Posted by The Rainman on 09/16/05 22:27

"Simon Finnigan" <simonfinnigan@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3p0g83F83nafU1@individual.net...
> "Andrew" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
> news:432ac1c5$0$1277$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net...
>> Theres bad and theres bad.
>>
>> I've just entered my third month under lovefilm, and I'm cancelling at
>> the end of the
>> month. Why?
>>
>> Well, I have 40 titles in my rental queue, and its giving me titles in
>> the
>> range of 36-40. So they'll stop giving me titles after my next 3 or 4
>> discs.
>>
>> I don't have 40 titles from last 2 months, some are over a year old,
>> some are
>> even older than that... But they can't deliver any of these.
>>
>> I suspect they can't deal with a ratio of discs to customers. They've
>> probably got a lot more customers recently, but not increased the
>> discs.
>>
>> Makes no odds, I'm stopping them. I'm looking for an alternative, but I
>>
>> suspect I will just go back to the videoshop in the end. It seems to me
>> that the online dvd rental model is failing...
>>
>> Smid
>>
>>
>> ==================
>> i had exactly the same problem with lovefilm. films were sent out very
>> promptly but always from the bottom of my list
>> in the end i had to reduce my list down to just 7 films to get the ones i
>> wanted, they just took longer to send out, i went for over a week before
>> even one was despatched.
>>
>> like you i cancelled as i wanted new releases, but their system was
>> working.
>> when i had 50+ films in the queue they were sent very promptly on return
>> of
>> the previous disc.
>>
>> to be fair they just can't have enough new releases for every customer,
>> its
>> just not possible.
>
> I've got 150 items in my queue, they can't possibly claim that the disks
> aren't in stock. I've got 30-40 new releases at the top of my queue (so
> that they come out to me when they are available), but then there are 110
> or more other items. Old films that have been out for years, TVseries and
> the like. Nothing that should be in any great demand. I can't see how
> they can justify taking 3-4 days to send out new disks to me from a queue
> like that!
>
> I think I'll be cancelling at the end of the month, and mabe try screen
> select. Seen a few good things about them for turnaround time, which for
> me is the most important thing.
>
> Anyone able to suggest any other companies with a fast turnround time?
>
> thanks!
>

Lovefilm justifies their slow turnaround time as a "fair usage policy" which
basically boils down to a person gets penalized for being more effecient at
watching and returning DVd's then someone who maybe only gets 1-2 a week and
sits on them for a day or two before watching them. I had it out with the
bastards a month or two ago for exactly the same complaints, and all they
could do was keep pointing to this "fair usage policy" of theirs. As I said
to them, if I walk into a restuarant for an "all you can eat" buffetm I
expect to eat until I bust with no complaints from the staff that I'm being
a greedy pig. It's a loose comparision, but you get what I mean. Don't bust
me because I went for another plate of food!

I see very few people in here talk about Blockbuster. Ya you won't get the
latest releases a month after they are out, probably not even two or three
months after they are out. But to me it makes to deal with a video rental
company when wanting to rent DVD's. Blockbuster is a huge worldwide
business, that does for all intents and purposes, one thing, rent DVD's.
They don't sell groceries (unless you count pop, popcorn candy bars and
crisps as groceries), they don't sell books (okay maybe you can pick up a
magazine in store), they don't sell insurance.....DVD's is what they are
about. I have been laid up for the last several months with a broken leg,
and they have been a godsend to me. I have in the last 2 months averaged 40
DVD's a month out of them. I figure that's not too bad for my 22 quid a
month....averages 50p a movie. if I get a dog..who gives a shit! At least I
didn't go to the shop and pay 4-5 quid for it. In fact I didn't evn have to
move my broken down ass off the couch to get the flick, well except to sit
in front of the PC and order it.

I have a problem with these other companies, such as Lovefilm, et all doing
business under several different names, making people think they have "a
choice" as to who to rent their DVD's from. The Dvd's are coming from the
same warehouse. Below is a letter that "Tesco's Online DVD rental" sent
around




We are writing regarding the fire that we suffered in our DVD rental
warehouse on 1 September, which has caused some delays in turning around
your DVDs over the last few days. We want to give you an update and some
good news.

We now know that the fire started in another unit on our business park, and
spread through five other units - reaching our warehouse last. The emergency
services' response was fantastic, and they managed to prevent the fire from
spreading to much of our facility. Nobody was hurt, but there was water
damage and fire damage.

This had the following impact on our service last week:
a.. We did not lose any days of processing returned DVDs and new DVDs.
b.. We lost 2 days of dispatching DVDs - Friday 2nd and Monday 5th
September.
c.. We resumed dispatching DVDs on Tuesday 6th September, 3 working days
after the fire.
d.. We are now operating at normal weekly volumes. As usual, the majority
of our dispatches are members' top choices.
e.. Our website and customer data is stored securely in another location
and was completely unaffected.

We are very sorry for the few days of disruption. We will credit your
account with one week's FREE service as compensation. This compensation will
be applied no later than Friday September 16th provided your account remains
active. It will take effect on your next billing date.

We want to thank you for your patience and support. We are here to help you
with anything relating to your membership - check our help section for
queries or to contact us.

Happy viewing!

The Tesco DVD Rental Team



Gee A fire in the warehouse. Sound familiar? Seems to me that there was
another company out there that suffered from the very same thing at the very
same time. What are the chances? Quite good apparently!

Scoff at Blockbusters if you like, but you can't beat their turnaround
times, in fact nobody in the business, IMO, can touch their turn around
times. I received in one week from them 15 movies (i'm on the 5 at a time
package). That's about 14 more than I got out of LOVEFILM that week, on a
three at a time package.

Just my 2 cents

The Rainman

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