Netflix Woes Mean a Gap In Shipments

Loopback writes "It appears that I'm not the only one waiting for my NetFlix movies. It seems they are being bitten in the rear by their home-grown proprietary inventory management system. 'Netflix has been facing shipping delays and outages in its distribution centers for the last two days and is fumbling to find a fix. The tab is roughly $1.8 million to $3.6 million in revenue a day.'"

Comments

Re:Fist Prose

[Red Flayer]

FTFA:

Members who should have been shipped a DVD today will automatically receive a credit to their accounts, which we will communicate in personal emails.

RTFA.

On a related note, I think it's fantastic that a company decided to 'do the right thing' though they were not obligated to do so. Pre-emptively issuing credits to subscribers whose shipments were delayed? Awesome for the customers, and a nice CR move by Netflix. There are many companies out there who would not take the same stance.

This is in addition to Netflix not getting rid of multiple profiles per account, after a vocal minority of subscribers complained.

Is it really possible that Netflix is a company that actually understands that making their customers happy and loyal is a good business strategy? I wasn't sure there were many of those around anymore.

Relative Woes

[Nymz]

Haven't we all thought, while at work, how in the hell can this company stay in business when it is run so poorly? Well, all that is necessary in order to stay in business, is to run it less poorly than competitors. And then you imagine how other companies could be worse, and you shudder.

Re:Relative Woes

[Irish_Samurai]

This is actually a very common phenomena.

The reality is ALL companies run like shit. They really do. People just have this weird ideal put into their head that business moves at the speed of light and everyone in the big tall building is working their ass off to get it done, until you reach the bottom of the food chain and then it's practically welfare.

This is just shit butt fuck all wrong.

Businesses often reach into their credit lines to get over the non productive periods and then pay it back when they get the revenue in. If they don't they just go bankrupt and "sorry to all of you we owe money to".

You got to look at companies the same way as the government does, as weird artificial constructs with all the rights of a person. Then take that person and make them over extended on their credit and living hand to mouth on a colossal scale.

Good timing

[teslatug]

Actually this is the best time to have this problem. I haven't even watched the movies I have at home due to the Olympics.

Re:Good timing

[D-Cypell]

"I haven't even watched the movies I have at home due to the Olympics."

Watching or competing? :)

Re:Good timing

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure I would use that user name to make that reply...

Re:Netflix sucks if you use linux

[Anonymous Coward]

> Can't watch movies live.

Agreed. Write to them and complain.

I did. It won't matter if I do. It won't matter if you do. There's a *slight* chance it will matter of thousands of us do. They could still ignore us, but at least they'll get a sense that a portion of their user base or potential user base is unhappy about it.

Re:Not impressed by my trial.

[MikeFM]

DVDs are a poor concept IMO. Discs always get damaged or lost. Downloadable or streaming content is a better idea but Netflix's streamed content has several problems. Limited selection, doesn't seem to think my 15Mb connection is fast enough, doesn't work on my Linux box or my Mac, DRM sucks, watching on a computer sucks anyway, their external device doesn't seem to let you play anything but Netflix content, their external device is ugly, and their external device is $100 up front (can't charge a monthly rental fee if I'd rather?), and downloading seems to not be allowed.

Re:How?

[pfleming]

You say tomato, I say fruit.

What? No funny?

that's definitely the problem

[CoughDropAddict]

It seems they are being bitten in the rear by their home-grown proprietary inventory management system.

Because definitely if they had used another company's product or something open source, it could never have broken. Clearly being "home-grown" and "proprietary" is the part that caused the problem.

Re:that's definitely the problem

[Gazzonyx]

No, the problem is that outside of their company, no one has any idea of how the thing works. They can't bring in a consultant, and there isn't anyone to turn to for advice. Even if they hired a small team of talented professionals to help them, that team would still need plenty of time to get up to speed on the whole system.

Re:that's definitely the problem

[Anonymous Coward]

The fact that conslutants can't profiteer off of organization X is either a sign that something is terribly wrong with organization X --- or something is terribly right.

Having seen mosquitos in action, I would tend toward the latter explanation.

Re:Not impressed by my trial.

[volxdragon]

Make a separate queue for the kids then you can put a restriction on it for G/PG -- I've got that set up for mine and it works like a champ. They can only see and rent G/PG movies (and they get to control their list themselves....of course, I can view their queue as well at any time and make edits :)

What do you mean?

[NerveGas]

Netflix charges by the month, not by the disc. Unless they're going to offer a refund, they won't lose any revenue, excepting disgruntled customers who leave.

In fact... since they aren't paying postage, they could actually be saving money, particularly if they told their employees "Too bad, don't clock in for the next few days."

Re:Fist Prose

[felipekk]

And how are they going to guarantee that I'm not going to send the wrong movie (intentionally or not)?

This kind of option could turn out really bad...

Can you imagine if a sick bastard rents Madagascar 2 and sends pron instead of a kid's movie?