Zip.ca Hyper-Volume Renters

[laserheart]

A couple of other ideas:


I do know that 'sometimes' I am in a rush to send back disks, because I didn't get the ones I was in the mood for, which points to the fact that we can't set a priority for our disks. 2 in the ASAP list is a good start, but the fact that it seems completely random from the main list is confusing. I may actually rent less disks if I got the ones I wanted in a timely manner.

I understand why they don't have a ranked, ordered, system, because people would get confused when they got number 30 on their list. (People don't obviously think of all of the factors involved.)

If they had a preference or something that stated a general 'priority' setting, it may help to clear up peoples lists. For instance, "oldest selections first" (this would be the order you placed them in the list) or "newest movies first", which would mean it would ignore the order you put them in your list and ship them newest to oldest. How about ""Highest IMDB rating"?

Another idea would be to specify a "mood". This way, you could select "Comedy", "Drama", "Newer Release", "Classic" or "Independant" as a preference. The movies are already categorized in a similar manner.

If you try to compare this to a real life experience, what is the first question the video store employee asks you for when you ask for a suggestion? They ask you what you are in the mood for, and then make a few recommendations.

I think if they tried more options for getting people to stay away from focusing on new releases, they would have happier customers and maybe less anxious people. Most new release movies aren't necessarily the best movies on people's lists, its just that they are the ones people are "anxious" to see.

How many times have you received a movie you weren't really in the mood for, and anxiously sent it back so you could get something better? This could be increasing the volume turnaround for Zip. (just a theory).

[Prentice]

<< 4-disc (15 max) $24.99
4-disc (unlimited) $29.99
6-disc (20 max) $34.99
6-disc (unlimited) $39.99 >>

I'd be willing to do this, although I think that ZIp should be looking into other ways of increasing revenues. There's been no mention on their part of other efforts. I would not be willing to pay extra per-disc charges. That's what GHI is for.

[Zipper]

I believe the best method is to offer a ranked system. people who receive a movie they might not want will be slotted back in the mail. increasing the costs to zip. If I received a priority movie, i will not be so eager to return it in the mail

2) Offer Audio Cd's for rental........The costs of purchasing audio cd's instead of dvd's is much cheaper and decreases zip's operating costs.

zip can charge the same amount..

any comments ??

[Paguma]

A don't see how Audio CDs help Zip address their problem.

Although a priority system may help reduce "unwanted" movie returns. I personally don't think that's the main problem. I think an unlimited rental account will, by it's definition, attract the heavy movie consumers. Why wouldn't it? It seems to be exactly what they need! I am one of those people. I admit it, I watch a lot of movies. Unlike other people who watch 3-4 hours of television a night, I watch 0. So watching 90-120 minutes of a movie is quite easy.

I just thought of something else. This requires input from Zip. What exactly would Zip like to see happen to their heavy users? I don't mean this to be sarcastic or "funny". Would Zip prefer they leave? Would they prefer they get less movies? What is the maximum they would like people to rent? The answers to these questions would have a great impact on which approach they should choose.

For example if Zip wants to keep these customers, they should be asking these customers what is acceptable. If they would prefer to simply lose these customers to increase their profits, they should be doing what discourages these people from using their service.

My point is, the users who are not affected by the limits don't really care what the new rules will be anyway, so having them vote on it is kind of pointless. If you want to keep these heavy users, but bring them into a more profitable system, perhaps you should be asking those users specifically how you should go about it.

This poll seems flawed.

[Zipper]

Paguma, the cost of a brand new dvd, 26 dollars....the cost of an audio cd....12 max. Right off the bat, if i am not renting a dvd and i choose to rent an audio cd, they are renting out a cheaper product which helps their bottom line......


people are very sensitive to price changes, one that zip cannot afford to gamble with.

[Zipper]

Anyone who listens to audio cd's dont listen to it from front to back as soon as they buy it. They play it in their car, home stereo etc. With a movie, its all or nothing.

Yahoo just released their audio rental service so a market does exist.

The same with video games. people get addicted and hold onto it for a few days.

any comments ?

[zebziggle]

A turnover of 60+ movies a month could mean a few things:

1. You're home-bound and jobless. Result: Enjoy your movies, you're getting a good deal from zip.ca
2. You're ripping the movies to your hard drive. Result: report them to the copyright department. (Is it illegal if you return the movie, but keep the files, even for a short time?)
3. You have no life whatsoever. Result: You will be dead from inactivity in a few years anyway. It'll all even out for the rest of us.

Unless we know the real stats from zip on the number of movies rented ON-AVERAGE for the entire membership, it's all conjecture.

There should be NO additional fees to compensate for high-volume renters. You should have thought about this before you got into this business. I find it really hard to imagine there are *that* many high-volume renters to throw off your entire business model.

[mmason31]

I guess I'm a heavy user of sorts...

I just discovered this site thanks to the note in the Lobby and thanks to some tips I've learned by reading some of the threads in the Canadian Rental discussion, I can see that I've rented 214 DVDs since my first day on June 3, 2004. That's almost a year, minus a few days.

