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Lovefilm is the UK's largest online DVD rental service and their film inventory is now an unmatched 65,000 titles (pretty much every DVD released in the UK). After merging with former market leader Screenselect in October, Lovefilm now control over half the UK online DVD rental industry, with over half a million subscribers.
Lovefilm has an excellent site design with many quirks and extras that earn it the reputation of having the best film information content. Lovefilm has little gimmicks to keep it fresh like a Queue Voyeur to see what other people are renting, in-house editorials, movie quizzes, viewer ratings, viewer reviews, and a "trailer park" on films currently in the cinema. They even have short film downloads for free. They've even introduced an online Lovefilm magazine with interviews, latest film news, awards and festivals, etc., certainly more film content that any other site.
In 2005, they became the first large rental company to offer video game rentals as well, now up to 1,600+ game titles for PS2, 100+ for XBox 360, 700+ for XBox, 300+ for PSP, 400+ for GameCube, 80+ for the PS3, and 100+ for the Wii. For a more detailed review of the video game rental setup see the review on our sister site at Games-Rental-Guide.co.uk.
Also, in November 2005 they were the first UK rental company to launch Video on Demand (VoD), where you can download an entire film to your computer for £2.99 each; over 2,000 titles are available including favorites like Harry Potter.
Another neat feature is you can set up email or SMS alerts when a new title is shipped.
Lovefilm does use a "fair use" policy, throttling back DVDs from high volume renters to give priority to low volume customers; this shouldn't be an issue for regular users, but high volume renters should probably look at other companies.
As of early 2008, Lovefilm had relaunched their phone customer service line, open an impressive Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm, and Saturday to Sunday, 9am to 4pm.
Lovefilm won the prestigious British Video Association’s 2005 award for the UK’s Best Rental Service, and we believe they have absorbed many of the beneficial policies and practices of former market leader Screenselect. In fact, Screenselect's former CEO Simon Calver is now in charge of the "new" Lovefilm. Nonetheless, there have been some reports of service dropping off after the merger.
Lovefilm's DVD Distribution Centre
Lovefilm's web and distribution engine also powers six other UK DVD rental services, including Tesco, Sofa Cinema, EasyCinema, Odeon Direct, CD Wow, and WHSmith. In February 2008, they announced they would acquire Amazon.co.uk's DVD rental service. Keep in mind that you can only get one free trial period with any of these Lovefilm-powered sites--but our own opinion is that you should cut out the middleman and subscribe direct with Lovefilm if you like their system.
In October 2006, they completed the merger with previous market leader Screenselect, and there have been reports of service straining under the combined customer load; to give a sense of scale, on one day they sent a record 107,000 discs from their Peterborough distribution centre. A February 2007 report estimated they control 23% of all DVD rentals (including bricks and mortar stores) in Britain.
Prices: Lovefilm offers a two-week free trial. You won't be able eligible for another free trial if you've already had one with any Lovefilm "powered-by" site. Their standard subscription rates are 1 disc for £9.99, 2 discs for £12.99, and 3 discs for £15.99. They also have capped 2 disc-per-month plan for £4.99 (with a one quid discount on the first month) and 4 discs total for £7.99, but this is not cost effective. As mentioned, they also offer Video on Demand (VoD) film downloads for £2.99 each; entirely separate from their DVD rental tariffs.
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Featured Lovefilm Customer Review
Guy from London, July 6, 2006
Lovefilm are aptly named, their website really sets them apart with all sorts of film resources and links to films you might not think of, which is useful after your first year or so when you've seen all those old filsm you've been dying to see and worked through the new releases. And Lovefilm do have a great back-catalogue, believe the numbers that they have the largest.
I haven't experienced the throttling I've read about for high renters, get through maybe 3 or 4 DVDs a week, which I think is a pretty good clip as my job leaves me with less free time than I like. I do sometimes regret the delays on getting titles as soon as they're released but generally don't wait more than a week or two for a top-ranked choice. Thumbs up for Lovefilm.
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Most Recent Lovefilm Customer Reviews
Eddie from London, May 11, 2008
I've nothing but excellent service from lovefilm, much cheaper than blockbusters store (though I see blockbuster online is cheaper, what's up with that?). The money I'm saving is pretty impressive, and I'm watching more films than I normally would from the store anyway. Yeah, new releases aren't out so quick, which is slightly annoying, but I can understand iut works like a library, supply and demand and all that. Overall I'd recommend it to a mate.
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Tim from Wonderful Wales, May 9, 2008
Lovefilm were excellent when I first joined providing a quick turn round on films usually same day return and I had a lot of my top titles. Now I would look to a different provider. I now find them slow, they only provide a same day turn round about 50% of the time and whenever I contact them you are provided with the same old standard template email apologies. I have also found an incredible amount of films are either extremely dirty or do not play. You make up your mind but I am cancelling my subscription at the end of this month !!
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Doug from Lancashire, May 4, 2008
I used Lovefilm and also Tesco and the service was quite dreadful. The turnaround time was slow and I rarely received any discs from the top of my list. My son also used the same services and he received the same treatment. I would strongly recommend that you do not use these providers. I switched to Blockbuster and the service is very good. However, even they rarely provide me with discs from the top of my list but compared to Lovefilm and Tesco they are poles apart.
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Paul, April 29, 2008
Since the demise of Amazon and LOVEFiLM's acquisition of Amazon, I have been forced to look elsewhere. By all means give LOVEFiLM a go, but being larger doesn't mean a better, more cost effective service.
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We also have a discussion group dedicated to Lovefilm and its affiliates in our Forum.
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