DVD rental providers feedback

Justie

I have used Amazon rental since February either on the £7.99 option or the £4.99 option depending on how busy my life is. DVDs have usually been dispatched from the top of my list and at 'worst' the second choice. I have had 1 DVD that was damaged in 28 DVDs. DVDs are sent out 2-3 days after the returned one is registered as received.I haven't yet used the 'buy more' option but for £1.99 a rental it's good value.

My one bug-bear with Amazon rental is that the recommendations are terrible. They're far too general to give any inspiration and it's hard to browse DVDs as bestsellers include all DVDs bought as well as rented (as far as I can tell).

When I joined for Quidco I took advantage of the Screen Select unlimited DVDs one month free trial which I carried on for a further month after the free trial as it suited my viewing that month. During this time Screen Select were bought out by Love Film.
Of the DVDs I rented about a third were damaged - some only slight loss of picture quality, one completely unplayable and the others somewhere between the two. (If you have damaged DVDs they replace them free but don't give you a longer payment period so unless you can have multiple DVDs at home it reduces the amount of DVDs you can watch during one payment period so makes it more expensive in terms of price per DVD) DVDs were probably dispatched 3 days after receipt of the returned disc but they weren't as good at notifying me as to each stage of the process so it's guesswork but certainly no quicker than Amazon and I'd say a day slower on average. Unless you're going to watch a lot of DVDs Love Film/ Screen Select is expensive in comparison to Amazon and to have more than one DVD at home at once (which maximises the number of DVDs you can rent) it's hard to see how you can get more than 4 or 5 DVDs a month for the same price as Amazon who offer 6 DVDs for £9.99 a month and you can have 3 at home in that package. If you watch a different DVD every night then the £14.99/month option which allows 3 DVDs at home at once is a good option but unless you watch this volume of DVDs it's hard to see how to make it pay.

I've read that some people have had trouble cancelling Love Film online as they were directed to an 0870 number and had to wait a long time on hold. I cancelled mine online at 10pm on a Saturday night and whilst they do their best to get you to stay and it's a bit of a PITA it was fine. (I'd emptied my rental list prior to concelling so that when the last DVDs were returned I didn't have to get the timing spot on to cancel before they sent the last lot out.)

The big positive for Love Film/ Screen Select is the recommendations which were spookily accurate and their browsing categories are much more user friendly than Amazon - however I now just browse their lists and add titles to my Amazon list.

Considering it was free I don't really have any complaints about Love Film/Screen select (the Quidco cashback paid for my second month) however if I'd paid for it I'd have been mightily p*ssed off at the number of dud discs.

I would highly recommend Amazon and will be sticking with them from now whatever 'free deals' there are elsewhere.

vinylmusic

I have dozens of One Month free trial vouchers for LoveFilm to give away.
Not a bad deal since now they only give 2 weeks on their website


Send me a PM through this forum site and I will send you one in exchange for an SAE.
I cant put my address here for all to see otherwise I may get more SAE's than I have vouchers

misskool

Another RANT about lovefilm.
Do they ever respond to emails??? I'm going to send them one a day until I get some sort of response. They've billed me 2 weeks early!!

And for anyone who is still with this shady operation the website is now advertising £12.49 for unlimited 2-disc a month packages, ARGHHH... I'm paying £12.99 a month for 4 dvds.

There's probably no hope of compensation as well from them!!!

vinylmusic

misskool wrote:

Another RANT about lovefilm.
Do they ever respond to emails??? I'm going to send them one a day until I get some sort of response. They've billed me 2 weeks early!!

And for anyone who is still with this shady operation the website is now advertising £12.49 for unlimited 2-disc a month packages, ARGHHH... I'm paying £12.99 a month for 4 dvds.

There's probably no hope of compensation as well from them!!!

