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[B][U]Amazon DVD Rental by Post[/U][/B]I’d looked at online DVD rentals for a little while, but hadn’t signed-up to any until the couldn’t-say-no opportunity came along from Amazon, who offered me a £15 discount from my Playstation 3 order if I signed-up to their rental service at the same time. The offer was too good to pass up, so I took it, and I’m happy that I did.
Amazon DVD Rental by Post is pretty self explanatory, in that they let you rent DVD’s, via the post. Nice and easy, as Clairol like to say.
How it works!
The concept of booking a rental is similar to the Amazon wish list, in that you can browse the Amazon web site catalogue, and add your choice of DVD to your rental list. Amazon will then dispatch the DVD to your address, via fist class post. Once received, you watch the film (as you do), and once done, send it back to them in the included pre-paid envelope they provide. Once they receive the DVD back, they’ll dispatch the your next choice, and the cycle continues until you cancel. You can add as many DVD’s to your list as you wish (Amazon actually encourage you to add at least ten), and they will go through the list as required, depending on which package you are subscribed to.
There are four packages to choose from, each allowing a set amount of rentals per month, with a set amount you’re allowed to have at any one time. For example, the lower end package allows 2 rentals per month, with only 1 rental at a time. While you have the maximum number of rentals at home, Amazon will not send out any more rentals until they receive some back.
Amazon have an easy-to-use rentals section within your account, that lists the DVD’s you wish to rent, and the order which they will be dispatched in, of which you can edit as you wish, or delete if you change your mind. You’ll also see a list of the current DVD’s which Amazon have shipped out, and the option to report any that haven’t been received next to each one. It also includes a notice of how many more DVD’s you may rent until the next month kicks in.
Payment for services are charged in advance of the month ahead, and billed monthly until cancelled.
If a DVD is top of the list, but isn’t available in stock, Amazon will send out the next in line, which is handy in ensuring you’ve not got to wait for long for a DVD. The negative here is that if you have a small list, and Amazon have none of your choices in stock, you may miss out of your maximum monthly limit, as Amazon doesn’t carry over any unused rentals to the next month, even if they are at fault for not having it in stock. This is less of a problem if you have a large rental list, which they encourage you to have, but it would still be nice if they carried it over if the reason was lack of stock on their part.
Wide selection!
The bonus of using a mail order rental service can be seen in the size of the available content. While brick-and-mortar rentals in your local town or village are limited in what they could physically stock, as well as generally only stocking movies, Amazon seem to have the capability to offer their entire sales line as a rental options as well, both in terms of movies and television series.
Multi-disc DVD’s!
Many films these days are bundled with extras (deleted scenes, bloopers, and what not), and theses can often be found on a separate disc, but within the same case. In this scenario, Amazon still treats the film as one rental, so you don’t have to worry about whether a particular film carries extra discs.
Box sets, on the other hand, generally count as multiple rentals, as each disc is sent out separately. For example, Series 6 of 24 consists of 7 single DVD rentals, which spans over a months worth of rentals on the top package alone.
When adding any DVD’s to your rental list, it’s always a good idea to double check how many orders it is seen as by Amazon, which you can do easily within the rental manager section of your Amazon account.
High-Definition, via Blu-ray or HD-DVD!
Amazon also allow rentals of their high-definition catalogue, either via the HD-DVD or Blu-ray format. There is no additional fees or rules regarding HD versions of your chosen movie / programme.
This service may be more beneficial to Playstation 3 owners, whose console includes Blu-ray playback by design. As these types of movies are more expensive, renting them for a while, as opposed to buying them could save you quite a bit in the short term, especially if you’re on the fence with all this new “high-definition” stuff.
One-off extras!
If you’re subscribed to a particular plan, but find you’d like one extra rental, as a one-off, Amazon allow you to purchase an extra rental, without affecting your DVD rental package further. You won’t find you’ve been boosted up to the next plan; you’ll simply get one extra movie rental, which is handy if needed.
The added bonus of an extra DVD rental is that it sits outside of your monthly quota. If you hit you maximum, and order and extra rental, the extra does not count towards next month’s maximum, and you can keep the DVD for as long as you like.
Easy account upgrade / downgrade!
Amazon allow you to upgrade or downgrade your rental plan online easily, you simple log in and select which new plan you’d like, either to a higher or lower level service. The new plan will take effect from the next payment date; so downgrading will unlikely earn you a refund on unused rentals*.
You can also cancel the service at any time, though you will unlikely receive a refund of any unused rentals*.
5% discount on DVD purchases!
As an added bonus, for the duration that you are an Amazon DVD Rental customer, any DVD’s you purchase through Amazon will automatically be discounted by 5%. While not a huge amount, considering the low price of many DVD’s, it is a welcome addition, and if you’re a heavy buyer of DVD’s, you may find that the savings earned will cancel out the monthly rental fee, effectively allowing you to try out DVD’s before you buy them, for free.
Free Trial
As with many of the online DVD rental places, Amazon offer a free trial, though you may be required to add your account information, but cancel before a certain date to qualify. In my case, I wasn’t given a free trial as such, but was offered a £15 discount on the order I placed with Amazon at the time.
