i’m concerned about the recent purchase of my very lovely dvd-by-mail provider vhqonline by the not as lovely and somewhat maligned provider zip.ca.
the first change i’ve noticed and don’t much like is in the rental queue format. vhq used to have it in priority order from 1 to whatever number was last. you’d have the dvd you wanted sent next in the number one spot, and so on. it was really handy for getting what you wanted when you wanted it. the new zip-powered site doesn’t seem to have that option. my queue is now alphabetical. i don’t want to see movies alphabetically! that’s dorky!
anyway, i guess i don’t have much of a choice. they were the only two major players in canada. i just hope zip doesn’t fuck it all up, and charge me more for the pleasure.
does anyone have any experience with zip? are they less asstacular than they were a year ago?
Alphabetically? Damn, that’s messed up! Especially if they include The as a word. ;-)
Gosh, I missed the Internet.
I like Zip plenty, except for one thing and you’ve certainly hit on it — their super lame queue system.
They’re slower than netflix, but jsut as fast as VHQ, I found in my non-scientific tests.
You might try DVDflix. Their website has its quirks, but at least they don’t have a lame queuing system (you can order your movies however you’d like), and since they’re based in Vancouver, they’re really fast in the shipping and receiving activities.
My only regret is their selection, which is not near so great as NetFlix was in the states, but I’m not sure how VHQ fits on that scale either.
I’ve been on with Zip since November last year, and have had zero problems with them. I’ve never tried a different queue system, so I’d assume that it’s personal preference, but mayhaps they’ll roll the queue system into their existing one. :)
Be of good cheer, however — their malignment online is mostly undeserved at this point. Nobody can make everyone happy, but they have managed to do so with me.
Zip’s queue system certainly could use some improvements, but it isn’t completely useless. I get about 70-80% ASAP choices sent, although I’m not going after new releases and other highly popular titles. They say they have changes coming – although I’ve been waiting for some for a long while now, perhaps the pressure of a bunch of ex-VHQers will bring them around.
A year ago was around when ZIP went through some sort of growth spurt, and their customer service was apparently horrible for time around then. They should be much better now (although reports say it is understandably overloaded during the VHQ changeover). They have always been a little “klankier” about CS and technical problems and glitches than VHQ seems to have been, but once you get ahold of actual people it usually isn’t that bad.
For those interested in online rentals, there is an active set of discussion forums over at onlinedvdrentalguide.ca, and I have some comparative info on my own website (www.dvdinfo.ca).
Already cancelled my membership. I joined VHQonline not Zip! I really liked VHQ’s queueing system but the ZIPlist sucks bigtime. Also, since I live in BC, it takes at most 2 days to receive a new disc from VHQ. So it’s a 3 to 4 day turn around time from the time I send back and them sending me a new one. Just a day before the takeover, I returned 2 disc in the mailbox. I usually receive an email a day or two later from VHQ that they received it and a new one would be sent that same day. After ZIP bought out VHQ, it was like 4 business after I sent the discs back and still no email from them that they received it. checked their new “vhqline powered by ZIP” site and still shows the discs haven’t been received. So I cancelled. I HATE ZIP.CA!!!!!!
Found your blog by way of Dirty Olive.
I’ve had a Zip membership since February, and I really like it. Once you’ve had a number of returns (don’t know how many, but I guess once they decide that you’re sending back movies when you say you are), they’ll advance you a new one over and above your rental limit…so…I can have six movies, and one is in transit back to them, so they’ll send me one ahead of time. Seven out.
Customer service is getting much better, and they’re making it easier to request DVDs to be added to the collection. I do wish the ASAP was a bit more SAP, but I guess that’s the way it works with a setup like this.
I like Zip.