Here's the new thread everyone!
Looking forward to hear more feedbacks from everybody!

Thank you!

-Matt & Roger @rentmydvd.com

[Edited by RMDInc on 07-06-01 at 11:30 PM]

I have tried both netflix and rentmydvd. I have to say rentmydvd is way better simply because it didn't take 7 days to get my dvd's like it did with netflix.

I noticed you are planning on putting a location in houston. what is your eta on that project?

Figures, I finally make a post and the other thread closes.. trying again...

Well here's a good one for you to take a level above and beyond anyone else on the net...

Lot's of people out here have either region-free or multi-region equipment... and folks that are visiting this side of the pond for extended stays that brought their equipment with then,,, I know that there are several B&M places that do what I'm about to suggest.. so take the ball and run with it..

Start stocking Region-2 titles. I can give you a list of a couple of dozen great BritComs/BritDrams that are currently unavaliable in this country...

I would rent Region 2 titles, particularly of the old TV shows like Danger Man - I would have to play them back on my DVD-ROM drive (generally speaking, older ones don't have region checking).

However, RMD already has many other more popular genres that they don't have the money to get involved with, choosing instead to go the Webvan route of using their money to open a multitude of distribution points, each of which duplicates the overhead costs of their other distribution warehouses, in order to take a day off the shipping time, only to find in the end that the post office will take 2-3 days to get the rentals to customers down the block from them.

Added - once again, the new big releases are impossible to get at "that other place", but have been continually in stock at RMD.

I hope that it doesn't end up that one will need to have two subscriptions to two different stores/services, but it is looking that way.

POLICIES
 

Ok Matt,

With respect to your comments in your last reply to me on this thread: I can appreciate that time is short for you. I have therefore modified the primary issues from my last post here in the form of concise questions. By all means, feel free to answer them when time permits you to respond to them thoroughly. I am in no big hurry....

Do you believe that you are at present time effectively tallying data from your customer's wish lists in order to maintain a reasonable inventory? If not, then (basically) what steps are you taking in order to improve this?

In the future, do you plan on taking advanced orders from your customers for pre-release DVDs, for the purpose of including that information in your decision making process concerning your advanced orders of such titles? If yes, then can you give us an idea as to when you plan on implementing this?

Do you plan on eventually applying due dates (obviously - within reason) for movie rentals, in all cases? If yes, then could you please elaborate on when, and how you are considering addressing this.

What is the status on the DVD "Not Available" issue discussed earlier in this thread?

Thanks for your time.

This time a specific request, rather than a philosophical comment. :)

The wording of the status indicators in the Wish List (and elsewhere) is ambiguous.

In the Wish List, it either says "Available" or "Not Available".

I occasionally have to put the "Not Available" titles from my Wish List into the normal search in order to figure out if they are "Not Available" which then means you do not own any copies, "Coming Soon" which means you've ordered copies, or "Wish List" which means you own copies, but they are Checked Out.

In the Wish List, I would prefer to see "Checked Out" for titles that you do own, but are checked out, and the "Coming Soon" and "Not Available" wording used in the same way as the search results.

I would also like to see you distinguish between "Not Available" meaning that a DVD cannot be obtained, and "Not Stocked" meaning that you have not allocated funds to obtain the item, even though it can be purchased.

I shipped put 2 items in tuesdays mail prior to 9am. Usually DVD's like this are checked in Thursday morning. It also seems that DVD's the past 2 weeks are taking a day longer to reach the Burgh and vice versa. I was literally jumping for joy when I saw legend of the drunken master in stock. But unfortunately my 2 returns didn't make todays return bin. So the saga of the Legend of the drunken master continues for me. hahahaha

Happy Thursday Evening to you all. I hope everyone is doing well.
Let's to it...
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Hypeiv-

Thanks for the kind words. The last I've heard is Dallas or Houston before the end of the year. It's pretty much the same response on all the branches but the latest, latest word is that Texas will be the next one to open.
____________________________________________________
HepDude-

