Update: Disappointed and cancelled the service in November.
With some reservations, we have signed up for Zip.ca , Canada’s Netflix.
After a great experience with Netflix in California I do not want to go back to the disappointing experience of going to a video store to look through the limited and new release focused selection. I enjoy preparing a queue of movies based on friends recommendations and research, and having a log of the movies I have seen including my rating.
I am immediately slightly disappointed by Zip’s communication, offerings, and web site’s user experience (some of it is almost amateurish). Hopefully, the actually service is better.
technorati tags:netflix, zip, zip.ca, movies, videos, dvds, home delivery, mail, renting, rentals
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Hey Lloyd,
Good luck with zip.ca. I tried it last year because netflix is so great in the US and I have no time to drop by a video store. I ended up dropping their service. It was awful. Their search feature on the website was so so bad. They have not improved it. I received most of the DVDs they sent me, however a few went missing when I returned them. Their customer service was out of this world.
Post about your experience once you use them for a couple of months. I am curious to see if anything has changed. When the DVDs arrived it was a good thing…
My experience with Zip has been awful, but I live in a remote rural area, so I don’t have much choice.
For my opinion on Zip, visit:
http://governmentcheese.ca/blogofcheese/2006/10/15/zipca-really-sucks/
I am super-satisfied Netflix user and purchased my parents a Zip.ca membership as a gift a month back (thinking it would be similar to Netflix).
I can’t believe how terrible the service is!!!
After 3 weeks of skipping past the top 5 on the list, I had to cancel my parents membership. The service is simply TOO bad.
Zip.ca is absolutley the worst company I’ve ever had the misforture to deal with. I originally was with VHQOnline. (in BC) and was getting decent service. But Zip.ca bought them out and everything went down the toliet.
(a) Service was crappy. It takes them over a week to respond to my issues and even then then didn’t even address them.
(b) Interface sucks. I was able to prioritize what DVDs I wanted first. with Zip.ca I can prioritze two DVDs I want first (which took over two months to get to me)
(c) The service was advertised as “unlimited DVD rentals” and then they placed thresholds and charged you extra for going over that amount
(d) They change their agreement and forced you to do whatever they want in order to rip you off
(e) I left these idiots and went to Canflix which is far better. But Zip.ca still constantly SPAMs me with there junk. I asked them to stop 3 times. They did for two months and started SPAMing me all over again. I even went back to me Zip.ca and deleted all my information, and they still SPAM me.
Stay away. Don’t let their BS fool you. It’s not worth it.
I have had problems with DVDs I have mailed back that have gone missing. Anyone know what this is about? Bad shelving practicses, or is Canada Post the problem. Is anyone having this problem with other rental companies?
Here is an email I have sent ZIP.ca upon terminating my account:
Hi,
Having used Netflix for over a year in the US (and being a complete addict of the service) I hoped that zip.ca would be even 50% the service that netflix was. I expected a slower delivery due to Canada Post. And perhaps delays in getting popular movies.
However, Zip.ca has fallen far short of even these modest expectations and, in my opinion, has missed an outstanding business opportunity to do in Canada what Netflix has done in the US. What has Zip.ca failed to do, which leads me, a former netflix addict back to the depressing aisles of Blockbuster? I list these things in the hope that ZIP will take note and make the simple changes needed to expand to its full potential:
1. web interface: this is by far the easiest problem to fix, and it is a HUGE problem. I urge you to try netflix’s interface for rating films, receiving recommendations based on ratings, linking with other users to learn about movies, etc. Netflix is brilliant not only because it delivers films to your home, but almost equally because it provides a way of discovering new films. Ask any former user about this and I assure you they will agree that it is THIS that makes the service so addictive: always finding new gems. This is truly impossible on ZIP. There is no decent way to find things that you don’t already know about, aside from the rather limited top 10 and top 100 lists. Not adequate and so painfully easy to fix with a small investment.
