. Casey needs to back off. Ever think that movies are the only thing that we have left? Huh? Huh!?
Wouldn't you feel awful if I couldn't read?!?! Maybe I despise reading as much as I despise you.
-anon #3-
Why is this issue being addressed in the blog - and not in an apologetic email to the affected customers?
I'm just wondering. I'm not upset about the delay in shipping, sometimes stuff just happens. It's how you deal with it, that matters...
Yes, Netflix is good to explain what is going on -- but they should be proactive in doing so -- I shouldn't need to resort to google blog searches to figure it out.
So much for the movie night I have planned for tomorrow -- now I have to go to Blockbuster, hope they have what I ordered in stock, and pay $12 for the privilege. I'd like to see a credit cover that... but will withhold judgment until I see what is offered.
Netflix is hiding behind this blog and not telling people what is going on on the site where they should be. I called yesterday and was told it was my fault the movies weren't received. Today I was called a liar by Tyler in customer service including a statement that I hadn't called yesterday because there were no notes in the system.
Blockbuster is looking better and better but them again, they suck too.
i sent one of the dvd's back 5 days ago and still have yet to recieve a movie. this isnt the first time its happend either, ive waited 9 days to get a movie just last motnth. im tired of paying $15a month just to get 2 or 3 dvds. i think this company needs to get their stuff straight or theyll be atleast 1 customer less. :(
This is not the first time this delay has happened to me either. Last time the credit I received was cents,that's all.When you first open an account, the service is quick and awesome. As you go on having it for a while, it seems to slow down. I don't feel I am getting my money's worth as much as I used to and I plan on cancelling my memebership come Friday if I still have not received my new movies.
I understand they had a delay and couldn't get anything shipped... but I sent my three movies back on Moday and should have had more in my mailbox today - - you get used to things being on a particular schedule. Since we usually watch movies on certain days, and cycle through once a week, this is going to throw off our schedule for a least a week, or maybe two. Thats half of my monthly membership paid and not geting what I was suppose to get out of it. It is great that they said they will give credits, but why are there no details about what this credit is??? Do the mean an extra movie, money off the bill, or what?? But my biggest complaint is that I just spend about 10 mintes on my netflix homepage, queue, and help sections, and did not find any clue as to why I have two movies listed as PROCESSING for two days, and NOTHING in the third slot - there REALLY should be a notice of what is going on right there. I also could not find a box to EMAIL netflix, and you have to wait like 10 minutes to talk to someone, which is a hastle I did not want to deal with... I then left netflix and did a google search, where i found the blog posted on a third party site!!! It should not be this difficult to find out what is going on with your account, that you are paying for!! Just my own venting on it all... hopefully they get thier act together tomorrow and I can at least get some movies by the weekend :(
Stacie said:
Since we usually watch movies on certain days, and cycle through once a week, this is going to throw off our schedule for a least a week, or maybe two. Thats half of my monthly membership paid and not geting what I was suppose to get out of it.
Wow, a couple of days worth of delays and you get thrown off by two weeks? You must have a very tight schedule... What better time to change your habits than now? Watch one or maybe even two movies per night and cycle through the movies faster than once a week. Truly get your money's worth!
I then left netflix and did a google search, where i found the blog posted on a third party site!!! It should not be this difficult to find out what is going on with your account, that you are paying for!!
It isn't difficult to find this blog. Just click on the "Friends & Community" tab and you'll find a link to here on the top bar to the far right. (There's also a link to the community forum where thousands of members discuss Netflix and movies. You should join.) But I agree that their communication with the customers could be better.
hopefully they get thier act together tomorrow and I can at least get some movies by the weekend :(
We all hope so. This is one thing Netflix is not doing on purpose, let me assure you of that. Not being able to ship movies must pretty much be a worst-case scenario for Netflix, so I'm sure they're working non-stop to fix this issue.
A few weeks back, I had this happen to me and I received a "credit" for a Bonus DVD which allows you essentially one more DVD out at a time than you should normally have. (ie. if you have the 4 DVD's at a time plan, using your "credit" will give you 5 at a time. But you will have to return 2 movies to get your next one shipped after using your "credit")
I currently have 3 of my 4 DVD's at Netflix distribution centers, as I received e-mail notification that they were received. I'm hoping that now if they do things right by me that I'll accumulate 3 additional "credits" by the time this latest software blunder has been corrected.
I was at 4-at-a-time, but have now downgraded to 1-at-a-time. I will remain on a 1-at-a-time plan until Netflix gets off its rotund, overly inflated keester and solves this problem. You don't have to cancel your account to let them know where you stand. As soon as the problem is rectified, you can always upgrade your account again.
Sheesh. Netflix didn't even show receipt of the movies it got on Tuesday, finally showed receipt Wednesday. No Email, but if i have a choice between Emails and movies, I'd rather get the movies, but it turns out I didn't get the movies either. I'm definitely downgrading my 4-at-a-time account, I don't pay for shoddy service. (I probably read more books than those telling people to "read a book," this is a value-for-payment issue. And I bet the promised "credit" will be some small amount off future fees, not a refund for what we already paid and didn't receive value for.)
