OnlineDVDRentalGuide.ca

Are there any criticisms we should be aware of?

I haven't checked out their site for quite some time, so I thought I'd take another look. I found a few funny things on their site.

From their rates page:

www.videomatica.ca wrote:Because we currently offer over 25 different Subscription Packages/Payment Periods as well as more special "Promotional Code introductory offers", any listing of our rates here would be at best, confusing and liable to be out of date. And at worst...well, very confusing and liable to be very out of date.

What? keeping a page of your current subscriptions and the cost would be be confusing?

Also from their rates page:

www.videomatica.ca wrote:Our lowest priced package starts at $11.95 per month. Or you can sign up now for our "2 DVD Out At A Time" unlimited package for only $24.95 (or pay quarterly and save 25% off the regular monthly rate!)

Not good enough IMO.

From their about page:

www.videomatica.ca wrote:Both Sven and Yan subscribe to a $24.95 unlimited package on the same day. Each is sent their initial DVDs the next day. During the first month, here's what happens. Sven's a Bergman afficianado in Burnaby and tends to watch Ingmar's oueuvre again and again before he mails them back. At the end of the month, he has seen 7 DVDs and therefore his average cost was $3.56/DVD. Yan on the other hand, is an anime addict in Maple Haney. He's a chronic ripper, who doesn't even watch the films before sending them back, so he turns around 12 films in his first month. His average cost was $2.08/DVD.

I'm surprised a rental company is openly endorsing customers to violate copyright law.

I might be interested in them, since they have good seelction and are based in vancouver, but I'm not going to waste my time to start to sign up to find out what deals they have available.

See my post above, Videomatica did just that.

vbor wrote:I guarantee you that zip won't be around anymore in 10 years... they might be gone even earlier.

Doubters. IMHO, Zip/Rogers is the name everyone's heard of. Yes, if you're into this scene, you'll run across the others, but Zip's the big cheese, I would have to say.

Just curious, you started this thread, all your posts are in this thread, and you promote and defend Videomatica to the hilt - do you work for them? Viral marketing, perhaps?

You're right, the "chronic ripper" is a "stupid quote". Yes, it IS promoting ripping DVD's and isn't it only legal if you're backing up your own copies?

Happy renting and glad this service is working well for you!

vbor wrote:And just to conclude this pointless discussion in an, in my opinion, useless forum, nobody is going to be arrested or sued if they copied the DVDs they rented. And that doesn't mean I do it!

It's only wrong if you get caught.

vbor wrote:And just to conclude this pointless discussion in an, in my opinion, useless forum, nobody is going to be arrested or sued if they copied the DVDs they rented.

*sniff*

Let me share something with those who are "into this scene": You know that we let people rate and review companies for the Comparison page. Videomatica gets a fair share of reviews, but they do not fit the norm. Almost no one who reviews them is a contributor to the forums; in fact, forum regulars are the only ones who give them less than scores of 4 or 5. Ratings also seem to come in batches at times. And most reviews have a certain flavour to them... have a look, you'll see what I mean:
http://onlinedvdrentalguide.ca/reviews.php?site_id=42

You'll notice that of the users who left a review, only Arcmaze is a contributor to the forums. And neither YKdvd nor I could get a response from "Spider Robinson" after he left a review.

Take that for what you will.