Lovefilm buying out Amazon DVD rental

I was dubious when they bought out Screenselect, as I quit Lovefilm to go to them due to poor service. but they've been brilliant once the initial disruption had passed.

It's very hard to differentiate in this market so there probably not be more than 2-3 suppliers in future.

Lovefilm have a huge catalogue, I've never not been able to find a film, tv show I wanted & I have quite a wide taste range. Their game selection is quite good too.
 
Oh I just came here to post this, just saw it mentioned on Amazon. So we're going to lose the 5% off DVD purchases at Amazon then and we'll be charged the Lovefilm rate for our subscriptions... that sucks, its cheaper at Amazon than there I think.... wonder how long it'll take to get it approved for the regulatory purposes mentioned.

I did take out a trial with ScreenSelect which then became LoveFilm as mentioned, it was ok but I do remember thinking at the time that I preferred Amazon. I think Amazon seemed to send out DVRAB quicker and the envelopes they send are a bit easier to use or something(?) it was 18 months or so ago so I don't really remember though...
 
This is bad news. I used Lovefilm before and they were complete tosh. I guess I'll see how things go with them for a month or so before making a decision. I hope we keep the discount on buying DVRAB from Amazon.
 
They were fine when I was in my trial period. Then when I became a paying customer the service dropped off. The turn around slowed right down and I never got any disks from the top of my list.
 
I just had an email from Amazon so it looks like the takeover has obtained approval from the regulators.

I think I will be cancelling my subscription, as I don't like the High/Medium/Low way in which Love Film organise your rental list.

Does anybody know of a good alternative?
 
I use Tesco DVD Rental which in turn uses Lovefilm.
The only DVRAB I seem to get are at least 6 months old.
I have a queue of 13 new releases and the only time I get a DVD is if I add an older release.
I was going to go to Amazon DVD Rental in the hope that I would get newer releases.
I guess the situation will now get worse.
I pay
 
i think lovefilm are a bit like talktalk in a way (bizarre analogy i know but hey ..).

some people have absolutely no issues with them whatsoever, but other people can't stand them and tell people to steer clear.

for my part, in the past two years i've paid for 4 "Buy one month, get two months free" offers and I really haven't had a problem at all.

They sent out most of the films in my "high" section fairly regularly (apart from Scrubs Season 6), and made it up with stuff from the "Medium" section every now and again and "Low" hardly ever - which is ultimately the point I guess.

There's MyMovieStream as an alternative but I find they are very finicky about your rental list. You have to keep X amount of "Available Now" films, and X amount of other films e.t.c ...

There's obviously Blockbuster as well ..

http://www.uk-dvd-rental-guide.com/
 
Well I've been with some of the major dvd rental firms:

BlockBuster, ScreenSelect (b4 merger), LoveFilm (after merger) & Amazon.

The best by far was Amazon.

Very quick turn around, they never missed one DVD that I wanted and 90% of the time it was the DVD that was at the top of the list that I got through the post. The rental service was very cheap (3 disc service), and customer service was and still is excellent.

BlockBuster comes in 2nd, as they're customer service was good, turn around of dvd's was ok, they did miss a few dvd's that were in my top 5, but only 70% of the time.

LoveFilm, sorry to say is just dreadful. Before they merged with ScreenSelect, SS was great. Their service was better than BlockBusters, but when the merger happened, I stayed with them for 3 - 4 months, but then threw in the towel. This was because LoveFilm's Customer support was just awful. It was like talking to primary school children on the phone and by email as they never understood what you were saying, well except when I wanted to cancel the subscription lol. But the DVD service was - no worRAB can describe it. the odd one or 2 per month on Unlimited service. They're excuse was they must of lost in the post in your area, because of this reason you will be charged for them going missing as no one else is having trouble.
Did that get a huge complaint from me as I told them I had signed up to Amazon at the same time and theirs were getting through no problem and it must be either they weren't actually sending them out or else someone at they're company was stealing them.

They never did tell me what was happening, but my subscription was cancelled. But they continued to send me "special offers" by post and email trying to get me back. But seems like they've won in another way with purchasing Amazon.

But seeing as Amazon are now going to be a major shareholder in LoveFilm, I just hope they are going to listen to their customers, or their old customers.
 
Not started off terribly promisingly. Got asked to create my Lovefilm account by Amazon, ready for the changeover. So I duly oblige with a password and get told what my log in name will be. Get confirmation from Amazon that I had now created my Lovefilm account and my password and user name were accepted. Leave it a day or so to make sure they've had enough time to talk to each other. Tried logging into Lovefilm only to be told I don't exist.

Not holding my breath that this will be a good move. 'Spect I'll be bailing after a few weeks from what I've read of Lovefilms standarRAB and abilities. Shame - Amazon have been pretty damn good over the last year or two and have allowed me to watch many, many anime films that I'd never have seen otherwise.

RegarRAB

Mark
 
I've just had a reply from Amazon about the DVD rental that I sent this morning after I found out about LoveFilm taking over:



In one way this is good news, but still a shame about being transffered to LoveFilm though. Because if you just do a simple search on the net for LoveFilm customer service / complaints or reviews you can see straight away all the bad reviews they have gotten. Instead of LoveFilm purchasing Amazon dvd rental why didnt Amazon purchase LoveFilm ??
But when you think about it, Amazon has done with a part of the deal that went through Amazon has now got 30% of the major share's of LoveFilm.
 
i think it's more and more like talktalk than you think :)

across the web, talktalk get absolutely slated left right and centre and I was with them for 2 and a half years with no issues at all.

same goes with lovefilm. i have no issues at all with them - i find if you ring them up and ask them for 'buy one month, get two free' then they'll give it to you (well they did for me :))
 
Glad I didn't switch to Amazon now then.

LoveFILM are far too controlling over what they send you and trying to take a break is a nightmare. Switched to Blockbuster in Aug 2006, their service is much better
 
Thought I would do a little test.
I have a waiting list of 12 new releases, all available in the supermarkets or local library.
I have been waiting for days for a despatch.
I added a DVD released last June and bingo, it is being despatched today.
Do Lovefilms ever send out DVRAB under 3 months from the release date?
I think from now on my policy will be to have a subscription for 3 months each year.
 
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