Thanks for comparing us to a company that spent $1.2 billion of VC from huge, well-run and well-managed firms, fought and scraped for the last few months to get even more money, and then filed for chapter 11 and closed its doors. You have a keen eye for comparrison and a wonderful imagination. In case you didn't read page 5 of the last thread I did ask in a specific note to you if you would please: "Stop drawing these bizarre conclusions about our decision making processes. Regardless of your own personal powers of persuasion in making yourself believe that it must be the case that Rentmydvd operates this way because you can see no other possibility, the fact remains that you have no idea." Not stocking "Danger Man" has little to do with Dallas. I really like this forum and I like talking to everyone and making excuses for our company and all the rest; but to say that Rentmydvd has decided to go the Webvan route? That's just plain insulting.
On a lighter note, I am in total agreement with you about the listings of "Not Available," "Coming Soon," &c. I've been trying to persuade the powers that be that this is a necessary alteration; so far my cries have fallen on deaf or disinterested ears. I will keep trying. The simple fact is that, at least in my eyes, there should be apt descriptions of what's going on with a title i.e.: "Not Stocked," "Moratorium," "Coming Soon," "Couldn't Afford Title because we're spending all our money on X,Y, and Z"-smile-
____________________________________________________

sm8680-

I just checked your Wish List- 6 of your 7 are available with "13 Days" the only title out of stock. Tell me what happens......
____________________________________________________

Londo-

I just don't think- even with the proper warnings and controls in place- that carrying Region 2 discs (if this practice would even be legal here in Region 1) would be a good idea. Sooner or later we'd have to deal with many a customer upset because "'Danger Man' won't play on my machine." HepDude is right about one thing above; as esoteric collections and acquisitions go, Region 2 at this point is way below the rentmydvd radar. I will, of course, take it under advisement and maybe even look into the legal question; however, I'm afraid that it will be awhile before anything happens.
____________________________________________________

Dave654-

I've decided, for your specific questions, to embed:
Yes and no. For Preorders of A-Titles and a general feeling for New Releases, Yes. For older titles and lesser knowns, No. Our programming department is developing the exception files mentioned in the last thread and we will (hopefully) soon have the ability to better get a feel for those titles and the desired genres. This ties in with the last question and the answer is already "Yes." Basically the Wish Lists serve as "advanced rental orders" for titles that have yet to be released. If you are asking if we are planning on instituting a different and separate function for this purpose the answer is no. We have no plans of instituting due dates for Membership users. It rather defeats the purpose of having the Memberships set-up as they are. It would amount to having a program similar to a video store's "One Night" policy on brand new releases but unfortunately really wouldn't work due to delivery and other aspects of this model. The unavailability issue discussed in this and the last thread tends to be associated with
more popular smaller titles that escaped purchasing's notice or with suddenly popular older titles. Typically speaking the availability problems are not with A-title new releases. I think this got answered just above, but, just in case: I'd like it to get better but there is no current plan to do so. Originally I thought that everyone here was in agreement but it seems that some people think that things are OK as is. I, and others here, are working on making those people see the light.
____________________________________________________

To No One In Particular, Thoughts on a Friday Morning-

In many ways this model is no different than a typical B&M video store. When you walk in you see titles that are in stock, titles that are out of stock, titles that seem to never be in stock- just the same empty box on the shelf every time- titles that are overstocked, and the "Goldilocks" titles- the one's that are juuuuuust right- and all the other usual sights.
Just like a video store we have customers that damage merchandise, customers that steal merchandise, customers that simply don't return merchandise, and all manner of bad customers- we also have clumsy employees, middlemen mishandlers, and whatnot; these factors lead to empty boxes on the shelves. We do everything in our power to make sure that we don't have them but sometimes we simply can't replace them. Of course we also need to clean-up the shelves when we can't make replacements.
Luckily, though, the overwhelming and vast majority of our customers are honest and good and treat the merchandise with respect. Overall the model works and in general everyone is happy- little bumps in the road just keep the driver awake.
Have a great weekend everyone; I'm off to mix other metaphors...

-Matt

is there anyway to report a dvd delayed. The post office sucks in my area and it sometimes takes a week to get dvd's back to you and netflix but that really hurts when i have to wait 7+ days before my next dvd ships.

Hypiev-

Just send a quick note to customer service. We'll take care of it.

-Matt

the service is cool and better then netflix..
but since you know these are going to be hits why don't you stock more new titles like snatch and unbreakable
or you all should send e-mails reminding people that they have dvd's out and if they want more to return em.. so you can get a better return rate on dvd's and more people get to watch them..

yea or polite emails giving the customers something if they return these hits faster so other members can enjoy new titles.