Kymber said...
Today I was called a liar by Tyler in customer service including a statement that I hadn't called yesterday because there were no notes in the system.
Ah yes, Tyler... I tried to get an answer as to why two movies that I shipped in the same envelope were listed as being received on different days.
Tyler gave me the run-around with gobbledy gook that made no sense at all and I gave up.
I'm disappointed in Netflix again. I should have received an e-mail explaining what was really going on. Thank God for Google
You know you can watch instant movies. I just connect my computer to my TV and there you go. For all the desperate folks on this blog, why don't you give it a try?
I agree I am getting tired of this. It seems every month my shipping times get slower and slower, plus the number of broken or scratched increases, and now for the third time I have yet to recieve one in over a week...
Netflix - You have some of the best customer service that I have seen from ANY company. Thank you for letting us know about the problem and giving us credit for it.
To everyone angry about the short delays - problems happen and it seems to me that they have done everything in their power to fix that problem, inform us about what has happened, and apologize to customers. What else do you want from them? No company runs smoothly all of the time, especially one that usually has such a quick and reliable turnaround time.
To the person complaining about a nine-MINUTE waiting period on the phone, during a day when they are having national difficulties - have you ever tried calling an airline or cable company on a normal business day?
seriously? is this all you people have to bitch about? just be thankful you are not sitting in a desert with a bunch a whack jobs wanting to shoot at you. if complaining about having your dvd delivery delayed by a day is the best use of your time, then kindly go take a .38 calibre aspirin and quit wasting space.
Hey, tech problems happen - I've been there. Netflix is Great for letting us know what is going on. I've had problems with other web services and you are in the dark for days.
Thumbs up for letting us know.
One thing Netflix could do to improve is to make a better search engine. It should search for all words in the search box, not for any of them. I was looking for a movie and kept getting 5,000 hits. The more words I added the more hits. It took forever to find a specific movie.!
I've worked with computers since the TRS-80 and the one thing that all systems have in common is Crashing. In the past I have found that if you request to speak to a Supervisor they will do what they can to resolve any complaints or problems with the service rep. Keep in mind that you catch more flys with sugar than with vinegar. If you are understanding and sympathetic, odds are the person on the phone will be also.
...NEWSFLASH...
Blockbuster has problems as well.
actualy shipping problems for me started with movies not going out on monday.
Netflix only ships 20 days a month. Any credit or adjustment needs to be along the lines of 5days/20 days or 25% of a month.
Good news: I received one DVD today, even though I still never got an email about it. But as a long- time Netflix customer, who's taken out well over 1000 DVDs, I think the best thing to do is just forget about this entire week, and hope they'll have it together by Monday. They're usually very consistent, and so I can give them a pass on this one. It is very disappointing, though, but they're still the best option out there. And there's no way that this is good for them; They don't want to be on CNBC.
I downgraded my Netflix account to 1 movie at a time(unlimited) from the 3 at a time plan because of this problem. If it doesn't get properly handled, I will cancel altogether.
I've already reduced my Netflix subscription - due to ongoing and INCREASING delays - DVDs often not shipping on the day a return was received. The customer service Rep. told me on the telephone in June, he "hoped" the delays would not continue. Evidently, "hope" is not enough. In the midst of slowed business and shrinking dividends, let's just consider the number of mailings @ .58 ea., they saved in the past two days.
The (online) banner in my Queue stated, "We're sorry to report that we continue to experience issues with our shipping system..."
Well, tell you what, I AM HAVING ISSUES with the shipping system, too.
Evidently, it's time to reduce the subscription AGAIN, hey Andy?
Dude, they're NOT doing this to SAVE money!!! C'mon now! No company WANTS this to happen. It's bad publicity. They're not doing this for the 2 stamps!! Anyway, downgrading doesn't help you till your next billing date. They've been quite good for years, they're allowed to have one bad week. And compared to Blockbuster, I'll take these guys any day. Patience- by Monday it'll all be cleared up I'm sure. :)
To those who say chill out about Netflix----Remember, they get their money promptly, but they don't send movies promptly...If the movies are stuffed manually why couldn't they keep doing that??? And the Netflix customer service people are a bunch of snotty nosed losers..The software they use sucks and they continue to throttle...As a Blockbuster subscriber I do pay more but I get way more movies..and they compensate you with free movies when they screw up..Netflix gives 50 cents off the monthly bill..Sad..
Funny that the "Get another movie for only $2.58 and we'll send it Friday. Upgrade to the 5 at-a-time (Unlimited) plan now!" should show up when viewing my queue when cannot even get the three disks already stuck there out the door.
It's clear that Netflix' business model isn't as customer/quality focused as they would like us to believe. First, odds are this outage was caused by sloppy testing of a system change, inadequate back up systems or both. Further, their IT people have hosed up their system so bad that it's been down for two days and still no eta for recovery. But the strangest thing is to see a self described customer oriented company let an IT issue stop their business operations dead in its tracks. Netflix should have all hands on deck with their sleeves rolled up continuing to get those dvds out. But they either can't or won't. Combined, these are big indicators of much larger problems with the company.
