- Very reasonably priced
- Great little PS2 and XBox games section for gaming fans
- Cool PostaDVD loyalty scheme lets you earn money for writing reviews
- Improved customer service
- Very easy to use
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Review of PostaDVD DVD Rental
FOR the first few years of its life, PostaDVD was the poster-child of poor service. When a new customer service manager was appointed in early 2007 he admitted that calling the company's customer service history questionable was "an understatement". So, not a great start then!
Now, things are being cleared up and PostaDVD has the hard task of winning back a reputation.
Only 18,000 titles
However, with a catalogue of just 18,000 titles (compared to Lovefilm's 65,000 and Blockbuster's similar offering) we wonder how long - even with the best of customer service - PostaDVD's UK DVD rental service can realistically hold out against more popular competition.
On the plus side, we're glad to see that this range of titles is indeed growing. When we first reviewed Post A DVD, their catalogue figure was hovering at the 12000 mark, so that's a 33% increase.
A further 350% increase will see it sock an uppercut to Lovefilm!
What a pity then that Post a DVD's recommendations and so-called 'New Releases' feature movies that have been our for ages and don't reflect anything like a new release.
East to navigate
The PostaDVD's UK DVD rental site itself offers easy navigation and usability, which is an increasingly important aspect for smaller, independent DVD rental sites trying to compete with the user-tested-to-death sites like Lovefilm.
PostaDVD's movie details pages are great and customers can review DVDs and give star ratings for movies they've seen, which all helps when making choices. However, despite the offer of iPoints for every customer review, many of the titles lack any sort of review bar a star rating.
Good value
PostaDVD's DVD rental prices are extremely good value especially considering games rental (PS2 and X-Box only) is included in all unlimited DVD rental subscription packages, but in the ever shrinking DVD rental marketplace and with not a huge amount to recommend it over it's more well known competitors, we'd be neglecting our duty to wholeheartedly recommend PostaDVD's DVD rental service.
Includes games
PostaDVD's games site stocks around 190 titles for Xbox and PlayStation 2 consoles
(as yet, nothing for XBox 360, PS3 or Wii, let alone DS) - which for the last year or so has not changed.
While PostaDVD have a limited games
rental selection - less than 200 titles - the PostaDVD games rental subscription
plans provide a range of freedom not found in many other services'
plans.
The PostaDVD loyalty points system gives you even more opportunity: the chance to cash in for £20 vouchers by writing reviews or even renting a film!
Unfortunately, they offer little search-ease to gamers, and seem to focus more on the films section. There isn't a separate search engine for games on the PostaDVD site, and listings are not in alphabetical order. The 'games' genre is the only one they offer (no sub-genres), so the rest is up to you.
However, with less than 200 games titles in the PostaDVD games flock, this is perhaps not too much of an issue.
While there are brief game descriptions and customer reviews, there are also some ridiculous errors, like the release date of a game listed as Jan. 1, 1960. If PostaDVD is ever to be a real David against Lovefilm et al's Goliath, they'll have to pay a lot more attention to the little things.
PostaDVD get two-thumbs up for:
'Loyalty Points' scheme which allows PostaDVD UK DVD rental members to collect points - you can even earn points by writing DVD reviews. Once you have 250 points, cash them in for a £20 voucher.
Free trial details
Actual User Ratings
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At a Glance
| Our Rating |
 |
|
 |
 |
| No. of Titles |
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18,000 + |
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| Free Trial |
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14 days |
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| DVDs at once |
Max / month |
|
 |
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Unlimited |
£9.75 |
 |
|
Unlimited |
£11.75 |
|
|
Unlimited |
£13.75 |
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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).
Jeff Russell from Liverpool writes... 04/06/2008 "Posta DVD wont even let you browse Adult titles without signing up which is never gonna happen.
Granted not showing explicit content but not even diplaying titles?"
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PostaDVD DVD Rental
