Zip.ca
February 23, 2004 - 10:41am — bmann
Dave wrote about Zip.ca, a DVD rental-by-mail service patterned after Netflix, but based in Canada. Actually, I believe they are actually in Ottawa. $24.95 per month, up to 3 movies out at one time. Means you would have to rent about 6 movies per month to make it worthwhile.
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Comments
from a satisfied customer:
from a satisfied customer: Maybe the happy ones don't comment. We've been members for several years and have had no serious problems. Sometimes a dvd doesn't play well, we've sent back a couple that were broken/scratched, but always have been sent another one in working order. we get five per month and can have two at a time. Recently the dvds have been cleaner, the envelopes new and softer, and in general we are very satisfied!!
M&W
Zip.ca: terms of abuse
Zip.ca's "Terms of use" is a legal document that leaves clients holding the bag for any problems that arise (and they will certainly arise) with shipping or delivery. I have have slots frozen for weeks at a time when DVDs did not arrive through no fault of mine. I have been forced to file "theft" reports, when I have no idea whether the missing DVDs are merely lost in the mail or on Zip's warehouse floor. I have received veiled threats from the company to bill my credit card, damage my credit rating, suspend my "privileges," on the many occasions when DVDs have been lost or delayed.
The concept of the customer being always right is definitely not corporate policy. And, whether or not the post office is at fault, its role as Zip's business partner is part of Zip's business model. I refuse to be prime suspect every time a DVD goes missing.
I have left the fold, and breath easier since I did so. I counsel all to get out while the getting is good.
ZIP.CA 'stolen' dvds
I have been a satisified zip.ca customer for a long time. Now all of a sudden I have had all my DVD's show up as not received. This has only begun since the DVD's starting coming with a return mailer that has a Vancouver address. (They used to go back to Calgary).I always drop my DVD's in the same mail-drop, here at CUCBC, which is secure site. We have not employed any new mailroon staff, and I would be surprised if the postman is taking them home himself, so I can only assume the problem is on your end, yet I am being put in the position of being the gulity party, since I no longer get DVD's sent to me.I am on the verge of cancelling my memebrship. Video stores may be a little more exepensive, and less convenient, but at least when you return a DVD to the store, they do not turn around and tell you they never received it!
Beware! Took Zip.ca or Rogers Video only 2 weeks to piss me off!
I recently signed up with one of these zip.ca services via Roger's Video after thoroughly understanding their services through their website as well as contacting a service rep personally to clarify a few things. After clarifying this information with these guys, it was obviously a no brainer to at least take advantage of the 2 week free trial. I had also indicated to the representative at zip.ca or Rogers that we understood this service well as we have many friends in the USA that uses the Netflix service which is superior, and if zip.ca or Rogers can implement this system properly in Canada, they could potentially be as big as Netflix and the key to customer retention is based on their first experiences with you. We signed up on October 6th for the 3 DVDs @ 24.95/month with unlimited delivery option. Our first movie to arrive on october 13th was an older movie called "The Great Escape", it was not one of the movies on the top of my list, but one of the first to arrive. The next set of movies came on the 16th, they were Scary Movie 4, Fast and Furious Toyko, Monty Python's the Holy Grail and The Naked Gun. All movies that were lower down on my list of priorities that I would watch, but I had to put together a list of at least 20 dvds that interested me. I though so far, it wasn't too bad, however I was not getting the movies that I really wanted.
My disappointment with zip.ca or Rogers, whoever implemented this system was with a charge that I received from them for a"Gotta Have It" fee which I did not request. I contacted their customer service department immediately upon receiving this charge to inquire why i was billed this fee. i was told by the representative that I must have pressed the button by accident and did not remember. I informed her that my company is in the business of developing online ecommerce/applications and not to insult my intelligence by telling me that I had pressed a button that should clearly indicate that I was adding on extra charges to my account. Plus, what would be the purpose of me doing this, because if I really wanted a movie, I would just go down to the video store to grab it and pay the same price after you take into account the monthly fee as well as the additional "GHI" fee. Plus the movies that they claimed that I "GOTTA HAVE" was lower on my list of priorities and if I "GOTTA HAVE IT" I'll pick a movie from my top three selection. It was obvious that there is something flawed with their system. She insisted that I had made this mistake as there are many other customers making the same mistake as well (in a patronizing way). I informed her that I refuse to pay for additional charges that I did not incur and if you have other customers making this same mistake, then zip.ca or Rogers is sure raking in the bucks as I was informed that his fee is irreversible. I informed her that if these additional charges that they claimed that I placed on my account were not removed, that I will cancel my membership immediately as their service seems to be flawed when customers are being billed for something they did not request.
I was then put on hold so she could go to discuss this with management. When she came back online, she informed me again that they would not remove the additional GHI fee but noticed that a monthly fee had been placed on my Visa and that they would remove this as I had not used their service yet after the 2 week trial period. (duh, thanks, there's a no brainer) plus give me an additional 2 dvds to watch in place of the GHI fee that was already billed onto my Visa. So i asked her, why would i need two extra DVDs when I'm receiving as many DVDs that I can watch as long as I only have 3 in my possession? By now I was more than just frustrated with this representative as it was clear that she was trained to memorize a script and did not know how to address customer's concerns in order to retain the customer. I instructed her to cancel my membership immediately and to remove all my financial data from their database. She confirmed that she had cancelled my membership, and she also assured me that the 24.95/month plus the "GHI" fees have been removed from my credit card. Now she was contradicting herself because she told me that the "GHI" fees were irreversible.
I did a bit of research after this incident to learn more about this zip.ca service in Canada and came across this blog. I was very concerned to learn that other customers were also being billed additional charges or for lost items that they were not aware of. I contacted my Visa company and requested that no other charges be processed if it comes from zip.ca or Rogers.
I don't know if Rogers is aware of how zip.ca handles customers, or if they are in fact the ones handling the customers, however, I believe it would be in the best interest of any business to clearly investigate who they are partnering up as well as their business pracatices are before they sign on the dotted line for the sake of their own reputation. I even considered sending the remaining DVD's via registered mail just to make sure they get them back and don't end up charging me for any lost DVDs.
