DVD Rentals By Mail: Comparing Canada’s Netflix Alternatives
There comes a point in every DVD collector’s life when you realize that you probably don’t have the money or the storage space to own every single movie ever made. You look back over your collection and you start to notice more and more titles that you regret buying. Movies that you took a chance on and bought without having even seen. DVDs that you had every intention of watching and yet for some reason they remain on the shelf unopened.
Earlier this year, I resolved to start curbing my DVD buying habits, and decided to see what the whole rent-by-mail craze was all about. The prices seemed reasonable, the process sounded convenient, and the selection was virtually limitless (or so I thought). Here in Canada, however, Netflix is not available, which meant that I would have to compare and contrast a number of other services instead. I chose three of the more popular ones, and took them for a spin using their free trial periods.
The following is a summary of what I found. While the specific results may not be all that useful for non-Canadians, it should at least give you some insight into the process of renting DVDs online.
Now owned by Rogers, Zip.ca is by far Canada’s biggest online DVD rental outlet. With almost 55,000 titles to choose from, I felt pretty confident that this would be the only real choice I needed. Their main offices are located in Ottawa, and since I live near Toronto, it seemed like shipping would be very quick and efficient.
While the wait times were indeed only a day or two long, I started to notice a problem with their service right off the bat. While their selection was vast and contained almost every title I attempted to search for, I found that very rarely could I ever get any new releases. I don’t know if this is because their quantities are very low for each title, or if it’s because they had such a large number of subscribers, but I would add all kinds of new releases at the top of my queue, and would consistently be getting shipped my #30 choice on the list, if not lower. A lot of times it wasn’t even just new releases that were hard to come by.
If you are only interested in renting obscure, hard to find catalogue titles, or expensive box sets and Criterion releases, then Zip could work for you. Unfortunately, this wasn’t stopping me from going out and buying new DVDs every Tuesday, so I didn’t stick with Zip for very long. It’s too bad, because their website was also the most professional and offered some great community features that I didn’t see anywhere else.
Based in Calgary, Canflix is perhaps the strongest competitor to Zip right now from what I’ve seen. Despite being located on the other side of the country, their ship times were almost as fast, and their 3-at-a-time unlimited monthly subscription was a few dollars cheaper at $21.95. They also had video games available for rental, which was a bit of a selling point for me.
The trade off with Canflix is that their selection is much smaller. Their library contains approximately 11,000 titles (one-fifth of what Zip offers), and since they are a newer company, they didn’t have as many older movies. They also had almost no documentaries at all. However, Canflix was the only place where I ever got shipped new releases within a week of them coming out. I was consistently able to get most of my top choices, and it was much easier to tell on their website when a title is actually available (Zip’s availability bar is still a bit of a mystery to me). As a nice bonus, they were also forward thinking enough to create a Facebook app and Firefox plug-in for customers.
The third online rental outfit that I tried out was Winnipeg’s Cinemail. They are slowly gaining ground on Zip as well, and despite having a much more amateur-looking website, great customer service and strong word of mouth are helping them to gain a loyal following.
Their selection is about twice as large as Canflix, but only about half of Zip’s. At first I thought it might be the perfect compromise because I did get shipped a lot of movies that I couldn’t get from the other two, but unfortunately being out in Manitoba their shipping time was a lot slower for me. If you do their 2 week trial, depending on where you live, there’s a good chance you’ll only get to the first 3 DVDs. Also, a couple of the DVDs that I received from them were snapped in half. To be fair, this is a risk you run with any online rental company (you don’t have to pay for it) but it seemed like maybe the cold climate of Winter-peg took its toll on the discs while they were in transit. The other drawback to Cinemail was the fact that they had no high-definition titles at the time.
The Decision
My initial decision found me sticking with Canflix, since it seemed to be the only place where I could depend on getting movies that I actually wanted on a consistent basis. I stayed with them for a few months, however, as of right now, I have currently canceled all of my subscriptions for the summer. I haven’t decided if I will go back to any online rental outlets in the near future.
Selection seems to be a big issue for online DVD rental places in Canada because there is a lot of geography to cover, which makes it harder to keep things in stock, but there aren’t always enough customers to justify multiple copies of movies. Unfortunately, the whole system really falls apart if you’re not getting shipped DVDs from the top of your queue. If you’re not in any hurry to watch them, the discs sit around for a couple of weeks, meanwhile you are still paying the same amount, and someone who really wanted to see that movie can’t get it either.
I think I may wait this out until digital downloads and/or online streaming become a bigger factors in the equation. I know Netflix in the U.S. currently offers a lot of movies streaming online, and they now have set top boxes available as well. This is the future of movie rentals, because once the quantity of a particular movie stops being a bottleneck, everyone will be happy.
Do you have any experience with online DVD rental services in your country? What are your feelings on the matter?
For more info on all the alternatives currently available in Canada, and plenty of user reviews and feedback, visit onlinedvdrentalguide.ca.
Comments (59)
I had Blockbuster and currently use Netflix. I probably would have kept Blockbuster if they had had more obscure titles because you could use your online membership in the store if you felt like it by returning your mailed movies in at the store and walking out with something you wanted right then. But, when my interests moved into French New Wave or silent films, I was let down by the selection. And more of the Blockbuster discs showed up damaged and unwatchable.
Netflix is good enough for my needs. Great selection. I’ve never not found a movie I wanted. And recently I have not had to be sent movies farther down my queue. They have a shipping hub in a city 40 min away from me and so I get a quick turnaround (probably 4-5 working days).
