Good online dvd rentals

ismisecathy

Hey! How's it goin? Hope you're all doing well.

So I'm interested in getting in on one of them thingies where you can rent dvds online...get them sent to your door, etc. but I have been known to be codded in the past :rolleyes: and would like to not repeat my impulsive mistakes.

Just wondering if any of ye have any recommendations on good online rental websites.

Cheers
Cathy

humanji

Screenclick is pretty good. I used to use them and never had a problem. Their selection isn't amazing, but it'll keep you happy.

yabadabado

moviestar.ie are pretty good have been using them for a few months .only gripe i have they dont seem to have a large amount of the new titles seems to take a good while before they get sent out -not enough copies i suppose

Pigman II

I use moviestar.ie atm as well. They're pretty good. They messed up a rental on me once (sent only 1/2 of a 2disc movie - annoying when you actually didn't realise it was 2disc and sit down and watch the half only to be told at a vital point "stick in disk2") but were very apologetic/helpful and amazingly quick to recify it once I pointed it out to them.

Only gripes I have with them is that I never seem to get the movies that are on the top of my queue and am always getting the mid-table stuff I've chosen. Also their website is a pain to navigate and the login is a bit screwed up.

humanji

Pigman II wrote: »

Only gripes I have with them is that I never seem to get the movies that are on the top of my queue and am always getting the mid-table stuff I've chosen.

I think that's a similar problem in all those rental sites. It's just a matter of pot luck

Pigman II

I think I'm gonna stick my favourites down the bottom of the queue and see if they come out first

Zaph

humanji wrote: »

I think that's a similar problem in all those rental sites. It's just a matter of pot luck

Not necessarily. There was a lot of discussion about this on an American site I post on a year or two ago. Seemingly what happens with some companies is that they identify the heavier users and these people are shoved to the back of the queue for new rentals so that newer members can see how great it is to get new films so quickly and tell all their friends about it. Eventually these people also start to drop down the priority list.

Blaster99

Sorry to drag up a stale thread, but moviestar has been bugging me of late. Without fail they have always sent out the crappiest movie on my list. I've stopped adding movies because I actually want to see the ones on my list and now it takes them 2-3 days to send out anything. This is stuff I could get whenever I feel like it from my local video shop.

I guess the other Irish ones are just as bad? It's a convenient service but it just doesn't seem to work. I've talked to people in other countries who use similar services and they don't seem to have the same problem.

Pigman II

Blaster99 wrote: »

Sorry to drag up a stale thread, but moviestar has been bugging me of late. Without fail they have always sent out the crappiest movie on my list. I've stopped adding movies because I actually want to see the ones on my list and now it takes them 2-3 days to send out anything. This is stuff I could get whenever I feel like it from my local video shop.

I guess the other Irish ones are just as bad? It's a convenient service but it just doesn't seem to work. I've talked to people in other countries who use similar services and they don't seem to have the same problem.

I checked UK ones like lovefilm.com and they have nearly everything I'm looking for. Much more than moviestar.ie ie anyway! Don't like the way you have to have 10 in your queue at any one time. It'll be interesting as I'm getting dangerously close to that number now and I have no intention of just plugging it up with filler (that no doubt will be the first thing they send to me when the time comes) in order to keep the system active.

Blaster99

I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but Moviestar had an availability indicator on the rental queue for about a day. Perhaps they got a lot of complaints and took it away. Most movies on my list fell into the "very long wait" category. Yeah well, get more copies then!

Pigman II

Blaster99 wrote: »

I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but Moviestar had an availability indicator on the rental queue for about a day. Perhaps they got a lot of complaints and took it away. Most movies on my list fell into the "very long wait" category. Yeah well, get more copies then!

Haha yes, I reckon they're codding us with what's available (it wasn't even that impressive a range to begin with).

My rental queue was fairly healthy to begin (30+ in queue) with but I've let it diminish without ever adding new titles to the queue. Before long I was down to 10 (the threshold figure). A dvd was then posted and the queue dropped to 9.

Suddenly 4 of my 9 disappeared off the "available" queue and are now in a "saved" queue. I reckon they don't even have a copy of any of the 4! By not stocking up I inadventently called their bluff.

I have no intention of adding any more titles to my queue until I get the remaining 5 titles are posted out to me (presuming they even have copies that is).

standbyme

ismisecathy wrote:

Hey! How's it goin? Hope you're all doing well.

So I'm interested in getting in on one of them thingies where you can rent dvds online...get them sent to your door, etc. but I have been known to be codded in the past and would like to not repeat my impulsive mistakes.

Just wondering if any of ye have any recommendations on good online rental websites.

Cheers
Cathy

AFAIK there's a free 6wk free trial Screenclick offer with a paper i cant remember at moment, could be the Evening Herald, but the offer is on their website as i saw it advertised somewhere else

Blaster99 wrote: »

I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but Moviestar had an availability indicator on the rental queue for about a day. Perhaps they got a lot of complaints and took it away. Most movies on my list fell into the "very long wait" category. Yeah well, get more copies then!

Yeah i noticed that, but luckily most of mine were short wait & 2 longer wait

Pigman II wrote: »

Haha yes, I reckon they're codding us with what's available (it wasn't even that impressive a range to begin with).

