Experiences with online DVD rental?

[StellaBlue]

I was thinking about joining one of these as I love to watch films, and they have such a wide range of titles.

Someone recently told me, though, that, after a couple of months, when they realize that you are a chronic film buff, and that you are watching like four movies a week or whatever, they will start taking a loooong time to send out the ones you have ordered to prevent you from undermining their profit margin.

Anyone have any experiences to share? Is it worth it?

[philosophie_en_rose]

1. I have a free month at Netflix.

Someone bought it for me. I like it. They have a generally good selection, but nothing out of the ordinary.

It takes about two days between shipping a video out and receiving a video.

[alarimer]

7. I have been having problems lately with Netflix

I have sent movies in that have taken a week to get back to them but I highly suspect this is related to the hurricane evacuation of Houston; that is the center my movies come from and go back to. I think they must have shut down for at least a few days and maybe have a backlog now of mail.

[philosophie_en_rose]

8. It depends.

I've had envelopes from my city, which I keep. I send all 3 movies in the same slip. Sometimes, movies will come from other cities or are sent from other cities and that creates delays.

[Merrick]

2. Netflix is good

They have everything under the sun, are very quick and aren't Blockbuster. As for what your friend says, I along with a few friends (one is a major film buff - is on the 10 at a time plan) have had netflix for awhile and have not heard of nor experienced any deliberate delivery delay conspiracy. I watch about 3 a week and whenever I send one back I get its replacement in 2 days - one for them to get it, one for the replacement to ship back (course if you're in a rural area it might take a little longer).

[Betty88]

3. use netflix and love it

I think they will let you try for free for a time check the site.

[ghostsofgiants]

4. I had a subscription to zip.ca from March to August this year...

Worth every penny. Not sure how the American counterparts are, but I'm definitely pleased with zip.ca's service.

[Roland99]

5. I use Blockbuster ($17.99 for three-at-a-time) and I love it.

When you mail them back, once they get scanned by the Post Office, they release the next DVDs in your queue. I have been experiencing 3-day turnaround between the time I mail them and the time I get the next ones in the mail.

Plus, I get emailed coupons for two free in-store rentals each month and other coupons (like a free previously-viewed DVD from a select list of titles).

[Deja Q]

6. netflix is awesome!

[Ladyhawk]

9. I don't have TV, just Netflix and I've been very pleased. n/t

[bridgit]

10. netflix...

:woohoo:

[KyndCulture]

11. I've used them both (Netflix and Blockbuster)

Here's my observations:

Netflix is better for obscure stuff and older stuff, but they can be unreliable on delivery dates. Sometimes its 1 day, sometimes its 3 days...

Blockbuster was always the same delivery times, always consistant with checking in my movies - but the selection and the price made me quit. I was a member for 3 months and after two price hikes I quit.

[jayctravis]

12. Netflix has been great, with relatively little hassle.

They send out frequent surveys...one actually asked what the standard monthly rate would be. They raised the price (keeping me at normal rate grandfathered in) for a few months, then actually lowered our price below what I was paying before.

Their site is really comprehensive and does a neat job recommending films to you based on how you rate them as compared to other members who like the same films you do. You can also have a friends list and you can see what films your friends are renting and there are fun but strange little trivia questions about your friends rental habits. You can read and write member reviews, even put films in a queue if they are not released yet and they'll jump into the rental pool as soon as they're available. You can also split your movie quota between different members of your family and maintain your own seperate queues. Something nice in the interface they just did was a complete popup window of information that appears if you hover over the title or image of any movie. There's a great drag-n-drop interface when you first drop a movie into the queue initially so you can put it first if you want, wish they would do that in the full queue view.

Rent by mail is the most convenient and hassle-free way to see movies unless you're the type of person who HAS to have a new movie every single night. The standard rate is 3 movies at a time, although I think you can pay more and have up to 8... With 3, as long as you're prompt in sending them back in rotation you usually get more than one new movie each week. I like being able to hold onto one if I want to watch again sometime with the commentary or explore the special features without any deadline pressure.

Only slight problem is you will get an occasionally broken or scratched or abused DVDs and you'll need to clean the occasional gnarly smudge, but this also happens with storefront rentals. Netflix is on the ball when you report a damaged CD, and even the occasional "lost in the mail" is instantly resent. I'm sure there are ways they keep people from abusing this, but I've never had any problem with their customer service. Turnaround time is fast, but will depend on your local postal service. I leave a movie for my mailman to pick up, it usually registers on the site the next day, I get an email a day after that showing what they're sending next and then it arrives the next postal day. So turnaround can be as short as 3 days. The reusable envelopes are pre-paid, so you don't mess with stamps.

Add to this that they pretty much have every single DVD available including an extensive collection of non-movie documentary, performance, foreign, and instructional videos and it's a great service!