“Online DVD rental pioneer Netflix Incon Thursday worked feverishly to fix the most severe outage in its history, as disc shipments to a third of its 8.4 million customers came to a halt due to a shipping system problem,” Sue Zeidler reports for Reuters.
“Red mailers with the Netflix name have become ubiquitous for many Americans who pick films to watch on the Internet and then get DVDs in the mail, usually a day or two later,” Zeidler reports.
“Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said the Los Gatos, California-based company would give credits to affected customers and was working ‘feverishly’ to determine the cause of the outage and fix the problem,” Zeidler reports. “Swasey said the disruption was not affecting its Watch Instantly Web streaming service, which it offers free to subscribers.”
“It was the second time in Netflix’s history it was unable to ship DVDs due to a technical glitch, said Swasey, adding that this outage was worse than one in Marchm,” Zeidler reports. “‘This time, the site’s been up but our shipping system is down. It’s worse than it was in March. We’re really backlogged,’ Swasey said.”
Full article here.
I got a notice from them saying that yesterday. I like NetFlix. While I do, myself, own an AppleTV, I’ve only rented 2 movies off of it. I do indeed like the comfort of ordering movies right to the TV, it’s not as chap as netflix…
Dang! And I was really looking forward to making *ahem* backup copies of Hugh Grant chic flix this weekend!
Gee, we never have that sort of problem with our Apple TV.
Damn. Maybe Netflixs needs to work SATURDAY to make up for the down day?
For the trolls who invariably ask what this has to do with Apple . . . it just shows that every firm involved in technology has to endure flaws and major outages. NOT just MobileMe.
Still not Apple news…
“And hey look the other guys do it too” isn’t an excuse either.
Get it together Apple!
MobileMe, Gmail, Netflix…
These outages are starting to look less and less like accidents and more like a conspiracy.
I love netflix… didn’t get my movies today like I was supposed to. Bummer. But for only have 2 major problems in it’s history, I’d say that OK, AND they are going to credit their customers. Everybody will just have to chillax until they can get their next fix of HOUSE.
This shit is complex and there needs to be a reasonable expectation that systems are going to go down occasionally. My God, my movie is going to arrive a day later. Cue the hysteria.
Far Out – we gonna get 2, yes count ’em Two, Big Birds with one rock on this puppy folks
Get to cross post with CBS News – you maybe heard of them, they made all the papers
At:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/14/tech/cnettechnews/main4350531.shtml#ccmm
I left this message, and share with you now:
Beware of NetFlix
Had a subscription with them couple years ago, and all was fine at start.
It was the ”Un-Limited” Plan, and I was allowed to have 6 movies at a time.
In the beginning as I finished and sent back those movies – my next order would be shipped by NetFlix the day after they received my returns. Postmarks are easy to keep track of.
Then, after a month or so, the dead-time of their returns starting going to a couple of days.
Then it went to 3 days.
Then 4.
Well, do the math folks.
They can call it ”Un-Limited”
But if they hold up mail shipment on their end, then we are not getting as many ”Un-Limited” movies each month as we could.
And not talking about current hot movies on a waiting list.
These were oldies available in stock.
NetFlix got over on me for about 6 to 8 months before I figured out their game and canceled.
Wonder how many other folks are in same boat as me, do not do the math on turn-around mail times, movies continue to be held up in the distribution process, and customers do not get the real value of ”Un-Limited” movies each month as advertised ?
So, perhaps something in their ”scheme” has finally caught up with NetFlix, and now biting them in their you know what.
Thanks
BC Kelly
yada yada
********************************************************************
Ahh, but also found some other interesting messages, and had to leave a comment on those – here you go:
” …the faster I watched them, the more the service slowed.”
Posted by Puzzler125
Good, glad I am not the only one who sees this – bet we are not alone.
***************
”No doubt their shipping and accounting running Vista”
Posted by talkingham
”Good one!!! Gawd I hate Vista. Microsoft is amazingly efficient at neutralizing any increases in CPU speed that Intel and AMD can come up with.”
Posted by rational_1
Good, glad we are not the only ones who see this – bet we are not alone.
%uF8FF
Thanks, BC
***************************************************************************
Well, talk about a hanging curve softball – Vista Sucks ?