Overall rating!
Overall, I’d give the Amazon DVD Rental by Post service an 8 / 10, or 85%, because it has opened up the chance to see many films / TV series that I would have unwise been unable to do, as the local selection here is minimal, and the local blockbuster is too far away for me to bother. Video on demand TV services locally don’t exist, and Sky’s Box Office and Movie channels don’t provide the selection or convenience that Amazon seem to be able too with DVD renting.
The delivery speeds have been brilliant. My first batch of DVD's were sent out within the hour, and received the next day. They also received them back the day after I posted them (so well done Royal Mail) and despatched the next in the list the same day also.
The service lost two points (or 15%) for the returns policy, in that the customer is likely be charged £15 for any lost in the post rental that is being sent back to Amazon*, because I’m sure they don’t pay that amount to obtain the DVD. They also don’t allow you to carry over unused rentals to the next month, which while unlikely to be required (considering you may only watch a film a few times), it would have been a nice addition to the service, for those times when you’re away (on holiday), had a busy week and work / college, or just forgot to post it off, as well as when you have few DVD’s in your list, and they are all out of stock, which runs the risk of you loosing your full quota.
They also currently don’t rent out console games, though they did say this was “in the pipeline” when I queried them about it.
With that being said, all in all, a good service that’s allowed me to watch more movies that I have been able to previously, as well as being more convenient compared to Sky TV when you don’t have Sky+.
Asterisk note!
*I say unlikely in these instances, because from personal experience, these types of rules are generally worked around with a polite email to customer services.
Oh sure, they wait until I used my free trial then bring out an unlimited plan. :(
And I think its the cheapest unlimited plan out there now. Most of the others tend to want £9.99 minimum (aside from Tesco who want £8.99).
And I think its the cheapest unlimited plan out there now. Most of the others tend to want £9.99 minimum (aside from Tesco who want £8.99).
Just an update to say that Amazon now offer an "unlimited" plan, with either 1, 2 or 3 discs at home at a time, which makes renting box sets more appealing.
It is quite pricey though, so is only good for people who'll run through the cycle of order-watch-return, quickly.
It is quite pricey though, so is only good for people who'll run through the cycle of order-watch-return, quickly.
I used this when it first started and even then it was pretty good.
Lovefilm has been the best so far, though.
Lovefilm has been the best so far, though.
cjh wrote:
> Were you required to add your payment details to make use of the
> free trial, in a "cancel before x date" type of
> free trial?
Dont remember now. :) The amazon account I used already had payment details on it so I think I just had to confirm what I wanted to use to pay.
> Were you required to add your payment details to make use of the
> free trial, in a "cancel before x date" type of
> free trial?
Dont remember now. :) The amazon account I used already had payment details on it so I think I just had to confirm what I wanted to use to pay.
Can't believe I missed out the paragraph about delivery speeds, just copied that in now.
Were you required to add your payment details to make use of the free trial, in a "cancel before x date" type of free trial?
Were you required to add your payment details to make use of the free trial, in a "cancel before x date" type of free trial?
I've just finished Amazon's free trial actually. Good service in general, managed to rent 6 DVDs and return them with 3-4 days of the 2 week trial to spare. :) This in itself was surprising given they usually like to drag these things out on the free trials.
I'd continue the subscription if they had an unlimited plan. A fixed number of rentals per month means you have to engage in tedious levels of micro-management to make sure your allocation is spread between whats currently available and what is being released that month.
I'd continue the subscription if they had an unlimited plan. A fixed number of rentals per month means you have to engage in tedious levels of micro-management to make sure your allocation is spread between whats currently available and what is being released that month.
[B][U]Amazon DVD Rental by Post[/U][/B]I’d looked at online DVD rentals for a little while, but hadn’t signed-up to any until the couldn’t-say-no opportunity came along from Amazon, who offered me a £15 discount from my Playstation 3 order if I signed-up to their rental service at the same time. The offer was too good to pass up, so I took it, and I’m happy that I did.
Amazon DVD Rental by Post is pretty self explanatory, in that they let you rent DVD’s, via the post. Nice and easy, as Clairol like to say.
How it works!
The concept of booking a rental is similar to the Amazon wish list, in that you can browse the Amazon web site catalogue, and add your choice of DVD to your rental list. Amazon will then dispatch the DVD to your address, via fist class post. Once received, you watch the film (as you do), and once done, send it back to them in the included pre-paid envelope they provide. Once they receive the DVD back, they’ll dispatch the your next choice, and the cycle continues until you cancel. You can add as many DVD’s to your list as you wish (Amazon actually encourage you to add at least ten), and they will go through the list as required, depending on which package you are subscribed to.
There are four packages to choose from, each allowing a set amount of rentals per month, with a set amount you’re allowed to have at any one time. For example, the lower end package allows 2 rentals per month, with only 1 rental at a time. While you have the maximum number of rentals at home, Amazon will not send out any more rentals until they receive some back.
Amazon have an easy-to-use rentals section within your account, that lists the DVD’s you wish to rent, and the order which they will be dispatched in, of which you can edit as you wish, or delete if you change your mind. You’ll also see a list of the current DVD’s which Amazon have shipped out, and the option to report any that haven’t been received next to each one. It also includes a notice of how many more DVD’s you may rent until the next month kicks in.
