Entertainment extra!! (Tesco DVD Rentals)

Member Name: sexyminxy

Product:	Tesco DVD Rentals
Date:	02/09/09 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good choice of dvds, fast service, competitive prices

Disadvantages: Sometimes damaged dvds recieved, Not getting your 1st choice all the time

I love movies, i am a massive movie buff and see most new releases apart from those which are overly gory/scary as im not a horror film fan. I first heard about Tescos dvd rental service on website www.moneysavingexpert.com (a brilliant website but thats another story!) Tesco at the time were offering a 12 week free trial of their rental service & a cashback site i regularly used called Quidco were also offering cashback for taking the free trial. I thought "what have i got to lose" & decided to give Tesco a go.

I signed up to the subscription service on the tesco website, www.tescodvdrental.com. I found the website relatively easy to navigate, not very bright & welcoming though. The colours and layout is slightly boring compared to other websites. The only thing i disliked about signing up was that you had to provide debit card details. I dont usually like to do this on a free trial as i am very bad at remembering to cancel things and i also didnt know what Tescos dvd rental service was like. Cancelling could also have been difficult to do and i dont usually like the hassle of this. Despite my reservations, i signed up as i love movies so much.

I am a bargain hunter and love getting value for my money so i had planned just to use the Tesco dvd rental service for the free trial to see how it went. I decided if i liked it, i would consider continuing with my subscription.

Tesco dvd rentals wont the top ten website in 2008 from hitwise and ignoring the boring colour scheme, i can see why. They have a catalogue of literally thousands of dvds, ranging from older ones to new releases. Each customer has the opportunity to create thier own rental queue of dvds so that each time you post one back, Tesco will pick one from your list and send it out to you. I have over a hundred and fifty titles in my queue so am pretty confident one will be available straight away. There is also a rental queue key that appears beside the dvds that will have a long wait and the ones that you will only have to wait a short time for.

You can put the dvds in your rental list in high, medium and low priority indicating the ones you would like to recieve first. This doesnt always work however as Tesco seem to most of the time just send out which one is available next in your list, regardless of priority. New releases that are the most popular usually take weeks to come out which is a little annoying at times.

Tesco have many different genres of dvd you can choose including -

Action/Adventure
Animated
Anime
Audio Descriptive
Children
Comedy
Documentary
Drama
Family
Horror
Indian Cinema
Music/Musical
Romance
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Special Interest
Sport
Teen
Television
Thriller
World Cinema
Audio Description

There is a selection for almost everyone so you are sure you will be able to find some of your favourites from their dvd rental list. Depending on those in your rental queue, Tesco provide personalised resommendations. Most of my recommendations i have not really appreciated as i hva either seen them already or am not really interested. Tesco have a rating system so you can rate films out of five stars that you have already seen. This improves your chances of getting better recommendations.

Tesco post your dvds out in small white envelopes which can be folded over & reused to return your dvds once they have been watched. I have occassionally recieved some dvds which have been scratched or damaged but you can report this to Tesco and their customer service centre will sort this out for you.

Postage of Tesco dvds if freepost both ways so dont worry about having to buy lots of stamps. The turnaround time from me posting my dvd back to Tesco and them sending out my next title is usually around three to four days. This may vary depending on where you live and the availability of titles. You can also reserve dvds which are currently in the cinema and titles which are currently unreleased. These are put in a seperate rental queue and display the date when the title will be released. Once the release date has arrived, the dvd is then put into your main rental queue.

I think Tesco do this as people will be excited seeing all the upcoming films and will be more likely to keep their subscription active until the film they want is released and sent to them. Tesco also provide games that you can rent out but this means purchasing a more expensive subscription package. I think this would be a good idea though if you are wanting to test out a game before paying full price to but it as some games can be expensive at £50 a game.

The games consoles that you can currently rent games from are -

DS
GameCube
PS2
PS3
PSP
Wii
Xbox
Xbox 360

Tesco also have lists of the most popular and top rated dvds that you can browse through. When rating dvds, you can write your own review of what you thought of it. Tesco also offer gift subscriptions so this may be a good present idea for someone who you know is a big movie fan.

Gift subscription options
Subscription Package Price
6 months DVD - 2 Discs per month £21.54
12 months DVD - 2 Discs per month £41.11
6 months DVD - 1 Disc unlimited £47.96
12 months DVD - 1 Disc unlimited £93.96
6 months DVD & Games - 2 Disc unlimited £78.30
12 months DVD & Games - 2 Disc unlimited £154.64

The gift subscription package differs from the normal subscription package which is as below -

Tesco Value Packages
Package Discs
at home Monthly fee
DVD - 2 Discs per month 1 £3.88
DVD - 3 Discs per month 1 £5.85
DVD - 4 Discs per month 2 £7.32


Tesco Unlimited Packages
Package Discs
at home Monthly fee
DVD - 1 Disc unlimited 1 £8.78
DVD - 2 Disc unlimited 2 £11.72



Tesco Unlimited Combo Packages
Package Discs
at home Monthly fee
DVD & Games - 1 Disc unlimited 1 £9.76
DVD & Games - 2 Disc unlimited 2 £13.68
DVD & Games - 3 Disc unlimited 3 £17.59

A great extra is that you can use your clubcard and get Tesco clubcard points each month which will soon add up. Overall, i think that Tesco offer a very good service for dvd rentals and i would recommend trying at least the free trial if you love movies as much as i do!

Summary: Try it