Matt thanks the Legend of the Drunken Master title is shipping. In the morning I had 6 of 7 in stock due to morning returns. I had 2 shipped and the afternoon 4 of 5 are out of stock. I just wanted to clarify that one aspect because in essence morning stock versus afternoon stock fluctuates greatly due to returns. Thanks again

Service, Service, Service
 

I am happy to hear that your programming department is developing the "exception files". Hopefully this will be completed very soon. Otherwise, you might want to break out the cattle prod :)
With respect to your comment: "Basically the Wish Lists serve as 'advanced rental orders' for titles that have yet to be released. If you [Dave] are asking if we are planning on instituting a different and separate function for this purpose the answer is no."
First of all, based upon what you mention above, you then of course have no need to institute a seperate function in this regard. But you should make it very clear to your customers that you are tallying such info in such a way. Otherwise many many of us won't think for even a second to place "advanced rental" orders into our wishlists. Taking [at least the basic steps of] such an action would be extremely easy on your progammers part (basically just a few minutes of effort to simply add text to a relevant web page), and would be a win/win situation for all. I illustrate my point further below.
It is possible that I may have overlooked some relative guidance on your website, etc about the following. I also know that you have already fundamentally addressed this issue before here on this forum, but I want to quickly walk through the steps of this issue to look at it from a different angle -- actually from the angle in which your customers often look at it, and therefore further emphasize its significance:

When I perform a search for the movie "Pollock", the result identifies that the movie is "coming". It's really too bad that a more specific description of the status of that movie can't be identified, such as "Release Date: 7/24/01", in the form of an appropriate button -- instead of simply the word "coming" -- which of course is not in the form of a button. Anyways, if I HAPPEN TO THINK to click on the movie title itself, the movie detail page comes up -- which fortunately, at least then identifies the actual release date. Then, if I HAPPEN TO THINK to click on "Wish List" -- which (as with the word "rent") is unfortunately not in the form of a button, then your system will add the movie to my wish list -- where you say you then would make use of such info for your company's advanced orders. Now for my somewhat rhetorical question: What all is wrong with this picture? The vast majority of these issues wouldn't be very difficult for your programmers to fix (and yes, I do have programming skills).
With respect to the "due date" issue, I believe that you took what I said/recommended a bit out of context. I have simply been concerned about this matter because it has the potential to interfere with your forcasting/rental fulfillment. However, you evidently have analyzed data relative to this issue, and have determined that you don't have a "considerable" problem with people holding on to movies too long. Am I right about this?

With respect to the following quote:
"little bumps in the road just keep the driver awake."
What may seem like "little bumps in the road" to the powers that be at your company, are in actuality rather large potholes that are damaging your "vehicle" more than you realize (woohoo, I made a crafty metaphor). Your system is set up well enough to function fairly well. All you need to do is to take care of most of these [perceived] little bumps reflected in this forum, and your system will serve it's true purpose very well. It's not difficult to do a little bit of researching online, and determine that Netflix has bitten off more than they can chew. This is good evidence that word spreads fast online. Many of the problems that myself, and others have brought up here are no doubt problems that many many of your customers have ran across, but haven't personally brought to your attention due to not being aware of this forum, not thinking that your Customer Service will listen to them (based on their prior experiences elsewhere), not realizing that some problems are relatively easy for a programmer to fix -- and thus would be worth bringing to your attention, and for other obvious reasons. But if/when people positively know that your company is really good at "forcasting" the need for movies, then that aspect of your reputation will spread quickly online. And you know what the result of that will be :) Furthermore when you couple that with the benefits of a Distribution Center in Texas, you will be a Powerhouse! (easier said than done, huh) :)

Since (surprise, surprise) I like you Matt -- I can tell that you actually care, and because I like your company's service over-all: I will provide you some info -- based on my personal work experience -- that will improve your shipping/receiving/delivery times. For now, I have decided to address this matter exclusively with your company, and thus will provide it to you via an email sent to your attention.

What I would like in return for providing this to you is the following:

Free VIP DVD rentals for life :)
And relatively high-level employment in your company -- maybe in your very-soon-to-be Dallas Distribution Center :)

Hmmmmm. I just went to update my wish list and received this when I clicked on "update":

Welcome to http://www.worm.com !

Hacked By Chinese!

On another note, the out of stocks are starting to scare me. Two thirds of my wish list is out of stock now.

I just went back and checked and now it says this:

The rentmyDVD.com is temporarily unavailable because of maintenance work

I got about half way into my post and posted on accident. I clicked the back button and continued typing, knowing I'd end-up with two posts but now it's back to one post, and this ain't it.

Worms and Conditions
 

Hacked by Chinese! All Your Base are Belong To Us. For Great Justice.........

