Movieconnect www.movieconnect.co.uk Review

Overall Rating

Nothing extraordinary, just the usual in terms of a movie web-site selection. The company's service and attitude is best seen when something goes wrong.

In a nutshell, they will charge you or hold you accountable for any DVDs that get lost in the post, including ones that get lost on their way from them to you.

I signed up for the Movieconnect service (you have to sign up on the 14-day free trial first, no option to sign up as a paying member straight away). I had to accept their "general" (and only) terms & conditions when signing up.

The trial started, and the movie dispatch/return cycle began, all moving smoothly until one of the DVD's they apparently sent out to me never actually reached me.

So I waited the standard 4 days' for postal deliveries to arrive, and when I still didn't receive it, I emailed them advising that the DVD appears to be lost in the post. (I was still in my free trial period then).

On the same day I decided to cancel my account with them, as I wanted to try a different service. I sent back the 2 movies which I did receive from them, and they received these back one day before the payment date.

Hence, the only DVD outstanding on the eve of my payment date was the one they sent to me, but which I never received. In response to my email reporting this DVD as lost in the post, they replied stating that they will not cancel my account, but rather let it run past the payment date, charge me a month's subscription, and then mark the DVD as lost in the post, and then pursue a claim with Royal Mail.

So I called them to contest this, and they said that their terms & conditions state that the customer is always responsible for any DVD's lost in the post in either direction (from them to the customer, as well as from the customer back to them). When I asked about the terms about the occasional lost DVD (this was the first one lost since I signed up), they stated that this term only applies to paying members. So here they are basically stating "new and alternate, but non-documented" terms for customers in their free trial period (once again, the free trial is not optional, it's the only way to become a member).

Hence, their actions were to force me to become a paying member (i.e. take payment from me), and then mark the DVD as lost in the post (I'm still waiting for the DVD to disappear from my "DVDs At Home" list). All this because one of the DVD's they sent out to me never actually reached me.

I think everyone here would agree that it is unethical to hold the customer responsible for a DVD which was lost on its way to the customer.