SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix Inc. said Thursday that major technical problems over the past 3 days have severely limited the number of DVDs it could send out. The unspecified problems affected all of the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company’s 55 shipping centers and marked the biggest disruption in service since Netflix launched its DVD-by-mail subscription business 9 years ago. It was unclear when normal shipments from the online DVD-rental leader would resume. Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said the company was able to send out some discs on Wednesday, but shipped none on Tuesday and hadn’t shipped any Thursday morning either. About a third of the company’s 8.4 million subscribers are currently waiting for DVDs held up by the problems. Affected customers were promised a credit to their accounts for the delay. The glitches didn’t affect Netflix’s Web site or its service for streaming movies and television shows instantly to customers’ computers.