I looked into my Visa account 2 weeks later to find that the charges that were suppose to be reversed on my card was still on my card. Again, I had to go through the pain of trying to communicate my frustration with yet another representative from zip.ca or Rogers. By now, I'm really pissed of, and I'm assured that the 24.95 has been removed from my card again, but they will not remove the "GHI" fees. Now I have to go through my Visa company to deal with this. Well at least I have this Blog to refer my Visa company's resolution center to. it's clear after this experience, that it was more important for zip.ca or Rogers to bill me an extra $9.52 than it was for them to have a happy customer.
Another ex-Zip member
Like many others here I subscribed to Zip and have come to detest them.
I subscribed for about a year and a half. I had some dics (5 total) go missing - some never arrived in my mailbox, some I sent back and Zip claims to have not received. I dutifully reported these and things seemed OK.
After the most recent missing disc, Zip has decided that my address has become a liability due to the lost discs and has deactivated me. Putting on my business owner hat I suppose I can understand this, even though Canada Post and Zip's warehouses are the source of the problem as I don't have the discs.
What really annoys me is Zip's presumption that I have stolen the discs - and would steal more in the future! The deactivation e-mail indicated that they would continue to have me as a subscriber if I agreed to pay for the most recently lost disc and all future discs that go missing. I didn't steal it - why am I going to pay for it? They seem to think they are the only game in town and haven't heard of CINEMAil.ca and others. While those running Zip may be morons, I am not. I'm not going to accept liability for Canada Post screw-ups and poor background checks on warehouse employees at Zip. Its their business model - they thought Canada Post was a good idea.
I instructed them to cancel my account. They popped up saying that there was an outstanding DVD - from late 2004!! Luckily I kept all e-mails from them and had one showing that they had received the DVD back. But it gets me thinking - one of the key things in their business model is their database. And apparently it is WRONG!! Kind of like FedEx assigning your tracking number to a different package - not bloody useful at all.
We will se how the cancellation works out, but for anyone brave enough to try working with these folks here are some words of advice, FWIW -
- open a separate e-mail account (yahoo or gmail) just for them. Keep everything they send you. They can't be trusted to ensure that your rental history and returned disc history is accurate.
- use a credit card with no other pre-authorized payments attached to it. When they finally piss you off and you decide to cancel and there is a dispute the best thing is to call and report the card lost. You get a new one, Zip can't charge the card number they have, and you won't have to call multiple other legitimate businesses that you deal with to give them the new card number.
- useful e-mails (outside those of the service monkeys at service@zip.ca) are rick@zip.ca (Rick Anderson, President and head moron), heather@zip.ca (alleged Customer Service Director monkey), george@zip.ca (alleged Customer Service Manager monkey)
On a side note, there has been some rumblings about Zip going public and doing an IPO. Given the discussions here and elsewhere it would seem to be a great idea to short the hell out of it when and if it gets to market.
boycott zip.ca
never had any complaints until they changed their plans. it's no longer unlimited rentals. i rent at least 4-5 movies a week, now i have to pay an unreasonable price every month (close to 40 bucks for some old titles). so i said screw it. if they dont have the integrity to keep their promises, i aint dealing with em. i just switched to STARFLIX.COM and im quite satisfied so far. their inventory is slightly smaller than that of zip, but still there's lots of titles i wanna watch, and most importantly, it's UNLIMITED RENTALS as they promised. a lying, cheating company like zip should be sued their pants off.
Hi,For about a year I was
Hi,
For about a year I was relatively satisfied customer.
But, I share others' concern about poor service, suspiciously slow turn-around time. The bigger they get, and the less competition, the worse their service.
I live in small town outside Ottawa - zips' homebase- and was happy to get about 8 dvds/month, specially since the selection on their website is good.
First funny thing I noticed was that none of the asap dvds were being sent out - it was like pushing the button for an elevator, all psychological. And there's no rhyme or reason to what is sent out - the availability box and length of time on my list were irrelevant to what was sent out.
Second problem happened over summer when I tried to put membership on hold over vacation - I called and was told I'd have to cancel by email. Fine. Same day I get email telling me I have 5 days to return 2 dvds - they haven't arrived yet and 1 was sent previous day! No response to email. 5 days later, there's an another email telling me they're going to charge me for the 2 dvds. I call, leave message, and next day get useless response - so sorry, nothing we can do, you have to return the dvds in 5 days. I return dvds when I get home, and after many emails and calls, get membership reinstated. And actually, given rules re: deadlines for cancellation, I also get charged for the month I cancelled.
Third problem, is lost dvd - they act like I stole it. Very poor attitude. In 1 plus year, I get defective (broken or unreadable) dvd about every 6-8 weeks. And now I'm dinged for lost one. No replies to emails
Final problem is delay, and suspicious turnaround time. Things have gotten worse, not better, with new distribution center in Calgary - like I said, although I live near Ottawa, I have to return dvds to Calgary! It can take up to 3 weeks one way! That's not canada post's fault. This Dec I received only 2 dvds! Looks like they're trying to save on postage, and to force people to pay extra for expedited service.
Sad to say, it was a good idea gone bad.Who would have thought i'd be glad for rogers and blockbuster!
Slow mail
Canada Post's delivery is crap. As of Jan. 10, I am still waiting for something sent from California on Dec. 20. I worked for the post office many years ago when it was owned by the taxpayer and service was way better. I suspect that your lost DVD went to a neighbour because the illiterate mail delivery person didn't get the address right when the mail was sorted for delivery on your street.
Zip.ca the definition of a Scam or a hoax
Hello,
What a terrible experience. I signed up for a free trial which if you cancel within the two weeks allotted time, your credit card doesn't get charged...or so i thought. The same day I enrolled for the trial, Visa reported that Zip.ca charged me $24.99!! I cancelled and they promised to credit me the so called mistake. I sent back the dvd's in the pre-paid envelopes and guess what, only 3 out of 4 got to their warehouse. Now, I am being charged another $25.99! for a dvd that I never even watched. The service is flawed, I would much rather walk to Blockbuster and pay a lot less.
My advice watch your credit card statements, watch your blood pressure cause when you deal with Zip.ca, both are going to sky rocket!
