Last Friday, I talked about a free trial offered by the online DVD rental service of www.zip.ca. Their system seems to work. On the web, I can choose to have several dozen movies lined up in queue. A few arrived, have been viewed, and sent back to Ottawa. So the subsequent ones on the list will be shipped as soon as my returns arrive back in the capital. There's even a customer service and response system built right into the site:
Customer (Dennis Hurd) 03/02/2004 11:44 PM
Braydon, thank you for your very prompt response.
I do appreciate that we'd be able to watch 12 movies per month. You do have to remember that Zip is also in competition with satellite movie networks, such as www.moviecentral.ca which provide literally several dozens of movie choices per month.
I still expect zip to be a value but you do have to remember to compare and align your service as competing with a broader range than just video stores.
== Dennis
Response (Braydon W.) 03/01/2004 01:29 PM
Dennis;
Thank you for your email!
We are currently thinking about coming out with a premium service where people could hold more than 3 dvd's at a time for a larger monthly fee. On average, it takes 1-3 business days for the dvd's to come and go from point A to B. If it took 4 days on average for 3 dvd's to come to you and 4 days for them to go off, you would have between 11 and 12 dvd's per month. Considering that rental stores generally charge around $5 per rental, you'd be looking into the high $50 low $60 per month rental rates from them. So as it is, there is significant savings and movie viewing.
Again though, we will be looking into premium services for our customers.
I hope that this answers your questions. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to email us at service@zip.ca.
Customer (Dennis Hurd) 02/28/2004 06:41 PM
Hi, although I am very excited about the potential of using zip and replacing my Movie Channel subscription thru ExpressVu. Right at the present time, I'm just on the trial for zip.
Living out west, I'm wondering if the 3 or 4 day turn around will prevent us from maximizing our use of zip.
I'd like to suggest that you consider offering customers a variety of plan as to how many CD's may be 'out' at once.
You might even consider pricing that lets the customer select for their needs and their geographic region.