To all the whiners about delays and poor service... What the hell is your problem? Did you sign up last month? I've been a Netflix customer since 2000 and they have their problems now and then but they've always owned up to them before I even saw the problem. What? Are you saying Blockbuster online is better? Netflix lowers their price while Blockbuster raised theirs. Grow up.
Given Netflix can lose part of its system for three days I just "backed up" my 176 movie queue to pdf just in case.
Have you guys at Netflix considered using Twitter? I find you are so far ahead of the game in most areas and was thinking this would be a good time to be using Twitter.
Thanks for being the best customer service company in America, once again.
damn, if not getting a movie shipped to you for a day or two stresses you out that much, it sounds like you need to re-evaluate your life.
I'm an old retired programmer that started in the 70's (go ahead and make jokes). I cannot imagine how the Netflix distribution system can be down for 3-4 days. That's their business. On crucial systems in my day, heads would roll if the system was down for a few hours. That aside, what is wrong with expecting to get what you paid for. So many blogs indicated to "chill", read a book, etc. So what you don't get what you pay for. I have hundreds of books, but when I pay for a service to view movies, I want that service. Please do not offend the people that just want what they pay for.
What get's me about this whole thing (besides the obvious) is how Netflix is trying to deny the impact to their customers. Below is a quote:
Except from news.cnet.com:
Although there is no guarantee of timeliness to Netflix customers, they have become accustomed to very rapid shipping of their discs, and Swasey said it was vital for Netflix to get in front of the issue. But he said that, "There's been very little negativity around this. Maybe two dozen people have vociferously complained, out of 8.4 million members. There's no hue and cry from the populace, because we do continue to provide excellent service."
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10017200-93.html
What amazes me that after several days of NO SERVICE, you cannot cancel you service back to the date of NO SERVICE. According to the latest rep, their online is down and cannot do anything until it comes back up. Of course, you can cancel online but for go the remaining days of your service. How do they get away with that???? How do you get to charge for a service you do not get? I don't think the cable company gets away with that after a day or two. Where is the Better Business Bureau? I hope you all email them.
For all those people who are saying that "it's just a movie--read a book," I help organize an ongoing movie night with friends. We have been getting together for the past 3 years to watch episodes of "Buffy," then "Firefly," and now "Angel." We started hosting our own after FOX nixed local theaters that were showing reruns for free, and we depend on Netflix to get the DVD for our necessary episodes on time. Yeah, I'm switching to Blockbuster!
I find it interesting that, although Netflix's computer system can't ship my movies, it's still working well enough to let me know my credit card expires at the end of the month.
Because what I'm *really* worried about right now is how they're going to bill me next month.
Fine, the system's coming back, but now my queue is all messed up. Items that I had at the top of the queue disappeared. Bad business practices are just bad business practices
I have been a very happy member since 2005. I can't believe the bunch of whining people posting her. Netflix did communicate via e-mail about this issue before I heard anything on the news or read this blog. Netflix, this time and in the past, immediately owned up to any problems and issued credits. If you can't wait a couple of days for a movie, you need to get a life. Remember people, they are only movies...
Hey Netflix, keep up the great work! I love your service!
I am tired of reading the posts of those whining about those whining. I pay a monthly fee to have movies, I have NO movies, they all got returned in the mail Sunday night so I could have new movies for this week. Guess what I have NO movies at all. I did an email and that really helped (not). So since I missed out on a whole week of no service I get a 15% discount...well the math to me says it is 25% I am OWED and that does not include any amount for my being inconvenienced. At the least they owe me a refund of 25% and better yet to keep me as customer they should offer me an additional savings. See even if the 'movies' get mailed on Friday and they send out almost 10 million movies do you really think the postal service will have them to you on Saturday? Hmmm, no. Not to mention on my queue some of the movies are missing and some of them say processing. So as far as I am concerned non have shipped. I have a Blockbuster three miles away. I know where I am going tonight and from now on.
I mailed out my dvds on the 10th and it's the 19th and i have recieved anything yet. I'm not sure if I should call or what's going on. It doesn't say they recieved my dvds either.
More problems? I mailed my DVDs back several days ago and not even a receipt confirmation yet. I was understanding the first time. Now I'm getting annoyed. And the Watch Instantly is on the fritz because of all the people using it that don't have their DVDs.
Ummm, so when exactly are we supposed to receive a credit because my movies were definitely delayed and I was DEFINITELY charged the same monthly fee.
Does anyone know why there are still delays in the SW? I sent movies back, (there are 92 in Q) Only one movie was shipped and the others are just sitting there waiting to ship? It says they will ship Monday, a week after they received the other ovies I sent.
What I'd like to know is why in the hell doesn't netflix offer email support?
It's obvious they cut corners, especially when it comes to customer service.
Netflix is acting like a company who is about to change course. Movies on Demand anyone??
This shipping thing is SMOKE!!
With all of the management assurance that problems have been solved, there still is something wrong. Entries in myy queue today all show "very long wait", even though 3/4 of items are "Lost,season 1" and classic films from the 30's. The $2 credit I got last month won't cut it. What is the real story???
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