Sincerely,
A Dissatisfied Client.
another review, and privacy policy
<p>Another review of zip.ca is available at:</p> <p>http://www.mikesmit.com/page.php?id=3&viewid=1 </p> <p> The author of the article has the following concern: <blockquote> In particular, after you cancel your membership they will keep your credit card and personal information indefinitely, "...incase you will be renewing again (as many members do)". They are currently under investigation by the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner. </blockquote> </p> <p> There's no date on the posting, so I don't know if it's still accurate. Does anyone know about this? </p>
Another automated DVD rental place
Hey, I just noticed another one of these automated rental places in Montreal, it's called DVD3. Their first location is on Mont-Royal East, just near St-Laurent. It's a similar concept to Videoself and MovieExpress but the quality of the product seems better and the store has much more capacity (5000 vs. 1500) so they'll always have better selection.
They say more will be opening up soon!
DVD3
Don't bother signing up with DVD3. I was with their Dorval location that went into business in August 2006. They picked up in the middle of the night in June 2007 and moved out with my money in the machine. Head office has been ignoring my calls and email. I spoke to the landlord and they skipped out on several months of rent.
DVD3 Feedback
Hi. I'm evaluating DVD vending machine suppliers and would be interested to know about your experiences using the DVD3 system. Were you satisfied with the service and the functionality of the machines? Were the machines easy to use? Did you like the user interface? Any comments would be appreciated.
Zip needs help
If Zip.ca had been my only experience renting dvds over the net, I might think it was ok. But, having lived in the states, I know how vastly superior Netflix is. With the Netflix system, you simply rank your entire list of movies. The order of movies is the order you receive them, period. You get sent the top three movies, and as they are returned, the next ones on the list are sent, in order. Movies are never sent out of order, and availability is virtually guaranteed. You can rearrange your list at any time such that the top 3 movies on your list will ALWAYS be the movies you will receive next. I strongly suggest Zip.ca move to this format. I have had problems with Zip, getting series dvds (like the Sopranos) out of order, or have movies from the middle of my list sent to me even when other titles are ASAP selected. Sometimes I have a movie ASAP selected for a few weeks before it shows up. As much as I think Zip.ca could improve, I hate places like Blockbuster even more, so I feel I have no other option but to use Zip.ca.
Zip.ca has been great!
I have had a membership with zip.ca for approximately 8 months. I couldn't be happier with their service. I am receiving 12-16 dvds per month. I live in southern Alberta, and I was able to get the 12-16 dvds per month even before they set up a distribution centre in Calgary. I have had one instance of a dvd in a series being sent out of order. When I emailed them and brought it to their attention they replied within 24hrs and to make up for the error, I was shipped the correct dvd immediately and allowed to have a 5th dvd out for a month.
I am very happy with the service and turn around times that I have received from zip.ca
Zip.ca has Dishonest Scandalous Membership Policy
I agree with all the points in the post below, but espcially point (2). How can you sell a membership to DVD access when the DVD's can also be privately rented outside of the membership costs. Its like opening an icecream booth and selling memberships for an icecream a day, but not telling the customers buying the icecream memberships that they only get their icecream cone that day if there is left overs after random customers have paid cash on the spot. ALL zip.ca members should have equal chance at recieving ANY DVD in the inventory. Individuals should not be able to pay extra to get put immediately at the top of a wait list. Thats essentially SELLING THE SAME PRODUCT TWICE. We will sell you the car for the fair price of 40,000 but after you've signed the contract we will tell you that to drive the car you actually have to pay 500/day!!! Does this seem right to anybody?!?
Unfortunately I have only a
Unfortunately I have only a negative review for Zip.ca. I have tried their free trial as well as paid for an additional month at the "6-out" premium membership just to be sure ($38/month including tax). Here are my beefs not necessarily in order of importance.
(1) Mailing service is suspiciously slow. I'm certain Zip.ca takes their time once they receive their DVD's back from you. This is because I live very close to were they are located. I'm in Montreal and they are in Ottawa. I ALWAYS receive the DVD's 1 to 2 days max after the date they post on the website indicating when it was sent. However the opposite is not true. It takes sometime over double the amount of time for them to claim they have received a DVD from me after I have put it in the mail.
To test the MAX speed of the service, for the past 5 weeks I have not been watching the DVD's I receive. I simply put them immediately back in the mail the minute I receive them. I have determined that even if you live as close as I do (1-day mailing) the max DVD's you can possibly get in a month is 24 (and that is if you don't even watch them).
Now this is most certainly NOT worth it because you can't even pick which movies you get to see on a given day. I forgot to note that the max speed of 24DVD/month is also due to the fact that I have 177 DVD's on my "Zip List" which is the list of movies you would like to see that you make on their website. Now for fun I put a range of crap on my list like various TV series, and 4/10 rated no name actor movies. I then used their "ASAP" service, which allows you to mark any three movies on your Ziplist indicating that you want these three first. To date I have not gotten a SINGLE new release in 5 weeks despite religiously using this service. I always get used up tv show DVD's and the crappiest movies they can find on my list.
(2) Zip.ca sells you out for a price. This is tied in the end of my last point. Why after 5 weeks do I never get my new release marked ASAP. Because it’s FRAUD. Every member has the option to buy out other members. For $3.99 you can rent any movie on their site and get it sent out to you the next day. So any member with more cash than you’re willing to spend can void your membership rights and steal your movie. The best movies on your list sit at "ASAP" status for weeks and you get the crap as a reward for your lowly $38/month and unwillingness to pony up extravagant extra fees to out muscle the other members.
(3) Treacherous, scandalous cancellation policy. I of course will be canceling on Dec. 09 2005 when my paid month runs out....BUT. This will be a tricky maneuver. Zip.ca does not cancel your membership until EVERY DVD they sent to you is returned to them and processed. They could take you on your word and let you indicate on the website that you have indeed mailed back the DVD (there is this feature on the website but it is just another all show no give feature, more on that in a bit)...but no they don't....even though they have your credit card number to charge you if you had stolen the movie. So to be safe I will have to cancel my membership no later than Dec.02 and lose a whole week of a paid membership and even that will be risky. That week allows for any DVD's they have just sent out to reach my house and for me to send them back the minute I get them. If you want more time to actually watch the movie....you should tack on the extra time required to the base time of 7 days.
So for those of you considering their 2 week free trial, think about it a bit more carefully. This whole little plot is set up to trap unwitting customers into a forced 38/month membership. They automatically sign you up for the most expensive plan.
