brisco32

I'm impressed by the dialogue you've opened up here and I will definitely sign up. I only just heard of rentmydvd today and the timing is good, as I've just cancelled my Netflix account. In the past whenever I contacted Netflix with a problem my concerns were dismissed and it was suggested that I had imagined the problem in one instance. Not good. So thanks for listening to your customers. It is very much appreciated.
One question: how many and which days of the week do you operate on?

MPSAN

Great! I have not seen them answer this yet and I do believe 10 is way to many.

I sure do not like Netflix CSR response either. They try to make it seem like you are the only one having the problem!

MPSAN

One other question. Does RMD plan on having DTS titles? I notice that you have Hell Freezes Over, but not in DTS.

I have several titles (Black and White Night for example) that sound MUCH better in DTS, and I have the equipment to tell.

P.S. Black and White Night HAS to be one of the best Concert DVD's to show off your new system!

RMDInc

brisco32-

Thank you, thank you. For operational purposes (shipping and receiving, etc...) we work every day that the USPS works. Basically it's M-Sa 0800-1800; our warehouses are closed for all Postal holidays and Sundays.
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MPSAN-

I was actually talking with JustinS about this very topic today. When our conversation was over I decided to check with the powers that be. The latest word is that we will be offering 2,4,6,8, and 10-out Plans in the next one to two months.
The shipping locations are still basically following the same timeframe and I do think that Seattle will help you out; but right now we are getting average shipping rates to
Portland at 3 days.
Somewhere above in this thread is a nice rant on DTS that contains our policy.
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Til next time

-Matt

MPSAN

Thanks Matt...never did see DTS info. I had looked before, but this thread is getting LONG.

Too bad you did not host a "customer forum" on the RMD site!

Anyway, I can't wait to see the 6,and 8 Pricing!

P.S. Do you have an 800 number for customer service questions or is EVERYTHING on the net?

Kube

Sadly, my Rentmydvd "wish list" is starting to look like my old netflix que. Lots of movies "out". Having said that, my experience at rentmydvd is much, much better than netflix ever was. MUCH quicker turn around. And I think that's where netflix will contine to compete. Everyone wants to rent today's latest release. Those competitive titles will always be in demand and that'll be a constant in any online store. But if rentmydvd keeps the turn-around as fast as they have, they'll continue to have my business for a long, long time.

MPSAN

That is why I asked about something between 4 and 10 out. I do not believe that with current turnaround, that 10 out would ever be effective. Would like 6 however!

RMDInc

MPSAN-

It's not exactly an 800 number, but it's live. M-F 9am-5pm PST you can feel free to call (650) 594-4379. Operators are usually standing by....
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Kube-

Almost posted this without seeing your newest post. Page 3 kind of snuck up on me. One of the things that I have been noticing is that with turnaround the way it's been going for most people there may be "Out of Stock" designations on the Wish List at night and early morning, but as returns in the morning put things back in-stock many titles tend to get available and then ship to those with an available slot. Please let us know if you have something that stays on the top of your Wish List through two or more transactions- we will try to make it right. And thanks for the kind words.
____________________________________________________________
Have a great weekend everyone

-Matt

[Edited by RMDInc on 03-23-01 at 03:16 PM]

jfoobar

Look Matt! I'm not the only one that recommends 6.

HepDude

First off, I'm just discussing these points - there shouldn't be anything to get frustrated about - it's just a discussion.

Second, I'll see if I can track down a distributor for you - just for your information - really, no pressure intended - but perhaps some actual information would be of help.

Third, if you want to be innovative, how about a "1 out" membership? (For those who watch a lot of sports, TV programs, work late hours, go to theaters, etc.)

RMDInc

JustinS-

The 6-out is on its way...

HepDude-

The one-out probably won't work. You'd be better off being a Regular User and just renting one at a time although I agree with you that it would be innovative.
As far as getting frustrated earlier in the thread, I know it's just a discussion and I appreciate your efforts.