Posted by Brett on July 1st, 2008Ouch I couldnt live without Netflix. They have pretty much every obscure movie ever made.
Posted by Me on July 1st, 2008I have been a happy subscriber to Netflix for almost a year. The selection is great & the shipping times are as fast as I could hope for. If I drop movies in the mail on Monday, I get my new ones on Wednesday. I highly recommend Netflix to anyone who has access to the service.
Posted by Drew on July 1st, 2008Ha! I found this article highly amusing, as I have come to the same identical realization…no more space or disposable income for myself, either! Netflix is a Godsend for now-frugal movie fans.
Posted by Jason on July 1st, 2008I’ve been a Netflix user for almost a year now. I’m also one of those anal people who plans out their queue, watches movies almost instantly (I watch at least one movie every day of the year on average, no joke), and sends them back to base asap (by the bye, I have the 3 at a time, unlimited per month plan which only runs me about $18). This means that I receive and/or watch about 20 movies from Netflix per month.
Over the course of the nine months I’ve been using the service, one movie has arrived at my house damaged and needing replacing, and one was lost in the mail on it’s way back to the Netflix shipping center about an hour and a half from my home. My queue has been full (full meaning it consists of 500 titles) at all times since I started using the site, and there have only been about 20 titles that the service hasn’t had. Most of these are obscure and/or unpopular titles such as Piranha (though they do have Piranha II…).
Brand new movies can be tough to get from Netflix immediately, but the longest I’ve had to wait on a brand new film is about two weeks from it’s initial release. For this reason, I tend to rent brand new movies that I can’t wait to see from a Blockbuster store, though they aren’t necessarily guaranteed to have a brand new movie on the shelves when I show up there either. Brand new releases that aren’t huge names like Knocked Up or something always get shipped to me immediately. For example, I had In Bruges in my hands two days after it was released on DVD.
There are a lot of titles in my queue that I’d like to watch right on the internet via streaming audio, but Netflix’s Instant Watch site doesn’t support my computer since I use a Mac. This isn’t a huge deal to me though, since I almost always have a physical Netflix movie at my home as it is.
All in all, I love Netflix and find it hard to imagine my average week without it at this point. Sorry to rub it in, my Northern friends, but my fingers are crossed that Netflix may make the trek into Canada someday soon.
Posted by Rian on July 1st, 2008Jesus, you received a snapped DVD!? I’ve only gotten one horribly scratched one in my Netflix career.
Netflix only hasn’t had a few of the many rare movies I have wanted and that’s mostly because they haven’t even been released on DVD in America. I get them within three to four days. I always get the one from the top of my list. The only problem I have is that I can’t instant view on my Mac but that isn’t a big deal as I always have one at home to watch.
So yeah, basically my online rental experience has been golden. Too bad for Canada. I used to buy DVDs all the time to but now it’s a rare occurrence. I’m so glad I don’t end up buying a rare, old, or foreign film anymore only to realize I spent 30 bucks to loose precious shelf space.
Posted by Ryan on July 1st, 2008That other drew needs go away before i get rid of him myself. i have netflix and it’s great and all but every once and a while there will be a movie i really want to see, like frederick wisemen’s high school, and they don’t have it in stock.
Posted by Drew on July 2nd, 2008Thanks for this post. I live in Saskatchewan and was actually just thinking about researching this tonight.
Posted by Aaron on July 2nd, 2008Ryan: “Jesus, you received a snapped DVD!? I’ve only gotten one horribly scratched one in my Netflix career.”
Yeah, when they shipped me C.H.U.D. it wasn’t in two pieces, but it was cracked right down the middle. Some of the discs are pretty scratched up, but I’ve never had a problem playing any of them on my Mac (which is where I watch 95% of my movies at home), and the DVD player in said Mac has been extremely fickle in the past. I used to rent a lot of movies from my local library before I got Netflix and many of those wouldn’t play. As I said, no problems with Netflix so far.
Come to think of it, back when I Am Legend came out in theaters I tried to get The Omega Man for comparison and it took it about two months of sitting at the #1 spot of my queue before it arrived. Overall, I’m completely happy with the service Netflix provides though. I know people who’ve gotten a Netflix account and ended up canceling after three or four months because they just don’t watch enough movies to make it worth the price, but as I mentioned in my previous comment, I watch an average of 6 or 7 movies a week, so I’m definitely capitalizing on the deal. I know everyone isn’t as much of a loser as I am, spending all of my free time watching movies, but so long as you’re going to make use of the service to a reasonable extent, I can’t recommend Netflix enough.
Posted by Rian on July 2nd, 2008A year ago I had a string of cracked DVD’s from Netflix which sucked. I want to say 5 or 6 within two months or so? I’m pretty sure it was because my asshole mailman simply didn’t give a crap. Since I moved I haven’t had a problem with cracked or scratched discs at all.
Posted by Matt Gamble on July 2nd, 2008I recently moved to Canada from Austin, Texas. In Austin I always got the Netflix movies at the top of my list, and typical turn around time was one day. That is, if I dropped off the discs at the post office in the morning, I received new Netflix movies in the next day’s mail.
Here in London I tried zip.ca and if I mailed the discs on Monday, I would receive new movies 9 days later on Wednesday. The turn around time was consistently that slow for months so I cancelled the service.
