Online Renting (DVD Websites in general)

Member Name: angeelu

Product:	DVD Websites in general
Date:	25/03/05 (459 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Rent DVD's from the comfort of your home, No worries about late fees / returning DVDs, Can save you money

Disadvantages: Popular / new release films not always available first time

I love the idea of these online DVD rental services. For ages I was a member of moviechoices.com (now taken over by Lovefilm.com), I then tried signing up with Amazon.co.uk's DVD Rental service, then about 2/3 months ago I changed to tescodvdrental.com for the simple reason they were offering the same service but slightly cheaper. Yesterday I swapped to lovefilm.com...

So... are these DVD Rental Sites any good?! In a word, yes!

What You Get
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The basic idea of renting online is that you don't have the hassle of taking a trip to Blockbusters or Choices or whatever your local DVD rental shop is called. You always have a DVD at home to watch, and you don't have to worry about late fees. There's no standing in the shop trying to decide what you want, you do it all online then sit back and wait.

Most rental sites offer a few different subscription packages. In general they go something like this (though obviously different places have different names for their packages):
Unlimited packages - you choose whether to sign up to being able to have 1, 2 or 3 DVD's at home at any one time, and you can have unlimited rentals per month.
Limited packages - these put a limit on how many DVD's you can rent within the space of a month, but tend to still give you the option of how many DVD's you can have at home at any one time, e.g. limited to 6 rentals per month and can have 2 DVD's at home at any one time.

The Services
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There are too many DVD sites to mention them all, but what you'll notice is that many sites are actually run by other companies, for example, Tesco DVD Rental is supplied by Video Island. But if you have a look at the website www.videoisland.com you'll see Video Island is now part of ScreenSelect.co.uk. Personally I don't really think it matters who is behind the company you decide to use, so long as you're getting a good service from the people taking your money!!

In general once you've signed up with a site the procedure is the same. You browse their DVD selection adding the ones you want to watch to your selection list. DVD's are then mailed out to you from the top of your selection list (presuming they're available, if they're not they send you second on your list and so on). You watch the DVD, then return it in the prepaid envelope provided. As soon as they receive it back they send you the next on your list and so on. Turnaround tends to be pretty quick, it's usually a matter of 3ish days from you posting a DVD back to receiving your next one with most companies.

You don't have to worry about rushing a DVD back - there are no late fees with these companies as there are no 'return by' dates. Most companies tend to have something in their Terms & Conditions along the lines of if you've had the DVD for more than 3 months then they are able to invoice you for the cost of that DVD. That's fair enough in my opinion... most people can watch and return a DVD within 3 months... and if you've kept it longer it's not exactly in the spirit of a rental service as you've as good as kept it, so only fair you buy it!

My Experiences
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My first online renting took place through Choices. Choices have many 'real' video rental branches throughout the UK, which is partly what gave me the confidence to try online renting as I knew it was a big company running it. I had no problems with their service, and soon had increased my package from having unlimited rentals one at a time, to unlimited rentals two at a time. It wasn't long before Choices gave their rental site it's own brand and it became www.moviechoices.com. Service was fine on the whole, but I was often disappointed at not getting the top film off my rental list - whether it was a new release (Kill Bill took literally months of being at the top of my list before it arrived) or an old film (Hellraiser 2 - not exactly a film I can imagine is too high in demand again took ages of being at the top of my list before it arrived). I sent an email expressing my dissapointment in the service to the website, and very kindly they gave me a month free! Always worth letting companies know if you're not happy - they may pleasantly suprise you to make up for it! Perhaps this was just a glitch in their service as on the whole I got what I wanted when I wanted it.

Always on the lookout to save money and slightly disgruntled at not always receiving the film top of my list I started to look online to see if there were any cheaper services. I'd been paying £11.99/m so didn't want to pay more than that. I came across Amazon.co.uk's DVD rental service. It was the same price, but you also got discount off any DVD purchases, so I tried signing up with them. Over and over again sign up seemed to go fine, then I'd receive an email saying my card details for payment hadn't been accepted and to phone my bank. I phoned my bank - they said there were no problems. In the end I just gave up, cancelled my subscription (which never really started as they kept waiting for me to give other payment details) and started looking again... (Incidentally a few months after I received an email asking me to answer a few questions about why I left and in return they gave me a £3 voucher!)

I then discovered Tesco DVD Rentals (www.tescodvdrentals.co.uk). They offered the benefit of the slightly lower price for the same service (unlimited rentals, 2 at a time) at £11.47/m. I'd been with them since the beginning of the year and have had no problems. Turnaround always quick, good choice of DVD's etc. Still, yesterday I was lured away from Tesco by lovefilm.com (who now own moviechoices.com) - as I left moviechoices.com they wanted me to go back to them now they are 'under new management' kind of thing, and to convince me they offered me 2 months free. I signed up to a different package this time - £9.95/m for 6 DVD's a month, 2 at a time.

Conclusion
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Most companies offer very similar services for very similar prices. It really depends what you are looking for and how loyal a customer you are with regards to which company you should go for. If you are happy to keep switching companies this is a good thing to do as you'll then benefit from the introductory offers they all tend to give, whether this be 2 weeks free or a month free. If you know someone who is a member of an online rental service it's also a good idea to ask them if they can refer you in order to get a better deal. For example, as a member of Lovefilm.com if I send someone a referral link they get a month free as opposed to 2 weeks (ask in your comment if you want me to send you a referral!).

Packages seem to range from £4.99 to about £15 per month. When you consider that rentals from a shop cost in the region of £4, for most of these services you only need to be the kind of person who rents 2 or 3 films a month to save quite a bit of money by using an online service. Definitely shop around - there are loads of companies all with different offers and slightly different packages/prices/incentives.

DVD Rental Websites - Highly recommended! *****

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