-Matt

MPSAN

How much is 6 out and when will it be available?

jfoobar

*fist pump*

Thanks Matt!

MPSAN

JustinS, we did it! :-)

Also, I never saw any "rant" about DTS. I LOVE it and can hear the difference EVERY time. What was the rant? I noticed that several of the last Netflix movies came thru in DTS. (I have Netflix until 5/5) Does RMD have same, or are these titles coming in DTS as it is the only version offerred. Road Trip came in DTS.

RMDInc

MPSAN-
Page 2, 7th post down. We did just get the Eagles' "Hell Freezes Over" DTS version. "Road Trip" was released in its first edition with DTS. Bottom line on all SEs and DTSs, if they are released simultaneously with the "regular" version we'll get the enhancements.

Sherm42-
"Rope" is now in, so are most of the Hitchcock titles released in early March... And they only took 3 weeks! I'm actually starting to wonder if maybe some of our distributors aren't reading this forum...
Seriously, though, I am sorry to you and to everyone else that has had to wait for stuff on backorder or things not ordered, or whatever the status. Waiting stinks...

JustinS-
It's official, the pricing for the new 6-out Plan has been reasonably set at $1,138/month. Sign-up now and we'll throw in a bootleg copy of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
Yes, yes, you wore us down. Congratulations.

Everybody,
Thanks again for your continued support. I hope that as we go along everything will be to everyone's satisfaction. Of course we realize that one can't please all the people all the time, but we'll do our utilitarian best.

Have a great weekend everybody.

-Matt

HepDude

The difference is that a "one-out" member would be able to use the wish list, and thus when a DVD was returned, would automatically receive the top available item on the wish list, without having to keep checking whether a particular item was "in" or "out" by hand.

Also, assuming that "one-out" is never implemented, what are you doing concerning return of single DVDs by members?

Regular Users might rent two DVDs, and then they have them for a number of days, and even if they view the first one within a day or two, they hold it until they've viewed the second one, and then they use the enclosed return envelope (of which there is only one) to return BOTH DVDs on the day they are due.

But, in the case of members (and I am remembering this from my ill-fated month as a member of Netflix) they want to return any DVD as soon as they have viewed it in order to release another one from their wish list as soon as possible.

My reading of posts above indicates that if members get two DVDs shipped out on the same date, you put them both in the same shipment, and then give just one return envelope. This is at odds with the obvious desire of members to return each DVD as soon as it is viewed - which, by the way, helps you rent each copy more often!

This is why Netflix ships each individual DVD entirely separately - even if they are on the same day as another to the same address, and each comes with its own return envelope.

How does your system operate with regards to this issue?

Rant

Sure would be nice to have a "delayed in mail" option. It looks like it's taking around 3 days to receive and 2-3 days for returns to arrive at RMD from Ohio. This results in us weekend viewers with a 2-out account not able to always have 2 available on the weekend. For example, one weekend I had 2 titles to view. Watched 1 Friday night, sent it back on Saturday morning. It arrived back at RMD on Monday, and my next Wishlist title was shipped (great turn-around), and this new title was in my mailbox on Thursday. Great! A movie to watch on Weekend 2. Back to the Weekend 1, watched the 2nd title on Saturday, sent it back Monday morning, arrived at RMD on Thursday, next Wishlist title was shipped and arrived on Monday, meaning it won't be watched until Weekend 3 and only one movie to watch on Weekend 2. Had I been able to able to check "delayed in mail" on Monday when movie 2 was mailed, I'd almost certainly have had that 2nd movie for Weekend 2.

I should also point out that on my initial shipment I purposely had them ship on different days, so that I would receive 2 return envelopes, which has constantly carried over since I'm returning 1 at a time. Had I only had 1 return envelope initially, the above cycle would have been even more out of whack since both movies would have been sent back on Monday, making it unlikely that I'd have received any movies for the following weekend.

[Edited by Rant on 04-02-01 at 08:17 AM]

HepDude

Actually, besides the issue brought up in my last question, the other reason I am hesitant about signing up for the monthly membership plan is that DVDs suddenly seem to be hard to get at any online rental store.

