Netflix outage hits day three

Wondering why you haven't been getting your Netflix DVDs this week? The service has been floundering and is all but at a standstill, with only a few discs mailed since Monday.

Earlier today Netflix began to publicly acknowledge the problems, sending emails to some users and placing a large notice on the Netflix website which reads (in part), "We're sorry to report that we continue to experience issues with our shipping system, so some of you are not receiving DVDs in a timely manner and some of you have not received emails letting you know we got a DVD back from you. We apologize and we'll be automatically issuing credits to all of you whose shipments have been delayed. Our goal is to ship DVDs as soon as possible and to provide a personalized email update to you if your DVD shipment was delayed."

According to CNBC, the company's internal software troubles mean that it has not shipped any discs in the last three days, aside from "some on Wednesday from about half of its distribution centers." As of this morning, though, the company had still not identified the problem nor a fix for it.

Having toured Netflix's flagship distribution center, I can attest that it's far from a simple operation. Stacks and stacks of incoming discs arrive every morning. Workers at dozens of shipping stations open the return envelopes, scan the disc inside, then pack it into a new envelope printed with a label for the next customer (which is where the software comes in). This happens hundreds of thousands of times a day, assembly-line style, and repeats again the following day. I can only imagine how many unopened, returned discs must be stacking up at Netflix HQ.

So, bottom line: No ETA on a fix, no diagnosis of the actual problem. The website still works, so you can update your queue and see what movie you might be getting next, but I would expect, ahem, a Very Long Wait.

Good news: The Netflix Instant Viewing system is still working great, so if you're out of DVDs, fire up your Roku box or just use your PC to check out those movies that available for streaming.