OnlineDVDRentalGuide.ca

Thanks, everyone for all the feedback posted here, and for the many more messages sent to us directly via suggestions@zip.ca

Directly and through this discussion forum, we've heard from over a thousand of you on this one topic, with nearly 7,000 having viewed the online discussion, so far. (I am told this may be a site record!)

It certainly appears there is strong support for the kind of shipping and service enhancements we have been making, and awareness of the comparatively high volumes and high value thereby enabled. And, the consensus appears to be in favour of continuing to find ever more ways to improve service and selection. So, we will continue our research and development and our daily efforts to provide the most efficient fulfillment, the best inventory the fastest turnaround and the best service and value in the business.

Based on your input, we will also continue to develop and offer a widening selection of membership plans tailored to the demands of different members.

A majority of the feedback we have received from you over the last couple of weeks suggests a preference for maintaining our current prices, especially on our most popular 4-DVD plan (used by over 70% of our members), and where justified apply a reasonable shipping+handling surcharge on the heaviest users rather than charging everyone for the relatively high use of a small portion of the membership.

So that is the approach we will be adopting. The membership fee for our most popular plan, the 4-DVD plan at $24.95/month, will remain unchanged. Further, this plan will continue to offer unlimited rentals, and will henceforth also provide free two-way shipping on up to 14 shipments per month. For members on this plan who approve shipments of 15 or more rentals per month, a modest shipping+handling charge of $2.19 per two-way shipment will be levied. Based on current activity, 85% of members will be unaffected by this free-shipping threshold and will therefore be subject to no additional charge whatsoever.

The average member on our standard 4-DVD plan will continue to enjoy DVD rentals at under $3 each – with an unbeatable selection, the convenience of home selection and delivery, and no deadlines or late fees.

In addition, the very popular ZipRefill feature – allowing virtual same-day returns – will be extended for the first time to members on our 1-DVD and 2-DVD plans.

At the same time, several members, especially our heaviest-volume members, suggested other approaches, such as raising the basic membership fee, continuing to offer the option of unlimited free shipping, and that we also consider creating additional and larger "jumbo" rental plans.

So, that too we will do.

Our 6-DVD plan will offer unlimited rentals, with a free-shipping threshold of 19 per month. The monthly membership fee will increase slightly (by $2.00), to $36.95.

We are introducing three new membership options - on a trial basis, and will continue with those that prove to be the most popular and effective:

- a new option for 4-DVD plan members – which like the basic 4-DVD plan will allow 4 DVDs out at any time (5 with ZipRefill), 2 ASAPs at any time and unlimited rentals - but will also provide unlimited free two-way shipping for an additional $14.99/month (total $39.94/month). This plan is specifically designed for a member renting 21 or more DVDs per month, a tiny portion of our members but one we wish to serve properly. The cost per DVD rental for such high-volume members using this plan will be under $1.90 apiece, a pretty remarkable bargain.

- a new option for 6-DVD members – which like the original 6-DVD plan will allow 6 DVDs out at any time (7 with ZipRefill), 3 ASAPs at any time and unlimited rentals - but will also provide unlimited free shipping for an additional $15.99/month (total 52.94/month). This plan is specifically designed for a member renting 26 or more DVDs per month. The cost per DVD rental for such high-volume members using this plan will be under $2 apiece.

- a new 8-DVD plan, allowing 8 DVDs out at any time (9 with ZipRefill), 3 ASAPs at any time, unlimited rentals, and with free shipping up to 24 rentals per month, for $49.95/month

We hope this increased variety and flexibility will respond to the many different kinds of member we serve, and we look forward to your ongoing feedback on this topic, and on any other ways you think we can improve our service to you.

After all this goes into effect, members will be free to alter their membership plans at any time, by going to Account Info and selecting Change Membership Plans. Upgraded memberships go into effect immediately, with additional DVDs usually shipped out within one business day, and a pro-rated billing adjustment for the balance of the month. Downgraded membership plans go into effect at the next billing date, provided the extra DVDs have been returned by then. Members currently on 4-DVD and 6-DVD plans will be continued at their current fee level, with the extra shipping preference set to "ask first", unless and until you choose a different plan or set your preference to "always ship additional". Members with prepaid memberships will of course be honoured.

Once again, thank you for all the interest, and for your support. We look forward to your continuing input.


Summary of New Membership Plan Features

Plan // Monthly Fee // Max out (incl ZipRefill) // ASAPs // Unlimited Rentals // Free Shipping

1-DVD // $10.95 // 1 (2) // 0 // Yes // 2
2-DVD // $18.95 // 2 (3) // 1 // Yes // 4
4-DVD // $24.95 // 4 (5) // 2 // Yes // 14
4-DVD ++ // $39.94 // 4 (5) // 2 // Yes // Unlimited
6-DVD // $36.95 // 6 (7) // 3 // Yes // 19
6-DVD ++ // $52.94 // 6 (7) // 3 // Yes // Unlimited
8-DVD // $49.95 // 8 (9) // 3 // Yes // 24

++ means with unlimited free shipping option

I'm sure there will be lots of comment on this, but the one thing I noticed is that the cap on 1 and 2 disc plans seems to be the new soft (pay for extra) variety rather than the old hard cap (they have "Yes" in your "Unlimited Rentals" column) as well as getting ZipRefill?