An example is "Emerson, Lake and Palmer: Welcome Back" which is in stock at retailers for over a week, but is still "Coming Soon" on your site and unavailable on any other rental site. There are other titles as well, where all online rental stores report that they cannot get the DVD - as much as they would like to - but they are available to buy from Amazon,DVDEmpire, etc.

This could be due to two reasons:
1) Lack of pressing plant capacity - all the capacity is being used by Gladiator and Lawrence of Arabia and similar.
2) Studios discriminating against rental distribution (using gray methods if this is technically not allowed), because they would rather sell 10 copies to customers, rather than sell 1 copy to rentmydvd who rents it to those 10 customers. This was not a problem in the days of $90 sell through prices.

Given that these items are available from online stores, could you not simply use a DBA - say "Blake DVD, Inc." and just purchase the DVDs from the retail store distribution instead of the rental store distribution?

Music

How about expanding the wish list amount?

50 is kind of limiting.. to me anyways

The only reason I still have my NetFlix account is because I have about 93 dvds in their wishlist that I want to see and I have already max'd out your 50 limit.

RMDInc

Hey Y'all! Here it is Wednesday and I hadn't even looked at the forum yet- busy, busy, busy. Thanks for the reminder via e-mail Hepdude. So, getting to it:

HepDude-
Regarding returns and outgoings and mailers (oh my), it's like this:
Although we do encourage two-at-a-time returns of DVDs it is not mandatory. We will send any Member extra return envelopes; all a Member need do is ask. As Rant points-out, once you return one and we send one, a new one-at-a-time turnover is established and it will no longer be a question in the future.
For things like the Emerson disc you mention it's like this:
We got in on what they call "Prebook 2" for that title which means we didn't pre-order the disc on or before the preorder date but still got our order in before the street date for the title. I have a feeling that we will be waiting for awhile because obviously even people that got an order in during "Prebook 1" aren't getting it. When there is a replication issue (not enough of a title pressed prior to the street date), the studio doesn't neccessarily shun rental outlets (a sale is a sale after all), but they definitely want to fill the biggest orders to the best of their ability. Places that order big on the small titles order BIG on the big titles and if you are a studio you do not want your BIG orders cut because of fulfillment fears by your biggest customers. In general for rentailers (the kitchy buzz alternative to retailers), the quantities ordered are usually going to be less than the big retailers, online or off. So, whenever there are replication issues the retailers with the biggest quantity orders are first in the pecking list and it just goes down the line.
____________________________________________________________

Rant,

You bring up a good point and I want to make sure that everyone understands that I'm not picking on you when I say what I'm going to say. I got a really nasty e-mail the other day from a customer about the "delayed in mail" situation that really irked me and while I don't think it was from any of our faithful forum followers, there is something that needs to be said.
In Rant's case, if you read the text of his message it seems reasonable to assume that there is no mail delay:

3 days coming and 3 days going is a resonable rate to expect turnaround and while we do experience mail delays this is not really a good example of one. I realize that it's not as great as, say, San Francisco or New York turnaround, but it's not lenghty. Now, enter the "delayed in mail" function. Let's say it was up and running and Rant clicks it so that he can get his two for Weekend 2. Here is what we get until Thursday: Rant becomes a 3-out member for four days (and presumably four days a week if he did it every Monday) of the week and whatever movie is coming back to us is "out of stock" for those four days. One main reason for the extreme nature of this scenario is that we ship things when they are ordered or when they are marked "delayed" or when we receive a return. There is no significant time lag between an order of any sort being made and that order then being shipped out. So, multiply the lessened inventory and increased Membership limit numbers by all Members and things start to look a little bleak both for financial stability and for title availability.
Make no mistake- I can fully appreciate the position of everyone that wants this "delayed in mail" feature right away. And I also realize that things get delayed in the mail. And I have also heard the suggestion that we should limit the number of "delays" by the Membership Plan limit; we're looking in to making this work in a way that is beneficial to everyone involved.
____________________________________________________________

Mr Music,

We are once again contemplating expansion of the Wish List. I hope our programmers are reading this...