Posted by Homer Page on October 4th, 2008I do not pay anything for my dvd’s and hope this service will be available soon to the Canadians! May be if you all rally, send letters, donate your dvd’s to the librairies, you could borrow like a lot of us here in the USA from your local library.
Posted by Marie on November 2nd, 2008Actually, ,I plan to move back home in the east Qc, in the “region eloignee”, and sure hope that I will be able to borrow from my lib. the winter can be very long over there, although, My Canada is a fabulous country, no matter what people say!!!
Good luck!
I use Rogers/Zip.ca and fill my zip list with all the great movies I’ve always wanted to see. For movies I want to watch immediately I rent them from, iTunes. If it’s not on iTunes and I still want to see it soon I usually buy it. Rogers is great if you don’t care about the order in which you get your films. However, be prepared that Canada post will deliver your movies in 2-3 days. 4 days is the longest it has ever taken. If you return your movies one by one as you watch them and indicate you have done so on zip.ca, you should have a steady stream of movies going back and forth, so you always have at least one with you.
Posted by Kim on December 16th, 2008Thanks for the comparison! This is what I was looking for. Zip.ca says that they have 72K movies now (December), so maybe they are better with new releases…
Posted by wadamus on December 30th, 2008I had Zip twice. The first time I had the 3 DVD plan because we rent a lot from Blockbuster so it seemed like a great deal. I had the same issues though, I would have 20 movies on my list, and I’d get #19, #20 and so on. I NEVER would get Bluray or new releases. I canceled since I realized I wasn’t getting my full moneys worth. I later joined again with their 1 DVD plan to get the obscure movies and French movies I wanted. It was okay but even these sometimes would never ship so I canceled it again. Do the trial to see what you think, but they sort of trick you since they use Xpresspost on the trial so you get them way faster. I’m in Toronto though, and I never experienced the 9 days someone mentioned above. You don’t have to send the disc back to get the next one, you just click that you returned it online and they trust you and send the next one, so you can put it in the mail any time within a couple of days. Once they said an item shipped though I had it 2 days later, so if they said this morning it shipped I’d usually have it tomorrow, or if they said this afternoon it shipped it was 2 days never more.
Posted by Lee on January 5th, 2009I can’t stand living in Canada. I moved here from the U.S. two years ago. Not one thing is equal in quality or service, let alone better. I just don’t get it. Other ex-pats tell me it takes four years in Canada to start “bashing” the U.S. (oh what a worthy goal) but from what I see of living in Canada, I doubt it.
Posted by emily mullen on January 14th, 2009Yeah the lack of a good mail movie rental system is a trivial thing, but small to medium to big it’s such a disappointing place to live compared to the U.S. I wish I could go back and I’ll bet you wish I could too. Unfortunately work has brought me here and hopefully work will get me the f out.
The people are very very nice in Canada. And that is it. Nothing else to offer. People are friendlier in the U.S. anyway. So I like you all but why is everything so five years behind?
Emily: I’m sorry you don’t like living in Canada.
I’m happy with our Universal Healthcare, higher minimum wage, better equality. But I am a socialist.
Posted by asrai on January 18th, 2009Hay Emily Mullen when you leave and go back to the states can you take some of your american draft dodging coward friends with you.
Posted by johnny on January 19th, 2009Thanks for the review. Consumer Reports just came out with subscription ratings (not offered in Canada) so I have been researching the Canuck alternatives. Seems meagre as my definition of success would be getting new releases almost as fast as the video store. ZIP has some horrible ratings on various blogs so I won’t be venturing there…I may try Canflix…Seems like Netflix is the standard that Canadian companies should be striving for.
Posted by Jim on February 7th, 2009Hey Emily, You don’t sound very nice and belong in the US. We all hope that people like you can get the f-out sooner than later. It sounds like it didn’t take you long to start bashing – typically american. We don’t care.
Posted by k kramer on February 15th, 2009Emily;I apologize for the rude fellow Canadians! I love Canada, but yes, we are behind on some things…I guess I would not trade what we have…yes, the dvd rental options are much less in Canada.
Posted by Judi on March 11th, 2009Please visit http://www.dvdlink.ca. We are new to online renting. Our inventory includes over 15,000 titles, including the latest new releases and favourite classic titles.
We offer a 14 day free trial membership so you can check out the quality of our service before you commit to a membership. You won’t be charged during the fourteen day trial period for movie rentals. During this time you will be sent two movies/games by mail at a time return them and get two new titles. You can change your membership any time.
We also carry the most popular game rentals for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. Browse our inventory to see the range of titles we have in each category. With your DVDLink.ca membership, you can order movies, games or a combination of the two.
Thanks
Posted by gsran on March 17th, 2009I agree whole-heartedly with your assertion of Zip.ca. I wouldn’t go so far as warning people not to use it, because the service itself is outstanding. The speed at which new releases are delivered…well, let’s just say on my list of 160 movies (140 of which are from 2008 and 2009) not one has been shipped that’s been released any later than 2007.
Posted by Alex on March 23rd, 2009I think I will try out Canflix based off this review. Which I rather enjoyed reading.
I am from the states (Florida) and moved up here to be with my husband. I miss Netflix very much, I never had any issues with them and there was a delivery station about 15 min from my home. SO I got next day delivery and if that station didn’t have it they would ship it from other ones (which took a bit longer).
That being said, I wouldn’t trade Canada for the states. I am sorry “Emily” was a jerk about Canada.(and once again making people think all Americans are ass hats) I love the health care and I gladly pay my taxes.
