DVD rental providers feedback

thechatking

ScreenSelect have awful customer service and are refusing to give me my £20 dvd.co.uk voucher for signing up. I am cancelling immediately.

Gemmzie

Have been very satisfied with LoveFILM (via CD-Wow) but for the second time they have now cancelled the DD. I *think* it's another way of slowing down rentals - bit annoying but they all have their way of strangling.

johnrammy

Just thought it was about time someone mentioned good old Stelios.

One of his many sites Easycinema.com does DVD rentals @ £1.99 per film, the beauty of the site is you buy credits @ £1.99 in batches of 4,7 or 10 and you have 90 days to use your credits.

I personally have difficulty watching 4 films month after month after month, there just aren't that many films that good to watch.

So for small users this is definately the way to go - in my opinion.

They say they have over 51,000 different titles at present.

Cheers

John R

ritchie871

I'm with Tesco's DVD rental but am thinking of switching. You find that even if you prioritise a film in your list as top priority, it can take ages for them to send it to you - instead sending you lesser choices first.

outbidder

I am still happy with MovieStream having been with them for around 6 months.

Excellent service, good selection, DVDs always have next-day turnaround.

PM me for a referral link if you want to give them a try and bring down my debt please(!)

kool-mumma

Thin I am going to try Cinema Paradisco. If anyone wants me to use their referal code let me know.

makintracks

oops wrote:

Based upon my own experience I wouldn't touch Screenselect with a barge pole. Avoid at all costs.

GeoThermal wrote:

Not sure if this is a general rule or not but the 21 day free trial on ScreenSelect includes return of the last DVDs within the 21 day period. I cancelled my account on the 20th day and posted off the DVDs but was charged for the next month as they didn't receive them back on the 21st day.

I tried arguing that if it is a 21 day trial you should get the use of all 21 days but they wouldn't back down. I used the paid "month" for two weeks and have just cancelled 2 weeks early just in case the DVDs are held up in the post!

I have had pretty much the same experience. Had a free trial, signed up for 3 months on a pre-paid service. I then wrote to cancel, had written confirmation of this and returned my disks to get back by the correct date. They never advised me that the disk was returned late and they charged my card with £9.99. The first I knew about it was when I received my credit card statement.

I thought they would be ok, it was clearly a mistake and I wrote them a nice email asking whether they would please refund me in view of the facts. They refused. I wrote another email (still pleasant, by the way) and got nowhere. I also asked them to remove my payment details from their site and this did not happen.

Thanks to this site I found a phone number to call them on and spoke nicely to a yound man who would once again not budge. When I pointed out that I was on a service that cost around £8 per month (by pre-paying for 3 months in advance) he offered to extend my membership by two weeks so I could have 6 weeks for the £9.99 I already paid. I politely pointed out that I would not trust them not to do the same thing again.

Anyway, the crunch of the matter was that he told me that unless I had a certificate of posting dated at least two working days before the next billing date, they would not refund me. As I have this, I am now waiting for a resonse to the letter I sent with a copy of the certificate of posting.

UPDATE: They have gone back on their word regarding the certificate of posting. I sent a copy of mine, dated on the day that they said would be acceptable to get a refund (2 days before billing date) and they have once again refused me my refund. They are prepared to re-activate my account to allow me to use what I have paid for, but that is all. They have a no-refund policy. YOU MUST BE PREPARED TO SACRIFICE THE LAST WEEK OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP IF YOU WANT TO AVOID BEING BILLED AGAIN.

LESSON: Send your last disk back earlier than you would normally, allowing 7 days for it to arrive PLUS ensure that you have a datestamped certificate of posting or better still, send it back recorded delivery. Yes it will cost you 64p, but it will sure save you a lot of trouble with this crowd.

OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER: To ensure you have redress via you credit card supplier, you must have a record of your written cancellation (very difficult given you have to contact them via their website and therefore your Outlook file will not generate a record). I suggest that you email them once (well in advance) from their website... when they respond, you will then have the Customer Services EMail address - this is it - cservices@screenselect.co.uk . Now you can email them from your own system, which generates records you can submit when you contact your credit card supplier.

Keep all your correspondence and of course, most importantly, that Certificate of Posting that is datestamped far enough in advance to make a case.

Finally, use the freephone number posted earlier - 0808 2000 194 - to call if you are unsuccessful with the emailing (quite likely).

NB: Try to keep your calm when speaking to them - I am sure the staff must get shouted at all day long, so asking nicely will probably not hurt your case and show that you are a reasonable person. After all, if they refuse to play and you have taken the steps above, you will be able to get redress from your credit card supplier as you will have all the proof you need that you cancelled on time and sent the last disk back in good time.

This is copied from the lovefilm website (screenselect is now part of this group and they do not have such clear instructions on their site...naturally)

We recommend posting them at least 5 working days prior to your Billing Date. When returning discs and cancelling your account, we recommend that these discs are sent by recorded/special delivery and you must obtain a 'Proof of Posting' certificate from the Post Office.

bergy2

I joined easyjets one and set up through mutualpoints as i effectively got £5 or so in points and paid in 38 for 4 rentals

very efficient service i must say

charlieboycat

I joined Tesco last November (the special offer Martin alerted us to) and was very happy with the service (new disk invariably despatched by them on the same day as they received the previous disk back from me). But things got dramatically worse a couple of months or so ago. Now new disks are never sent until (at the earliest) the day after the old disk is received back by them, and often not until two or three days later.

The dramatic change coincided with Tesco's changeover from being "powered" by Video Island (disks were returned by me to a London address) to being "powered" by LoveFilm (disks now returned by me to a Peterborough address).

Furthermore, in the nine months or so powered by Video Island I didn't receive a single faulty or incorrect disk. In the nine weeks or so powered by LoveFilm I have received two unplayable disks, one partially playable disk and one incorrect disk (right box, wrong disk inside it).

I don't know whether Tesco have simply changed their supplier, or whether LoveFilm have taken over Video Island - but in either case I'd no longer recommend Tesco. Neither would I recommend LoveFilm.

If (but only if) Video Island still exist separately from LoveFilm then I would recommend Video Island.

bookworm1363

I am sick and tired of Lovefilm. I have now been waiting for "new" films (non longer new by the time they send them!) for months. And the turnaround has become so slow it's ridiculous. I could understand if I only had new releases in my list, but I currently 37 dvds on my list, and only 1/2 dozen are new releases, for crying out loud!

Just signed for an Amazon 2 weeks free trial, 6 dvds per month. I like it that the rental list shows you availability as "now" "a shot wait" or " a long wait". At least, I know what's going on.