Payment for services are charged in advance of the month ahead, and billed monthly until cancelled.
If a DVD is top of the list, but isn’t available in stock, Amazon will send out the next in line, which is handy in ensuring you’ve not got to wait for long for a DVD. The negative here is that if you have a small list, and Amazon have none of your choices in stock, you may miss out of your maximum monthly limit, as Amazon doesn’t carry over any unused rentals to the next month, even if they are at fault for not having it in stock. This is less of a problem if you have a large rental list, which they encourage you to have, but it would still be nice if they carried it over if the reason was lack of stock on their part.
Wide selection!
The bonus of using a mail order rental service can be seen in the size of the available content. While brick-and-mortar rentals in your local town or village are limited in what they could physically stock, as well as generally only stocking movies, Amazon seem to have the capability to offer their entire sales line as a rental options as well, both in terms of movies and television series.
Multi-disc DVD’s!
Many films these days are bundled with extras (deleted scenes, bloopers, and what not), and theses can often be found on a separate disc, but within the same case. In this scenario, Amazon still treats the film as one rental, so you don’t have to worry about whether a particular film carries extra discs.
Box sets, on the other hand, generally count as multiple rentals, as each disc is sent out separately. For example, Series 6 of 24 consists of 7 single DVD rentals, which spans over a months worth of rentals on the top package alone.
When adding any DVD’s to your rental list, it’s always a good idea to double check how many orders it is seen as by Amazon, which you can do easily within the rental manager section of your Amazon account.
High-Definition, via Blu-ray or HD-DVD!
Amazon also allow rentals of their high-definition catalogue, either via the HD-DVD or Blu-ray format. There is no additional fees or rules regarding HD versions of your chosen movie / programme.
This service may be more beneficial to Playstation 3 owners, whose console includes Blu-ray playback by design. As these types of movies are more expensive, renting them for a while, as opposed to buying them could save you quite a bit in the short term, especially if you’re on the fence with all this new “high-definition” stuff.
One-off extras!
If you’re subscribed to a particular plan, but find you’d like one extra rental, as a one-off, Amazon allow you to purchase an extra rental, without affecting your DVD rental package further. You won’t find you’ve been boosted up to the next plan; you’ll simply get one extra movie rental, which is handy if needed.
The added bonus of an extra DVD rental is that it sits outside of your monthly quota. If you hit you maximum, and order and extra rental, the extra does not count towards next month’s maximum, and you can keep the DVD for as long as you like.
Easy account upgrade / downgrade!
Amazon allow you to upgrade or downgrade your rental plan online easily, you simple log in and select which new plan you’d like, either to a higher or lower level service. The new plan will take effect from the next payment date; so downgrading will unlikely earn you a refund on unused rentals*.
You can also cancel the service at any time, though you will unlikely receive a refund of any unused rentals*.
5% discount on DVD purchases!
As an added bonus, for the duration that you are an Amazon DVD Rental customer, any DVD’s you purchase through Amazon will automatically be discounted by 5%. While not a huge amount, considering the low price of many DVD’s, it is a welcome addition, and if you’re a heavy buyer of DVD’s, you may find that the savings earned will cancel out the monthly rental fee, effectively allowing you to try out DVD’s before you buy them, for free.
Free Trial
As with many of the online DVD rental places, Amazon offer a free trial, though you may be required to add your account information, but cancel before a certain date to qualify. In my case, I wasn’t given a free trial as such, but was offered a £15 discount on the order I placed with Amazon at the time.
Overall rating!
Overall, I’d give the Amazon DVD Rental by Post service an 8 / 10, or 85%, because it has opened up the chance to see many films / TV series that I would have unwise been unable to do, as the local selection here is minimal, and the local blockbuster is too far away for me to bother. Video on demand TV services locally don’t exist, and Sky’s Box Office and Movie channels don’t provide the selection or convenience that Amazon seem to be able too with DVD renting.
The delivery speeds have been brilliant. My first batch of DVD's were sent out within the hour, and received the next day. They also received them back the day after I posted them (so well done Royal Mail) and despatched the next in the list the same day also.
The service lost two points (or 15%) for the returns policy, in that the customer is likely be charged £15 for any lost in the post rental that is being sent back to Amazon*, because I’m sure they don’t pay that amount to obtain the DVD. They also don’t allow you to carry over unused rentals to the next month, which while unlikely to be required (considering you may only watch a film a few times), it would have been a nice addition to the service, for those times when you’re away (on holiday), had a busy week and work / college, or just forgot to post it off, as well as when you have few DVD’s in your list, and they are all out of stock, which runs the risk of you loosing your full quota.
They also currently don’t rent out console games, though they did say this was “in the pipeline” when I queried them about it.
With that being said, all in all, a good service that’s allowed me to watch more movies that I have been able to previously, as well as being more convenient compared to Sky TV when you don’t have Sky+.
Asterisk note!
*I say unlikely in these instances, because from personal experience, these types of rules are generally worked around with a polite email to customer services.