I sure do miss Netflix though.
Posted by Harley on April 1st, 2009I have tried both Zip.ca and Canflix. In my experience, Canflix is by far the superior company. Their customer service has been excellent. I have been with them for over a year and a half now, and have never received a scratched or damaged disc. I presently live in Labrador (i.e. The Boonies), and I’m quite satisfied with the turnaround times with the mail. As with all mail rental companies, you may find yourself waiting for a while to get the most popular New Releases, but you’ll eventually get them. Canflix also offers Blu Ray rental (Yay! HD!)at no additional cost, as well as video game rentals. A couple of minor gripes would be that their website is a bit outdated, and tends to be on the slow side. Also, they need to add an account option to “Always Choose Blu Ray” if available, to avoid having to surf that additional selection screen. The ability to add / browse user reviews would be a very welcome addition.
Zip.ca left me feeling unappreciated as a customer. The email I received after terminating my membership made me feel like I was being accused of being a thief. Also, I’ve had negative experiences with Rogers as a Cable TV company, and felt it was only a matter of time until I ran into major issues. In the interest of fairness, their discs arrived in reasonable periods of time and in good condition. I was not a fan of their website design. I like the way that Canflix packages their discs and return envelopes better than Zip.ca.
Hope this may help someone trying to decide between these two services. Of course, your mileage may vary. Best of Luck.
Posted by Damian on April 7th, 2009WOW!!
I was going to suggest you another Canadian website for Movies and Games rental. I have been using their services for over a year now and very happy em’.
Guess what? Someone name “gsran” already has is posted. Way to go “gsran”.
http://www.dvdlink.ca is the service I was going to suggest. These guys have excellent customer service and great number of titles. Best of all you can combine movies+games. In other words “Zip.ca+Gameaccess.ca” and pay way less money.
I did my research before signup and found their price to be better than any other online rentals company. Their customer service is second to none. I never have to wait for any new release weather it’s a movie or a game.
I am proud PS3 and Movie renter from DVDLink.ca
Note: I am not getting any payouts from these guys to say their name but want to let people know about a good service.
Adios
Posted by Jamie on April 14th, 2009I signed up for Zip.ca several years ago, and was on the maximum service plan then, which I think was 6- or 8 discs at a time. I was really enthusiastic about the service at first, but things slowly began to turn sour.
First, they capped the “unlimited movies a month” part of the service. I believe at that point I was allowed to rent a maximum of 20 discs a month. I worked a slow night job at the time and was able to watch 3 or 4 movies a night, so this instantly made me question why I was paying $60 a month for the 6-8 discs at a time option.
On top of that I almost never received anything in my top 20 or 30 selections.
As well, I had begun to receive a ridiculously high number of unwatchable discs (cracked, scratched, etc- one even had food on it!). When I say ridiculously high, I mean 5 out of every 8 discs, was damaged. The last month of my membership, I received a total of 11 working discs.
My repeated complaints to customer service were either ignored, or I was patronized with some excuse. As this had been happening for several months I requested a partial refund as the service had become more expensive than renting. I was told that they would not refund anything. I cancelled and Zip and I parted ways.
I think I lasted about 2 years, because I really did like the idea of the service, but the above issues, coupled with no video games, was enough for me.
Posted by Boz on April 23rd, 2009Thanks for the reviews … I didn’t even begin to know where to start looking for a netflix comparable (hope they get here soon). Canada is behinf the US for a lot of stuff and North America is 5 years behind Europe but I would say we are pretty lucky to be living in North America – Canada or USA. It can be so tough getting comfortable in a new place … I hope you come to enjoy Canada more,Emily and please try to ignore the people who rip your head off for giving your honest opinion – I didn’t think you were insulting any of us personally!
Posted by Day on April 25th, 2009I tried zip.ca free trial several years ago and encountered the same problems as the writer of this article. If Netflix which is a reputable and respectable company sets up shop in Canada that is when I will decide to join one off these DVD onlne rental outfits. Streaming is not an option in Canada because pls we like zip.ca are too cheap to investin setto boxes. Zip.ca is advertising itself as Canada’s Betflix which is a joke. Canada loses out again with the absence of Netflix.
Posted by Joe on April 28th, 2009Does nobody have streaming video?
Posted by Amanda Lynn on May 6th, 2009I have two kids who scratch dvds like no tomorrow, and I am looking for an alternative to illegal downloading or stopping watching movies altogether.
Someone suggested Netflix, but they said that they only allow streaming video in the US…?
So far, Ive not found anyone that is more advanced than the “mail service”.
I think subscribing to such a service would be extremely selfish of me, given my kids’ compulsion to scratch dvds
(Yeah… just scratch the shit out of it and send it on to the next dude…?)
That being said, what exactly is the point in buying DVDs that you watch maybe twice?
thank you so much for this. I’ve been wondering about the process for a bit now. I see the American Netflix ads and thought it might be great if it was available here in Canada. Now it seems my initial and maybe total research has been provided. Thanks again.
Posted by Cindy on May 15th, 2009I searched on google and I had a hard time located the right info….until I found your blog.
Posted by Montblanc on June 2nd, 2009Sean, great reivew. Just moved up from Chicago. I apologize if I missed this in the above, but regarding Blu Ray selection between Zip.ca and Canflix, which is better? It seems from the Zip.ca site they have quite a few titles (over a thousand), but wasn’t sure if there was an additional fee to enable blu ray renting (as there is with Netflix). Thanks.