When I signed up the website promised that the day you returned a DVD you could indicate on the website that it was returned and new DVD's would be sent to you. When I emailed Zip.ca to inquire about why this was not happening I was informed that if I was a loyal customer for 2 months then I could use this feature, but only to get ONE extra DVD out at a time. In the meanwhile, indicating that a DVD was returned on the website only gets you "reward points."
(4) Here is why Zip.ca will never make it as a company. First anybody in Montreal and other parts of Quebec thinking about joining Zip.ca should realize there is a FAR FAR BETTER OPTION. Two booming businesses called "VideoSelf" (www.filmonline.ca) and "Moviexpress" (www.moviexpress.ca). Unfortunately these started in Europe and have only recently come to Canada and thus can not be found outside Quebec yet. However, they are quickly expanding west so the wait should not be long. These companies are superb. It is fully automated. All you have to do is go to your closest location and buy a membership card. The card holds a balance and does not expire. You do NOT need a credit card for these services (unlike untrusting Zip.ca). Once you have your card you can access the location 24/7 by unlocking the door with your card. You then put your card in a video terminal and select your movies from a huge selection in their database (just like Zip.ca). You then walk right over to a secure dispenser and collect your DVD's. New released always arrive the same day as Blockbuster and are almost always available. (Sometimes on the first few days of a popular new release there is competition, but no where near as ridiculous as Zip.ca with their embarrassingly low stock of new releases). Even if you can't get the new release on the day you want it...no worry, your card does not expire and it is only charged when you actually rent a DVD (Not like Zip.ca where you are always on the clock losing a substantial $38/month). The price? An incredible $1.15/DVD (INCLUDING NEW RELEASES). You can also rent 3 at a time.
For those of you not in Quebec and waiting for this service....just save your money and go to Blockbuster. Unless you don't watch your movies and put a million things on your Ziplist you're going to be paying an average of almost $4 DVD. And that’s if you’re a Movie nut. For those who just watch a movie a week or something, Zip.ca is a complete waste of money. For an extra $1.50 you can go to your local video store and pick up the exact movie you want to watch at that moment.
Lets face it Zip.ca has limits. For example for every DVD they send you they lose $1.00 in shipping fees alone. This does not even include their operating costs and profits. So when I'm testing them and approaching over 24 DVD's a month I see why they seem to purposely slow things down. They start losing money on me. Meanwhile the VideoSelf and MovieExpress are giving you the best DVD's in better condition for $1.15 flat no frills, no gimicks, no bull.
Zip.ca...I have tried you and given a fair chance and my solid conclusion is that the people running the company don't understand the most valuable thing in business. Customer satisfaction is number one. As people like me pile up and word spreads (especially with the dissemination made possible by the WWW) you will find yourself out of business. I don't appreciate paying $38 and then getting bought out by other member. I don't appreciate losing a weeks paid membership, just so I can cancel. I don't appreciate delay tactics so you can give me less DVD's and try to increase profit.
Final conclusion. Zip.ca offers far far far more than they actually deliver. More gimmick than value. Learn from my mistake and take your money elsewhere.
RB
Zip.ca
I agree and have the same problem with zip.ca.. they would not return emails they charged me to much and I hope they go out of business very soon.
so...is there a fee other than the movie package you get?
like as in vhq, they have different packages but is there another fee? like a membership fee? and how much is that?
The good, the bad and the ugly
The Good
I was so excited to become a member of Zip during the summer of '04, it was something that was cool about receiving movies in the mail all the time. I used both the 4 and 6 disc subscrpitions at different times. I loved being able to at least add to my Zip list any movie I could think of, and even was able to deal with the fact that it would be unlikely that I would get a movie in its first month of release. During my entire time with Zip I think maybe only 2 or 3 dvds were lost and I wasn't charged for any of them.
The Bad
Delivery times can vary extremely. At the start of my Zip membership I lived in Markham which is on the Northeast border of Toronto I then moved further east (closer to Zip's mails from) to Durham region. I was expecting 2 days for zip to send to me and 2 days for me to return, as I found in my initial trial period but it was often 3. It was sometimes 1 day but as many times as it was 1 day it was doubled in the 3 or MORE days of shipping occurrences. Dealing with not being able to get a new movie within the first month of it being an ASAP selection is hard enough but quite a few of the dvds on release day would show up as Searching for or awaiting delivery. So that means I would have to wait a month from whenever they may receive it, and it sometimes took quite a while. With all the references to blockbuster, I wouldn't be surpirsed if I went into BlockBuster and they said they were out of a new release, but to say they hadn't received it yet? Thats doesn't sound like reputable company to me. I also noticed that the site tends to go down a lot during the 6-10 time, which would be for me after work and dinner and the first chance I could make it on the Zip.ca many days. Going back to the shipping issues, I did notice a period during the past winter that I was receiving almost every dvd in a 1 or 2 day time period, after I moved further east. But this stopped for some unknown reason.
The Ugly
One of Zip's rules its that you must maintain a minimum of 20 movies and 2 ASAP's on your Ziplist. This is easy enough to understand but I noticed many times that I would only have 3 discs out for two days in a row, the problem with that is I was on the 4 disc package at the time. I didn't always have time to check my Ziplist daily so I wonder how many times they got away with this. If they do things like this enough you end up losing rentals in the days lost and seeing as Zip makes a fixed amount the less dvds they send you the better it is for them. I asked how, in everyone of my complaint emails how, they intended to make it up to me and never once received a direct respose or an admittance of fault from Zip. In the past summer they found a interesting but completely dishonest and deceptive way of trying deal with this, I would send my email complaint, they would add the dvd the next day and proceed to email me a few days to a week later saying 'According to our records you have 4 dvds out at this time' and that used to make me extremely angry. I mean sure by then they fixed the problem. In essense, they are calling me a liar with that statement. For me, it really hit the fan when I received 2 dvd's together, disc 3 from lost season one and disc 2 from WWE: Road Warriors. Seems normal except that I hadn't received disc 1 for either of those or disc 2 for lost either. Three emails and almost 20 days later I received an email that not only was unapologetic but also attempted to shift the blame to me. This still doesn't cover all the problems but its close.
Conclusions
After well over a year of membership, as of November 2005, I am no longer a member of Zip.ca due to what I feel was some severe incidents of poor customer service. I always thought to myself before I joined and during my membership that I can't wait for Blockbuster and Netflix to come up here, but not why you would think. I hoped the U.S. companies would open shop causing increased competition and improving the customer experience. Of course, I would have preferred to stay with the Canadian company but its looks like as with many other businesses we will just have to wait for an American business model to show us how its done, because the homegrown certainly isn't right now.
