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 We believe Blockbuster is the top online DVD rental choice in the UK, and it's not just us who think so; they were ranked top DVD rental company by Webuser magazine after a head-to-head test of the top four services. Blockbuster has one of the best reputations in the business for swift mail turnarounds, and sending two-disc DVD movies as a single selection.
Although Blockbuster's DVD inventory, some 50,000 titles, trails Lovefilm slightly, Blockbuster have more copies of new releases than any other company we've reviewed, decreasing waiting times. The title counts can also be misleading as many other companies count two-disc sets as two "titles," while Blockbuster count them as a single rental. The bricks and mortar giant (with 700+ UK stores) is clearly taking the growing online DVD rental industry very seriously and has re-energized their online effort.
Blockbuster's online DVD rental site boasts the most powerful DVD search engine in the UK; you can search on title, stars, director, synopsis words, certification, genre, language, sound format, even aspect ratio--more than the average viewer will ever need to use, but we're glad the options are there.
In 2007, Blockbuster added several new features, including a swift faulty disc reporting system which goes further than any other UK site. If you notice a disc is scratched, you can report it through the site, and they'll send you another copy (if in stock, otherwise they'll send another new title from your list) immediately, before waiting to receive the scratched disc.) They added a "Seen It" tab by popular demand, so all the films you've rented are listed with your ratings, as well as a function to add films to the list you've seen elsewhere. Also, we hear that customer reviews will soon be implemented.
The addition of film critic reviews by Marshal Julius of the Sunday Express on key DVD rental titles was an excellent improvement, though the lack of these for most titles--or at least written customer reviews--is a minor drawback. They also have celebrity picks, inviting people like Martin Clunes and John Barnes to tell visitors about their favourite movies, as well as interviews with the likes of Tom Baker, Brad Pitt, and Nicholas Cage. They even have celebrity blogs by Bollywood star Kashmera Shah, and have had past blogs by Martin Clunes, Dirk Benedict, and others.
We especially like Blockbuster's DVD rental Film Finder, where you rate using 1-5 stars your personal preferences among their 18 genres, and they generate lists of DVDs you'd probably be interested in renting. Their genre browsing system could be a bit better if they introduced subgenres as some other companies have, but this is a minor point. We believe Blockbuster make up for this with a growing list of imaginative DVD collections (Animal Magic, Essential Horror, Before They Were Famous, etc.) to aid browsing. Another minor but worthwhile addition; when you add a DVD, the screen doesn't refresh and slow you down, the button simply changes from "Add to List" to "In List."
Despite these many good points, there have been some complaints about Blockbuster's customer service, mainly delays replying to emails (though all DVD rental companies get these complaints in our experience); we suggest anyone with problems go straight to the phone number listed at the right, as the number is not easy to find on their site. However, starting in summer 2005, we noticed fewer negative comments, so upped their ratings gradually over the following months until they reached number two in March 2006. Given a continued trend of good customer service reviews, we raised Blockbuster to number one on the charts in January 2007.
Prices: Blockbuster offers s 14-day free trial, and in late 2007 started a new, one disc at a time, two disc total in the month tariff for £4.99. But the better value is definitely their unlimited plans; a single, unlimited DVD rental package is £9.99, two-discs out for £12.99, three disc package is £14.99, and five discs for £22.99; again, when you consider that bonus discs count as one rental, swift mailings, and high stocks of new releases, this is excellent value for money.
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Featured Blockbuster Customer Review
Steve, December 9, 2006
I've been with Blockbuster since they launched their DVD rental service in May 2004 and while there have been a few ups and downs, over the past few months things have really improved.
£14.99 a month is not too much to pay for unlimited DVD rentals and I tend to get pretty much everything from my top 10. Blockbuster's new site design is easy to navigate - I especially like the added value features such as competitions and full length reviews and editorials. The Film Finder is fantastic - it was a pain to set up (I'm an impatient person) but now I can just click on Film Finder and all my DVD preferences are saved. It would be good if they could build this into the rest of their site.
Blockbuster's turnaround is much better than all the other DVD rental services that I have tried - Screenselect, Lovefilm and Q Flicks. Usually when I send a title back, they receive it the next day and post the disc out that night. People have criticized Blockbuster on their DVD range however I did a bit of research myself and found (from Redmuze), that there are only approx 36,000 titles available in the UK so Blockbuster's title count is more accurate. Plus the major bonus for me is not having the Special Features DVDs come as separate rentals - it's all counted as one title at Blockbuster while everyone else counts them as two - presumably to reduce postage costs and increase their "title count".
Also, one thing to consider is the fact that in addition to counting double discs as 2 rentals - Screenselect and Lovefilm list literally hundreds of titles that aren't available on DVD... meaning you will add them to your rental list and never get them. Blockbuster doesn't do this.
The only thing that really lets them down is their customer services - I've seen some bad comments, however I've only had to contact them twice and once I spoke to a manager, things were sorted quickly.
So finally - yeah, I'd recommend Blockbuster as the best (and most honest) DVD rental service overall. I'm sure their site will continue to improve, it's already come on so much it appears they are listening to their customers.
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Most Recent Blockbuster Customer Reviews
Paul, April 27, 2008
Since Amazon.co.uk announced the sale of its DVD rental business to LOVEFiLM in Apr 2008, I have been forced to look elsewher. Blockbuster seems to stand head and shoulders above LOVEFiLM despite the latter's unsubstantiated claim of a larger film library. For all those dumped by Amazon and handed off to LOVEFiLM, take a serious look at Blockbuster which offers a better choice of pricing models.
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Gordon from Walsall, April 20, 2008
I've just cancelled my 5-a-time contract because they send very few of my wanted dvds. They start the month of very briskly sending 5, then this dwindles down to 3 then 2 and sometimes just one.When I complain they say its my fault, please add more dvds to your list.I do this but the poor service remains. They are a very 2nd.rate set-up and appear to stock very,very little of what I select from their "vast" stocks. Avoid is my advice.
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We also have a discussion group dedicated to Blockbuster in our Forum which may be of interest.
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