DVD rental providers feedback

barneydog

grace2much wrote:

My head is spinning with all the different rental companies and the pros and cons each has. This will be my first time to rent DVDs. Had almost decided on easycinema but then I saw on their site it was serviced by Lovefilm and they seem to have attracted a lot of negative feedback in general.

So I thought after reading the mainly positive feed back that a blockbuster free trial for 1 month as martin's article said would be the best option but when I tried to add martins code to the blockbusters free trial section it said it was invalid or expired I think. So I could only have a 2 weeks free trial, sounds a very short time to let me get a feel for the rental game. Perhaps though its long enough.....any thoughts?

Can anyone advise me on the blockbuster code problem and who they think a dvd rental novice should try first?


Thanks in advance

Blockbuster are the best balance between a big, don't give a s..t about you company (the lovefilm name just jumps out here) and a decent firm. To be honest they seem to treat everyone the same most of the time.

As for codes they change them frequently, try these, at least one of these was working 10 days ago as I used it

ST65447
st60027

Can't remember which one, sorry.

grace2much

Thanks barneydog, the code worked first time and I've my list of 54 dvds filled, no chance of getting through them all in a month:rolleyes: I'm interested if this rental idea will work for me.

pompeychick77

I am seriously thinking of signing up for dvd rental but not sure whether to do amazon limited 4 or tesco unlimited 1. Reading some of the posts it seems that if you do unlimited your dvds don`t get sent so quickly. am i better off going for amazon?

PLEASE HELP

princess_sarah_2

I want to share a couple of my experiences with Lovefilm.

Firstly, my father began a free trial, and when we cancelled via the internet, he was charged a few days later. All DVDs were marked as returned in his account. When we phoned customer services, we were told they never received the request for cancellation. The supervisor was very rude, and absolutely would not refund the money.

What I did manage to get, was the subscription month transferred from his account into my account, so in the end we did not lose out and I just refunded my father. Still, the customer service was horrible.

The other experience I have to share is regarding the useless priority system. I had put the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" at the top of my list (back when it was a numbered priority system) and did not receive it for a year. I had actually gotten so bored of waiting, I went to see it in the local theatre. Surely this movie couldn't have been so popular...

Since the new priority system, I have had one TV series as my high priority with everything else medium or low. The first 2 discs were sent immediately, but it is now several months later and there's been no sign of disc 3. By the time it arrives I'll have to rent the first 2 discs again to remember what happened! The TV show was surely not that popular either as it's been gone from current memory for quite some time.

Despite all this, however, the turnaround is very fast for me. I am a student, so if one morning a movie that I wanted to see arrives, that my boyfriend has zero interest in, I will sometimes watch it and pop it in the post before 7pm. In these cases, Lovefilm receive the DVD the very next day, and the day after that we receive a new DVD. I have had 10 DVDs in the last 6 weeks or so, and we are on the 1 DVD at a time/ £9.99 a month package (which may now be about £12, I'm not sure).

It is quite good value for me, because I don't want to buy box sets of TV shows I've never watched, but I do like to rent them, which simply isn't possible for my obscure tastes at other rental places.

grace2much

I tried a blockbuster 1 month trail and then cancelled at the end of the third week. Everything went smooth, quick deliveries etc and no problem cancelling.

For me the rental idea just doesn't suit me but for others I'm sure its good. Anyhow I would recommend Blockbuster if you want a rental package with no hassle.

vinylmusic

Believe it or not I'm still a customer of Lovefilm.
Some time ago I went on a three months for one offer 3 movies at a time.
When that expired I called to cancel.
In my case I received good customer service but then I was cancelling and they obviously didn't want to lose me.
I was offered another three months for one. I had the feeling maybe they really were improving so I accepted.
I started rebuilding my list.
I built my list up to around 36 and admittedly most are very popular titles but surely that shouldnt be a problem with such a company. You'd think they'd do their sums and buy in a decent supply to fullfill the demand. Well you'd be wrong
I have been receiving DVD's in a timely way although in most cases they never send out new titles on the same day they receive seen ones back. Its usually the day after.
What is bugging me is that I rarely get any priority titles
With around 25 listed as high priority, 6 mediun and 5 low prioritys you'd think I'd get a priority choice at least once out of 3 or 4
Well out of the last 17 titles I have only received one priority, one medium and 15 low priority.
I would add more titles but I cant find any movies that really interest me for the moment and dont have much time to research possibilities.
I keep writing to complain but all I get back are template responses. When I complain about that its responded top with another template.
Heres the last ones:
Thank you for your recent email.

