Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price

[TheBlueRaja]

This seems quite good to me - free postage (see how long that lasts) and up 4 DVD's for 8 quid (2 quid each for the mathematically challenged )

Amazon UK has entered the DVD rental business in a bid to cash-in on this growing sector of the entertainment industry.

For £7.99 a month, subscribers can have two movies at home at one time, with a total of four DVD rentals a month. For £9.99 per month, film buffs can hang on to three movies at home with a total of six DVD rentals a month.

[Admin Edit] (Neil)-Source= The Register.

Please give credit to websites when using their work, I would feel the same if people were copying/pasting our work without crediting us.

(There's also no need to quote the whole article when a paragraph or so will do)

[TigaSefi]

Erm, well at the moment they having BIG problems shipping things to me that supposed to be shipped within 24 hours and I am still waiting a week later so I doubt many ppl will say this service will be "good".

[bob_builder]

Originally Posted by TigaSefi

Erm, well at the moment they having BIG problems shipping things to me that supposed to be shipped within 24 hours and I am still waiting a week later so I doubt many ppl will say this service will be "good".

That is odd, I ordered two Gamecube games on Monday and Tuesday nights and they both arrived this morning (one was shipped in 28 hours and the other in 16 hours).

[TigaSefi]

Oh I got Buffy Season boxset 1-7 and the Ultimate Matrix Box Set in record time and then I get a bunch of stuff that takes AGES to ship ??? very uneven service.

[Bifta]

screenselect are still the best, well worth the £14.99 a month

[etccarmageddon]

"9.99 per month for three movies at home with a total of six DVD rentals a month.

this is a really poor DVD rental deal and I suspect will be quickly improved.

a)it's poor because unlike 90% of the other online sites they dont offer a free trial - usually you get 2 weeks or a month.

b)the one I'm with at the moment offers 3 at a time for £13 a month with no limit to the number you can have although technically I'd expect not to be able to have more than around 15 per month due to the speed of post. much better value than amazon.

c)the online help/faq is crap. one major issue with some companies (especially blockbuster) is that when they get the DVD you have returned they wait until the next day before posting your next selection. Cant find any help on this in the FAQ. I believe screen select dont do this which is a tick in their box. Also worth noting that some work at the weekends while others only do mon - fri. If they work saturdays it's also means quicker turn around.


So before you jump in - always do it via a trial! or dont bother at all.

And look for a service which has plenty of stock - ie. when the latest release comes out has sufficient copies to be able to meet a reasonable amount of demand.

Note that ScreenSelect operate a very poor trial - any releases within the last 4 weeks are not available to trialists BUT this probably means paying customers get a better service than other sites that do 'fully featured' trials.


nb. when I tried a screen select trial only to find latest releases arent issued to trialists I phoned up to discuss and was passed to a man who said "I can help you with that - do you want me to fix it?" or words to that effect. After the call I checked my account and he had cancelled my trial and closed my account!

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by etccarmageddon

Note that ScreenSelect operate a very poor trial - any releases within the last 4 weeks are not available to trialists BUT this probably means paying customers get a better service than other sites that do 'fully featured' trials.

During my trial with them I got 3 new release DVD's certainly released considerably less than a month before the trial started.

[etccarmageddon]

this is in the FAQ and is not available to see unless you sign up!

http://www.screenselect.co.uk/help/h...ion_priorities

Why don't you ship very recent releases to me during my free trial?

# Trialists receive a full service from ScreenSelect, with one exception - titles are delivered exclusively to paying subscribers within the first four weeks of the title's DVD release date. This is to ensure that paying subscribers receive the best possible service regardless of short-term fluctuations in trialist numbers. Trialists are still free to reserve these titles in the normal way. Shipping restrictions are lifted as soon as the release date is more than four weeks ago or the subscriber makes their first monthly payment, whichever is the sooner. Recipients of gift subscriptions are not affected by these provisions.

this probably means that paying customers are more likely to get better service with screen select than other sites.

[bob_builder]

This seems like a good offer to me compared with the usual 1 DVD at a time for £9.99, 2 for £12.99 and 3 for £14.99 offered by most retailers now.