Posted by Binit on July 4th, 2009I love Canada, but consumer choice or access to decently priced high technology isn’t one of the benefits of living here. For instance, we have the most expensive mobile phone prices and the most expensive internet connections in the developed world. Population density isn’t the issue – Finland has a lower population density yet manages to provide much better service.
The lack of a decent movie rental system falls in that category. Netflix in the US is apparently good, but we can’t get it here. The other services available all pretty much suck if you want anything resembling choice.
This website: http://onlinedvdrentalguide.ca/
outlines the 12 choices we have here in Canada. None of them are great.
Personally, I miss my local video store that had what seemed like a million titles packed into a tiny little space, going right back to VHS days. But they went bye bye shortly after Blockbuster moved into the area as they couldn’t compete with the local discounts being offered, and the Canadian mania with “low price regardless of quality”. Of course, when they went bust, the local Blockbuster stopped offering the discounts, but by then it was too late.
Check out http://onlinedvdrentalguide.ca/ for a relatively comprehensive look at what’s available in Canada today for online rental. No, I have no affiliation with them.
Posted by MarcD on July 19th, 2009Zip.ca does NOT charge extra for Blu-ray rentals. all their membership plans allow Blu-ray and DVD rentals and their cheapest plan is is the 1 DVD limited plan (not offered by Rogers Video Direct — which gets all its discs from Zip) for $5.95 per month and pays for 2 DVD shipments per billing period, sent 1 at a time. If you use ZipReward points, you can get your cost per disc to well under the $3 cost per disc for that plan.
Zip.ca hopes to offer downloading and streaming capabilities sometime before the end of December 2009 to PCs and selected new Tvs and DVD/Blu-ray players with the embedded technology (no set-top box plans, yet). I doubt that it will be free to download/stream anything good, but they might offer some freebies during the first month of operation (or perhaps to a new member).
I have been a paid member of Zip.ca for about 1.5 years and love it (from Toronto)! I don’t rent too many new releases from them, but have noticed that some titles can take from 3 to 6 months to get if you don’t keep them in your Top 10 frequently. The ZipList does NOT work like a library queue, so Zip doesn’t ship the titles to you on a first come, first served basis, but rather uses a complicated algorithm to determine who gets what. If you’re patient, you will eventually get all of your choices, but you might need to call Zip (1-866-422-4830) on occasion if they are too slow at sending you titles from your Top 10. They aim to please, so don’t give up.
Zip.ca does NOT throttle like Netflix does (nor do they limit the number of new releases per billing period), so it’s entirely possible to get 20 DVDs per 30 day billing period, while on the 3 DVD Unlimited plan ($24.95/month) if you return your movies by the same or next day after getting them and have a mixture of older and newer titles on your ZipList [the more titles without a GHI (Gotta Have It) option available on your ZipList, the longer it may take to get something shipped to you] (see below) — Zip guarantees 2 business days to fill your slots (my slots are almost always filled the same day they are opened), so if Zip fails to satisfy the 2 day promise, give them a call and they might send you a free shipment to compensate you.
If you add an Additional slot, for 700 ZipReward points (see below for explanation), you can get 25 discs per billing period if the mail is moving at a good enough pace of 1 or 2 day return times (the norm for most, unless you live far from Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary or Vancouver (Zip’s four warehouses) and you return your discs the same day or by the next day.
Zip offers up to 1 ZipRefill per day (assigned overnight and early morning), which means as soon as you mark a title you have in your possession as “Returned,” it will trigger a ZipRefill slot to be opened so that they can send you another title from your ZipList (BEFORE they receive the title you mailed back) if one is available. Other companies offer more refills, but they don’t have over 40,000 paid members (most in Canada) like Zip.ca does.
The availability bars are too confusing to understand and rarely reflect the true availability for a title. Instead, once you sign-up, take note of the titles with $2.99 GHI options because they are often in stock and easy to get. $3.99 GHI titles are in limited supply, but not highly demanded and $4.99 titles are the newer releases. Titles with no GHI option showing are difficult to determine availability for until you put them on your ZipList and see how many times they get skipped over and not shipped to you.
Don’t be fooled by Zip.ca’s already low membership prices because if you also make use of ZipReward points (Rogers Video Direct doesn’t offer them) that you accumulate each time you rent, rate, review, refer titles, etc.; you can end up paying an even LOWER cost per disc!
zip also allows you to pay from $2.99 to $4.99 over and above your plan to GHI (Gotta Have it) many of the titles you want to see immediately. The brand new releases need to generally be GHI’d for $4.99 by their release date (since the GHI option is often removed for the high-demand titles after the release date, for a few weeks at least). The more a title is GHI’d by the Zip members, the more copies Zip.ca purchases, so it’s still possible to get new releases the first week of release (some proper timing and luck is still required, of course) without using a GHI.
You can use your ZipReward points to get free months of service, an extra slot for 30 days on your unlimited plan (700 points), free rentals ABOVE your limited plan’s threshold (250 points), free GHI’s (400 points), etc. Each title you review is worth 10 points (up to 200 point max. per calendar month) and each title you gggrent is worth 20 points (if you rate it, mark it as
Posted by PokerFace on July 19th, 2009Continued from above post:
You can use your ZipReward points to get free months of service, an extra slot for 30 days on your unlimited plan (700 points), free rentals ABOVE your limited plan’s threshold (250 points), free GHI’s (400 points), etc. Each title you review is worth 10 points (up to 200 point max. per calendar month) and each title you rent is worth 20 points (if you rate it, mark it as Received, and as Returned).
