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Free DVD and Game Rental Trials and Offers

Old 02-14-03, 02:41 PM
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Free DVD and Game Rental Trials and Offers



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Old 02-15-03, 05:58 PM
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www.filmcaddy.com gives a free monthly trial- 4 out at a time


Walmart.com (DVDTalk Link) also gives a free monthly trial- 3 out at a time
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Old 02-21-03, 08:38 PM
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Signed up with greencine. Good selection of indie and art house DVD's.
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Old 03-09-03, 11:05 AM
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Anyone have any info. on Numberslate? I signed up with them and have never received any DVDs. I e-mailed them and have not received a response back. I'm beginning to wonder if they're really still in business. They have a 2 week trial period, and I wanted to give them a try but so far it hasn't work out too well.
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Old 03-11-03, 06:57 AM
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Originally posted by PlumPeach
Anyone have any info. on Numberslate? I signed up with them and have never received any DVDs. I e-mailed them and have not received a response back. I'm beginning to wonder if they're really still in business. They have a 2 week trial period, and I wanted to give them a try but so far it hasn't work out too well.
I gave their 2 week trial period a try a few weeks back and here's my experience: they shipped the first disc after a three day wait. The second disc shipped about 7-8 days after sign-up. By that point, I was up to 35-40 discs in my queue.

I cancelled just before the end of the two weeks. I guess you should fill up your queue with a huge number of discs just so you can get your two free ones.

I've tried about 4-5 rental places, this was by far the worst.

I'm currently trying out Walmart and it's much better.
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Old 03-11-03, 08:36 AM
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My Numberslate experience was similar to Chew's (sloooow service):

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=251888

Only the shipped my titles promptly... it just took them forever to check them back in. Part of this can be blamed on the distance involved (USPS, etc.), but they sure didn't appear to be in any hurry to deal with my rentals.
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Old 03-16-03, 01:00 PM
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Filmcaddy seems to be good.They seem to ship the titles the same day. I averaged out 10 DVD last month.
couple of new movies, couple of criterions and rest old movies.
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Old 03-17-03, 05:11 PM
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I highly recommend filmcaddy.com. Their turnaround has been phenomenal. I've been with Netflix for over three years, and Film Caddy is just as fast or faster at getting dvds out to you.
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Old 03-26-03, 03:50 PM
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Here's my experience with the free DVD rental trial offers I've tried:

1) Netflix (www.netflix.com)

The best one I've tried so far. Hands down. I live in the Massachusetts, and believe they ship all the way across the country from California. DVDs arrive in ONE day from these guys after it says they've shipped. Turnaround time is about 2-3 days for me from the time you send the DVD back and the new one ships out, again only taking a day to arrive. This is extremely impressive to me considering my experiences with the other places, as you'll see below. So Netlfix is the benchmark for speed in my book. Their selection is also outstanding, with practically every title available, though some smaller, lesser-known, and certain independent titles may be missing. The website is easy to navigate, the que is informative, telling you DVDs that can ship now, or soon, or much later, and it's easy to cancel your free trial membership. You can do it the day the trial ends, which is clearly stated on your account screen, with no fear of being charged. You've got 7 days to get the DVDs back, which isn't a problem considering the speed Netflix processes incoming and outgoing DVDs. You get 3 DVDs out at a time, and I believe the current free trial is 10 days, but you can find codes for 14 days (two weeks) easily around the web. So with Netlfix you get great selection, speed, and little fear of being charged if all your after is some free dvds to watch. I haven't signed up to pay for one of these rental services just yet, but when and if I do, it will be with Netflix...

2) Greencine (www.greencine.com)

Greencine's shipping/processing speed wasn't as good as Netflix's was for me, but it was close. DVD's arrived not the next day, but in 2-3 days. Two days is still pretty good. I'm not sure why Netflix is so fast, as I think Greencine ships out from somewhere closer than California to me? In any event, speed is pretty good here. The turnaround time is pretty good, but again for me at least, it was not as good as Netflix. I'd say 4-5 days in between sending DVDs back and them shipping new ones out. The advantage of Greencine is they have more of the lesser-known, independent, cult, hard-to-find films that Netflix may not. Their overall selection is comparable to Netflix I'd say. The website is nicely done, the que is as informative as Netflix's is, and it's just as easy to cancel (though you have to send an email with an explanation why you want to cancel). The free trial offer is 2 weeks, 3 DVDs out at a time. WARNING: the main drawback of this deal is that you have to have the DVDs you have out back by the time your trial offer ends. So the two week deal is more like 10 days. I don't know why they do this when every other place gives you at least 7 days to get DVDs back. You have to be careful to clear out your que and cancel early or more DVDs could get sent out. Again, you've got to have the DVDs back before the trial offer ends!

