Netflix down? You may be eligible for a discount on your Netflix bill.

Netflix was down. Netflix was back up again. And now, Netflix is reaching out to its fan base, offering a 3 percent discount on the next billing statement to any customer affected by the slow-down. The news came late this week in an email message, which included a link allowing users to instantly apply the 3 percent credit. The discount can only be applied once.

Exact numbers about the outage were hard to find, but apparently Netflix.com went down on Thursday – not at night, as Mashable noted, when most consumers are plugged into their streaming feeds, but in the middle of the work day. Users trying to load up streaming videos were greeted with the following message: “Site Error — We were unable to process your request.”

Netflix has not issued a precise explanation about the slow-down, but it's more than likely it's just server or service issues for an increasingly popular site.

Last week, Netflix announced that subscribers with a Nintendo Wii or Sony PlayStation 3 console will be able to stream video directly from the Netflix library – without the hassle of inserting that pesky Netflix disc. The process is meant to be pretty simple: Fire up your console, navigate to the online marketplace – the Wii Shop channel on the Wii and the PlayStation Store on the PS3 – and download the Netflix application.

Although the streaming market video is getting busier – HBO GO and Hulu are both edging into Netflix territory – Netflix has managed to post strong sales month and after month. On Oct. 21, Netflix revealed that it had ended Q3 with 16.9 million subscribers for its DVD-by-mail and streaming video service, a jump of 52 percent from the same time last year. Stock prices soared.