With approx. 70,000 titles (Note: many of them are On order, Ready to Order, or Searching For titles and thus not currently in stock), Zipreward points and GHI options which allow you to get shipments over and above your plan (and kept for up to 60 days after you use the GHI option), Zip.ca is a powerful way to watch the discs you can’t find anywhere else for rent, or even those New Releases that the video stores have (as long as you’re patient and willing to call Zip if they fail to satisfy you).
Zip.ca is always trying to improve their algorithms, so if you tried them in the past but weren’t satisfied, you might want to try them once more to see if they’ve improved.
Posted by PokerFace on July 19th, 2009@MarcD – I can fit Finland in my backyard.
It may have low population density but they mostly live in the south of the country like we do here.
Posted by Mike on July 24th, 2009I have tried both Zip and Netflix (while I lived in the US for a short period). Netflix is by far superior for 2 reasons at least. Much quicker and much more frequently I received my number 1 picks. I don’t think in almost 4 years of being a Zip customer that I have EVER received my number 1 pick.
But that never really bothered me. I love Zip’s selection in movies and I was quite content to be a loyal customer for the long term. Until they decided that my record of 3 movies missing (lost in the mail or simply not showing up) in almost 4 years of being a customer, made my “route dangerous to their business” and would not serve me unless I agreed to pay for any further loses on their behalf. My dangerous “route” happens to be the city of Edmonton. LOL.
Anyway, I have refused and now I am on the lookout for a new company to rent from. I think I’ll try Canflix.
Thanks for the info!
BTW, Emily’s comments in #16 really made me laugh:) Canada’s really not that bad and there are nice people & assholes everywhere – including America.
Posted by Samantha Musgrave on July 28th, 2009In Ontario I subscribed to dvdlink.ca a Vnacoouver based online service. Movies ship in 3 or 4 days so I can see 4 movies in the month for $9.99 best price yet. 8 flicks or games 2 at a time is $16.95. This site is more mainstream flicks and games they do not indicate how many movies they have but it seems to be enough to keep me busy.
Posted by Eric on August 2nd, 2009Thanks for all the comments. I may try out Canflix, I supposed.
I would love to get Netflix, except of course Canada doesn’t have Netflix or Hulu or cheap alcohol or big cities (some of you guys will disagree, but if you travel enough you would see how small Toronto is).
I can see where you are coming from Emily, but I have learned (slowly) to appreciate some stuff Canada has to offer (ie. clean air/water/relative peacefulness). In terms of excitement and fast pace life, one would have to look elsewhere very sadly (I miss big cities).
Posted by Ori on August 9th, 2009I have lived in canada for 12 years and in US for 10 years. Both countries have something different to offer but Canada is very behind in terms of competition and technology.
1)Take an example of cell phone plans. In US, Pocket communication had unlimited talk and text plan for $39 (including long distance). Even T-mobile or sprint plans are not bad. In Canada, Rogers has the monopoly and plans suck. No one knows about Unlimited Nights /weekends.
2) Here we have Netflix or Redbox vending machines for $1 a movie and in canada block buster or rogers still charge $5 for a movie rental. That is plain Rip-off!!!!
3) Iphone was launched about two years after it was out in US
4) A burger at Mcdonalds costs about $3 where in canada it is around $6. I took my friends two kids to mcdonald and bought them meals and paid like $17 for everything whereas in US, same thing would be under $10.
So, since there is not a lot of demand/population in canada and not a lot of competition for big companies, the companies like Rogers are minting money and charging people more than double for most products and services.
Posted by Movie lover on August 11th, 2009thanks !! very nice post!
Posted by Anneenolit on August 12th, 2009I find ZIP.CA Customer service absolutely appalling. The Agent was literally fighting with me. Threatening to hangup. His English was so bad, I couldn’t get a thing out of what he was saying.
Then I called Rogers to realize they both are one and the same.
AVOID THEM LIKE PLAGUE
Posted by Rich on August 20th, 2009The biggest hurdle for any Canadian “netflix” operator is Canada Post. I’ve read other articles that have pointed out the high costs and poor service are also a problem for small online retailers and even ebay sellers that end up with shipping costs far above the item cost.
In most respects US is ahead, but when we lived in the Texas from 1997 to 2000 the US was way behind in adopting debit card transactions in stores. US is also lagging in adoption of chip credit cards.
There are however many third world countries that have better/cheaper cell phone plans than we have in Canada.
Posted by John M on September 21st, 2009Population-wise, Canada is a tenth the size of the US market. We have fewer people than the state of California in a country 23 times the size. Finland is not comparable either, since as another poster pointed out, geographically the country is a peanut to Canada’s elephant. Finland may have a lower population density for the country as a whole, but practically Finns are mostly in and around Greater Helsinki. Contrast that when I visit my family, I have to fly 4500 km. Toronto is ‘close’ to Ottawa by Canadian standards, but is 4.5 hrs drive. My brother-in-law commutes twice a week between Calgary and Vancouver, which are almost 1000 km apart. It is cheaper to fly from Montreal to Europe than to go to Yellowknife, Yukon Territory. These distances are not unusual in Canada, but extraordinary in almost every other country on Earth (with the exception of the US). Relatively small population and massive geography mean that technologies that rely on scale take longer to adopt and tend to be more expensive, though there are exceptions.