3) Walmart.com (http://www.walmart.com) <-- click on the link for DVD Rentals when you get there

Ok, Walmart.com ups the ante a bit here, by giving you a MONTH for their free trial offer, 3 DVDS out at a time. But with that month comes, again at least for me, a major drop off in speed, and I might add, quality/condition of the DVDs you're being sent. While netflix and greencine sent me my first DVDs in a day or two after I signed up, walmart took at least 3-4 days to get going. Once the site and email you receive say the DVDs have been shipped, it took 5-7 days to get them! Why it only takes Netflix and Greencine 1-2 days, and it takes Walmart almost a week is beyond me. The same goes for when you send the DVDs back. The DVDs don't show up as being returned for at least another 4-7 days! So the turnaround time is like anywhere from 8-14 days in between sending DVDs back and getting new ones. So you get a whole month, but the efficiency of that month, and the potential for total free rentals, is really only a little bit better than netflix/greencine. And as I just mentioned above, the condition of the DVDs is not as good as the other two. All the DVDs I got were severely mucked up, scratches, etc. All were playable, but nowhere near as nice as the other two services. That being said, selection is good, the website is easy to navigate, the que is as informative as the others, and it's equally easy to cancel. You've got 7 days to send the DVDs back after you cancel. So while it can't hurt to take advantage of the free month of rentals, you will somewhat disappointed by the level of service, and I doubt you'll consider signing up on a permanent basis when the free trial is done.

4) Filmcaddy (www.filmcaddy.com)

Okay, filmcaddy's shipping/processing time is somewhere in between netflix/greencine and walmart. I received the DVDs in about 3-4 days after the website said they had shipped. The DVDs get to you and get back to them quicker than Walmart, i'd say turnaround time is 7-9 days. The free trial, like Walmart, is a whopping MONTH/30 days again. In addition, you get to have FOUR DVDs out at a time. So it's as long as walmart, and a little bit faster, and you get more DVDs... shouldn't it be rated higher on the list? Well... not for me at least. I'm taking off major points for the que, which has zero information about the status of the DVDs on your list. You have no idea when they might ship. You can rate your priority, which ones you'd like to have first, but every damn DVD on your list might be a very long wait... you have no idea. If this sort of thing doesn't bother you the more power to you, but for me it was a major turnoff. In addition, in my opinion, filmcaddy's selection wasn't at good as the above services. I'll give filmcaddy credit for one thing though, they give you 14 days !! to send back the DVDs you have out after you cancel. Cancelling is easy as the other sites and with filmcaddy you really have no worry of not getting the DVDs back in time after you cancel.

5) Numberslate (www.numberslate.com)

I feel funny rating this down near the bottom, as I had a somewhat pleasant experience with them. The delivery speed was like filmcaddy, acceptable, though others have reported extremely long waits. Title selection is good, delivery time again was alright: 3-4 days to get DVDs, a 5-7 day turnaround. It's a two-week trial, but you only get to have out TWO dvds at a time. A good way of summing numberslate up is think filmcaddy but with only a 14-day trial instead of a month. You've got 7 days to get DVDs back when you cancel. The que is not very informative, they do have an availability listing, but it's not very new, and most titles simply have a blank entry. A list of 50 DVDs may have 5 available now, 5 short wait, etc. and the other 40 just blank.. which means they may be available or may not be. So it really can't hurt to give numbeslate a shot, but the most DVDs you'll be able to rent is going to be 4...

6) Rent DVD Here (www.rentdvdhere.com)

Like filmcaddy, you have no clue when or what DVDs will ship because there is no information on availability in the que. You can order your priority, but again, who knows if any of the dvds on your list are currently available? The free trial is good for only 10 days, 3 out at a time, but you do have 7 days to send back DVDs once you cancel. Shipping was pretty good, 3-4 days with a 4-6 days turnaround. The selection is not very good at this site. Cancelling is easy. Overall, it's the least professional site/service of all of the above, but I did get 6 free dvd rentals out of the endeavor... and how can that ever be a bad thing?

