Screenclick.com online film service: a review

I was excited to sign up to Screenclick's service a couple of weeks ago. I'm sick of the dull choice in Xtravision and Chartbusters, where 30 per cent of the films star either Wesley Snipes or the Olsen twins. In particular, I was looking for older classics (without having to buy them -- I tend to watch most movies just once). The selection on Screenclick seemed decent so I signed up for e20 per month. This gives me two films at any one time; when I'm finished with a film, I send it back and they send me the next one I've ticked off on my choice-list. But so far, the service has left me frustrated more than once.
Problem number one: turnaround time.
As far as I'm aware, An Post operates a next day delivery service. Yet deliveries have been erratic. On one occasion a delivery said to have been posted to me on a Friday did not arrive until the following Wednesday. On another occasion I was waiting 10 days from the time I sent a film back to the time my next choice arrived at my door: I ended up having to go to Xtravision for the latest Wesley Snipes hostage/terrorist/vampire thriller. This defeats the whole purpose of the service: if I can't be sure of getting a movie by the weekend, having returned one on Monday, what's the point? Screenclick's customer service has hinted it could be An Post's fault. But perhaps it could be that there aren't enough people overseeing the dispatches of the films.
Problem number two: carelessness.
Consider this situation: four of my 'wishlist' items are episode discs of the series '24'. Last Friday, the service sent me out my fist instalment -- disc 4. The whole point of ordering the full series in instalments was to watch it from the first episode to the last. Common sense, eh? Silly stuff.
I'm gritting my teeth and sticking with it for the time being simply because of the choice of classics and hard-to-get films (I was stunned by The Lost Weekend, an early Billy Wilder film). But the service, so far, has been average to poor. Unless it improves, as soon as my list is up -- and that's about another 50 titles -- I'll probably cancel.

Comments

[Colm]

How many DVDs do you get from them per month? Is is working out cheaper than a regular high-street service? Is there greater selection online?

[Adrian]

-- I get two per delivery.
-- If I get 8 a month, it's cheaper (based on €2.50-€5 price in video shops), though I only got 6 in the first month.
-- The selection is a lot better than Xtravision or Chartbusters, though perhaps not as good for arthouse and alernative as Laser (George's Street and Ranelagh). But there are some TV series on there, too, which is hard to find elsewhere.

[Patrick]

Hi im Patrick
Marketing manager of Screenclick.com

I will be quite willing to rectify any mistakes ,I do however apologise for the delay in getting titles to subscribers.We are having a few problems with State owned Postal companies but we will rectify the matter as soon as possible.As for the series disks, Netflix in the states has the same problem only thing is we cant send out the whole series if that gets lost we will have a larger financial burden..Our automated system chooses the movies for you and does not distinguish between series and Films.Sorry about that.If you have any ideas I would be glad to hear them.
We would like our customers to be Happy
Email me personally on patrick@screenclick.com and I will gladly see what i can do to improve the service.

[ray]

try moviestar.ie

[Ted]

Interesting Screenclick, I was worried when they merged and became the only (major) DVD rental company around they'd hike up prices and make customer service worse, but I don't think it's worked out that way. For another perspective, see alternate review at http://www.ireland-dvd-rental-guide.com/screenclick_dvd_rental.htm