The cap at 14 should be a little more palatable than the 12 that was being mooted about here on a certain other thread you may have noticed

Wow... I think this is a little bit too extreme. As a heavy user, I think I would rent just over 20 DVDs a month with the 4-DVD plan, but I don't think I like any of the new options. With the cap plan I would probably have to pay a little bit more, so I would go with the unlimited 4-DVD plan. But that would mean a more than 50% price increase for the same service I'm getting right now???

I don't plan on cancelling my membership because zip's selection is unmatched in Canada, but i'm not happy at all with these changes.

Rick, would it be possible to calculate and display the average disc shipments per month on a customer's account page? I'm sure it would be interesting to people, and now even more so. You could also post the number of rentals shipped out during a billing period in the "Billing History" invoices.

Any chance of having some sort of credit system for slow months? Something like (just as an example) one free "over-the-cap" credit for later use in any month that a member gets under, say, 12 rentals? There would be all sorts of possible combinations of numbers, but perhaps you could come up with some combination that didn't hit you very hard but let people feel less bad about paying extra shipping charges, knowing it wasn't a completely one-way thing.

You've got to be kidding! I'm looking at other sites right now...........

Goodbye zip.ca.
Your time has come too soon, too fast.

I for one will not move. Zip has you where they want, and that is because of the selection. What other start up could even begin to match it.

One question, what did you think they would do? You had to know the prices were going up and that there would be a cap. I think the "slip" of the Rodgers info was gold. Now everone who thought that they would only get 12 disks feels good that they get a whoping 14. (I only get 8 or 9 a month as me and my brother both have to watch the disks - so I could care less about a cap).

If you are mad enough to leave, do it ASAP, then Zip will know exactly what type of churn this has caused. But I would recomend you do what I just did and check how many disks VHQ has in your Zip List. It was an eye opener for me.

I left VHQ to come to Zip but I'm seriously considering going back to them and also going to check out a couple of others. I think these new changes reflect greed and nothing more. The unlimited prices are ridiculous.

Also, the 4 disc plan is $24.95 with a 14 cap. The 6 disc plan is now $36.95 with a 19 cap. Difference of $12.00.

Well, I did the math and I can pay $24.95 for 14 discs and then pay an extra $10.95 for an additional 5 discs (2.19 x 5) and my total is $35.90. Doing it that way saves me $1.05 and I'm still getting 19 discs.

I guess they're hoping that now I'll jump on the 4 disc unlimited for $39.94 for only $4.00 more than the 19 I got by paying extra and voila, they have me paying that extra $14.99 and getting exactly what I'm getting now.

Don't think so.

Very disappointed, really feel as though Zip feels their huge selection justifies these crappy price changes. Great selection if you want old movies but if you want new releases in a timely fashion, they're other online companies that can deliver and for a cheaper cost.

I honestly don't understand how you justify asking me to pay $14.99 more than what I pay now for the same service. You make it look like the 4 disc plan limited paln is so similar and yet in reality your price increase for a similar service is right out to lunch.

Please someone pull the knife out of my back

I wonder how long it will take the other companies to increase their own prices now that Zip has made the first move? Don't be surprised if this happens.

I've started a poll on ZIP's rates. If there are any heavy volume renters from other companies here, perhaps you could post how fast your turnarounds are? It would be especially interesting to hear from any VHQ customers outside BC, since I don't think anyone knows exactly how much speedup their Toronto "processing centre" provides and to whom.

If my little DVD calculator is still working, with a 4/$25 company you would have to average 2 business day delivery both ways (and send all your movies back the next day) to average 17 discs a month. 2 b-day delivery means that discs sent on a Monday get to you Wednesday, and discs returned on a Tuesday get back to the company on Thursday. Canada Post can sustain this (or maybe a little better) within the same metro area, but I don't know how likely it would be outside it. A ZIP customer in Vancouver can switch to VHQ and still get high volume, but can a Calgary customer? I know a Yellowknife customer can't. If the average goes from 2 to 2.5 days, your best-case turnaround drops to about 14, right at ZIP's cap level.

For a Halifax customer like "sonician", say he's getting hit by the ZIP caps and switches to the local MovieBuffs.ca. Delivery time might even be better than ZIP because of local returns (and slips in ZIP's leapfrog system). But now you only get 3/$25 instead of 4/$25. The calculator shows that even with 1.5 b-day averages, you get about 16 discs a month (if Canada Post can sustain better than that, you'll get more, but even if every mailing is a next day delivery, the max would be around 21).

For Montreal customers, DVDhype is local, but notice that they've done their own form of capping quite some time ago (3/$25 for Montreal metro customers).

[My calculator doesn't consider the special case of people who receive and return any significant number of movies the same day. Also, it can't directly take into account ZipRefill; given the same delivery times of the actual discs, ZIP customers with ZipRefill will get a slightly higher average per month, but it will be different for each customer depending on their pattern of returns, etc].

Please note I'm not saying anything against any unhappy ZIP customers; I'm just curious as to just what alternative options people see to get high volumes, and what alternate choices are actually "capped" by Canada Post speeds and company prices.

Also, the ZipRefill is no longer an incentive when there's a cap. No rush to get an additional movie sent to me when I can only get 14 or 19 each month.