1 month free dvd rentals by mail

Blockbuster's test of FilmCaddy.com

Just go to the following url and read the offer in the banner at the top. This is Blockbuster's test of the market, similar to the recent test by Walmart. Blockbuster is not widely publicizing the offer.

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pertinent Terms of Service clause:

You may cancel your membership at any time by notifying us at [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now] or by calling (toll free) 1-877-622-2220 during regular business hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST) and you will not be charged for any additional months. YOU MUST CANCEL AT LEAST 2 BUSINESS DAYS PRIOR TO THE END OF YOUR FREE TRIAL PERIOD TO AVOID CHARGES TO YOUR CREDIT CARD.





article from E-Shop Talk:



November 1, 2002

Blockbuster tests online DVD rentals with FilmCaddy.com

Covering its bases in case the DVD rental market moves broadly online, Blockbuster Inc. is testing web-based DVD rentals with the recently named FilmCaddy.com. Although it believes DVD rentals will remain strongest in stores, "if things change, we'll be in a position to participate" with online rentals, Blockbuster tells InternetRetailer.com.

Blockbuster recently acquired DVD Rental Central, renaming it FilmCaddy.com. But it continues to play down FilmCaddy's association with Blockbuster while it tests the online rental market. "We're still trying to understand how this business works," a spokesman says. He says Blockbuster figures online DVD rentals to be a niche that will attract only about 3% of households that rent DVDs.

With FilmCaddy.com, Blockbuster is exploring a market pioneered by Netflix Inc.'s Netflix.com, which reported a 98% rise in year-over-year second-quarter revenue, to $36.4 million from $18.4 million. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also revealed this week that it is entering the market on WalMart.com, where its monthly fee of $18.86 undercuts the $19.95 charged by Netflix by 5.5%. Other than price, Netflix and Wal-Mart offer the same deal: subscribers receive in the mail three DVDs that they can hold for an unlimited time, then return them in pre-paid mailers for a replacement. DVDs titles are sent after being picked randomly from a list of each subscriber's preferences. FilmCaddy is competing with service rather than price. While charging a monthly fee of $19.99, it offers a service similar to that of its competitors except that it provides subscribers with four DVDs at a time instead of three.

Blockbuster is also testing an in-store subscription program, which will allow customers to come in and choose particular titles when they're ready to replace rented DVDs. That way customers "are not tied to what they get in the mail," the spokesman says, adding: "We want to serve customers any way they want."



Thank you DealofDay for another year of great deals!!

[lectric]

great post.........thank you

I ended my one month trial and had no problem canceling a few days before the expiration date. However, the 800 number always led to a voice mailbox and I found I had to email them at the email address given. [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]


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[cata5]

How did your trial go? Any issues? What was the shipping time? Are most movies available when you want them?

I'm sure shipping time varies with your location. I'm located in the southeast and it was about 3 days from when I placed my orders and 6 days from when I returned my orders. All in all it was better than Netflix used to be, but I hear that recently they have developed regional shipping centers, and I have not tried them since then. I had pretty good luck getting current movies, but its not like you would get every one you wanted. I guess I got 1 out of three choices. YMMV

I'm one of the few people that enjoy full screen rather than wide screen movies. I like the quality of the picture and am willing to sacrifice the edges to get a really clear picture (while I wait for HDTV which will give me both.) Not arguing the point with anyone, just my preferences. Anyway, they had a good selection of full screen so that you had a choice.

On a slightly different topic.... DVD rental vs. purchase. DVD's as we now know them will not provide the crystal clear picture promised with the coming HDTV format. If you buy DVD's now thinking that you are purchasing the movie "forever", think twice. I was in Las Vegas last month and saw a plasma HDTV with a digital videotape made especially for the HDTV signal. The movie I saw was "Ice Age." Admitedly, this is a computer generated movie, so the quality is better. But the little computer generated things looked like actual toys you could reach out and touch, it was almost a 3d experience. My girlfriend had to pull me out of there because I was just enthralled.

I noticed a Bose dealer in the Mall of Georgia (pretty good store, I guess) was running DVD's on his HDTV equipment. You could see the compression artifacts without even looking hard.

I just wanted to warn people building massive collections of DVD's. (1) There will be another DVD format replacing them for HDTV sets. (2) Eventually they will be copied as easily as CD's are now and the prices for used ones will drop significantly, as has happened with CD's.

To me... DVD rental is the way to go.

Having said that, I did cancel my subscription to this service after receiving my free month. I just have so much to do in my life and it is not easy having 4 DVD's laying around that I have to watch quickly so that I can get more to make the service pay off.

Besides... I need a backlog of unwatched movies when HDTV becomes a reality for people like me who just can't stand paying massive amounts of money knowing that prices will plummet in a few years.


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[SweeperSheri]

Personally, I absolutely love Netflix. I have never had a problem with them.
Sheri

P.S. I've never received a scratched one or had any waiting period for my requests. I did upgrade to the 4 per month after trying it out for three months.


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Sign up for Netflix's rental service, and you can rent as many DVDs as you want for only $19.95 a month. In addition, you get $10 off of your first month!

I just found FilmCaddy faster than Netflix (based on a subscription to Netflix I had a year ago) and there is something to be said for the fact that FilmCaddy gives you 4 DVD's for the same price that Netflix gives you 3. I'm sure everything varies with your geographic location and perhaps Netflix has improved since they acquired more regional locations.

