Your Take Re: Online DVD Rentals??? Good or Bad??

[MAXIMUS01CAN]

Howdy All,

Anyone done any research or use these services. Being from Canada it looks as if it's around $25/month for online orders to your door rentals. Just wondering if anyone's used this service or is it a burn......

Cheers,
Max

[yoda313]

Hi,

I've read a lot of users here who love online dvd rentals. But some have said if you're a high user you'll be put on a "hold" list and won't get them as fast after a certain time.

I haven't signed up for any myself. I don't rent enough movies to do a monthly service. I only rent a handful every 6 months so it would be a waste for me.

Just decide if you rent enough movies per month to make less trips to the store appealing.

Kevin

[jimmalenko]

Here's a guide showing a few comparisons:

https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?guideid=720&howtoselect=1;55#720


Also, do a Forum Search. This subject has been done to death

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=272640
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=241166

[VideoTechMan]

I tried online dvd rentals once.....but I dont rent movies very often, if rare to do so because theres not many movies anymore that are worth my time. No point in wasting monthly fees on a service I will hardly use.

VTM

[nathanaa]

A lof of my friends use either Netflix or Blockbuster, some of them have both at the same time. They are also trying out some of the newer ones that are starting to pop up too.

They pretty much all say the same thing, that initially everything is great, but after a couple months of high usage, real problems start to occur.

For example, this one family I know - they have a pretty large extended family/step-family arrangement in one household, about 5 adults, 4 teenagers, and 7 or 8 kids. They watch a LOT of movies, so they though it would be a great idea, and for awhile it was. But, their monthly usage rate was really high, sometimes 15-20 discs a month from Netflix and BB each (so they told me, I still don't know how they managed that). Oh, the kids were all allowed to get discs whenever they wanted, so it seemed like pretty much every single day they were getting a disc or two in and sending some back out.

Anyway, all of a sudden, their discs seemed to start arriving later than they should have (the return trip), their discs on their que would not get sent out until the *next* day instead of the same day, their lists of stuff they wanted would get deleted, all sorts of junk. It seemed like they were going through "too many" discs, so they were being foribly slowed down by BS tactics. Plus, the price per month seems to keep going up. So, they are really unhappy with both of their services now.

That's pretty much what I've heard from all my friends. Almost identical complaints about mysterious vanishing lists that they have to rebuild, and slower service than other friends of mine who don't have such high usage. I personally don't use any of them, and doubt I will in the forseeable future.

It isn't such a surprise to me though, I mean, what did they expect people to do - NOT take advantage of it as much as they could? It sure *sounded* like a good deal when it started out.

[mats.hogberg]

Tried 3 different services here in Sweden - all satisfying. OTOH, I hardly would rent 6 movies every month (which would cost me the same as a month fee for On Line Rental) at my local Video rental shop - there's simply not 6 watchable movies released every month!, so in the end, I find it not worth it.

/Mats

[Tolyngee]

Hi,

I've read a lot of users here who love online dvd rentals. But some have said if you're a high user you'll be put on a "hold" list and won't get them as fast after a certain time.
Kevin

The easiest way to verify this is to send multiple discs back in the same mailer. (I always send two per mailer anyway...)

If you mail 3+ in the same mailer, and they are all received on different days, then you know something fishy is going on...

Maybe that have that right, but here's what I hate:

When you send multiple discs back in the same mailer, and supposedly ONE gets LOST in the mail!? I remember trying to get BB/NF (or maybe both of 'em...) to understand that disc C was mailed in the same mailer as A + B, and you have A + B, surely you should have C? Maybe check you warehouse? "Sir, we will do a trace (or whatever) through the USPS." Good luck.

And, even if they are using the "lost" DVD as a way to delay shipping me titles, I think it is baloney as reporting a DVD as "lost" is (if memory serves) a seven-day delay before you can report a non-received disc as potentially "lost in the mail."

That's seven days that a rental for yourself was held hostage by this system.

Like I said, it's clear when you send multiple discs back in the same mailer what they are up to...

You also will learn to potentially NOT declare a disc you've received as damaged. I've had to do this a few times, and was surprised that it didn't appear to harm my account. (the discs honestly were received damaged...)