More next time-
Matt

Rant

Matt,

I appreciate the explanation and do agree with the view from your side. Even in my situation, the 2-out membership still is a better deal than Blockbuster assuming the 6-day turnaround results in us only renting 6 or 7 movies a month.

HepDude

One of your competitors has done a major revamp of their web site. Check out:

http://www.cafedvd.com/cgi-bin/new/29688.html

If you click on the "N/A" button under regular rental, you get a field to put in your email address, and they notify you if and when they get it in to rent. This works whether or not they own any copies or not - ie if it is simply "checked out" as in:

http://www.cafedvd.com/cgi-bin/new/2415.html

you can still click to indicate that you want to rent this, but it is out. (Actually, they have had this feature before, but before it was only on a few items and only on items they don't own; now it looks like they have extended it to everything they can get.)

The "Rent to Own" bit is interesting. They say that they get the item within about 24 hours. The fact that there is also a button to buy the item new, indicates to me that they - being in the middle of a big urban area, ie San Jose - simply go out to a "one stop" and buy the item and then rent it to you (or possibly they get it by UPS from some distributor like Ingram). Or maybe they just walk down the street to "Best Buy"?

The "buy used" button is interesting, in that it indicates that they have caused the button to be active if they have more than a certain number of rental copies in stock (and probably only if the title is more than a certain number of months old - for example, there are no used copies of "Almost Famous" available there).

Certainly, the feature that notifies the store if someone is looking to rent something that is not available, is something you should emulate - the email notification upon stock is very nice, but the main thing is that people don't have to write an email saying "Can you please get Blah Blah on DVD?" and you get valuable feedback about the demand for a title.


[Edited by HepDude on 04-05-01 at 11:51 AM]

Kermy

I'm a big anime fan and your anime dvd collection is...lacking. Many are unavailable. But at least you have many of the new titles listed. Hehe...but not bad, not bad.

jfoobar

Matt-

[pest-mode]

Do you have an ETA for the six-at-a-time plan yet? Thanks.

[/pest-mode]

RMDInc

Well all, another Friday, another plethora of DVD renting information for your reading enjoyment...
____________________________________________________________

JustinS-

Shouldn't be much longer for the additional Plans' introduction. No one here wants to commit to a concrete date so I'll give the [vague] one to two months [/vague] answer. I'm just not positive and I apologize. When I hear more info I'll definitely post it.

____________________________________________________________

Kermy,

We are working on it... As with all the smaller (less popular) genres it's just not going to explode in a ready-made section. But it is growing and will continue to grow with time. See way back on page 1 and 2 of this thread for this topic loosely addressed. We'll keep adding titles and getting older ones when we can.

____________________________________________________________

Rant-

Thanks for seeing the other side of this funky coin and please understand that the whole transaction should work the way you want it to. I would imagine that 85-90% of the time the USPS will deliver when expected. The only problem being the one time they miss and it's snowing outside and the fire is lit and the popcorn is popped and the, well, you get the point. We do understand delays, though, and I think we will honestly have little alternative to a "delayed" function- whether or not it is abused. Something will be done.

____________________________________________________________

Hepdude-

Being the recipient of many a "blah blah" message I, for one, really like the idea of the e-mail request system that works the way you mention. The buy used stuff is something that we already have in place but something that isn't quite available yet (we're still getting good demand for most high quantity titles). But it will be. The one reason that we stopped selling new (wrapped) DVDs is for all the problems with distribution mentioned throughout this thread. Simple fact is, many times there will be no way to get some titles. We could keep the extra for-sale inventory in our warehouses; however, the rental is just a better way to circulate inventory. Plain and simple. But I do like some of the functions that you mention and I've already passed them on to the suggestion box.
____________________________________________________________


Have a good weekend everybody.

-Matt