Just Off The High St. (blockbuster.co.uk)

Member Name: SlyClone2k

Product:	blockbuster.co.uk
Date:	20/08/04 (491 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No late fees, easy to navigate, good range, no delivery fee, not on the high st.

Disadvantages: Internet shopping still ain't for some.

**Getting To Blockbuster**

So here it is, the advent of internet movie rental has almost fully risen to fill its rightful place amongst areas of the internet that some people still fear to tread. The place is a website, where one partakes in a service in exchange for handing over certain credit card details.

Does the idea still terrify you? Have you still never bought anything on the internet? Perhaps you're concerned as you've never heard of the company that proffers such a service.

Well then be assured, surely a name like Blockbuster could tempt you? Yes, that is correct you can now go to Blockbusters on the internet and rent your DVDs. You have moved on to DVD haven't you? Not still stuck on Beta-max? Good, then I shall continue (unless of course you are still on Beta-max in which case stop wasting your time reading this).

I remember reading in one DVD review magazine or another some months ago that renting DVDs online was really taking off, I wasn't particularly surprised as I had been subscribing to one such service for quite a while already. But I also remember them saying that unless Blockbuster sorted themselves out pretty damned sharpish that they'd be left behind along with anyone else not getting on with the technological revolution. Hence I assume someone in upper management was reading said article and agreed. No surprise then that Blockbuster finally got this service running to full capacity about 8 weeks ago.

Now, having been a fervent anti-blockbuster official for quite a while I wasn't aware they had a website, or had offers to rent online. But when my local DVD store got robbed and burnt out I had to find an alternative solution. Of course I didn't go straight for Blockbuster, being a wise internet user I checked out some of the alternatives first. There are some good ones, but through issues I'll explain in the course of the op Blockbusters became the one I've stuck with for the last little while.
**Services**

The website itself is a simple affair, typically all company image blues and yellows, but it's easy to navigate and easy to find what you are looking for whether it's old or new. In comparison to many of its ilk the website is also fast to load, something that doesn't appear to be easy to accomplish.

The first page gives various links to various searches, including Genre, Name, Recommended and Top 20. It's quite easy to find the newest releases and those in the current charts.

I've got ahead of myself a bit. You see I forgot to mention the most important part on page 1. The rental solutions. You see Blockbuster have two types of offer.

Unlimited Rental - Currently there is a 1 month free trial for this, (pretty good that) where you can get 3 films and keep them for up to a month for free. But that's not all. Say you've watched those three films within a night or two. Well you can send those three back and get three more. For free! You can do this as many times as you like within the free month trial. Alternatively you could put the DVDs on your shelf and watch them anytime you like. The important thing to remember here is that it's a 1 month trial. If you go over it they are going to start charging you.

So you've gone past your one month free trial and you've taken to renting online. You'll have noticed the price, £13.99 a month to receive 3 DVDs at a time. It would seem obvious to me that if you rent 4 or 5 top movies a month from a blockbuster store then you're going to be pretty safe with an offer like this. There is also another option for the avid viewer for 5 DVDs for £20.99 a month. It does seem like a large increase in cost for little gain doesn't it. I agree. Assuming you keep on paying your subscription you'll never incur any further rental charges.

Per-Rental - The second alternative is to use the per-rental option. At £4.50 for a new release or £3.50 for the others you receive 1 DVD for 5 night rental. I'm sure this is a good option for some, particularly as you get a few nights to watch it, but it's not really the one for me. I can see too many draw backs.

**Paying**

As I mentioned earlier, either way you are going to need a credit or debit card. Blockbuster are pretty flexible as to what they'll take. They claim (and one doesn't have to assume that they are telling the truth, they also say by whom it is provided) that they are using the latest in SSL 128bit encryption technology to keep your credit card details safe, now isn't really the place to explain what that mean, but from a teckie to a non-teckie, that's pretty damned safe.

So how do they compare to their competitors? Well to begin with £13.99 is a very competitive rate for 3 DVDs, the others usually way in around the £14.99 + mark (some go up to £20). One criticism is that you're limited to either 3 or 5. Many offer the chance to rent just one or two films for lesser prices.

**Getting DVDs**

Having filled out your list, and you can make it pretty expansive, Blockbuster will begin to send out your DVDs. They notify you with an email that your DVDs have been sent, and usually arriving by post either the next day or the day after (depending on the not so reliable Royal Mail) your DVDs arrive encased in a small plastic case that is wrapped in a blue plastic envelope. Inside you'll find a little postcard that, when reversed, reveals an address that you use to send your DVDs back to. All this and a free first class frank mark so you never pay any postage costs. Oh, and the envelope is reusable so when its time to send the DVD back you're pretty much set to go.

All of them appear to offer the same service with regarding to postage, but perhaps most advantageous to me in particular is that Blockbuster have a depot in my home town. Perhaps they have multiple depots across the country, and you'll be near one too. Either way it's more comforting to know that distances are short, rather than the many miles between me and Romford. (For example)

The range of titles looks pretty good. I can't be certain how many DVDs blockbuster have listed, and honestly I had a list of 120 on a competitor and there are a few I wasn't able to find at blockbuster. Mostly TV titles like Most Haunted. This doesn't mean you won't be able to obtain that kind of title, they cover quite a large selection from Exercise to Opera and from complete series of Star Trek (yes all of them) to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And this list of titles continues to grow on a weekly and monthly basis as more DVDs are released into the mainstream. I'd suggest the number was somewhere in the region of 10,000, give or take a couple of thou.