To Movie lover, who claims that McDonald’s is cheaper in the US, I would first say “Why are you eating at McDonald’s?”, but I would follow that with a pointer to The Economist magazine’s “Big Mac Index” which shows that in 2009 a Big Mac cost $3.56 $USD in the US and $3.34 $USD in Canada. In plain terms, a Big Mac is cheaper in Canada and so is inflation.
To Emily, you demonstrate exceeding shortsightedness if you can’t find anything in Canada that is ‘better’ than in the US. There are a million million comparable variables of which Netflix is but one. I could give you examples like our free, universal health care, largely non-partisan media, greater social equality and diversity, better access to high quality post-secondary education, low violent crime rates, stable banking system, etc., but clearly, you aren’t interested in finding them. Sadly, your myopia will be your loss to bear, alone, wherever you travel, wherever you live.
To my American friends, none of the above is a condemnation of you or your country, where I have lived, worked and admire.
Cheers.
Posted by J. Kingston on September 29th, 2009Emily, I am Canadian, and I agree with you. I lived in the US (happily) and got dragged back (kicking and screaming)thanks to the CRA’s draconian taxation laws for non-residents. Sure, you can’t beat Canada’s healthcare, social services, nature, etc., but personally, I crave a little more out of life – more culture! more passion! more excitement! more spontaneity!! More color!! More humor!! Don’t even get me started on the music scene in Canada – bland, bland, bland. CBC radio? BORING. Like everything else in this country.
Posted by Elizabeth June on October 4th, 2009Oh, and John, you’re right about the cell phone plans – not only are the prices outrageous for cell phone plans, I can’t even leave the Lower Mainland (Vancouver) without getting charged roaming fees!
Posted by Elizabeth June on October 4th, 2009And as far as ‘low violent crime rates’, J. Kingston – I feel safer on the streets of NYC than I do in Gangcouver. Not to say that overall, Canada isn’t safer than the US – it is (probably in part thanks to the better social systems/access to education, etc), but at the same time, I’ve travelled the world and have never seen anything like the DTES/Hastings and Main in Vancouver.
Hey Emily, we just returned to Canada after 7 years in the U.S. and you are RIGHT! The people are nicer in the U.S. and the healthcare we received down there was SO superior to what scraps we get here (even though it’s “free”, but not really, people forget to check out the deduction lines on their paycheques here I guess.)
I miss Netflix too…and the cheaper prices (in Canada we HAVE to have a higher minimum wage to pay for all the taxes that get added to all the products we buy here…like food and clothing etc.)
I also found that the school standards were HIGHER in both cities we lived in than in Ontario. (with 4 kids I’m getting a good cross section of teachers, grades, curriculam etc.)
And CBC radio in Toronto is at least one morning a week X-rated, with “in depth” reports on prostitution, strip joints, how and where kids are doing “legal” drugs etc. The announcers just tell the prudes like me, listening with four kids over breakfast, to turn off the radio. I did…permanently.
Anyway, good luck with your time here…if your still here!
Posted by Hazel on October 20th, 2009Emily, I am also an American living in Canada. I have lived here for 8 years now and can honestly say that it has been a wonderful experience. I am not sure where the friendlier americans are that you write of. Canadians in general are friendlier, more tolerant, and more open-minded. They are also much more aware of the world around them. Americans are friendlier when you fit exactly into the accepted model. I do miss the shopping selection and all the conviences that are found there. Thats what makes the visits home so great!
Although it cost me more to live here, the benefits really seem to justify the cost. No, healthcare is not FREE here, you pay with your increased taxes. But I just recently lost my job and am not worried about a cold or injury the way I did in the U.S. I went bankrupt there because they thought I had a brain tumor and just all the testing that had to be done to find out I was fine sent me financialy over the edge. It took several years to recover from that debt. Talk about a kick in the head when you end up feeling cheated that you didn’t have a serious illness to justify all the money spent. BTW the condition I have is easily controlled with medication, but mimicks all the symptoms of brain tumor.
There are advantages to both countries, I just found it incredibly rude to use a forum on DVD rentals to use the opportunity to bash your host country. Americans tend to NOT know when THEY are being rude. I now realize that canadians respond better to knowledgable, thoughtful, comments than ignorance, that may be why you are experiencing some unfriendly behaviour from them.
Adjust your attitude and don’t take every situation as an opportunity to point out how lacking and behind Canada is and I bet people will treat you way better than you can even imagine!
Posted by Sheila on October 22nd, 2009i find it funny that you guys say canadians are so great and how quick americans are to judge, when you bash and condem a person giving thier opinion on their surroundings. Alot of posts saying how terrible america is, how bout you look in the mirror instead of out the window.
