Two days ago, Netflix was down for several hours. Many users were frustrated as they could not stream videos from the Watch Instantly service, via all of its many forms.
Today, Netflix has issued an apology and a 3 percent service credit to affected users (you have one week to apply it to your next billing statement). Interestingly, the company did not explain why the service was down, and simply referenced "technical issues."
Last year, Netflix saw its biggest year yet, adding 7.7 million subscribers and passing the 20 million subscriber mark. It was recently revealed that Netflix's share of digital movie units, downloaded and streamed, reached 61 percent between January 2011 and February 2011. The company is slowly but surely revolutionizing the movie industry, and so it must be very careful about its image.
This year, the company is considering an overseas expansion. In order for users to continue embracing the service, especially internationally, it's important that Netflix not only innovates, but also takes the correct steps when it screws up.
Below is the full message sent out by the company. It was titled "We're sorry you may had trouble watching Instantly" and should have appeared whenever you opened up Netflix today.
Dear User,
Recently you may have had trouble instantly watching TV episodes or movies due to technical issues.
We are sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused. If you attempted and were unable to instantly watch TV episodes or movies yesterday, click on this account specific link in the next 7 days to apply your 3% credit to your next billing statement for your Watch Instantly Unlimited plan. Credit can only be applied once.
Ready to start watching again? Check out our latest selection.
Again, we apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1-866-923-0898.
-The Netflix Team