- 1 month free trial - exclusive to Choose
- Staggering selection of movies to rent
- Few real competitors
- Rent games as well as films
- Now includes downloadable movies
- Brilliant extra content to inpsire movie selection
- Includes huge selection of Blu-Ray titles
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Review of LoveFilm DVD Rental
LOVEFILM are by far the UK's largest online DVD rental company and with more titles to rent than anyone else plus a whole range of innovative new services it looks like they're determined to keep it that way.
Unrivalled DVD and Game Library
Lovefilm have over 65,000 movie titles (including bonus discs) on their virtual shelves - only Blockbuster can really claim to compete on that front.
There are also just over 6,400 games available to rent for a variety of consoles, a count beaten by few.
There isn't an option for a 'games only' subscription but with a 'games included' deal you can choose to rent whatever combination of games and films suits you best.
What really impresses us, though, is Lovefilm's guarantee that if you manage to find some long forgotten UK-released DVD that miraculously isn't in their collection (and, trust us, we've tried) they'll not only source it for you in days but send it to you first too.
Great Website
Cleanly designed, without n'er a broken link in sight, Lovefilm's website is definitely one of their biggest assets.
It's exceptionally easy to navigate around, add titles to a rental queue and find answers to common problems - in other words, do all the things that'll allow you to get hold of the films and games you want with as little stress as possible.
More than that, though, click in a few pages and you'll realise that the site is rich in extras - film gossip, celebrity interviews, competitions and lists of recommended titles to name just a few - from Lovefilm's staff writers and small army of subscribers.
A particular favourite (if fairly addictive) of ours is the section where celebrities recommend titles for your rental queue: The Godfather? Don't mind if we do, Jamie Foxx.
We're also pleased to see that Lovefilm have taken a leaf out of Cinema Paradiso's book and added in multiple rental lists to make it easier to manage your DVD rental subscription when you're sharing.
Having said all that, we have heard some subscribers complain of late that intrusive advertising is blocking content on the Lovefilm site.
This is a bit of a blot on an otherwise unblemished online record and one we hope Lovefilm will resolve soon.
A Reputation for Innovation
Despite being - as we may have mentioned a few times before - a massive company, Lovefilm continue to lead the way in the UK DVD rental market when it comes to innovation.
Lovefilm users can already take advantage of online streaming - hotly tipped to eventually overtake the DVDs-by-post model - with just over 2000 titles currently available for those with unlimited DVD rental packages.
There's also a range of free and one-off fee videos for everyone else (even those who aren't Lovefilm subscribers). Prices vary but expect to pay around £2.99 to watch once and £9.99 to watch and then keep forever.
In some cases you can also buy the download to watch immediately and Lovefilm will send you a hardcopy of the film on DVD to keep. Now that's what we call service.
Lovefilm Pay As You Go rental service too where, instead of unlimited rentals, you simply pay for each DVD you rent. Read our full review of the Lovefilm Pay As You Go DVD rental service.
We think we can put Lovefilm's original thinking down to the fact that they actually seem to listen to their users - they have a big presence on both Facebook and Twitter -
Customer Experience
As you might have gathered, the vast majority of feedback we get about Lovefilm - and certainly, our own experience - is very positive.
For such a big company that's pretty impressive and, in fact, when we do hear complaints about customer experience from Lovefilm users they generally fall into one of two categories: availability of popular titles or speed of turnaround.
The former is the Achilles heel of all online DVD rental companies: with almost a million subscribers, the mind just boggles at how many copies of popular titles Lovefilm would need to stock in order to fulfil everyone's wishlist in order.
If you want your first choice of movie at exactly the time you want to watch it, you might want to consider on-demand movies from Sky, Virgin Media or Lovefilm themselves.
The second complaint is more worrying; for unlimited users, the faster titles arrive the better the value for money. However, users should remember that Lovefilm are constrained by the service of the Royal Mail so don't expect discs to arrive faster than a 1st class letter would.
Lovefilm get two-thumbs up for:
Being the closest thing to actually being in the video shop! We also love Lovefilm's massive title range, fast turnaround and innovative features.
Free trial details
Actual User Ratings
Independent Comments
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At a Glance
| Our Rating |
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| No. of Titles |
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65,000 + |
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| Free Trial |
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30 days |
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| DVDs at once |
Max / month |
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£3.99 |
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£5.99 |
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£7.99 |
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Unlimited |
£9.99 |
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Unlimited |
£12.99 |
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Unlimited |
£15.99 |
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£9.99 |
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Unlimited |
£14.99 |
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Unlimited |
£18.99 |
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DVD Types Available: |
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Recent Releases |
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Bollywood |
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Popular Choices |
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TV Series |
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Children's & Family |
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Sports |
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World Cinema |
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Adult Themed |
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Game Types Available: |
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Sony PS3 |
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Sony PS2 |
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Sony Playstation |
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Sony PSP |
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Xbox 360 |
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Xbox |
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Nintendo Wii |
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Nintendo GameCube |
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Nintendo DS |
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Gameboy Advance |
Customer Reviews
Remember, the customer reviews below are subjective (and are not the opinions of ChooseDVDRental.co.uk).
deb from wolverhampton writes... 10/02/2009 "I were with these for several months and cancelled due to games/dvd's being scratched, the service was fast but the turnaround was terrible i hardly ever got my top choices sent out, i stringly urge anyone who looks after their console/dvd player steer well clear"
Rich from Oldbury writes... 08/12/2008 "Not bad service but many discs were scratched and hed to be thoroughly cleaned half way through watching. Watch out newbies, the cancel function is weird. It's easy to cancel the cancel and then you get stung!"