” I could give you examples like our free, universal health care, largely non-partisan media, greater social equality and diversity, better access to high quality post-secondary education, low violent crime rates, stable banking system, nature
Ha, are you kidding? universal health care sucks in canada even your own politicians think so. non-partisan media (no shit, the government controls it) greater social equality and diversity (how do you even mesure that or prove this is true? America was once called the melting pot, obviously we are pretty diverse…better access to high quality post-secondary education (because everyone dreams of going to canada for their edu)low violent crime rates (we could go into this heavely but i don’t have the patience to write everything down. my opinion is one of the results is this is the decriminilization of pot and other natural drugs. and i am completely on canada’s side on this one. this is the only thing i believe that canada has over the US. but you also can’t own guns, so theres another right and liberty you gave up for safety) stable banking (once again controlled by the government and goes against our capitolist system which obama is trying to destroy) nature (yosemiti, yellow stone, rocky mnts, hawaii, alaska, dakota bad lands, utah, arizona desert, mnt rushmore, mississippi river, new england in the fall, shanedoah valley, red wood forest…etc that is my answer to that statement. however, canada is very beautiful).
that being said, i am not trying to start an argument. but i see alot of posts bashing the US and it’s capitolist system that pulled one of the youngest countries in the world and powered it to the super power it became. and once the richest country in the world. you say how terrible and judgemental we are yet none of you hesitate to bash America. and if your so open minded, why is emilie so attacked?
Posted by Rick on October 22nd, 2009so far, not impressed with great open minded canada.
people are the same no matter where you come from, you have the haters, the bashers, the judgers, and the people who carry tolerence much to far. but if that’s how you treat emily i think you need to work on your more intelligent and tolerent opend minds.
“There are advantages to both countries, I just found it incredibly rude to use a forum on DVD rentals to use the opportunity to bash your host country.
Adjust your attitude and don’t take every situation as an opportunity to point out how lacking and behind Canada is and I bet people will treat you way better than you can even imagine!”
Emily, our post was totally off subject and should have been monitored. Having said that your mind is totally small and so, yes, you belong back in the US. I am an American living in Canada much of the year.
Posted by robbi on October 22nd, 2009Yes the US has lower prices, much bigger inventory of almost everything consumers want, more people etc.
Canada has universal health, clean air, space, less people, healthiest banking system in the world, slower life-style, better schools, broader curriculum, more democratic than its LOUD neighbor, etc.
To me those are the qualities that matter. If people like Emily would go back to the US then the rest of us from the US living Canada will not be embarrassed by the short-sightedness, and smallness of some Americans.
You can have also those supposed benefits, Netflix, lower prices, better health care only if you have money, etc.
You can also have an extremely corrupt banking system, high, sometimes prohibitive housing prices, too many people, too much crime, lousy education, fundamentalist puritans trying to regulate the rest of us, lousy over-priced health run by the health insurance and hospital industries, and the tattered remnants of the worst administration (BUSH) tin the US history
actually, and historians are with me on this, carter was was much worse then bush and left the economy in worse shape there robbi. And your government is extremely sociolist. how can it be more democratic?
let me guess, iran is paveing the way for human rights
and france is a totaly modest moral country
“your mind is totally small and so, yes, you belong back in the US. I am an American living in Canada much of the year.”
and you deserve never to come back
Posted by Rick on October 22nd, 2009I’m against abortion. Woohoo! Let’s get another useless argument going!
Posted by Itchy-Finger on October 22nd, 2009“universal health care sucks in canada even your own politicians think so.”
The main findings were:
* A 70% majority of Canadians thought their system was performing either “very well (12%) or “fairly well” (58%). Only 28% thought it was performing “not well at all” (9%) or “not that well” (19%).
* Most people (55%) favored an expansion of the public sector. Just over a quarter (27%) of Canadians thought that the Canadian system had got the balance between public and private sector health care right. Only 12% favored a tilt towards the private sector.
* An 82% majority of Canadians believed their country’s health care system was superior to the U.S. system. Only 8% thought the U.S. system was superior.
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20090812/US-health-care-system-e2809cenvy-of-the-worlde2809d-not-in-Canada!.aspx
But thanks for being yet another American telling Canada how Canadians think of themselves. You really nailed it. Wink.
And yes Itchy, this thread is ridiculous. I don’t even care to figure out who started it, but everyone including myself should be ashamed for participating. I’ll go whip myself now.
Posted by Goon on October 22nd, 2009all that says goon is canadians are happy to live in a country where government is the norm, and paying for other peoples problems is ok.
tell me, through your health care system what was the last BIG medical break through you had?
“And yes Itchy, this thread is ridiculous. I don’t even care to figure out who started it, but everyone including myself should be ashamed for participating. I’ll go whip myself now.”
but yes goon and itchy are right. i just got involved because i like debating and i get involved into every arguemnt here on film junk. so i’ll just go now, but i wont whip myself…i’m american so i don’t have someone else who will pay for the dr.
Posted by Rick on October 22nd, 2009Oh jesus christ.
It would be nice if Sean could come back home from vacation without some threads to close.
Posted by Goon on October 22nd, 2009Off topic, somewhat:
Did anybody see Oprah Winfreys “Happiest people on Earth”-episode about her visit to Copenhagen? It seems pretty ridiculous, she apparently also talked about “free this, free that” but she did highlight things like being paid to go to college. When she asked somebody about the socialism going on, she got the answer that we thought of it not as much as socialism, but more as being civilized, to take care of unhealthy and old people in our society.
But in typical media fashion, this is what she portrayed as a “typical danish home”: http://www.oprah.com/media/20091021-tows-stine-home-tour
I can tell you it’s pretty fucking far from typical. We usually don’t have kids rooms in little boxes in the wall ^_^.
Posted by Henrik on October 22nd, 2009what other thread needs to be closed. As far as i know this is the only one i know of
Posted by Rick on October 22nd, 2009America, fuck yea!
Posted by Itchy-Finger on October 22nd, 2009Here we come to save the motherfucking day, yea!
America, fuck yea!
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