Cinema Paradiso

 

Sue from Wakefield, 26 November, 2007

Firstly, there is no telephone number or address as a contact - they only accept emails. Secondly, they charged me a full month's line rental for returning a DVD one day after my trial date ended when I cancelled and returned the DVD two days before that date! They emailed me to say that unless they receive the DVD BEFORE the trial date you will be charged so BEWARE. Most other DVD companies allow you up to 7 days to return the DVDs and due to the fact that I didn't even receive their DVD until the Friday and returned it on Saturday, they charged me for not receiving it on Monday at 00:12 am! I have complained to them several times by email and post and they have failed to reply. Avoid this company at all costs.

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Dawn from Lewisham, 8 August, 2007

For about a year things were going smoothly, then as soon as discs started going missing in the post, that is when you see the true lowness of Cinema Paradiso's Customer Services. Firstly you get charged 20 per disc with no prior warning. Even when the discs show up and you return them back to them getting your money back proves to be a mission impossible! They do not address the points you complain to them about, and quite frankly do not want to give you your money back. I shall never go near them again.

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Keith from Milton Keynes, April 20, 2006

I found Cinema Paradiso's site very easy to use and thought they were good value - but the delivery of DVDs was not as good as with some others and their selection of titles was much more limited than some others I had tried.

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John from Wakefield, 13 March, 2007

Cinema Paradiso is by far the best of the smaller companies, i have tried all the rental services and these guys possibly with the exception of blockbuster are better than them all. The thing i like about them is they send the dvds out in separate envelopes so you don't have to send them all back at the same time, also the turn around time of discs is excellent unlike tesco/lovefilm.
All in all i have tried the rest and i have found Cinema Paradiso to be the best.

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Paul from Durham, 8 February, 2007

Efficient, quality rentals. Only tried on free trial, but very impressed...an improved company.

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Stuart, January 11, 2007

Cinema Paradiso provided us with an incredibly poor service by only dispatching three DVDs to us over the space of nearly a month. It was a real waste of time and money. Having previously been a lovefilm subscriber, which has a much, much bigger selection of titles, I would go for that service, even if it is a pound more expensive a month.

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Rasyid from Beckton, December 26, 2006

I have been using DVD online service for more than 5 years now, initially I use Lovefilm.com was very dissapointed with their service, slow turnover, customer service reply was robotic, in short their service is terrible!

Then I joined cinema paradiso, and have been with them for more than 2 years now... very happy, movie turnover is very quick, customer service is brilliant. All I can hope is they maintain their service level, and if possible improve their service. Im glad I joined cinema paradiso, and not the other cheap but terrible company.... Great Great Great!!

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J from London, December 18, 2006

Very cheap DVD rental, however having used this and easyCinema the latter wins hands down due to its superior website with search function to find films, whats on at the cinema to also add to the list etc. This is in addition to a greater array of films and all at the same 1.99 per film set price.

The other MAJOR complaint with cinemaparadiso is that if you receive a film which won't play in your DVD player and you return it and they find it works for them , they deduct a credit from your balance, which easyCinema being a bit more understanding does not.

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Mark from London, November 29, 2006

I was a member of Cinema Paradiso for over a year and cancelled earlier in the year to try LoveFilm. After a few problems with LoveFilm especially with delivery of damaged discs, I decided to return to Cinema Paradiso. And wow, they have redesigned their website, almost doubled the number of titles, and introduced a few cool features. One of these is a mini q (which I love) where you can drag and drop your top 10 choices to change position. I am on 14.99 membership for 3 DVDs Unlimited (by the way I subscribed with this code OFFER06 which gave me 30 days of free trial so check if it still works) and I receive about 3-4 DVS a week which is fine as I do not have much more time at hand to watch more movies.

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Matrix, November 20, 2006

I have been using services of Cinema Paradiso for over two years now.
In the meantime I subscribed to all the major rental companies just to compare and I can tell you, the more you stay their customer, the better service you get. Guaranteed!

They are smaller then other companies and have much better world cinema titles.

They pay more attention to the detail and if you decide to upgrade/downgrade to a different level, turnaround remains the same.

Customer service is quite good and they are very flexible, which I like especially as I have changed to so many different levels in the past two years.

Excellent value for money.

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Jim from Manchester, November 1, 2006

Good company, quick mailing, and a slick website. What more can you want. Prefer to give my business to a slightly smaller company rather than the corporate giants that are Lovefilm, Blockbuster, Amazon, etc.

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Bob from Bristol, October 12, 2006

So far not pleased with the service.. the 4 free rentals came as they state the same day but after the free trial they dont.

I have found i can return a film and its 2 days before they send the next film in the list. Thats one day sat there doing nothing.

As for getting films near the top of the list i have not found this to be true yet... The top 12 on my list have not been touched yet and NO they are not all brand new films, some are a few years old..
After two weeks with this service im not impressed at all. Yes only two weeks and i think thats long enough to see what they are like.

I wont be using them when the month is over.