I had written:

> Out of the last 16 titles you have sent only one has been from my priority list and one from my second choice. ALL others were from my LOW priority choices.
> I feel like I am receiving a second class service.
> Whenever I complain you come back with the same old excuses.
> I try to build my list to an acceptable size but lose interest in adding titles because in doing so I appear to delay getting those I really want. This is really a poor service I'm getting.

Their reply:

We apologise for the inconvenience caused to you. This is to inform you that we always try our best to get the customers their titles in the order of their preference as soon as possible. However, it all depends upon the allocation given to you by our automated dispatch system, stock of titles, availability and the number of people waiting for a particular film, which can affect the receipt of the top choices.

We cannot always promise that the next title dispatched will be one from among the titles listed at priority one on your account. However, we can assure that these will be dispatched whenever possible, depending on availability at the time of dispatch.

Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind regards,

Sabina
--
Customer Services
LOVEFiLM.com
The new way to rent DVDs
https://www.LOVEFiLM.com

My response to that:

> You just sent me a template response and I feel that you haven'y really
> addressed my complaint properly.
> I accept that you cant always send top choice titles every time but I feel
> that the amount of medium and low choice titles I get are disproportionate.
> Please read my original email again.
> Out of the last 16 titles only one from medium choice and ALL the others
> were from my least important choices.
> I find that to be very poor service
>
> You either have not stocked up according to the demand or you are not taking
> care as to whom you are supplying a fair share of top choices.

Their reply to that (obviously another template)

Thank you for your recent email.

We can confirm that our dispatches depend upon the availability of title at the time of dispatch and your preference to see the title. At the time of delivery, we try to find and dispatch a priority one listed title to you. If none of the priority one titles are available, we will check for available titles listed at priority two. Only if we cannot dispatch a priority two listed title will we look for available priority three titles.


We cannot always promise that the next title dispatched will be one from among the titles listed at priority one on your account. However, we can assure that these will be dispatched whenever possible, depending on availability at the time of dispatch.

Should you have any more questions, please do let us know and we will be happy to assist you further.

Kind regards,

Vijeta
--
Customer Services
LOVEFiLM.com
The new way to rent DVDs
https://www.LOVEFiLM.com

I may as well address my concerns to the wall:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

madpom

Having used LoveFilm several times (not through choice - always because the provider I was using was taken over) I have to say their service is awful. It usually took several days for them to acknowledge a returned disc and often was a further day before they would despatch the next queued item (usually from low down my queue).

When a disc I returned to them went missing, it was almost 4 weeks before they actually "acknowledged" it was missing and sent another disc from my queue. 6 Months later (long after I left LoveFilm) I received a claim form to complete for the Royal Mail for the missing disc!

Currently I am with Cinema Paradiso and the overwhelming feeling is "slow slow slow". When I was on the 4 free discs trial I could return a disc Tuesday, they would dispatch Wednesday and I would receive Thursday. Within a week of my account going "live" (paid for) they seemed to be delaying discs. Now if I receive a disc on a Monday and post it back Tuesday for example, they acknowledge receipt either Thursday or (usually) Friday. If I don't post a disc back on a Tuesday I don't get another disc that week. The delays also occur when posting back Thursday/Friday for example - usually they don't acknowledge receipt until Tuesday/Wednesday.

On several occasions they have acknowledged receipt, yet do not dispatch another title for a further day. Ultimately it feels like they deliberately restrict me to one title per week which makes a mockery of the "unlimited" plan. Never have I had anything from my top 10 discs (mix of old TV shows, classic films and the odd new release). As providers go they are on a par with LoveFilm - though I haven't experienced their customer service yet.

Has anyone tried MovieMine? They appear to be a smaller (independent?) provider not yet gobbled up and I was thinking of trying them, yet there seem to be little said about them. The reason I chose CP over MovieMine was the range of titles available. Now I'm starting to wonder if it was the right decision based on how slow CP are.

Comments welcome...

vinylmusic

Does anyone have Lovefilm's free phone number? I lost it and I want to call them up and give them a piece of my mind verbally

MANDIE_3

I have been using Lovefilm for ages now. I get 3 films a month and I am actually quite happy with the service they provide. I would agree with another Post though that I don't often get a number 1 choice title its nearly always a 2 or 3. I haven't had any dvds go missing and they always come within a couple of days of sending the other ones back.

vinylmusic

MANDIE wrote:

I have been using Lovefilm for ages now. I get 3 films a month and I am actually quite happy with the service they provide. I would agree with another Post though that I don't often get a number 1 choice title its nearly always a 2 or 3. I haven't had any dvds go missing and they always come within a couple of days of sending the other ones back.

3 films a month?
How much are you paying for that.
Personally for 3 a month I could rent locally for £5 0r £6
Many public libraries offer good choices these days
Mine has many titles at £1 and top titles are £2 and you can keep them for a week
You should check out yours to make a comparison