REPORT BOARD For MYMOVIESTREAM complaints

uktim29

mute_posting wrote: »

As a consumer, how I see it, all these companied have jumped on the free trial bandwagon, nobody should feel guilty for taking up a free trial (of anything, dvd, magazine etc etc.)

The way these free trials on the whole are advertised to pick up targeted leads ie people who might actually enjoy the service and continue to use it. Therefore that makes offering free trials profitable.

This site is not a film buff site. It blatantly encourages freeloading, if the free trial operator had a choice, they would refuse to appear on such sites. However there is no choice and this site can choose to publish what it likes.

The long and the short of it is this marketing tactic is not meant to literally offer everyone a free trial, but only targeted leads (you know that!). The practicality of it is it's almost impossible to enforce. The companies know this but have yet to withdraw free trials as it still must be profitable to do so.

I would struggle to believe that people using the free trial on here to watch a few free dvd's wouldn't actually know they're doing it blatantly to take advantage.

EagerLearner

I think that lots of people will take up free trials and stay with the supplier if the service offered is good.

I signed up for free trial of MoneyWise Magazine via Moneysavingexpert in November - and I am still with them.

I signed up to the free trial via Egg for MyMovieStream, and would still be with them if they were worthwhile sticking with.

Not everyone just wants the free element. But MMS undertake to offer free trials in the full knowledge that some folks will drop off after the trial is over. Overall the supplier is the one offering the free trial, seemingly taking the risk, yet with MMS it's the customers taking the risk and being burned. MMS promise this free dvd, which many people never receive, they then make canceling deliberately difficult, and 'lose' dvd's, seeming claim many times from Royal Mail at over £30 a pop.

Your detailed knowledge about this marketing tactic would suggest you also must know that the free trials will bring in far more business compared to the few people who only do the free trial and then leave.

Forgive me but I'd also question your reasons for posting so defensively on this board which is specifically about people who have had issues with MyMovieStream - do you work for them?

If you don't, do you have any personal experience of them?

You have posted 5 times now on threads about MyMovieStream always on the defensive, so just wondering.

mute_posting

uktim29 wrote: »

The way these free trials on the whole are advertised to pick up targeted leads ie people who might actually enjoy the service and continue to use it. Therefore that makes offering free trials profitable.

This site is not a film buff site. It blatantly encourages freeloading, if the free trial operator had a choice, they would refuse to appear on such sites. However there is no choice and this site can choose to publish what it likes.

The long and the short of it is this marketing tactic is not meant to literally offer everyone a free trial, but only targeted leads (you know that!). The practicality of it is it's almost impossible to enforce. The companies know this but have yet to withdraw free trials as it still must be profitable to do so.

I would struggle to believe that people using the free trial on here to watch a few free dvd's wouldn't actually know they're doing it blatantly to take advantage.

I'd suggest to you that they are not very well "targeted" as every magazine I open (none of which are film/TV equipment related I might add) contains a bunch of inserts for such services and they are all over the TV.

I doub't Martin would share your view that we are a bunch of "!!!!!!!!!!s" who use this site - he may use the term informed consumers?
Also no-ne is pointing a gun at these companies forcing them to offer free trials to everyone who goes to their site - if they truely wanted to "target" movies customers they could advertise in movie magazines with (single use)codes to sign up.

The marketing team may not want to offer everyone a free trial, but if that is the case they need to change their "targeting" and marketing strategy (for the reasons just explained above you know that!)

MP

Bamber19

mute_posting wrote: »

People are only following Martin's advice...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cheap-dvd-rental#tart

Personally, I've not used any of the services (yet) because I'm just not organised enough at the moment and don't find I'm watching many Films (so would be renting films for the sake of renting not bacause I actually want to watch something)

However - it says it in bold capitals at the top of every page on this site

To be a member of this site you don't have to agree with everything Martin stands for, this is one thing I don't agree with.

This isn't even consumer revenge, revenge suggests that one is wronged and they wrong the other party in retaliation in an act that "evens the score" but in this situation innocent companies (at least at the time of taking up the offer) are being exploited. Many companies in the UK are small 2-20 person operations that simply cannot afford to take the hit of millions of people taking advantage of an offer that they'd expected only a few hundred thousand or less to take up.

mute_posting wrote: »

I might send away for one of the many freebies advertised on the weekly email - it doesn't mean I should feel obligated to purchase the product once I've used it up.

You shouldn't feel obligated to purchase the item, but the impression I get from these boards is that a man with no hands will sign up for an insurance policy and cancel it within a few days in order to get the free gloves that come with it, simply because he can. There should be a balance between the greedy part of a person's mind and the moral part. If you have a genuine interest in a product and are willing to keep an open mind and consider purchasing it then by all means take up the trial but that's not the case with most on here, it's just a "We can get summink for nuffink, let's go" parade. If you have no intention of taking up product then morally I don't think you should be taking the trials. I'd have to ask all those who had a trial what it actually was that let them down about the product and made them not have an interest in continuing with it. Of course, we all know the answer to that one "I was never interested in the first place."