I guess the main difference is that you are limited to the number you can have per month. The others are only limited by the number you can receive, watch and post back in the time (theoretically if you watched a DVD on the same day you received it and posted it back before the last post you would be limited to 15 DVDs a month). But if you only ever watched one DVD per week it would make little difference.

[SMHarman]

I've been using screenselect for a good while now, must say their service is fab. Having 154 items in my selection is a good disinsentive to start hopping around for free trials. I also see I have rated / rented 27 items so far.

They have just started a new product

2 DVDs at once (5 per month) £9.99 so £2 each and comparable to the Amazon service.

My only whinge about Screenselect is on their box set delivery they will send you more than one disk from a box at a time, so if you return 3 disks and have a box set selected, they may send you disk 3, 4 and 5 from the box, great, I have to watch these in order and have no choice of selection from you.

Using the priority system enables you to up the priorty of a box when you want the next disk and drop it to low (unlikly to ever be sent) when you have one though.

Oh and every time I have had one thing as priority high, that has been the disk that has been sent so stock is good and kudos to that.

[etccarmageddon]

I'm currently with:-

www.globalerental.co.uk

very cheap - £13 a month for 3 disks and they have good stock - so when a released or recently released film is at the top of my queue, I have so far always got it. (they also offer 4 disks for £16 and 5 disk for £19)

another plus point is that they answer emails! unlike blockbuster. and they have a good web site.

they also offer a full month's trial.

and you dont have this problem with them - "My only whinge about Screenselect is on their box set delivery they will send you more than one disk from a box at a time, so if you return 3 disks and have a box set selected, they may send you disk 3, 4 and 5 from the box, great, I have to watch these in order and have no choice of selection from you."
- we global you select the individual disks from the box set as and when you wish to view them.


the negatives are - turnaround is slow - they only work mon-fri so if they receive a DVD on a sat it is registered as arrived on the following monday. they also send your next disk the day after receiving a disk. This probably doesnt affect the casual user but is a real pain for someone who's a keen film fan.

Also I'm suspicious about the speed they receive post - I posted a DVD last sat evening and another on sunday evening - both arrived at their end on thursday - but when they send me DVDs it never takes this long.

Another negative is you can not change your subscription level unless it's 2 or more weeks before your next payment is due! This is in the small print of course! So I wanted to upgrade to 5 disks at a time for crimbo but when I tried to it wouldnt let me cos it was the week before billing.


I've trialled loads of companies - moviechoices, cd-wow, blockbuster etc


dvd385 were the last people - they were ok for the first month or so but then started to send me items low down on my queue - stuff that had been released in the last few weeks were never available. they had a fast turn around - brilliant in fact but that's useless when you cant get the film you want to see. I got to the point where I was receiving disks and immediately sending them back - that lasted a couple of weeks and then I cancelled. when I cancelled their computer offered me 2 free extra weeks which I took and continued to get disks I wanted to see which I kept putting back in the post!!!

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by etccarmageddon

I'm currently with:-

www.globalerental.co.uk
and you dont have this problem with them - "My only whinge about Screenselect is on their box set delivery they will send you more than one disk from a box at a time, so if you return 3 disks and have a box set selected, they may send you disk 3, 4 and 5 from the box, great, I have to watch these in order and have no choice of selection from you."
- we global you select the individual disks from the box set as and when you wish to view them.

I should clarify - Screenselect allow you to select individual disks from a box, or box in order, or box randomly.
I generally select box in order. The problem being this does not stop them sending multiple disks from the box (in order), what I would like them to do is add an option to box in order that is maximum 1/2/3 discs from the box at one time.

I have emailed screenselect about this, but I am in a minority about this, aparantly most peeps when they want to watch a box set series want the next disk at home ready to go when they have finished the last.

It's a minor irritation and something have learned about and manage in my selection so not a great negative.

[etccarmageddon]

spend £50 at www.currys.co.uk and you get vouchers for 60 days dvd rental at screen select!

[TigaSefi]

I have signed up to Amazon's £7.99 service and I'll let u know how i get on. the moment I get a scratched or jumpy disc then it's an immediate cancellation.

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by TigaSefi

I have signed up to Amazon's £7.99 service and I'll let u know how i get on. the moment I get a scratched or jumpy disc then it's an immediate cancellation.

So the abuses of the previous user of the disk will be blamed on the service provider? Do you switch physical rental stores every time you get a damaged disk?