Why I quit a 1 year subscription to Netflix:

Netflix used to have a system where a customer could go to the website and say they had already mailed the DVD back and Netflix would then mail the next. First you could do this with all your dvd's, then you could only do it with 2, then they hid this place on their website so customers could not find it, then they discontinued the practice altogether. My major problem with Netflix though was that they sent me scratched DVD's and when I went to their website to say the dvd's were unwatchable, they had the procedure of waiting until they received the dvd in the mail to send out a replacement. Coupled with the fact that they lowered the number you could have out from 4 to 3, I just decided not to continue with them because they seemed to be getting less and less friendly to their customers.

Perhaps they are better now.

Walmart:

I tried Walmart's service during their trial run, before they went completely public and they were truely awful. There was no way to get a popular movie of any kind as they were always marked "long wait." Perhaps they are better now that they have officially rolled out the program. I love to shop at Walmart but no amount of brand loyalty could make that awful service seem good. The benefit of the Walmart program, if they ever get it working correctly, is that they are a bit cheaper for the 3 DVD level than Netflix.

Anyway.. hope I didn't offend you. Its just my humble opinion.


Differences between services:

Netflix:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]
Cost: Standard program $19.95 monthly, plus tax.
Number of DVD's out at at time : 3
Free Trial: 2 weeks

NetFlix is the largest and has a long history. They recently made a revenue sharing deal with some studios so that currently popular DVD's from those studios should be more available. They recently acquired more geographically dispersed distribution centers. They have a very deep inventory and have claimed publically to have every DVD produced commercially. Their ordering and recommendation software is state of the art, but is biased as they tend to recommend movies for the studios they have deals with.

FilmCaddy:
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Cost: $19.95 monthly, no tax.
Number of DVD's out at a time: 4
Free Trial: 1 month, minus a few days they require for you to cancel without a bill.


FilmCaddy is Blockbuster's entry into the market. I suppose they are still in a testing phase as Blockbuster has still not made public their link to the site. Blockbuster has revenue sharing deals with studios but it is not clear that this extends to the DVD by mail business. Blockbuster purchased a smaller DVD by mail service and so avoided startup problems. However, their software doesn't come close to the Netflix software.

Walmart:
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Cost: $18.86 monthly, plus tax.
Number of DVD's out at a time: 3
Free Trial: 1 month

Walmart started from scratch and so has little experience with the website and with DVD rental service in general. My experience during the pre-rollout trial period was abysmal, but no doubt they will improve as Walmart has a long history of beating its competition. Their software is the worst of the three.




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Sign up for Netflix's rental service, and you can rent as many DVDs as you want for only $19.95 a month. In addition, you get $10 off of your first month!

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[lectric]

Film Caddy seems to be much quicker for me also.
But I feel as if I have to rush and watch the movies just so that I can get more.

[lokogrrl]

Thanks OP! Great deal!

[nrages]

Originally posted by joemuseum


Netflix used to have a system where a customer could go to the website and say they had already mailed the DVD back and Netflix would then mail the next. First you could do this with all your dvd's, then you could only do it with 2, then they hid this place on their website so customers could not find it, then they discontinued the practice altogether. My major problem with Netflix though was that they sent me scratched DVD's and when I went to their website to say the dvd's were unwatchable, they had the procedure of waiting until they received the dvd in the mail to send out a replacement. Coupled with the fact that they lowered the number you could have out from 4 to 3, I just decided not to continue with them because they seemed to be getting less and less friendly to their customers.

Perhaps they are better now.

REALLY?? I have been saying I already mailed back items for a while now, and never had to wait.


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Sign up for Netflix's rental service, and you can rent as many DVDs as you want for only $19.95 a month. In addition, you get $10 off of your first month!

Check out these [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now], or go directly to [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]
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wow.. maybe they reinstated it after I left. we are talking about NETFLIX, right?

what are the details of that policy? can you order three movies, say you returned them, and have three more sent to you? thats the way it was orginally. AND do you have to wait a certain number of days to say you mailed it?

i remember at one time, towards the end of my subscription, they had a place where you could check something like "i mailed the movie over 5 days ago" that was the best you could do. it seemed they were slowly but surely taking the functionality out of the thing. then, after that, i'm pretty sure, they didn't offer the option at all. it was one of the reasons i left, because the mailing was way too slow without it.

i guess i should try them again, just to keep my knowledge up to date. i wonder if they have a limit on the number of free trials you can do. its been at least a year since I left. i know you can do introductory deals on music clubs again after 6 months or so.


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[bestmidwest]

joemuseum-thanks so much for posting this deal. I will be interested to see how fast my dvd's arrive. Also, I really appreciate your opinions on the whole HDTV thing. Hubby and I were looking into it, and the level of knowledge about what it would actually take to get a functioning system in place was very low. We ended up going with a regular flat screen tv. We will wait a few years until they get all of the bugs out. Thanks a lot!

[nrages]

joemuseum,

Yeah, you have to wait like 6 days. And then the movie is reported as lost until they get it back. I am not sure how many you can report, I haven't done more than 2 at a time. But I believe that if you have a certain amount reported as lost, they may wait until they receive some back. Or something like that.

sounds familiar....

that is just a major change from being able to say "i already mailed this dvd back" the day you got it.

[nrages]

Originally posted by joemuseum
sounds familiar....

that is just a major change from being able to say "i already mailed this dvd back" the day you got it.

Oh, I see, you want to be able to say you mailed it back the day you actually mailed it back...and then they go ahead and send you more? That sounds like a great hassle for them, don't you think? They are concerned about you getting your DVDs and making sure that you don't get penalized for lost DVDs. They are not most concerned with you wanting to get your DVDs faster than they advertise!