---

So those are all the ones I've tried so far. I'm pretty sure you can sign up for all of the above again with a different credit card and altering the spellign of my name, i.e. Matthew --> Matt. This is what I did with Netflix and was able to get two free trials ;-) Haven't tried it yet with any of these other services, but will probably give it a shot in the near future. Netflix really is the class of the DVD rental services. I can actually see myself -- and am considering -- joining. Greenflix comes in as a close second for me, but other than it having some more difficult to find titles, there aren't enough positives for me to pick it over netflix. The others are all a mixed bag. Again I can't see why you would join them instead of netflix or greencine.

Hope this is helpful for those out there that want to get as many free rentals as the can, and also for those that may consider joinging up on a permanent basis with some of these services!
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Old 03-27-03, 09:35 AM
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Originally posted by substeve
6) Rent DVD Here (www.rentdvdhere.com)
It's worth pointing out that this place restricts you from renting "New Releases" during your free rental period. That is, they will not ship you any DVD that has been released in the past 2 months.

At a place like Netflix, that wouldn't be a huge deal... but at RentDVDHere, the selection is pretty weak to begin with. So, to also eliminate any recent titles makes it less appealing.

Still, free is free. I'm sure people can find a title or two that they'd like to watch. Just don't waste your time if you're more interested in getting titles that are recent to DVD.
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Old 03-27-03, 04:27 PM
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> Still, free is free.

You bet it is. I'm more than willing to test drive as many online dvd rental services as I can, even if they end up ranking lower on my list than rentdvdhere.com, cause when all is said and done:

Free rentals are free rentals :-)

So has anyone else found any other places that have free trial offers? The above 6 are the only ones I've found that currently offer freebies...
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Old 03-29-03, 12:09 AM
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Netflix sux

Unless Netflix has changed their ways and decided to buy tons more copies of new releases, I'd steer clear of them. Last year when I signed up, I got through a whole bunch of titles - and quickly. They are great on delivery of the DVDs. The problem was once I ran out of the catalog titles. Before I cancelled my membership - I had 15 titles in my queue (some new, some old) and none of them ever came in stock over a 9 day period.

Not great

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Old 03-30-03, 06:23 AM
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Are these dvd's tracked. In other words, when you return them and they say it was not received can you prove it was returned. And what kind of hassle is it to prove you did send it out. Do they charge you for the movie first and then you have to prove it and then get credit.
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Old 04-03-03, 08:49 PM
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I will post a recommend for greencine if you like anime or indie films. Much better selection than Netflix. Turnaround times are slower since they ship from CA, netflix has multiple distribution centers. Shipment time is 3 days from CA to Michigan. Customer service is friendly, and they are implementing new envelopes in a few weeks that USPS says will improve ship times.
Edit: I signed up for the filmcaddy.com free trial, I added 8 movies to my queue. Today, I checked the queue, it was blank!!! I refilled the queue again. Poor selection, awkward setup and pages, no status..

Last edited by GreenMonkey; 04-04-03 at 06:26 PM.
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Old 04-13-03, 03:21 PM
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One of the best places to get Free DVD Rentals, is from your local library. My county library has around 600 DVDs which circulate throughout the local branches. Titles include recent blockbusters and even a few out-of-print Criterions. You can keep them out for a full week. And many libraries have an online catalog/reservation service.