The quality of service I've received has been very good. I've received a reasonable mix of top titles and old titles ensuring a fair service. Considering the contention for the new films it's unlikely that you are always going to be receiving your films in the priority you set but I think you'll agree that as long as the mix is right then you'll be happy.

My experiences with other services have shown me that you can't always rely on the company to send you films that are at the top of your priority list, one month I didn't receive anything in my top50 from one company (I'm now on my 3rd) and I was turning over about 6 a week. That said, you'll still want to keep a healthy list, if you only have a few listed and Blockbuster don't have anything when you return yours you could be waiting for films.

On the other hand they offer an auto-choose option, where based on your selections and ratings of various genres they'll send you movies they think will match your choice. Given that I've got about 70 films on my list I haven't chosen to take this option so couldn't comment on its reliability in regard to getting you a film you actually want to see. Personally I'm not going to risk it for the sake of this opinion!

Another useful tool is the Movie-Mix, which strives to present you with an assortment of your listed titles by genre. For example, have 3 free slots and say you only want action, then just the action titles will come. I guess this is also affected by availability and your list.

Regarding the navigation of the site, there are a few smaller advantages that seem trivial but can become bothersome.

Blockbuster manages to get films in the day they are released, other services are sometimes a few days, weeks or even months behind. They have also made it very easy to update your priorities, adding new films and making them the top of your list is as easy as changing the number in the box and pressing the update button. One site made it so you had to select the film and press UP as many places as you needed the film to be. With a list of 120 films adding a new film to the top of the list became an intolerable bore.

There are one or two things that make the service less efficient than others.

There is no previously seen list. I'm getting through around 20 to 30 movies a month it's getting pretty tricky to keep track of what I've seen. A small pre-release time. The last service kept well abreast of movies, not only offering films for your list that were two or three weeks prior to their release but also included films that had just been released to the pictures. These films were placed on a pending list that would automatically update to your main list as soon as they were available.

Choosing films to watch can sometimes be a bit haphazard on line. For some films it's almost essential to use IMDB or Rotten Tomatos (.com) to get a good feel of what a film is about and if it is any good. Movie summaries can be a bit hit and miss on all these sites. Some sites provide space for customers to place their own comments on titles. To some degree this is useful, but then is it possible to rely on the opinion of a stranger? (Even here you have to appreciate someone's taste to be able to trust their opinion)

Blockbuster uses a simple to use rating system with 5 levels of appreciation that allows you to mark how you felt about a film. I guess because of the relative youthfulness of the site this isn't always something that can be relied upon and many films have no ratings at all.

Fortunately the synopsis of movies is usually succinct and useful. More popular titles can include extensive articles on the film or its stars something you're never going to get in the store (or anywhere else I've been).

**Problems?**

Most of the problems I've experienced with Blockbuster have been as a result of Royal Mail. I don't really know how it takes them 3 days to deliver a DVD in the same town. I don't really know how they've managed to lose one of the DVDs on route to me. I also don't know how they manage to return DVDs before they have ever arrived to me, but I'm told, by the very prompt and courteous customer services people that it's all down to Royal Mail. I'm inclined to believe them. This kind of thing is also very typical from this kind of service, and one of the reasons I like knowing the depot is here in my town.

What happens when a film gets lost either way? Well Royal Mail are to blame, Blockbuster have chosen a 7 working day policy that they wait for to see if a DVD will be returned (to you or them), unfortunately this means if a film is lost you'll be without that choice for around 9 days. But, importantly you won't be charged for the loss of the film. Unless of course you have lost it, but you'd never lie would you? Royal Mail have a tendency to send out forms that you'll be asked to fill out, particularly if you were the sender asking where you posted, when etc.

**Tid-bits**

Now I'm trying to keep this op as tight as possible, I could probably go in to more depth about the site, but
blockbuster.co.uk really isn't about the site, it's about their internet service. So in brief:

It has various links across the top that take you to valuable sections including the newest releases, store offers and the all important company info. Stray a little further to the right and you'll encounter the help section, which is a cunning disguise for a section that is entirely devoted to making your online dvd rental experience the smoothest you could possibly hope for. Seriously, I've tried it. If the FAQ doesn't cover all the questions you are likely to have about either the unlimited rental or per rental solutions that blockbuster offer I'll eat my hat. It also has a nice little section with pictures that show you how to find films, add them to the list and generally manage your account.

In general this is the one of the easiest to use sites out there, simple and uncomplicated navigation and registration, good range of films, good range of services and (thus far) good customer services.

In closing, much as I love to hate multi-national corporations, I can't find a fault in this service. They compare to their competitors in a everyway, and have bviously taken a great deal of time to provide a first class service that excels them.

Online Blockbuster is infinitely better than the high street store, no late fees!

In my humble opinion forget the sites that certain internet magazines have given their "site of the year" award to and go to Blockbuster.co.uk instead. I've been there and Blockbuster really are better.


*Update*

In the course of clearing the "?" problem and some http formatting that dooyoo managed to put in I thought that I'd add I'm now using Lovefilm, not because BB aren't any good anymore, but because Lovefilm had a 2 free months offer I couldnt refuse.

Summary: Its movies Jim, but not as we know them.