Again, I respect Martin but he's just another person like you are I, he can actually be wrong sometimes. I'm not going to blindly agree with everyhting he says or try and justify something with "because Martin says so" just because it's his name at the top of the page.

EagerLearner

I agree with some of what you say Bamber, in that each person will have their own level of morals as you say. Maybe there are people out there who sign up for everything and everything - that's their decision, and I guess they have more time and less worries about doing it than you or I might...

However, if it's truly a good product, targeted properly, the gains of a proper promotion will far outweigh the few customers that drop off the radar after taking the trial.

Any company that is unable to turn a massive influx of custom into an opportunity, needs a new Marketing Manager and investors in the background to put money in pronto! I work for a small company and I promise you that as an example, if Martin were to suddenly promote us, I would work all through the night to get all the orders in... and sleep a week later!

This happened with the Tabasco/Odeon free offer last year (not quite free as you had to buy 2 bottles to get 2 vouchers) - each 2 vouchers gave you one Odeon cinema ticket. I dutifully bought tabasco, sent off my vouchers. They obviously sold a truckload of Tabasco and were innundated with vouchers. I never got my Odeon ticket and Tabasco laughed all their way to the bank. Are they feeling sorry for the 'innocent' customer that lost out? No way.

Anyway - back to Topic - MyMovieStream!

Bamber19

EagerLearner wrote: »

However, if it's truly a good product, targeted properly, the gains of a proper promotion will far outweigh the few customers that drop off the radar after taking the trial.

Any company that is unable to turn a massive influx of custom into an opportunity, needs a new Marketing Manager and investors in the background to put money in pronto! I work for a small company and I promise you that as an example, if Martin were to suddenly promote us, I would work all through the night to get all the orders in... and sleep a week later!

I see what your saying but when a vast majority of those signing up have learned about the offer from one source and that source has promoted it as "revenge" and getting something for nothing then the company simply isn't dealing with a massive influx of custom, they're dealing with a massive influx of people trying to get something for free with no intention of ever buying the product. Unfortunately when this happens some companies are using underhand tactics, claiming things have been filled out wrong, not returned or simply claiming the person agreed to sign up permanently, that is just as bad, if not worse and I can understand people's unhappiness, but hopefully once it's sorted they might think twice next time before trialing a product they have no intention of taking up or no real interest in whatsoever.

uktim29

EagerLearner wrote: »

However, if it's truly a good product, targeted properly, the gains of a proper promotion will far outweigh the few customers that drop off the radar after taking the trial.

But not with this site.

No I don't work for them. It's amazing how many companies people have assumed I work for on here! I'll voice my opinion even if it is a vent thread because I can, just like this site can link to Mymoviestream and encourage people to take free trials just to watch a few free dvd's then cancel. Fair isn't it?

EagerLearner

Yes, and Martin has dropped MyMovieStream from his recommended best DVD rental sites - his recommendations are not for people wanting freebies as you seem to suggest - he recommends the Best Service for DVD rental and the best price. The companies who treat customers right are on his list. MMS are now not.

He may have recommended them because he thought they offered good service. Now he knows they do not, it's no skin off his nose to remove them completely.

uktim29

EagerLearner wrote: »

his recommendations are not for people wanting freebies as you seem to suggest.

Are you sure?

This is a quote from that page,

"So, in time-honoured MoneySaving tradition, sign up grab the free trial, use it, then cancel and move to the next.".

It's been deleted so I'll add it again. Martin wants you do to this through his affiliate link to make him money. If he was really interested in you saving money he would tell you to join a cashback site, do the free trials from there and pocket the money instead of him. This "free of ads" "full of ads" site has for some reason removed that post!

eriery

I have, to my knowledge cancelled my account more than a year ago. A year later, Moviesteam sent me some Lost Disc Form to fill in, which I did and sent back to them within the 7 days or how many days period. I remember clearly it was within the period.
and then a month or so later, Moviesteam took £90.00 from my account and refund back almost the same time.

and a further few months later, Moviesteam sent me the Lost Disc Form again, which I sent back to them again with a letter saying I have already completed the forms and submitted to them before.

And today, having checked my account, I notice they have taken £180.00 from my bank account. What on earth are they doing?
This is completely unauthorise and I am very angry with this. I have no notification whatsoever. Do they think they can just take money from people's accounts as they like.

the WORST company you could have.
I have used LoveFilm before and such experience never happen. Discs have never been lost.
I think Moviesteam should really work on their orgainisation