If you're near a college, you might want to check the university library. I know Virginia Tech has over 100 DVDs. Titles are mostly classics and AFI Top 100 movies. Students, Faculty, Staff and Virginia residents can check out 2 DVDs at a time for a 2-day period.
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Old 04-13-03, 04:25 PM
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Yes, this is true, albeit off topic a bit .... time to start a thread for libraries that carry DVD's! ;-)
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Old 04-14-03, 01:46 PM
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My library(Woodbridge,NJ) charges $1 for DVD's and VHS for 3 days. Thats not bad , but they charge $2 late fee per day.
Though the Documentary and Educational videos are free , the late fee applies to them as well.
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Old 04-14-03, 05:48 PM
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We've got a whole network of libraries where I'm from and almost all of them let you take out DVDs for free for 7 days at a time + you can renew them if you have to. Some have a limit on DVDs, like 3 out at a time, others it's like 6, 7, or 8! They get most of the new releases and are really good for "classics", award-winning movies (I suppose there isn't much learning-value in a flick like Encino Man, so they are less-likely to carry it). And if you STILL can't find the movie you want at those llibraries, there is one that is basically a video store, charging $1 each DVD, limit of 5, and you get them for 7 days -- this particualr library has an awesome selection. Between libraries and free DVD rental offers I hardly ever pay for rentals any more :-)
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Old 04-15-03, 10:21 AM
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I'll continue the off-topic response:

My library has free one week rentals as well with no limit. They have an awesome selection, including just about every Criterion you can name.

New(er) titles like LOTR, Spider-Man, and so forth
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Old 04-17-03, 04:03 PM
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Wow, substeve, that's a nice thorough post regarding your experience. It's helpful to be able to glean some information from other's experiences.

Anyway, here are a couple of helpful web sites providing a quick overview/comparison of various DVD rentals clubs out there.

DVD-Rental-Guide.net

DVD Clubs Easy Comparison
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Old 04-18-03, 07:43 PM
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Anyone have any experience renting adult DVDs? I've emailed a couple of them trying to get extra info and apparently the ones I have don't care about getting new customers because they haven't answered any emails. So, thanks in advance for any help or recommendations!
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Old 04-29-03, 02:02 PM
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great post substeve,

thanks for those links toq,

I'm trying out Filmcaddy for a month, maybe I'll pay for the next month if I feel guilty... I wonder how long it'll take from Arizona to Maryland.

Update
ok, the month has lapsed and I rented a total of 19 selections. It would have been 20, except USPS lost a return and I emailed CS after one week. They said no problem, then started sending all 4 again.

overall, Filmcaddy sent my selections on Monday, they arrived Wednesday, I returned them the same day or Thursday or Friday and Filmcaddy received them by Monday. So, it takes 2 days from Arizona to Maryland, but at least 3 days from MD to AZ. Definitely, a one week turn around from the East coast. As noted by LBPound, "they don't process returns on Saturday"

I made selections compared to Walmart (I'll try them next) and Greencine, so I prioritize selections not carried by the other rental sites.

I'll buy one more month to see if I can get the selections not available at other rental sites. I wish Netflix had a search without membership, the preview selection doesn't cut it.

Conclusion: Filmcaddy is pretty good for one month free.
I'm paying for an extra month, so they don't go out of business.

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Old 04-29-03, 03:06 PM
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I am just finishing up my free filmcaddy month. The discs are well packed and ship quickly. However, they are not very speedy about shipping out your new discs. The website is not very well designed. I signed for my first time, set up a list, and in a few days I checked again. My list was blank! This only happened once but was a very dissapointing start. It takes them a few days to ship out your DVD, and there is no status for the list (IE Greencine's long wait, short wait, medium wait, etc).

Overall, greencine is much better. Plus, the support at greencine is top-notch, and the selection is also top-notch. Hell, the owner is always on the support messageboard taking suggestions and taking care of problems. I am still sticking with greencine.

Besides, for the selection that filmcaddy has, netflix has plus some, plus it's faster.
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Old 05-01-03, 03:57 PM
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Well, signed up for Walmart today...not bad signup. A lot of titles were "long wait" or "very long wait" which did not impress me much but I added them anyway. However, to my surprise, I got an email saying that 2 of the "very long wait" are shipping. Now to see how long they take to arrive.

*Edit: Arrived yesterday (total of 4 days, including weekend) not too bad.

Last edited by DVD.guy; 05-06-03 at 11:07 AM.
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Old 05-02-03, 12:13 PM
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I've been using filmcaddy for a few months now and their turnaround for me is very quick (about a week to and from and I'm located on the East Coast). I'm averaging 11-15 discs a month. Their selection could use some work however (especially anime) but I've got a good number queue nonetheless.

Numberslate I just cannot recommend. After this month is over, I'm cancelling. I've filled my queue with ~200 movies and only 2 are listed as available now. Some have been in short wait for months now with my hoping they'd become available and these are far from being popular films.
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