Zip.ca is good
No problems to report here. I live in Ottawa (where Zip.ca is based), been a member for 3 months and all is good. Turnaround time for them is ONE day, and if you keep your account in good standing for 60 days, you can receive an extra movie when you mark your other 4 returned even before they are in the hands of Zip.ca. E-mails have been answered on average less than 24 hours later, but have to admit, never had to call in. All in all, I am averaging 6 cycles of 5 movies per month, therefore 30 movies for $24.95. Nothing wrong with that, best deal around for me. Granted, I'm not a person who needs to have the newest releases right away. If I really need to see something new, just run down to Rogers to pick it up.
I am completely happy with service, and the Rewards program just rolled out a few weeks ago, going to be trying that out & will report back.
Fake reviewer
Give me a break. What a load of B.S. This is obviously a Zip.ca exec or employee pretending to be a reviewer.
This is very polished
This is very polished comment. Nice capitalisation with the 'Rewards' program - are you really reviewer?
MoviesForMe underhanded tactics -- stay away
Hi all,
Just wanted to post my very negative experience with MoviesForMe.ca as
a warning to any of you who are considering their services.
On Feb 26 I signed up for a Free Trial. I was basically evaluating
three services: zip.ca, rentadvd.ca, and moviesforme.ca. I wanted to
know which one had the fastest mailing time to my Toronto address and
intended to only keep the one that was fastest.
Two weeks later, on the last day of my 14-day trial, or perhaps
more accurately on the 13th day (I didn't keep notes -- and that has
come back to haunt me), I tried to cancel the free trial.
STRIKE #1: MoviesForMe.ca offers a quick and easy free trial signup
on their website. However, cancellation is not quick and easy. You have
to cancel by telephone; there is no online cancellation option. All the
other services I've looked into offer this.
So I called in, sometime around 4:30 pm I believe on Friday March
11, and was greeted by an agent who informed me that the cancellation
department was closed at 3 pm, and I would have to call back on Monday.
I was concerned because that would go past my free trial period and I
didn't want to be charged. He assured me that I would not be charged as
long as I called first thing Monday morning and explained the
situation. I thanked him. I did not take down his name (which I now
regret.)
STRIKE #2: MoviesForMe.ca does not state that the cancellation
department has different hours from the regular "front desk" customer
service. This is a somewhat predatory tactic; at the very least it is
deliberately misleading.
So I did call the following Monday (March 14). I spoke to a very
nice agent who asked me why I was cancelling. I explained it to him,
and he asked me to answer a survey, and I was pleased to spend the time
doing that. I try to offer reasons why I chose zip.ca over the other
alternatives. At the end of it all he cancelled my service, and
indicated I had a 7-day grace period to return the DVD's I had just got
in the mail (I did return them the day after).
STRIKE #3: MoviesForMe can have problems with cancellations not
going through, or with accounts being cancelled but the credit cards
not being "disconnected" from them.
Last night I was going over the bills and realized that in March
and April, I had been charged by MoviesForMe! I called in today to try
to straighten it out. I was greeted by another friendly agent who
assured me that it was a mistake, and the April charges would be
reversed. However, he made it clear in no uncertain terms that I was
going to have to suck up the March charge because I cancelled after the
free trial date. I explained the situation to him and he had absolutely
no sympathy, citing that I had rented 8 movies and should not be
complaining.
It is true that I had 8 movies sent to me (total), but a Free Trial
is a free trial. It should be honored. It doesn't say anywhere that a
Free Trial is only free if you rent 4 discs. I was, to be fair,
evaluating shipping time averages so I needed to get as many discs as I
could during the trial, and 8 was pretty much the maximum.
Anyway, I asked to speak to a manager, and he claimed to be one.
(Which is a common tactic -- but there is no way for me to prove him
wrong. He could have just been doing his manager a favour by filtering
calls from angry former subscribers) He was polite but was very
irritated by the tone of his voice. He had no remorse whatsoever for
what the company did to me -- it seems that he was operating on the
logic that, because I got 8 movies, it serves me right and I damn well
should have been charged for a full month! Which is absurd. For a full
month of service, I expect to get at least 12 to 14 films.
So, the bottom line is: MoviesForMe makes it very difficult for you
to cancel the free trial. They also run the charge through on the last
day of the free trial, so I advise people to cancel before the 14th
day. On top of that, don't start the service on a weekend, because that
could cut in to your free period -- you can't cancel on weekends, I
believe. Finally, when you do cancel, note the time and the date and
the agent you spoke to. Record the conversation if you can.
Even though I attempted to cancel within my free period, my efforts
were thwarted by obscure policies. I have a strong feeling the agent I
spoke to today was the one that handled my original call (from his
voice) and told me the cancellation dept. was closed. That may have
been a lie for all I know. I was ASSURED that cancelling on the Monday
would be fine with an explanation, but that seemed to make no
difference.
Not only was I charged for the first month, but even after my account
was clearly deactivated, I was still charged for APRIL! That is just
negligence, and I imagine it is commonplace at MoviesForMe.ca. They
probably do it knowing 85% of the customers will be too lazy to notice
or fight back.
Anyone else here had a bad experience with them? I'm not even
talking about their service -- which is mediocre at best. The price is
competitive, but the selection is not, and the speed of the website is
very poor. Still, I had no real complaints until I was screwed over
like this.
Let this be a warning. Always take names and numbers. If I had I would have filed a dispute claim with my credit card.
MANY OTHERS have had similar experiences. For corroborating evidence, read:
http://onlinedvdrentalguide.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?t=82
I tried Movies for Me, but ca
I tried Movies for Me, but cancelled during my trial period, about a week before it was over. Even then it was tricky to get hold of them. Their phone was down for a couple of days (weekdays) and their message inbox was "full". Also, the livechat through their website doesn't always have someone online during the times they claim.
For the person who wrote the above response, you have every right to a free 14 day trial, no matter how many movies you rented. It doesn't make sense that they tried to argue you into a "value" of "you still got some movies".
The reason I quit was because of poor inventory. I had a list of 17 movies and less than 4 were in stock, and not all of them were new releases as well, so I quit early in the game.
