Amazon DVD Rental Review

Review of Amazon DVD Rental

STOP PRESS! Amazon.co.uk DVD Rental has been taken over by Lovefilm.com. More information as we get it. For now, we'd urge you to not sign up to the Amazon DVD rental service before we know how this merger is going to affect prices, packages etc. Read our news story 'Amazon DVD Rental merges with Lovefilm'.

IT has been a while now since Amazon.co.uk - that behemoth of UK e-commerce - launched DVD rental to it's list of movie, music, appliance, electronics and, er, book services and over this time they've gained a reputation for operating one of the best, most innovative and easily the simplest-to-use DVD rental services available.

Oh, and Amazon DVD Rental also happen to be one of the cheapest DVD rental services too!

It's a pity then that recently we've heard a number of customers complaining about Amazon's slow turnaround of titles and lack of good customer support over the last few months. While we have not experienced this in our own trials (indeed, we found Amazon DVD rental to be one of the best DVD rental services in the UK) we are aware that in this marketplace, cock-ups and issues do occur, and as such these services should be judged by their performance as a whole, over time.

Worryingly though, of any company in Britain, Amazon should be equipped with enough logistics, infrastructure and experience to first ensure these are kept to a minimum and secondly to deal promptly and efficiently when problems do arise. We hope it is just a temporary blip, because Amazon DVD rental has a lot going for it.

Amazon DVD rental is as simple and easy to use as buying a DVD through the traditional Amazon site, in fact you even browse the same famously user-friendly pages! Simply click the 'Rent Now' button, instead of the 'Buy Now' button. We found browsing for titles on Amazon is by far and away the easiest we have ever used on any DVD rental service, which is testament to Amazon's leading stance on user-friendliness and customer-focused design.

With no distinction between the for-sale and the for-rent section of the Amazon site, all titles come complete with the awesomely useful user-reviews that Amazon is famous for.

We're thrilled to see that Amazon DVD rental has finally introduced 3 new 'unlimited' DVD rental packages to their arsenal - something the service was always lacking. Now, with Amazon's super-cheap unlimited DVD rental packages, you'll be hard pressed to find a better rental service that trumps Amazon DVD rental in all departments.

Amazon DVD rental has also recently launched a new £5.99 package offering 1 dvd at a time with a maximum of 3 rentals per month, which is perfect for the light user. Plus, if you want to watch any extra DVD's during the month over your subscription limit, you can rent additional DVD's for £1.99 each, which is on a par with Lovefilm's Pay As You Go rental prices.

Coupled with the low prices and excellent service, Amazon DVD Rental is certainly one of the best options on the DVD Rental market for light users who want just a few films per month.

Amazon.co.uk get two-thumbs up for:
Amazon DVD Rental's reliable indication whether a title is available to rent or not (eg. "Ready to ship now", "Short wait", "Long wait" etc), taking the guesswork out of what films will be coming through your door tomorrow.

Also, all Amazon DVD Rental subscribers will receive 5% savings on all DVD purchases through the store.

Free trial details

	Amazon offer a free trial of 14 days. The free trial is available on any package. It's free, so...

Actual User Ratings

Independent Comments

User Comments

At a Glance

Our Rating
No. of Titles	40,000 +
Free Trial	14 days
DVDs at once Max / month £3.99 £5.49 £6.99 Unlimited £8.49 Unlimited £11.49 Unlimited £14.49

	DVD Types Available:
	Recent Releases		Bollywood
	Popular Choices		TV Series
	Children's & Family		Sports
	World Cinema		Adult Themed
	Game Types Available:
	Amazon does not offer game rentals

Customer Reviews

Add your own review of Amazon's dvd rental service...

Remember, the customer reviews below are subjective (and are not the opinions of ChooseDVDRental.co.uk).

Ray from Dereham writes... 2/12/2008

"Amazon was once the best DVD rental service but lately it has fallen apart completely - lousy service, page errors and slow turnaround - in fact its almost as though the dreadful Lovefilm has already taken over. I’m not sticking with Amazon much longer."

Bob from Camberley writes... 1/10/2008

"This has to be the worst service ever. Sometimes takes four days (not counting weekends) to ship disks once they've received my returns. This month alone I have received 3 damaged disks! Do yourself a favour, steer well clear of this service."

Jon from Huddersfield writes... 1/7/2008

"Waiting, waiting and still waiting. Service used to be good now it is just rubbish!"

Adrian from London writes... 12/21/2007

"I have to echo what others have written - Amazon's service is now appalling. It used to be excellent but now is taking 5 days to credit a disc to the account and then 2-4 days to despatch another. All very strange as it used to be excellent. Are they trying to ditch it? As it stands it is now a waste of money."

Kevin from Leicester writes... 11/7/2007

"Like other people using the Amazon DVD rental service, the last few weeks have been Awful. Had 4 dvds not turn up and another 4 missing on the way back. Also, Amazon's DVDs are always on the 'short wait' status."

Jess from London writes... 9/26/2007

"As with the other comments, what used to be a very good service is going downhill fast and there is no constructive response from customer service other than they will take your complaints on board."

John from Grimsby writes... 8/5/2007

"What used to be an excellent service has quite literally crashed in the last few weeks. Wrong format DVD's, delayed returns, delayed deliveries and unavailable titles mean you have very little hope of actually receiving your monthly quota."