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DVDs365 have since merged with ScreenSelect and are no longer offering a movie rental service of their own. You can check out what Screen Select offers by clicking here |
The Following Review Applies To The Old DVDs365 movie rental site which no longer exists.
DVDs365.com is arguably one of the top five DVD movie rental by mail companies operating in the United Kingdom today. This Scottish-based online movie rentals company was launched in 2003 as an affordable alternative to subscription based satellite movie rentals and costly local video stores. We think they've done a great job so far and deserve their self-appointed title of "The no-fines Good Guys".
DVDs365 has a lot of different subscription rental packages available making them one of the most versatile of the online rental companies and allowing you to tailor your DVD subscription deal to suit your needs more accurately. You can choose limited rentals, paying for 2 to 6 movies a month or a choice of 'unlimited' rental package deals with the choice to keep between one and six DVDs at home at any one time. 'Unlimited' here is a capped number of DVDs per month but its set at quite a generous level with for example a three at a time package allowing you 20 rentals in a given month for £14.99 (you could expect to pay £60+ to rent 20 DVDs from a local video store).
DVDs365 is keen to encourage new customers to compare their rental service with that of the offline British alternatives to online dvd rental, so we'll do the same:
For their £14.99 a month subscription, for example, you can choose from a catalogue of over 27,000 DVD titles, taking out a maximum of 3 rental DVDs at a time, meaning you can hire approximately 20 discs a month depending on both the postal service and how fast you watch and return them. That works out at around 75p per rental, with no late fees and no postal charges pushing up the prices.
By comparison, a large local video store has at most around 4,000 titles, charges anything from £1 (for very old titles) up to £4+ (for new releases) per rental AND studies show, also makes around 25% of its profits from charging late fees to their customers. That's without commenting on the inconvenience of travelling there, paying parking charges if need be, finding the film you want is out of stock and coming home empty handed...
We think the benefits are clear for online rental.
DVDs365 also stacks up favourably with the other internet rent a movie companies. Their website is more than just a shop front but includes various features to help you find the movie titles you are looking for and provides plenty of suggestions for when you haven't a clue. You can see what's new and coming soon, browse through genre lists, top 50 recommendations and read reviews and ratings of movies by other like-minded film fans amongst other things.
In terms of pricing DVDs365 are relatively competitive with most of the main players although the new service from supermarket giant Tesco DVD Rental undercuts them in the one, two and three at a time packages.
Customer service here also shines with quick responses to emails within business hours and a promise that if you can't find the DVD title you are looking for in their catalogue they will find it and stock it. With 27,000+ available though, we think you'll find most of what you are looking for without having to ask for anything. We were particularly impressed by the selection of over 4000+ music DVDs and their selection of sports and TV series box sets are also very impressive.
In all, there's little to fault DVDs365 on, although if you are new to renting dvds online, we would recommend checking out their 14 day free trial to see whether it suits you or not. We think you'll be pleased with what they have to offer.