Two blurbs about the "Hacked by Chinese" for those who are interested:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/602036.asp?0dm=C1APT#BODY

And

http://www.zdnet.com/zdfeeds/msncobr...25nsmn,00.html

One of our server hosts was down for a brief period because of this problem; it is our understanding that several of our competitors and thousands of servers were hit earlier this week with the same thing. Of course I'm not sure why our host didn't install the patch mentioned in the articles I've read about this; however, everything is going along smoothly now. Well, everything except everyone on this forum's Wish List, apparently. I realize that I have said this all before at one time or another on this forum; however, I reiterate for the fact that this is a "new" thread; anyone that's been here from the beginning can skip this section.

As far as new releases are concerned- the fact is that while they may be listed as "Out of Stock" during their initial period on the site this simply means that all copies received as returns are being immediately shipped to the next customers in line. If you ever notice a period of wait longer than three weeks for a new release please let us know; that should not happen based on our purchasing model.
Older titles are a bigger and more troublesome issue. For some titles we had a necessarily small original stock. As we began to grow we either added more or attempted to add more to this stock; however, it is simply not possible to do so for many of the titles that were released in the last few years.
Many of us at Rentmydvd have been in the home entertainment business for 10 years or more and the changes in the industry have been startling in the last two or three years. Distributors rarely carry overstock of items older than three months- this means that when we order extra copies of these titles, that order is immediately put on back order. We have no idea regarding when it will be available to us.
Next up in the chain of command are the studios producing the DVDs. The studios rarely carry overstock either, and so studios will typically wait until enough distributor and direct orders have been placed to warrant the duplication of more DVDs for a certain title. Once they make that decision they often have to "wait in line" for the duplication services which are overbooked with work from the mass quantities of DVDs and the little competition for duplication services in the marketplace. This last situation is slowly changing, though, and hopefully DVD duplication services will continue to be more plentiful as time goes on.
The whole marketplace, then, leaves us rather powerless if all we need is twenty more copies of an older title. Many times it is also the case with these titles that our original stock has been either literally or virtually destroyed by customers, the mail service, shipping machines, or some other link in the chain. We re-order these titles and then simply watch nothing happen. It is unfortunately not feasible to simply purchase all these titles (or any of them really) through retail outlets, simply because of the pricing structure and our internal needs.
Basically, I would like to say that all these problems will simply go away because we will simply buy more copies of the DVDs that we need- unfortunately the marketplace as it is today is not very helpful in these situations and is not making DVDs as available as home entertainment media of the past (such as VHS) traditionally have been. We are doing what we can- making-up what we can and purchasing what we can; however, we are to a large extent at the mercy of the market's whims. Luckily the market (including the studios and the distribution sources) are trending with the general marketplace towards a more DVD-oriented view; hopefully many of the problems I have discussed above will begin to change as DVD becomes a more central and prominent aspect of the home entertainment business.
On our end I can tell you that we are developing programs (the exception files and whatnot) that should be able to more efficiently guide our purchasing decisions regarding older titles or re-orders of titles that we presently have but are more popular than originally planned. Through this, and through direct customer feedback regarding titles and their availability, we can hopefully continue to serve everyone's DVD needs to the fullest extent possible. Did I really just write all that again?!:D
____________________________________________________

Dave654-

Thanks for all the tips- both here and in the personal e-mail. Per your request I have decided to grant the following:

1) Free VIP Rentals for Life are now yours. All we need to do first is persuade the programming, operations, and financial department to implement a VIP Program. It's coming soon. :D

2) Relatively high-level employment in our company in our very-soon-to-be-opened Dallas Distribution Center. Your high level will be relative to someone that doesn't work for us...can you swing a broom?:lol:

To answer your specific requests, in all seriousness, it is the case that there is not a significant "holding" problem by other customers at this point. There are, to be sure, instances, but it is not a normal thing. Most everyone is into quick turnaround and maximum movie enjoyment.

You're right about making it clear regarding Wish Lists and a statement of "placing coming soons here tells us something" and you are right about the coming soon dates. I am in total agreement as are a few others here. What we need to do now is persuade some of the others of the same things. Keep 'dem comments coming...
And thanks again for the info you sent.
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Kash & hypeiv-

I just checked the site for "Snatch"- it's available in both locations and pretty much all of the orders have been processed on the order level today (just so you know it's not an sm8680-type situation- see above). "Unbreakable" is another story entirely and I hate to say this because of the now-tired pun, but a large batch of "Unbreakable" DVDs that we got in broke during their maiden rental voyage. For every one that broke we had to, as much as possible, send out replacements and so our stock (mathematically anyway) was cut almost in half for about a week. We have had the broken discs replaced and the situation should even-out. As far as e-mails to customers are concerned I can only repeat that it's not really a problem of customers holding on to them. If it does come to that I'm sure we will implement something of that nature.
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'Til next time

-Matt

was unbreakable a defect? or did everyone hate the move so much they decided to break the dvd?

