Try www.dvdrental.ch
=DM=
for more than a year, they are excellent!
try it (and the owner is american)
I'd like to float another idea - internet-based DVD rentals. I've heard of people in the US using these postage based rental services, but so far I haven't been aware of any operating in Switzerland.
Tonight I saw an ad on tv for dvdfly.ch it looks very interesting. The idea is that you choose something online before 7pm and you have it in your letterbox the next day. When you finish you post it back in a reply paid envelope. When they get it back you choose something else. The number that you have have out at each time depends on your subscription level. At the 25 franc per month level you get to have two out at any one time, and each title costs you 3 francs, but you get 1 franc back when you return it. Payment is via invoice so no credit cards or prepaying. Postage for both the rental and the return is free .
For those of us who are lazy and don't want to go to the video store and worry about getting a film back in time or paying late fees it would seem perfect.
Obviously since there is a fixed monthly cost it does become expensive if you don't use the service, but let's compare it to the price of something like a sky subscription or a cablecom digital subscription. Heck - even a single movie ticket in Zurich costs about 20 francs!
Their website is in German and French, but there is a function to narrow searches down to english soundtrack DVDs only (which is almost all of them anyway). They have a starter offer for 3 months for the price of 2 (50 francs for 3 months) - I think I'm going to try it out.
Does anyone have any experience with this company, or know of other companies providing such services (internet based)?
I think this is an interest concept and I'm glad to see it come to Switzerland and would love to hear some other points of view!
Competition might be hotting up...
Also an interesting addition to the list. But we should also point out - no monthly membership for this one, but the price is 10 francs per DVD...
Seems to be an expat run operation - I wonder if the owner is also on this forum?
Nick
Yes the machines are an option, but involve effort of going to the machine.. Price is also a little steep, and what if you can't be bothered to take it back the next day? If the price keeps rising that means just one thing: Stress!
Mark,thanks for setting the record striaght. Of course I wouldn't dream of doing that myself, something I obviously overheard.
And yes you're right the penalty fees after 24hrs are steep, you don't want to go down that road.
Nick.
Anyway, aside from dvdfly, does anybody have any opinions on these other services:
Thanks!
So far I've mostly been happy with the service. Their range is good and I've almost always been able to get my hands on the titles that I want.
Almost always the service has worked as advertised - if I select my title before 19:00 they are in my post box the following morning. They arrive in a neat little plastic envelope that becomes the return envelope when it is time to send them back - you tear off a bit at the front, put the discs back in and seal it back up - this process couldn't possibly be any easier.
This service has a monthly charge, so the frequency you can use it changes the effective price you've paid for your DVDs (25 francs per month averaged over 8 DVDs per month means you've paid an extra 3 francs per DVD, or more if you get less).
Now the trick lies in how often you can use it. You can have 2 DVDs at a time (the same time, not one DVD on one day and one on the next - they have to be posted together). In practical terms it works something like this:
Monday - order the DVDs. Tuesday, DVDs arrive. Let's say you manage to watch them both in a single evening - you put them back in the post on Wednesday, they arrive on Thursday and are credited back to your account. This means you can order the next set on Thursday and they will arrive on Friday in time for the weekend (but won't be sent back until Monday, meaning you'll get the next set on a Wednesday at the earliest.
It is probably more likely that you'll hang onto the DVDs for a couple of days to watch them, so to be realistic I would count on one cycle per week - 2 DVDs per week (if you take the basic service). For many people - if they only watch on the weekends, this will be fine. Just remember to factor the monthly membership into the price - you'll be paying 3 francs per title, minus 1 franc rebate when you send it back. Add on 25 divided by 8 titles per month and the real cost per DVD is 5 francs. This is handy when comparing to other services.
Since this is a review I'm obliged to point out the areas where I feel they could improve. This is not meant to be negative - on the whole I'm happy with the service, but these are the downsides that I can see: There is a wishlist, but it is just that. There's no way for you to build a list of titles and have them filled automatically as soon as your existing DVDs are returned. I believe that other DVD rental companies do offer such a facility. You can reserve a DVD that has been rented to someone else, but if you want it automatically reserved it costs one franc. There is a free reservation, but it just sends you an email - you then have to log in and grab it (if you are able to - your returned DVDs might not have been processed) I had one case (the last one) where I ordered on Friday. The DVDs did not arrive on Saturday (it's normal A-Post, it should arrive on Saturday), but Monday. I sent the discs back on Tuesday, but they weren't credited to my account until Thursday. Since this happened twice on the same order it effectively added two extra days to the cycle. I've no way to tell if this was a delay on the part of DVDfly or Swiss Post, except to say that Swiss Post is (in my experience) expensive, but pretty punctual. Their website assigns you a login name - full of digits, which you have to remember (they do send you a card with it printed in the post). You are allowed to choose your own password, but allowing me to choose my own username would have made me happier. Their "contract" has a two month notice period. At 25 francs per month you could potentially be stuck for an extra two months' charges when you decide you no longer want to use their service. I signed up for the trial offer that cancels automatically after two months. Since they aren't sending you any subsidised hardware, I see no reason for such termination conditions. Additional tips for using their services: Bear in mind that they maintain separate libraries of French and German DVDs. Almost all of these have English soundtracks - so if your desired title is already rented or it is not on the list simply switch languages via the website and you may find it!
We probably get around 10 titles a month total, so its far more cost effective than renting at store for 7 Sfr. a pop. And of course, no late fees.
The only downside is that you don't know what title you'll be getting, if your top choices aren't available, you'll get the next one on the list that is. Which is fine by me, my wife and I made a list of about 80 movies.
http://www.bibliotheken-zh.ch/asp/Index.aspx
and using the SEARCh function. You just need to be a member of your local library - here we pay SFr 40 per year for a family membership and use it to borrow books, DVDs, CDs, games, puzzles, computer games, game boy & play station games...
I just went online and reserved 3 DVDs and was surprised to see in the listing that my library has as well Grey's Anatomy and OC!