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Steve from London, July 16, 2006

I've been using Cinema paradiso for a year and a half now and am still perfectly happy with them. I get the DVDs I want, the support people help out if something goes wrong, and the value for money really works in my favour (as opposed to buying DVD's, or using Blockbusters).

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Chris from Cardiff, June 20, 2006

I really like this company - having tried screenselect, lovefilm and blockbusters (Amongst others - e-global rentals - rubbish!), I noticed that I tend to get films mostly near the top of my list (I usually have 11 or 12, and the film sent is mostly in my top 3-4). Their DVD selection is adequate, but they have a feature where you can request discs, which I thought was a gimmick, but Cinema Paradiso actually added the film I requested to their list.

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John from London, February 7, 2006

totally bad! my free trial (30 days) finishes in a couple of days and I still waiting for the first DVD to come altough I have 11 movies in my list i didnt get the chance to see any of them....poor service, Cinema Paradiso not worth the time...

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Roger, November 13, 2005

I signed up for Cinema Paradiso's 1 DVD unlimited monthly rentals scheme for which they do not offer free trial but second month free option if you subscribe.

I haven't experienced any problems with their service. In fact, they claim and, I agree, that they replace the DVDs the same day they receive them back as I have managed the rent 9 movies in one month. I am sorry but this is more than acceptable when I compare them to ScreenSelect and others I tried.

It is a shame that they do not offer a free trial on their unlimited levels and I have learned that people who had opportunity to previously sign for their unlimited level with the price of £13.99 for 3 DVDs unlimited are very happy as CP does not "throttle". Apparently the person in question rented up to 26 DVDs a month - even after CP discontinued this level. What can I say, I do not know how they make money but it would have been very nice to have subscribed to this level in the past.

Thumbs up – keep up the good work.

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John from Salisbury, July 20, 2005

Cinema Paradiso is a very good company, perhaps not quite as slick as Screenselect, but I decided my free DVD trial-hopping days were over, and I appreciate the cheap 1-disc tariff and like the look of the site. Besides, I watch a lot of European film, and their site is especially well laid out and stocked for that.

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Matt from Southampton, July 15, 2005

Had a DVD go missing in the post. It was one of the last two I returned before i cancelled my free trial. Contacted customer services when I received an email from them to say they had not received the DVD and it was now overdue. Got a reply saying that their accounts department would contact me but I heard nothing. Got charged £10 and have since never received a reply to any of my emails. I dont know if they will charge me again, whether they have received the DVD or whats happening. Customer service sucks. If you are going to use the free trial get proof of postage everytime you return a disc.

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Bill from Peterborough, July 5, 2005

Tried these guys after a trial with Screenselect, and they're excellent, but not quite as good. They don't have nearly every film like Screenselect, site is a bit simpler, but they're also pretty quick in turnaround. Definitely worth a free trial, maybe to stick with if you like the site.

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Rob from Bath, June 30, 2005

I switched from Lovefilm after being dissapointed with their service and found that these guys were a big improvement. They're not lighting fast like the big companies seem to have been earlier this year (but are no longer) but are still pretty quick--a solid 6 films in my first two weeks.

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Martin from Aberdeen, June 29, 2005

I tried this company because I read on this site that it was the best for World Cinema. It does have lots of countries on its menu but unfortunately, browsing them always seems to return lots of films which have nothing to do with the country or language concerned. For example, under Germany, the first page of films has only 2 German films out of 10). They were also very slow in turnaround and I only saw 3 films in my 2-week period.

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Rasyid from East London, June 15, 2005

I previously signed up with Lovefilm, I got fed up with their service. I signed up with Cinema Paradiso and very happy with the service, the web design is quite simple and easy to use although there is a wide room for improvement. I haven't had the need to contact the customer service but I assume with better service than lovefilm, the customer service will have nothing to do (sorry i have to give you guys 4 stars for this).

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Sarah from South Wales, June 7, 2005

Has taken them 4 days to mail me my first DVD which is alot on the 14 days trial.  They have however sent me the top items on my list, think I will check out some more trials first though.

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Tom from Reading, June 5, 2005

Damned good site ... maybe not quite as many features as my previous try, Lovefilm, but I actually prefer it to be a bit less "busy", and you can't beat the price and speed of service.

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John from Brighton, June 2, 2005

I tried these guys before and they seem to be very efficient. The DVDs are sent immediately after receipt of the ones I have sent back and I have managed to turn around 6 DVDs in a week. The latest change on the design and introduction of ratings and reviews made such a big improvement to their service that I must give them 5 stars.

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Tony from Barry, South Wales, May 10, 2005

Excellent option for someone who doesn't rent that many DVDs! £1.99 per DVD to keep as long as you want is good value I think. The website is excellent,as is the number of titles available. Pretty quick in sending out new DVDs once you've sent the watched one back (about 3 days). Overall very good ...so far!

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Martin from London, April 1, 2005

These guys are great. I tried them and they sent top titles from my list. The website has improved quite a lot and now they have ratings and reviews.

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Marty from London, March 16, 2005

Pretty ordinary when I tried it, but they have since improved their website, and are worthy of a free trial.

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