Right now I'm with zip.ca, which is much better in all respects. Now they have a costumer service line (finally) so you can call and talk to someone, which was the problem with zip.ca before.
Good content, good service, poor "My Zip List" feature
Have been a customer since almost two months now and am quite happy with turn around (not always great but mostly good) and I really like their selection.
My recent problem is with the way you cannot prioritize your movie list. After taking time to go through the library to identify which movies I would like to get, there is no way to effectively put them in order. So, if the 2 movies I tag as "ASAP" (cannot tag more) are not available, I can get anything in the list. (usually the one with most availability) This is really making me think of switching to another service.
Pluses outweigh disappointments
We have been members for over 1.5 years and had zero problems with zip.ca. We joined to save money on rentals, avoid late payments and have access to a healthy catalogue. Zip.ca provided all these things. Sometimes a dvd will not play properly but usually a quick wipe with a soft cloth solves playability issues.
Issues
Lately however we've noticed that the ASAP feature has been rendered meaningless. At first it seemed like a good idea and was generally honoured. I assume that rising membership rates and the desire to avoid being overstocked has cut into availability on certain titles. This is too bad. If zip.ca is enjoying growth in memberships they ought to funnel some of that revenue into increasing the copies available per movie. If they fail to do this then the ASAP is false advertizing, a 'gimmick' -- iow, something I dont believe it originally was planned as being.
This is interpreted as being a decline in service (something to be remembered if and when zip.ca decides to raise the rates). Note too that I am not referring to recent releases. I understand those are likely to be in scant supply. We have noticed movies 20-35 years old and available in dvd format for at least several years 'dwell' on our ASAP list indefinitely.
Also, the 'availability monitors' beside each movie in the ziplist are likewise becoming meaningless and misleading. We have movies residing in the ziplist that have been there for numerous weeks though the 'availability monitor' is from 1/3 to 3/4 green (the greener the monitor the more available the movie).
My girlfriend's tastes sometimes (alas!) veer towards popular trash (movie that would be rated very rotten on rottentomatoes.com for example), whereas mine tend to be more classic/foreign. The point is that all the classic and foreign movies Ive added to our ziplist will go ignored while she will get her 'ed wood box set disc 3' selection no problem.
We noticed also that zip.ca began implementing an additional, optional charge of $3 per selection for those who wanted to be put ahead of everyone's ASAP lists -- iow, "pay us $3 and we'll really really send this to you ASAP". This struck me as being somewhat disengenuous and a sounding of the death-nell for the ASAP feature.
Pluses outweigh disappointments
Still, at this juncture, we like zip.ca because we avoid late charges and, averaging 10-12 movies/month, are saving on rental fees. If we dont get around to watching a received dvd for a few days or a week we arent under any pressure to 'make time' for it. If they are slow in responding from our ASAP list (which is becoming the norm) then we sometimes use a local store.
Needless to say, we have not experienced issues of lost dvds or charges derived from same. (The worst has been a dvd shipped with a damaged return envelope, for which we were instructed to return 2 dvds in 1 envelope and pay the additional 50 cent charge for the stamp. Though this struck me as a discourtasy and ungenerous since it has only happened once and was for such a small sum we overlooked it.)
So overall we would give zip.ca a 8 out of 10. However, with the growing uselessness of the ASAP feature and availability monitor, the 8 is more likely to become a 7 than a 9. And, borrowing from rottentomatoes' scale, 6 is borderline.
Zip Stinks
It's interesting to see former Reform party hack Rick Anderson jumping into this thread to defend his useless company, which has been hammered in this blog for months. Before I found this blog (wish I'd seen it before I signed up), I tried Zip for several months and it stunk, plain and simple. Lost DVD's, zero customer service, stupid canned email responses, and a web site that contains many joke elements - such as "availability" and "priority" - that accomplish absolutely nothing as far as I could ever determine.
VHQ is, in my opinion, better than Zip in every way. The only thing Zip has over them is a bigger library, but 95% of their selections nobody would want to rent anyway, so who cares? At least VHQ has something that actually resembles "customer service", and I far prefer their web site.
Give Zip a pass, or if you're a member dump it. The others are better. And hopefully soon Blockbuster will introduce its online service in Canada, as they've done in the US. At that point I think Rick can start looking at a new line of work.
Don't let other people make your decisions for you...
I think part of the problem here is people expecting this service to compare to or replace Blockbuster or Rogers or any other large franchise video store. First off, if you are the type of person who just has to watch every big blockbuster movie the second it's released on DVD, then stick to those stores. If you are someone who is interested in renting older moves, foreign films, documentaries or obscure films that the large, mindless video stores just don't carry, Zip.ca is a great choice. Not to mention that anyone in their right mind knows what a joke Blockbuster is....I'd do ANYTHING to be able to stay away from a store filled with people who know absolutely nothing about film beyond what just came out this week.
The fact is that there are people out there who are ALWAYS going to find a reason to complain and that it's very rare that someone who is happy with the service is going to take the time to write about it. Which is why this board leans so heavily towards complaints. If people have something to complain about, you better believe you're going to hear it from them....(over and over and over and over).
Make your own decisions....I almost didn't sign up based on negative reviews but if I hadn't I would be missing out on a service that has made my life a little easier and my movie time much more enjoyable. (I signed up, got a free month and had my first 4 DVDs in my hand LESS than 24 hours later INCLUDING the two I had on ASAP....you can't complain about that!)
p.s. I live in Ontario so the service is great for me....obviously, the farther you get from a depot, the longer your turnaround time is going to be....be realistic with your choices and educated with your decisions and you're rarely run into problems.
Zip isn't as bad as it seems - It's pretty good to me
I have been a member since February 2005 and have experienced the highs and lows of Zip.ca. I’ve had a 3 week belayed shipment of my first 4 DVDs and slow communication issues via email. I sympathise with everyone else's dissatisfaction with Zip but admittedly, the employees are doing the best job they possibly can. It is not like they are conspiring to sabotage DVD renting.
Since my enrolment, Zip's library has expanded from 24,000 to 29,000 titles - in just 2 months! Like any other enterprise, there's bound to be glitches or problems. Sure once in a while, we're victims of a computer glitch or a lost DVD but what really counts is the friendly courteous assistance from Customer service ~ even if the email exchange isn’t efficiently rapid.
