Dear Netflix,
I was calling to report a minor bug, but seems like I stumbled upon a few more issues, eh?
Issues
- My Instant Queue keeps changing from 161 movies to 148 movies, and back again, roughly half the time I click “Instant Queue.” (This is the problem I was originally calling about.) This is reproducible in IE and Chrome. I was able to ID at least 4 movies that were vanishing and returning at the top of my list.
- The account settings page gives me an error when I try to remove one of my connected applications, Flixter. This was my attempt to diagnose if a third-party add-on was toying with me, but a Netflix bug prevents diagnosis.
- When your website says “Current hold time is: 1 minute”, why am I told by your phone system that the wait is just short of 15 minutes? It get’s worse; I then wait 22-24 minutes before hanging up.
- When your phone system asks a caller to enter the “six-digit service code” displayed on the web page, apparently the system accepts the number 5 all by its lonesome. I know this because right at the very moment that my nimble finger hits the next number in the code, 8, I step on what the recording is trying to say and I’m told “thank you” and I am then placed on hold with music. A workaround to enter this code appears to be to call back and WAIT until the phone system asks if I would like second opportunity to enter my code, at which point I can enter the entire code.
Note: This problem only exists if you wait long enough (about 2 seconds) for the female voice to inform the caller where the code can be found on the website. This message ironically would be helpful if it didn’t prevent me from entering the code.
Summary
The entire time I was on hold I kept reproducing the queue count issue (issue #1) to make sure I wasn’t crazy. Over and over it worked. Finally, around minute 22 the issue was resolved without me ever reaching customer services. I got tired of being on hold, and wanted to wrap up this entry, so I hung up.
Seeing as I never closed Chrome or IE this entire time I believe I’ve narrowed down the possible causes:
- I still can suspect Flixter, but since Netflix is bugged such that I can’t kick them off my account, I have no idea.
- Netflix was doing a non-peak deployment of new code at ~1am PST when this occurred, and then quickly fixed the issue or rolled back
- Bug has something to do with watching shows that were just removed from Netflix streaming, changing the queue count, which did occur on this night. However, I only had 3-4 expiring movies in my queue, not ~13 (the difference between the alternating counts).
I doubt this puzzle will ever be solved, or that Netflix support actually exists (insert wink here), but I’m glad the bug is gone.
Regards,
Justin Reinhart