And normal everyday folks posting to CBS are bringing it up out of the thin air. And making jokes about it ?
Don’t you just love finding a left field surprise confirmation of what we all know and keep waiting for others to finally figure out.
Well, that IS happening – more and more each day – and I present 2 new pieces of evidence above.
And isn’t it Great when we get a laugh at Microsoft from out of the clear blue sky.
Many more out there, keep eyes open @¿@
And, the cryptic %uF8FF above, which is how it came out at CBS
Well …. THAT is just this:
Reckon CBS/CNet can’t translate it ?
Ok, later Folks
Thanks, BC
I told them not to switch to Vista but they wouldn’t listen.
I’m miffed at Netflix just for the fact that every indie movie store in a reasonable walking, or even driving, distance of me has now gone under. The last one standing was a phenomenal store with just about any documentary, off the wall cult film, or classic movie anyone would want and they only charged a couple bucks each rental. I’m left with a crummy and excruciatingly expensive Blockbuster. Yay. Of course Apple TV contributed to that, too, but Netflix has had more impact for much longer.
This fall, when the weather starts freezing us Minnesotans into our houses, I’ll choose between Apple TV and Netflix and their download box from Roku. It sucks that Netflix’ movie downloads don’t work with a Mac, but Apple’s selection of rentals is currently piss-poor and my family rents a lot of movies. We don’t have cable television.
Any thoughts on the better of the two systems? Is there a better third choice I don’t know about? From what some folks are posting above, Netflix’ mail system isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially for someone who rents a lot of movies.
“Get it together Apple!”
WTF does that mean in context of this story?
Netflix has always given me good service, so I will cut them some slack on this outage. I hope they get it working soon. I was looking forward to a few good movies this weekend while the girl friend is away being a geekette.
aka Christian
Try – BitTorrent and/or UseNet-Newsgroups
Learn about them at:
http://vladd44.com
http://slyck.com
probably others here who can add more
and a ‘hi-speed’ connection, of course
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Later, BC
I’d be willing to bet money the failing shipping system software is Windows based…anyone have any inside scoop on that?
@@Randian
What a bizarre spin you’ve chosen to apply to this story!
After talking to EVERYONE I knew that rents (or buys) online, we ALL came to the conclusion that this *is* Apple news, ‘cos it NotFlix DIRECTLY competes with iTunes.
We’re not exactly certain in which alternate reality you live in, either, in which (MobileMe, we guess) competes with iTunes, but we’re certain of one thing;
Nice Try, Troll!
(Not)
Lamer
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Who cares? I wanna know if that Bigfoot monkey suit in a box thing is real or not.
I wonder if they are using Windows ???
I would be more impatient with Netflix over this if Apple had ever shown any interest in delivering iTunes Multi-Pass items within something close to a reasonable timeframe.
@Pete:
I saw it too, but I’m skeptical. They’ve never found one before and it looks too monkey-suit-ish to me.
Hey, if Ballmer was seen running from the scene at the Apple campus fire, you think they caught him and put him in a pine box for scientific testing?
Just sayin’.
Peace.
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Olmecmystic
Who pays for movies??
So why is this Mac News, MDN? With the AppleTV plug too…sheesh
Oh, I forgot, Apple never suffers online problems….<hack><hack>Mobilemess<hack><hack>
Didn’t take long to bring back the schadenfreude eh? Even without the Take, pretty lame, SteveJ…er…MDN; everything’s political with you…pathetic.
” customers do not get the real value of ”Un-Limited” movies each month as advertised ?”
Netflix admit to throttling the number of movies you receive.
Once you get too many they start shipping from remote centers so they take 2-3 days to get to you and playing other games. The practical limit is about 30 movies a month. Upping your plan to have more outstanding will do no good, it will just make things more obvious. They will still cap you at about the same total number per month. If you complain they will initially try to blame the postal service. When you don’t buy that, because you can prove when they shipped them, they point to the subscriber agreement which basically says they don’t guarantee anything and may in fact throttle the number of movies you recieve. (weasel words, not plain english like that).
So you have to decide if it’s worth it to you despite what they do, and if it’s not, cancel.
@BC Kelly,
Dude. You gotta limit the length of your posts. There are children starving in Africa!