2. availability of films. Come on: invest in your FUTURE!!! By purchasing more films and getting everybody their top item at least within a month, you would not be losing users but instead gaining many, many more. I personally recruited many users to netflix when I used it, but have told people not to use ZIP. Here’s why: I have received almost none of my top items since signing up for ZIP many months ago. It is impossible to get new releases. I have gotten NOTHING even remotely recent from your service. The films I do get from ZIP can be rented very inexpensively for 7 day periods from video stores. The purpose of ZIP is completely defeated, because I have to go to the video store to rent new movies, and because older movies can be gotten at what works out to be a far better rate.
This sounds cynical, but I now wonder if ZIP even owns copies of new releases, and if you do WHO on earth is the lucky devil to get the copy? Here’s a challenge to your company: post the number of copies of each film you own on your site, and next to each the number of requests for each. I just cannot understand how it makes good business sense to not fill the demand of your customers. For goodness sake, raise your prices if this is what it takes! I would pay more for the service if it worked.
3. customer service. About 4 weeks ago, I noticed that I had sent back a movie and had not received a replacement for a whole 2 weeks. However, I had sent the movie in question with another film, and clicked both as returned the same day. I reported this delay to ZIP and the response was to (1) leave the missing film in my list indefinitely, thereby limiting my access down to 2 films, and (2) sending a very threatening sounding email noting that ZIP takes issues of film theft very seriously. Now, I never mentioned that I thought the film was stolen in my complaint. I suspected, instead, that it had been lost in the mail. As it turns out, the film popped back into existence about 2 days after my complaint. Either ZIP had lost it internally or Canada Post had taken nearly 3 weeks to deliver one of two films sent the same day. Who knows? Two questions: (1) why would you ever send an email assuming that someone had stolen the movie (in language that does not exclude the possibility that it was the consumer, in fact, who had) when many other things can lead to missing films, and (2) why, given the very small expense of a single lost film – the first ever reported lost by this customer – would you not free up my third spot during your “investigation”? Your email and suspending of my ZIP slot made me feel like I was being investigated, all for a single DVD??? That is insane business practice. I strongly recommend you reconsider this policy for future customers.
I will now cancel my zip subscription, sadly, and return to blockbuster and similar evils, until Netflix eventually moves to the Canadian market, at which time I will quickly subscribe to their service.
Zip.ca is one of the worst companies you will ever run across. They have set up a mail order DVD system that allows them to profit from underhanded and misleading business practices. Their business model is to take your subscription payment and send you as few DVD’s as possible, using whatever excuses they can, in order to maximise their profit.
Beware Zip.CA Customers..
When cancelling your “relationship” with Zip. Only Use REGISTERED MAIL.
Over 15 months ago I returned all Dvd’s to Zip.CA! 15 Months later I get a bill in the mail from a Credit Agency for $130. No warning no mail nothing.. I assumed everything was copesetic.
Zip now refuses to talk with me, and the Credit Agency says I’m incredibly “Stupid” for not sending back the Dvd’s by Registered Mail.
Too bad Zip doesn’t send out Credit Agency warnings by Registered Mail.
These People are Crooks.
I have no idea what anyone is talking about on here.. I have been using Zip.ca for 4 months now and I absolutely love them. Fast, efficient and cheap. I will stay with them as long as I can.
I don’t think that these comments are really that relevant anymore. The majority of them were posted prior to 2007′s end. I think we all like to complain about services, and perhaps there have been the odd run-in, but my experience with Zip.ca, especially with the customer service at Zip.ca (stellar!) has been nothing but positive. I get tons of movies (at a very cheap rate, I don’t think there is any underhanded over-charge, over-profit going on there) shipped to me on a regular basis, and have access to a whole host of information, suggestions, forums online. I will, like Erin above, stay with them for as long as I can.
zip.ca are just a fraud i canceled my account 4 months a go with them they renew it automatic after 4 month without my notice or permission i never asked for renewal i guess they dont have any customer they just find a credit card nuber of old customer and they charge it do not trust them with your credit card number thats not a lie it did happen to me and i am shock i asked them for cancelation notice that i am not their customer anymore and do not wanna do business with them they do not wanna to send me cancelation notice i will send them a register mail that i will dispute all their charge guys just be careful who you dealing with or who you live your credit card number