But the problem arises when you report the dvd as cracked, attempt to re-rent the DVD, just to receive the same f-ing damaged disc with the same f-ing crack! COME ON IT'S A F-ING CRACK! It's not a dirty disc that I was too lazy to clean, or maybe just my player/DVD drive didn't like, etc etc etc... IT'S F-ING CRACKED!

Irregardless of who you want to fault for the above, it's fully my opinion that CRACKED discs shouldn't be in the library, they should be caught by CS and dealt with... Irregardless of if they are reported... Besides, what if the disc is cracked in shipping BACK to them? How long can it take to slide the disc out of the sleeve to verify there isn't some BIG A** CRACK in the disc? It only wastes the customers' time for the company to not take these discs out of circulation...

I do give BB/NF credit though that I never received a disc that was in multiple pieces... I had that occur with another rental company though, and the mailer didn't show any indication that it had been subjected to the kind of mishandling that the disc suggested...

I really hope no one is sending broken discs out to customers hoping to try to stick the loss on their subscriber base...

[dafoe]

It really depends on what you are looking for. If you want the convenience of not having to go to the video store and don't expect an outrageous amount of DVDs it's probably worth a try. I don't care what anyone says the rentals are not unlimited

If you are like most people and only rent 4-6 movies a month, the local video store would probably be cheaper.

If you expect to get 2-3 shipments a week you are living in fantasy land. That being said, you should still get quite few movies depending on how long it takes you to watch them.

Ultimately you have to watch quite a few movies per month for it to be worth it.

Most of these places offer a cheap starter package. I would give it a try and see how you like it. "Is it worth it?" is really too subjective a question for others to answer for you.

[mats.hogberg]

3 shipments is too much to hope for, but those I've tried sure kept close to 2 shipments each week:
3 movies monday, watch, watch, watch
Put 'em in the mailbox tuesday.
recieved wednesday, three more dispatched same day to arrive at:
Thursday, watch, watch, watch
Friday sent back, treated monday
3 more tuesday, watch, watch, watch
and so on.

/Mats

[ebenton]

- there's simply not 6 watchable movies released every month!, so in the end, I find it not worth it.

/Mats

The thing about online rental services, for some people, is not to get 6 brand new, just-released movies every month. Services like Netflix have access to a lot of obscure movies. My wife likes to rent old movies from the '40's or '50's, like Andy Hardy, the Harvey Girls and a lot of other "classic" movies, either black-and-white or color.
Try getting most of those types of movies at your local rental store.

[nelson133]

I use Netflix for their selection, because there are so few new movies that I find worth watching. With something like 40,00 movies available, I can always find something worth watching. They do purposefully hold up return shipments to reduce the number of rented disks. My center is just 60 miles away and the turn around time can be a week. Nyah Levi

[mats.hogberg]

have access to a lot of obscure movies.

Yes, I agree, but after not too long, they have to be very obscure. I always had a few of those together with the latest releases on my list, but rather soon I ran out of watchable-but-obscure movies too.
Come to think of it, one good point for on line rental, is if you're afraid of meeting your neighbour when you step up to the pron-shelf at your local video store - All On Line rentals come in the same very discrete packages, regardless of content...

/Mats

[smearbrick1]

I've been using Netflix since shortly after it opened its doors (portals, whatever). I have never experienced any of the problems anyone has described. In fact, my turn around time has gotten better. My distro center is only about 25 miles away. I have no problems returning damaged discs and getting an undamaged disc in return. I have never had any billing issues at all. Now, Blockbuster... that's different story.

[ROF]

Depends on your usage. I'm currently a netflix customer. I'm a blockbuster in store movie pass owner (2 Movies) too. I tried blockbuster online, but their movies always arrived later than they should have and sometimes the discs arrived in damaged condition. Netflix has yet to disappoint. Although, several months ago I had backlogged a bunch of movies and I did notice a "slow down" in their distribution to me. However, once I allowed those movies to ship and cleared my slate, I can send movies out and get new ones back in a matter of just a few days. I think, somehow, they monitor usage and if you are a high volume viewer, they automatically slow your distribution channel down.

That's why I've kept my in store movie pass at blockbuster. I can still rent new titles on the day they are released and use netflix to rent older movie or newer titles I can wait to see.