Not once have I received a letter laced with condescension from Zip.ca Customer service as I feel from reading the complaint letters written about Zip here. With which regard I feel it's unfair to blatantly blame all the wrong worldly occurrences with online DVD renting. The unrealistic expectations of getting everything you want, when you want it and without incident is the same as expecting to get all the green lights and prevent other drivers from cutting you off on the road. People who can’t handle these circumstances have road rage. In this case, I’ll just call this online ranting phenomena “e-rage
Zip customer service
Well, I am glad to hear that someone actually had contact with customer service. My problem was that I never ever heard from a real person. I will check back with the service now. It looks like they changed their policy.
Happy so far
I've been a zip.ca customer for about 4 months now and am totally satisfied with their service. My only complaint would be with Canada Post for their slow service at times. I find my DVDs often arrive 1 or 2 days after the zip estimate (sometimes they come early though). I live in the Niagara Region.
I'm averaging about 12 disks per month, that's about 3 "cycles" of 4 DVDs.
I find the website is easy to navigate and well laid out. However it's a bit slow and at times I've actually seen bugs in the ASP code. For example the month and date were transposed in date fields. I'm an I.T. professional and notice these things. I don't want to start a flame war, but in my opinion ASP.NET is not a good choice for their website technology.
Bottom line: I'm happy so far with zip.ca
(And no, I'm not a shill. I have no affiliation or vested interest in zip.ca; I just like the service and want to see them continue.)
Until you hit a problem
Hi there,
Just to let you know that zip is great until you hit a problem like not receiving your dvd after a month and unable to contact their unautomated response customer service. Also try cancelling your account, you'll notice they still keep all your information including your credit card no., I cancelled and reopened my account 6 months later, I did not have to enter my credit card again. Scary privacy policy unless you are ok with that.
Good luck.
Horrible service you would think I was dealing with a bank!
I just cancelled my account with zip after 4 months with them. Service levels are probably the worst thing about them, to get an issue responded to took 4 e-mails on average. One issue had 6 e-mails ignored until I told them I had blocked all payments to them through my Visa, less than an 2 hours later "Sorry for the delay how can we help". DVD's often took 5 -7 day to be replaced and I live in the heart of Toronto! The final straw was when I requested a series then after watching the first I ordered the second and got season 4 disc 5 long story short 5 wrong DVD's later 1 of which picked manually by support I asked for a manager to contact me as I was going to cancel 2 days later no manager and well no money from me next month.
There are alternatives. Canadian ones, too
If you're looking for alternative sources for movies or want to find takers for your movies without having to put them on freecycle, give peerflix a shot. they're kinda based in Vancouver and so far every dvd I ordered came through.
Peerflix might not make it!
just wanted to share that my experience has been negative at every step. Poor service and poor prospect for success, IMHO.
Hope you have better luck.
As soon as I exhaust my Peerbux (Peerflix credits for mailing 5 DVD's from my collection, got "nada"), I'm OUTTA there.
-- jim serrat
FILM FESTIVALS and ZIP
If you are looking at Zip to provide you with 20 new release Hollywood movies a month that you could get at Crazy Freddies movies down the street than perhaps you are looking in the wrong place. Zip is brillant at obtaining indie and unique films- FIlms that I can't get at all those chain stores. I can watch past movies from all the big Independent Film Festival...and all the directors other stuff. I am in heaven. And I might add that they are doing a great job at supporting and promoting film festivals.
And no problems here with lost DVD's.
Happy with zip.ca
I just found this page through a google search... surprised at all the negative complaints about zip. When I first signed up, back around October 2004, I really had no idea what to expect as I had never used an online DVD rental place before.
I have to say, after all these months, I'm still completely satisfied with their service. Most of the movies I choose to rent are old obscure films, which they seem to have an awesome selection of. This also helps me avoid the problem some of you are mentioning about availability of new releases.
I live in Toronto, and get a 3 day turn around time usually. So far I have had no issues with lost or reported DVD's.
The only negative thing I can say about the company is regarding their customer support. A few weeks back I had an issue with my credit card, and getting it sorted out was a bit of trouble. It was handled within a few days, I just hate those emails they send out that look like their support page.
With them making the main pages, and the lobby or whatever look so nice, it would definitely be appreciated if they could do the same for the customer support area.
A DVD never made it to me, I
A DVD never made it to me, I guess it was lost in the mail.
After reading all of the horror stories here I was really worried.
I filled out my form on Saturday and it was settled Monday.
My account has been restored to full status without complaint.
I will continue to use Zip.ca
ZIP Customer service
ZIP's underlying problem seemed to be that their growth occasionally outpaced their customer service facilities. Most people (like me) had no problems, but when they did (missing discs, computer glitches on accounts, etc) there were a couple of periods when it was almost impossible to get timely, useful contact to fix things. They're apparently back up to speed (more staff, supposedly ditched the automatic AI email replies as default), and have reinstated tollfree phone support.
There did seem to be a feeling over at onlinedvdrentalguide.ca that they had a dip in their new release performance, but Rick said somewhere that they had tweaked their purchasing algorithms, so it may have improved again. I've always been puzzled about the reports of lost discs (I've never had one from any source). These do seem to crop up from ZIP more than the others, but it may be partly a function of their size (and their tempting gaudy red envelopes), as well as the resulting grumpy customers if a missing disc was combined with a bad customer service experience.
From published reports they would seem to have 15-20000 customers, around 40 employees, and ship around 10,000 discs daily, so they must be doing something right. There doesn't seem to be much comparable info out there for most of the others, but I doubt anyone except VHQ is in that size range.
-----
David Oberst, Yellowknife, NWT
http://www.dvdinfo.ca
Movies for Me
I signed up for the free membership, added 20 movies to my list. After 3 days, nothing was sent. I contacted them and they told me NONE of the 20 I picked were available. I cancelled right away. They have since charged me for a membership $28.70). They cannot be reached by phone (voicemail constantly full and cannot leave message), do not respond to my emails and the online chat for support doesn't work anymore.
They also just posted a 450% increase on their press room. Guess they can't handle it.
M4M switched to a "virtual" i
M4M switched to a "virtual" inventory last fall - they apparently bumped their physical stock from around 3500 to a ballpark 7000 titles, but they loaded almost 20,000 titles into their database. Apparently they order in titles they don't have as you request them. It may be that a lot of your titles were these "virtual" ones, or you may have had bad luck and chosen a lot of titles where all copies were rented out.