6 out?
 

Well, how is the 6 out program doing?

Also, the one thing that keeps me on Netflix, is that when a returned dvd is late, I can mark it as such and they will send the next selection out that day.

i had a simalar problem with rentmydvd, i mailed 4 dvds back from sunday to tuesday, I checked back on friday and only one of the dvd's got back to them, the one i sent on tuesday. I sent them an email telling them what happend. they marked all my dvd's as delayed and sent out my 4 dvd's no problem.

Do you have a 1-800 number?

Do you offer any promotions or coupons for new customers (like one free rental or something) ?

I just registered for this forum and first I want to say that 2 months ago I switched from Netflix to Rentmydvd and it has been like night and day. Your service beats Netflix in every department. Your customer service people are more knowledgeble, you send the movies out in a more timely fashion, you actually check them in on time, and you've actually got them in stock. I just had a few comments and suggestions to pass along.

First there were some problems with the return envelopes not having the correct postage and that has been corrected. But you frequently send out $.57 envelopes for one movie which is only $.34. I wanted to suggest you use business reply mail (you know the ones that always say "no postage necessary"). This way you only pay for what it actually costs and if someone doesn't use the envelope you don't pay. It would save money. Please look into this. Besides you wouldn't have to buy all those stamps.

Secondly you have to can the idea of each disc of a 2 disc movie being separate. That was a problem at Netflix and you don't want to go down that same road.

Third there is a problem with the glue strips on the return envelopes. Lately they are not working. The paper you peel off to seal it is taking all the glue. Please look into these.

All in all the service is great. Please don't become Netflix.

General Comments
 

I am a new poster here and I am wrapping up my first month of RMD membership (I first heard about it from a Sunday newspaper supplement article). I had been a member at Netflix for several months before cancelling service there today. In the past couple of months I found that nothing I wanted was ever in stock. Current hits were often listed "Long Wait". They cannot service the members they have yet they are out actively trying to recruit more members (who will only wind up disappointed since there are not enough DVD's to go around as it is). I was very pleased to find I have been able to easily get most of those titles at RMD this 1st month. Certainly there are always some out of stocks on my wish list but the situation isn't nearly as bad as over there (and the ones I want usually turn up reasonably soon).

Also with your East coast office I am seeing DVD's arrive in 3 days with regularity. Service to Florida from Netflix' only office on the west coast was wildly erratic. Occasionally the trip would take 2 days but it often took a full week, with 4-5 days the average. (After you get Texas online, I would love to see a branch in the South - either Atlanta or Miami which would probably bring us 1-2 day delivery).

The only complaint I have so far is receiving only one return mailing envelope with 2 DVD's. There should be a return envelope with each DVD so that one is not sitting hear waiting for me to finish the 2nd movie before mailing them both back. If I could get that first one back to you sooner someone else could be enjoying it and I could get the next title I want faster (yielding much higher customer satisfaction). I am on the 2-out plan. If this is also done with people on the 4-out plan it would really be a huge bottleneck in the system. I could not even consider that plan if this is the case. I know that you save a few cents doing it this way but I can't imagine that it is worth slowing down the turnover rate and being an annoyance to customers. Also if a mailing gets lost - you lose 2 DVD's instead of 1.

Also - this is not a complaint, just a matter of curiosity - who is licking all of those stamps on your envelopes!? I am amazed with such a high volume mailing operation to see postage stamps on the envelopes. I have a mail order business myself (usually sending out about 100 packages a week) and even I can't use postage stamps - my tongue would be permanently glued to the roof of my mouth!

I very much appreciate that you have a presence on this board. It helps greatly to get personal responses to our questions (even idiotic ones like mine about the postages stamps!). Giving customers an understanding of why certain things are done (from the company's perspective) is a great tool that I wish all companies used. We may not always agree but at least we will know where you are coming from. Good luck to you. As you continue to work on improving RMD I look forward to a long relationship.

hi Matt,

Been a customer for awhile now and I have no complaints...It's all good.

Just this question...

Recently I received an order that contained 2 movies from my list, but one of the movies was waaaay down on the priority list and there are at least 10 other movies ahead of it that are marked as available...including the 1st one. Why was this done?

Thanks

I kept meaning to mention this one. It might be the result of the strips being heated by the seasonal high temperatures in P.O. trucks this time of year.