I always send them 2 emails. One from their website's online email form and the other from my computer to [EMAIL="support@lovefilm.com"]support@lovefilm.com[/EMAIL] with a "reader received" option


Firstly I have found that their website form usually has more chance of being read but theres no proof that you sent it

Sending one from your computer too gives you a record of it being sent

You could also call their dreaded 0870 number if all else fails
Its 08706095384

jammiev

hi, had no dvd's dispateched for 5 days!
rang them and said computers have been down!
getting them dispatched in next 24 hrs!

vinylmusic

jammiev wrote:

hi, had no dvd's dispateched for 5 days!
rang them and said computers have been down!
getting them dispatched in next 24 hrs!

Make sure you complain
Don't let them get away with it.

They are as tight as a ducks you know what, but last time there were delays (not so long ago) I complained wanting my billing date pushed on a bit
Well no chance of that but I did get an extra movie sent ahead of time giving me 4 instead of 3

I notice that a lot of people complain a lot about their slowness to deliver.
I think you can expect that if your mostly after the most popular and latest releases.
I've had good turnarounds on the whole. In fact its been quite amazing.
I can send DVD's back on a Monday and receive new ones as soon as Wednesday. But then I'm very keen on foreign/Arthouse movies as well as old serie-noir with just a few very popular titles mixed in.

thetargetarcher

I decided to leave my 3 disc unlimited membership with Lovefilm yesterday. I had sent 1 rental back to them on Wednesday and I received and returned another 2 rentals to them yesterday. Today I have seen that my allocation is empty (as is my rental list) so they have no excuse in cancelling my Membership. They said via email that it would be cancelled when all the rentals have been returned to them. The renewal date is the 13th November so I should not be charged anything more by them.

I joined Blockbuster yesterday via Quidco. My trial £7.50 cashback has been tracked and today I received the top 3 discs in my queue. I should add that these discs were set as high priority for virtually my whole 2 month experience with Lovefilm!

When the trial is up after 2 weeks and I become a paying member with Blockbuster another £7.50 should be tracked with Quidco.

Basically by using Quidco my first month and a half will work out free. Hopefully I will experience a better level of service with Blockbuster and receive regular rentals from my list. I left Lovefilm as it became a really slow turnaround of getting films.

Clowance

my free trial ends tomorrow - although 3 months, they always send stuff at the bottom of the list (level 3 priority, about 30th). Not only disgusted with that, but also with cancelling.
The terms and conditions say cancel via the website, but the only way is an 0870 number which does not even register after 10pm ish. (Solid bleep).
If they are going to turn it off, the least they should do is have opening hours on the same page as the cancellation number.
Abysmal service, like others Blockbuster is much better. The only advantage Lovefilm have is the wider range of obscure titles.:mad:

moosetastic

i have had a lovefilm free trial, and since the trial ended, had nothing but trouble. 1st month fine, 2nd month, i froze my account until december but they still took the payment, even though the website said you didnt have to pay. 3rd month, 2 payments have been taken, i have sent them an email but no reply.

think i am definately gonna cancel and try my luck somewhere else

thetargetarcher

thetargetarcher wrote:

I decided to leave my 3 disc unlimited membership with Lovefilm yesterday. I had sent 1 rental back to them on Wednesday and I received and returned another 2 rentals to them yesterday. Today I have seen that my allocation is empty (as is my rental list) so they have no excuse in cancelling my Membership. They said via email that it would be cancelled when all the rentals have been returned to them. The renewal date is the 13th November so I should not be charged anything more by them.

I joined Blockbuster yesterday via Quidco. My trial £7.50 cashback has been tracked and today I received the top 3 discs in my queue. I should add that these discs were set as high priority for virtually my whole 2 month experience with Lovefilm!

When the trial is up after 2 weeks and I become a paying member with Blockbuster another £7.50 should be tracked with Quidco.

Basically by using Quidco my first month and a half will work out free. Hopefully I will experience a better level of service with Blockbuster and receive regular rentals from my list. I left Lovefilm as it became a really slow turnaround of getting films.

Lovefilm sent me an email on Friday to confirm the cancellation of my membership.

So far with Blockbusters I seem to be getting the titles at the top of my rental list.