Sure, no company’s customer service is ever perfect but I like what Netflix has done.

As I’m back in Montreal and Netflix (unfortunately) doesn’t ship to Canada, I put my Netflix account on hold. It used to be that you could do just that from your account page but, these days, you need to send a message to customer service. Which I did and they suspended my account right away. I sent back the last DVD I had received from them and had put myself a note for when the hold would be lifted.

Because the PDA on which I had noted this date died on me, I didn’t notice that the date for my account reactivation had come by and, this morning, I received messages from Netflix telling me that my account was active again, that I was charged the regular fees, and that a movie would soon be sent to my address in Massachusetts. Oops! I should have changed my reactivation date! My mistake! Too late! Let’s hope I can push it back and not receive a DVD at an address where I’m not…

So I sent a message back to customer service. Not only did they reply quite fast and put a new hold on my account but they actually credited my credit card account for the fees that they had automatically taken from it. Sure, it makes a lot of sense to do just that. But many companies would only reimburse you if you complained, threatened to sue, and made a big fuss about it. So, it’s surprisingly nice to not have to go into a fit for a small thing like this.

Again, really, it’s not much. But it proves that Netflix got it: you don’t get good business if you constantly try to nickel and dime your customers.

So, thank you, Netflix!