Aussie on-line DVD Rentals - a mini review

[guns1inger]

I have seen a few discussions regarding US on-line rental services, and though it time to look at a couple of Australian providors. Please note - these reviews are based on a 30 day trial subscription to each service. The two services covered are WebFlicks and FetchMeMovies

WebFlicks have a library of over 11,000 disks covering all genres except adult films (a sister site, AdultFlix has opened to cater for this market, and Australia's rather antiquated laws for dealing with X-Rated adult material). They have arange of subscription plans starting from 1 disk at a time up to 8 disks at a time, and prices ranging from AU$4.95/week - AU$17.95 week (The 30 day trial was for 3 disks at a time). The site itself is clean and simple, and easy to navigate. Shipping is covered in the cost of rental, and each disk is shipped in a lined soft-poly pocket, inside a cardboard return envelope, inside a paper envelope. In the 30 days and 25 DVDs sent to me, only one was scratched to the point of causing playback problems, although a number had to be cleaned of fingerprints. Once reported, and new copy was dispatched. New DVDs were disptached efficiently, and over all the services was very high.

FetchMeMovies is an off-shoot of Telstra (Australia's largest and most over-priced Telco). It has around 8500 disks in it's library. As with WebFlicks, all genres are covered except adults films, however the coverage is a little hit and miss. For example, the recently released uncut Lucio Fulci films are available, but the uncut Andy Warhol films are not (OK - I am a horror buff). Pricing and plans are similar to WebFlicks, with some plans undercutting the competition, while some are more expensive. The site is a little less attractive than WebFlicks, and tuned to fit the Telstra corporate image, but it is functional and easy to navigate. Again, postage is covered in the rental cost, however it is here that FetchMeMovies really lets itself (and the customer) down. Disks are packaged in a cardboard reply paid envelope, packed inside a paper envelope. There is no softlined poly pocket to protect the disk. The cardboard envelope is lined with some non-slip substance that comes off during transport and sticks to the edges and surfaces of the disks. Every disk I received had this substances stuck to it. Annoying enough, however this substance also causes pitting on the disk surface as well as scratches as people try to wipe it off. All in all, of the 16 disks I recieved, 4 would not play at all or were completely unwatchable after a chapter or two, and another 5 were watchable but visibly affected. FetchMeMovies were fairly efficient with dispatching new disks, however WebFlicks were more consistent.

Overall, WebFlicks over a much better service than FetchMeMovies. They are more efficient and predictable in their dispatch, have a much better range of product, and a much safer packaging, ensuring you actually get to watch the movie you asked for. Depending on the plan you may pay a couple of dollars month more than for FetchMeMovies, but the quality of service more than makes up for the price disparity. FetchMeMovie's choice of a dog as a logo might be more telling than they realise.

P.S. The WebFlicks trial came with my Pioneer DVD player, however a 30 day subscription to FetchMeMovies can be had by entering sundvd as the offer code when subscribing.

[vitualis]

Of about 30 DVDs I've gotten from FetchMeMovies, one was cracked (hub to rim --> unplayable obviously) and one was chipped on the rim. All others were fine and playable without issue on my player.

I haven't tried any other service but I get pretty good service from FetchMeMovies and when I had to contact their customer service (via email on two occasions), I got a personal response that was useful within a day. I agree that their postage material can and should be improved upon.

I only use FetchMeMovie to get Star Trek episodes as well as anime --> basically stuff that would be difficult to get consistenty at the local video store. So far, I've been impressed enough with the service to continue to a paid subscription.

Has anyone else tried any of the other on-line rental systems in Australia?

Best regards.

[guns1inger]

I used their customer feedback area on 4 seperate occassions because of the consistent issues I was having with the product they were sending me. The feedback area states that I should expect a response within 24 hours during the business week. I have never recieved a response.

[daamon]

Hi guns1inger - Good work,

You say both were based on a 30-day trial. When I go to WebFlicks, it's only 2 weeks. Has this changed recently or did you have a promotion code?

Are there any others you've either tried or are aware of / planning to try? I've had a quick look in Google and found:

http://www.quickflix.com.au
http://www.dvdjam.com.au
http://www.v2direct.com.au

Any comments on these?

[guns1inger]

My WebFlicks trial came with my Pioneer DVD Player, so yes, I had a promotion code. I haven't tried out any of the others yet.