Ian Hall writes: “Last night I was passively watching (or more listening than anything) to Eco-Trip with my daughter while we fixed dinner. All of a sudden the sound gets all garbled. I figure the encoding is off and think nothing of it until this morning I receive the following email. Now THAT is customer service. Netflix knew I might be upset (or at least have noticed) the interruption and so, proactively, they allowed me to request a credit for a small amount of my bill. Now while 3% of my bill isn’t really going to add up, it makes me FEEL 100x better. And here I am gurgling over my feelings and the attention Netflix pays to their customers.”
Seen by Matt Linderman on May 15 2009. There are 16 comments.
Tim 15 May 09
I wonder if whoever caused the problem on Netflix side will lose 3% of their paycheck.
Kurt 15 May 09
I’m a bit miffed – I got a similar email from Netflix and was all happy until I saw that Ian got 3%. My email only gave me a 2% discount. What’s up with that?
Tarus 15 May 09
I had the exact opposite experience:
http://blogs.opennms.org/?p=747
Scott Wintheiser 15 May 09
I love netflix customer service.
http://www.lightburndesigns.com/blog/proactive-customer-service.aspx
Ron 15 May 09
Like Kurt I also was only offered a 2% credit. Perhaps it is reflective of the type of plan you have? Either way I am not even going to request the credit. Netflix has always been good to me and I barely noticed the problem. Just the fact that they were aware of the problems and offered the discount makes me feel good.
Chris 15 May 09
Yeah, the same email came to me except mine said 2%. I hadn’t even noticed a glitch though. I didn’t bother to apply the 2% because I didn’t feel like it had caused me to miss a movie or something.
David Andersen 15 May 09
I received the email and appreciated the proactive explanation – something I never get from my internet provider. But the credit is silly – 34 cents in my case.
Jason Zimdars 15 May 09
I vaguely remember seeing another company do something like this. The idea is sort of an opt-in apology. Instead of just giving the discount to all of their customers, they offer it to everyone but require them to accept. Those who didn’t notice, probably won’t bother; those who were inconvenienced most certainly will.
But the interesting case if for people like Ron and Chris who are touched enough by the gesture that they turn down the offer. Maybe because it wasn’t that big of a deal or they figured 3% wasn’t enough to make any difference. Or maybe they just like Netflix so much that they’re not worried about be compensated.
For Netflix, they got the desired result, and saved a little money. In fact they probably got a little more goodwill than just a blanket credit would have.
I got the same offer but I hadn’t even been using Netflix that night and didn’t experience the issue. But I was happy to see the message and it probably improved or reinforced my opinion of the company.
john 15 May 09
I’ve complained about a couple of movies that were stalled—no response at all form NetFlix.
Doug Adams 16 May 09
I am not certain, but: The percentage is based on how much vid you were watching that got garbled and also your monthly rate. Higher monthly rates get the lower discount.
Eric S. 16 May 09
I received the same email, and I indeed did have trouble watching a movie. In fact, I couldn’t play a single “watch it now” video.
I very much appreciate their acknowledgment of the problem. However, the 3% actually insulted me.
That’s about $.28. Seriously, do they think a 28 cent refund is going to make me feel better or compensate me or anything? I was planning on watching movie that evening, and I couldn’t.
Twenty-eight cents does not help. Ten times that maybe (approaching the price of a video rental).
Dom S 16 May 09
Shouldn’t this post be berating Netflix for the use of the ‘terrible non-apology’ that is included in their email?
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1528-the-bullshit-of-outage-language
Dylan 17 May 09
I’d rather have nothing than a 3% credit. To me, that would be an insult. As if 3% of nothing is going to make up for having your evening-in interrupted. A simple heart-felt apology would be worth 10x more imho.
Mathew Patterson 17 May 09
So if we take Eric’s word that 3% represents about 28 cents, then Dylan is saying a heartfelt apology would be about $8.40 worth.
Seems like a bargain for Netflix. How do you decide what is an appropriate refund for a streaming service? What they have done seems reasonable, and smart in heading off a much larger reaction by getting in first.
Scott 18 May 09
I had practically the same experience as Tarus. For a company that’s supposed to be so customer-friendly, I wish they had put the same amount of thought into their call center. Unbelievable.
Crystal 18 May 09
Dom S – I think that the call to action and offer for compensation is what stops this from being one of the half-apologies.
It’s a half-apology when you make a gesture and expect that to fix matters. It’s a proper apology when you say what you will do in the future, or offer compensation.
The wording could have been better, true, but they still went further than a lot of companies do.
This discussion is closed.