214/12=17.8

I've used "Gotta Have It" about 10-odd times - so if I assume 10, that lowers my 214 to 204. That brings me down to 17.0 a month. I've paid extra for those disks so there's no way that they should count towards my "x" allotment of acceptable rentals per month.

How do I "use the service"? I rarely want this week's hot new release NOW. My fiancee and I are TV show crazy to a point... we often alternate on what series we want at a given time. For instance, Mel's been on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer kick. I recently got her the 6th season, two-odd disks at a time... as soon as Zip would send our two ASAP selections (eg: Season 6, Disks 1 and 2) I'd go and add 3 and 4. And so on. Once she gets a full season of Buffy, I try and get a season of The Commish. Or something like that! We seem to get our ASAP almost 100% of the time because most of our selections are months/years old when we ask for them.

Am I considered a heavy user with an average of 17/month for 12 months? Can I foresee any circumstance where my usage would change? I can't see the usage growing much... someone earlier did the math and the most one could potentially get is 40/month. That won't be happening with me - I work full-time and play golf as much as I can in the summer. I can see the usage going down somewhat, but not much. My fiancee does not work full-time. She can watch those 4 episode Buffy disks at a pace of about 1.5 per day, more on her 2-3 days off per week.

I'd consider paying a couple extra bucks a month if Zip asked nicely. Now that I see I'm unlikely to hit the 20+/month 3% member group, I reluctantly support the extra shipping per disk over 20. Over 15? That's an average of one every other day. Given that a "movie night" a couple nights a week can see us watch 3-4 movies, 4x4 = 16 and that's hardly excessive.

I don't know - I didn't know this discussion was happening and I've talked it over with friends who I recruited (but they didn't use me as a reference!) but quit after being unhappy with the service. They wanted new releases NOW. Incidentally, they were light users. So between the two "families" we likely averaged about 12 a month between the two of us.

The majority of members are renting 10 or so movies a month. That leave's lots of wiggle room to offset the "three percenters". But I don't think that 4 movies a week/16 a month should be designated abusive or excessive. If the extra charge/disk option is the one to go with from a business point of view, set the bar at 20 for the 4-out at a time group.

...or charge me a couple extra bucks a month and I won't complain.

There's my two cents. Thanks for the opportunity.

[Paguma]

Zipper,

My point is, Zip is not complaining about the cost of DVDs, they're complaing about the cost of shipping them. The cost of shipping audio CDs will be the same.

Not to mention, I think you're only dealing with a smaller subset of the users in Zip who would even be interested in audio CDs. I for example would have no interest in that service.

[Red Dragon]

I consider my family to be average Zip users. We have the 4-DVD plan, but usually end up carrying one disk over two weeks, therefore only actually watching 3 disks per weekend. For our purposes, we would be happy if you brought back the 3-DVD plan.

As far as heavy users are concerened, I am not going to make judgements about the disk requirements of these users...who am I to say why they need more than 20 disks per month.

We became members of Zip because we were sick of paying late fees, spending half an hour in the store with a 2 year old trying to find something that everyone would enjoy and most of the time paying $6 to watch something that no one enjoyed. Zip is the perfect solution for my family.

We don't need on demand as soon as it's released service. We were willing to sacrifice our gotta have it now rental attidude for the ease and convenience provided by Zip services. Not to mention the ability to absolutely control our monthly rental espenses. A must for a family of four on a budget. Besides we have been pleasantly surprised by the availability of titles since joining (December 2004) and have discovered Zip's other benefits, such as the amazing amount of foreign titles and festival flicks.

From my perspective high end users should be charged extra, but I am also willing to pay a little more for my membership. I have done the math and at our current membership and usage, we average $2 per movie, when you compare that to rental store chains...that is astronomically cheap! I can't believe that deal. Honestly, I would be happy to pay alittle more than that if it meant keeping Zip afloat.

One more thing...heavy users are not the only members that spread the gospel of Zip...we are definately converted.

[Paguma]

I completely agree with Jason's middle paragraphs about the value of Zip.

I tried to make the same point earlier, probably with less success.

As I mentioned before, there are PROS and CONS to Zip (and any other movie option). This is my opinion on that:

PROS:
Cost
Huge selection
Convienient (DVDs come to me)

CONS:
Little control over what and when I can watch.

For me, the main reason I joined Zip.ca was the value. Now they are talking about altering that factor, so it could affect whether I stick around or not.

To me, the above CON is huge. I know some people said they like it, but I don't. I watch a lot of movies, but my wife does not. So I often want to get the movies she likes on the weekends, but movies for just me during the week. This rarely seems to work out for me with Zip. Also, sometimes I'd like to have friends over to watch some movie. Well I never know when I'm going to get that movie, and it may not be a convinient time.

Clearly I'm willing to suffer through this CON for the value of Zip.ca which I think is excellent. I list the Huge selection and convinience as PROs, but without the value, I would not stay with Zip.ca