I was with them for a couple months, but in spring 2004 before the "virtual" inventory started up, so I don't know how smooth the system is. At a minimum they should have some sort of indicator on titles showing the stock status to avoid problems like yours. They were fairly good while I was with them, although there were a number of posts in various places with similar trouble on credit card charges (although usually not with such a quick cancellation). I got the impression they were more sloppy or disorganized with cancels as opposed to playing games with the credit cards, though.
That "450%" press release is actually a year old, not 2005, and probably represents a spike on a relatively small customer base at that time. I think they had bigger plans to expand back then, but got blindsided by ZIP entering the field in their own backyard. They eventually got a Vancouver mail drop, but never went to the multiple warehouses they had been considering.
If you are still looking for mail order rentals, I'm a happy ZIP customer, and VHQ gets a lot of praise for their service. There is a discussion forum over at www.onlinedvdrentalguide.ca (and I have a list and other info on my www.dvdinfo.ca site).
Zip.ca has been excellent experience for me
I have been a member of Zip.ca since April 22, 2004. I used Netflix for a couple of years while living in the U.S. and was skeptical of how this business model would work in Canada without Saturday mail delivery. Zip.ca's service has far exceeded my expectations. I do live in Ottawa and "most" discs are received the day after mailing. Two discs that I returned were not received by Zip. I filled out the online form and my account was not degraded. It is somewhat frustating that new releases are not as readily available as less-desirable old TV shows, but that is the fact. My only other criticism is that of the limited priority choices (ASAP, Standard, & Park) .... Netflix would allow you to assign a priority number to each movie. At Netflix, when a movie pending release would become available, it would automatically move to the highest priority on your list. Hope this gives a more balanced view of Zip.ca ... sorry I didn't feel any need to rant.
DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO "moviesforme.ca"?
Phone #'s out of service. Live Chat doesn't work. You can process your credit card info. ok. and choose movies.!!!
Zip.ca vs. vhqonline.ca
I was just about to register to ZIP.CA when I read all these complains. Is vhqonline.ca better? How do they compare?
I did a mini comparison on their selections and zip.ca seems more complete. This is assuming they really have what they say they have.
my opinion
I started with VHQ and quit after the free trial. They were very good but I found their shipping times to Ontario a bit slow on the 4-out program. I then tried Zip and had to deal with lost DVDs, false credit card charges, and unresponsive and dishonest customer service. I went back to VHQ when they lowered their rates. I am on their 5-out program and have been for about 6 months. I am very happy. If you have any problem with your DVDs, they respond within a few hours and usually send you out your next selection(s) without question. Highly recommended. I also have very little problem with their selection. Newer releases almost always ship immediately if they are at the top of your list. If something is missing from their warehouse, you can always email them and suggest adding it.
joined
Welcome to the new VHQOnline.ca powered by Zip.ca!
We’re pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement that will extend Zip.ca’s industry-leading selection, service and value to VHQOnline.ca customers.
If you already enjoy the convenience and value of online DVD services, you’ll now have access to Canada’s largest selection of titles – more than three times the selection of most Canadian services, exceptionally-detailed movie-related information, member reviews and ratings, and our unique hybrid shipping system offering improved delivery times to Western Canada.
We invite you to transfer your VHQ Online.ca membership to Zip.ca now and enjoy the added benefits of being a Zip.ca member, including:
DVDHype vs. ZIP.CA
Before ZIP.CA started up, I was with DVDHype in their early days, probably the first online DVD rental outfit in Canada. I was not happy with either selection or shipping times (they operate out of Montreal, I am in Toronto). So I switched to ZIP.CA when they came on board, and their selection is in fact much better, and there shipping time is about one day less than what I had with DVDHype. I have noticed though that ZIP.CA is slipping a bit lately, in speed of updating account status, speed of shipping selections after DVDs are returned, etc. All this may be due to them. growing too fast. I only had one title lost in the mail, and that was easily resolved. In general I am very satisfied with them still.... Frank D.
ZIP
I've been a member of ZIP for about 2 months.
and I must say, it's been perfect! I get about 12 to 16 movies per month. I live in Nova Scotia and I get them usually 2 or 3 days after I send mine back. The only problem I have is that the new releases are slow to get... I had a problem signing up on the website and when i emailed them my problem was dealt with promptly.
Zip.ca's Fatal Flaw
In defense of Zip.ca, I can say that I have been renting approximately 15 - 17 movies a month from them without incident. None have ever been lost in the mail, and they usually arrive in a respectable amount of time. For those of you that can't understand how you get that many movies in a month, it's quite simple really: 4 movies a week, all arriving either on the same day or within a day of the first delivery, watched the day you get them, and thrown in the mailbox the very next morning on your way to work. This process has never failed for me, and I'm decently far away from Ottawa (but still in Ontario).
Now, for the other side of the story. Zip.ca has one fatal flaw to its business model -- they can't keep new releases in stock.
Since being a subscriber (I have been with them for over 6 months now), I have only received 2 new releases. All of the other new releases on my list show a little bit of availability, which means that I should get them if I use Zip's ASAP feature. The sad truth is that you don't get any new releases, even if they DO show up as being in stock. My list includes many older titles and TV shows which appear to have a higher shipping priority than new releases.
Here's an experiment you can replicate:
Try adding 4 new releases to your list such as Spiderman 2, Hero, Troy, and The Terminal. Change the shipping priority of every other title in your list to "Park" and see how long it takes you to get any of the aforementioned new releases! You'll be staring at a blank screen for quite a while before any of those movies start arriving from Zip.ca.
I'm sure that the problem lies in the fact that there aren't enough copies of any given new release to satisfy everyone's demand, and, since there are no late fees, members are keeping movies out for a longer period of time than they need to. Can you see the correlation here? Others have suggested that Zip.ca has no stock, and I'm starting to believe it.
And let's not even get into what happens when you decide to start renting whole seasons of TV shows; they'll be the only DVDs you ever see from Zip.ca! Since the majority of Zip.ca's customers are salivating for new releases and not TV shows, you'll get those discs first, even if you have other titles flagged as ASAP on your list.
In conclusion, stay far, far away from Zip.ca.