My rental queue was fairly healthy to begin (30+ in queue) with but I've let it diminish without ever adding new titles to the queue. Before long I was down to 10 (the threshold figure). A dvd was then posted and the queue dropped to 9.

Suddenly 4 of my 9 disappeared off the "available" queue and are now in a "saved" queue. I reckon they don't even have a copy of any of the 4! By not stocking up I inadventently called their bluff.

I have no intention of adding any more titles to my queue until I get the remaining 5 titles are posted out to me (presuming they even have copies that is).

If you leave it at 5, there will be less to pick from & none sent out :eek:

But i was lucky as i got most of Father Ted The Definitive Collection & just recently the new release of Red Dwarf-The Bodysnatcher (4 discs, only 1 seen)

As i've half & half TV Series & Films, havent seen Die Hard 4 yet though!

Pigman II

standbyme wrote: »

If you leave it at 5, there will be less to pick from & none sent out :eek:

Not my problem. I'm currently on the low end "2 titles per month" package so unless I recieve two titles per month then I see them as in breach of their agreement.

All I know is I keep a log of every movie I want to watch (or that has been recommended to me) and am able to cross ref it with Moviestar fairly quickly. I have no intention of just mindlessly browsing their site to bulk up my queue when I already know precisely which titles I want to rent before I get there.

I'll probably have to end my business with them if they don't improve their range drastically.

jayhawk

Has anyone had the MovieStar “saved” category explained?

I expect it means: “It’s released. And you want it. But we haven’t bought it yet. Or no supplier will sell it to us.”

I kind of liked those brief “estimated waiting period” notices. At least it appeared to be step toward transparency.

Have you noticed that the recommended number of selections has increased? More than 50 in my case. Utterly ridiculous.

I’ve been a MovieStar three-at-a-time customer for 10 and a half months, in County Cork, so mail delays were an issue -- holidays, weekends, postal delays, selections lost in the post both directions, plus the inevitable damaged discs.

We are volume consumers -- four of us in the family, more than four available DVD players. (I row indoors as much as an hour a day; a distraction is vital.)

It’s interesting that someone here believes it’s possible MovieStar is automated to the extent that they can choose to serve newer customers first; I have my doubts, although the service manager (Shane McConnon) did advise me that the system is fully automated, which would make it difficult for staff to intervene in any one customer’s benefit, preferably mine...

My service has eroded to the point that I began to complain to your man; every time he responded he would see to it personally that it would improve, every time it’s been worse. I can go days now without a turnaround and when my order is filled, it’s almost always some old classic at the bottom of my queue that’s only in my queue in the first place to pad the numbers.

At the price, I have to consume six titles a month with MovieStar to begin to see value for money, as opposed to my local rental outfit, who offer a generous stock of new releases. While I certainly have averaged more than six DVDs per month via the post, I have not been able to acquire near that many recent releases on average and recently, almost none at all.

So... MovieStar does not appear to actually be in the business of offering fresh stock, in a timely fashion. They may be unable to acquire sufficient stock at competitive prices. Or maybe they are not in this for the long run. Whatever, I’m finished with them and I would certainly not recommend them under any circumstances. It’s a shame. I would welcome a legitimate, modern, fully fledged service.

In fairness, I had a similar experience previously with ScreenClick; they were, if anything, even more annoying.

I will now budget myself to five new releases a month locally and be sure to avoid late fees (which was a great benefit of mail service).

standbyme

I got this in my email today, would this be enough to entice ya back?

Rent unlimited DVDs from now until
January 1st for only €4!!

Christmas has come very early this year with
Screenclick and we would love you to be part of our family to
celebrate it. You can rent as many DVDs as you like until New Years Day for a once off payment of only €4, Amazing!

Thats as many DVDs as you can watch for only €4

The Denouncer

Blaster99 wrote: »

I guess the other Irish ones are just as bad? It's a convenient service but it just doesn't seem to work. I've talked to people in other countries who use similar services and they don't seem to have the same problem.

Yeah had similar problems with Screenclick, a nightmare when renting episodes of 24! I had 1 DVD stick in my DVD player and that gave me a fright, and another arrived snapped in half. So I gave up on that online rental nonsense.

Blaster99

jayhawk wrote: »

Has anyone had the MovieStar “saved” category explained?

I expect it means: “It’s released. And you want it. But we haven’t bought it yet. Or no supplier will sell it to us.”

It means "We had it, it got damaged, we're considering replacing the one copy that we did have".

jayhawk wrote: »

So... MovieStar does not appear to actually be in the business of offering fresh stock, in a timely fashion. They may be unable to acquire sufficient stock at competitive prices. Or maybe they are not in this for the long run. Whatever, I’m finished with them and I would certainly not recommend them under any circumstances. It’s a shame. I would welcome a legitimate, modern, fully fledged service.

I wouldn't recommend them because they clearly have a lot of difficulty delivering DVD's these days. Or at least I wouldn't recommend them without explaining what the experience is like, i.e expect to get the crappiest movies first and the popular ones when they've been out for six months.

Value for money is not the primary reason I'm using them. It's convenient. I can add movies in my own time, I can lookup reviews very easily, I don't have to go anywhere to get the movie and most importantly, I don't need to return it the following day when I will no doubt have something else to do around 8pm. So all in all I will put up with them until something better comes along, but they could certainly do a lot better. It's clearly down to the amount of DVD's they have.