Chris from Chorley writes... 26/11/2008 "Main gripe is that if two films are due out at the same time, they send them in the same envelope, meaning that you have to send them back together, which slows down the turnaround somewhat. Not a patch on the old Amazon service, hence us looking to change."
TimC from Glos writes... 12/11/2008 "So far my experience has been excellent for Wii Game rentals. On a 2 dvd at a time deal and they usually send out at least one top pick each time (all popular titles), you just have to manage your list by keeping the choices limited to help narrow the options. One dvd wasn't received back by them but once reported rental was updated immediately, usually 4 day wait (but it was returned at same time as another title).
I also use TescoDVD rental which is powered by them (also great service - 3yrs and only 1 missing disc), but I do like the extra features on the lovefilm site plus they offer better game rental options which they haven't passed on to Tesco yet.
Turn around is very fast, day after posting back disc is marked as received, next rental marked dispatching soon, posted at the end of the day, day in post and receive following day (4day total), often possible to get two turnarounds per week if you get discs back before the w/e.
Of course shall have to see when it comes to ending the trial if I do."
Pam Martin from Farnham, Surrey writes... 15/07/2008 "I had been an Amazon customer for years and they have forced us to all use LoveFilm now - who by comparison are rubbish. They never send you the discs in order and you end up with your lowest priority discs randomly - basically you never know what you are getting. It is a nightmare cancelling too - you have to call them to explain and they hassle you trying to give you further free trials etc.
I really would not recommend LoveFilm if you have used Amazon in the past and got on great with them - try Blockbuster!
"
NLS from Newcastle writes... 18/04/2008 "We've been with them a long time. The selection remains unparalleled and now that we have a rather better DVD player we rarely have problems with unplayable discs. But the customer service has plummeted. When they were ScreenSelect the customer service was excellent. Emails were dealt with by people who seemed to care about what they were doing and who paid attention to what you said. Now the people who reply seem to see one or two keywords in a mail and send a standard response, which is usually a set of instructions to do something that didn't work the first time, which was why you had emailed them... I now begin most customer service mails by asking them to put me straight on to their supervisor, as they seem to be the only people who actually read the mails, and once you get to them, they are generally fairly helpful. I wonder what the company's pay, turnover and training are like. It's a pity that what once felt like a maverick little independent has now become the lion in the jungle. The bosses and the equity companies must be making enough money to be able to pass on a bit more to the employees. In the end, a company is only as good as its employees at the coalface."
A. Higgins from Southend writes... 19/03/2008 "Have just cancelled LoveFilm after my 2 week free trial. In that time I was sent 4 dvds. They were all from my "low priority" list and one never arrived. Not impressed."
Heidi from Macclesfield writes... 18/02/2008 "5 consecutive damaged, unplayable discs, what a rubbish service! You can't escape them either because they've just bought out Amazon & they power Tesco's rental service...isn't there supposed to be a law against monopolies?"
Bill from Hampstead, London writes... 06/11/2007 "I have been with LOVEFiLM (previously ScreenSelect) for almost 4 years and have not had any disc that was a problem to play.
I don't watch that much but find I always have a movie from my 'high' priorities. I particularly like Lovefilm's priority system: when I am watching 24 (I am an addict) and 24 is my only 'High' priority, and I always get it. Other times I have 3-4 High discs and am quite relaxed about which one I get. Only about twice in the last year have I ever not had a High priority disc. Well done LOVEFiLM!"
(Mr) Subash Chandran from Watford, Herts. writes... 21/09/2007 "My experience with this excellent site (for "non South Indian" movies) is different to the view of Mr Glen Banyard. I have had no complaints with Lovefilm, and it is in the nature of "Discs" that they sometimes have faults, mostly cured by "mild polishing & replaying". If fault cannot be cured, LoveFilm re-send a "fault-free" Disc.
I have been very satisfied with their customer support."
Glen Banyard from Littleport writes... 15/08/2007 "Poor service, over stretched, frequency of poorly maintained and scratched discs increasing that it's more like Russian Routlette that you might get to watch a film all the way through without jumping.
Customer service is a foreign concept to LoveFILM, the ASA should actually be barring them from using the phrase."
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LoveFilm DVD Rental
