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Zip Review |
Zip.ca is regarded as probably the biggest Canadaian dvd rental service. Certainly their website is very professional, offering new customers a 2 weeks free trial. The browsing system and search facility is fast (includes search by director/actor/title and genre).
DVD's are sent from Ottawa. Since I first looked at this service, they have limited some of the plans. I would recommend the 3-out at a time which theoretically gives 'unlimited' amount of dvd's. The other plans have limits on the max dvd's you will receive per month.
Click here to Visit Zip
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Zip Customer Reviews |
Rob from Toronto on 2008-06-26 Rates them:  
Like most people who have reviewed Zip.ca, I loved it at first, but any time our credit card was at the limit at the time they tried to get the membership fee, we had to jump through hoops to get the account activated again. They may have changed that since then. The new problem is that I sent back a few DVDs on Halloween and still haven't received any new DVDs and it's now almost July. I haven't bothered to cancel because I still have some movies I haven't watched yet, but as soon as I do watch them, they're going back and I'm out of there.
On the bright side, one time I did mail back two DVDs, but they got lost somewhere along the way. After the initial "Guilty Until Proven Innocent" feeling, they did quickly investigate and sent me some DVDs, so I guess I was ok. |
Joe from Drummondville Québec on 2008-06-05 Rates them:
I have start using Zip.ca 4 years ago. i was happy during 1 year also 1 dvd was lost and never come to my door, they did not charge me for the lost.
I stop my accout for 3 years for take a brake (and have more choice of movie). I started again this year because they are the only place where i can rent Blu-ray and HD-dvd. The ship movie on a regular maner (i get around 2-3 dvd a week) i think 10 per month (this quantity is ok for me, this is cheaper copare to bluckbuster)...The only bad point is because they alwais goes down the list for send their movie, so i never get what i really like to see now, i have a list over 50 titles and they always choses the old crap. Anyway i use it for some month then i cancel again and continu on buclkbuster.
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Kevin from Brockville on 2008-03-18 Rates them:
P*I*T*I*F*U*L as far as customer service is concerned. Although I haven't experienced EVERY horror story described before my review, I do have a few points that I would like to mention. Not all bad though as I found their selection to be quite extensive. Best selection (if not the only) that offers TV shows on DVD. I live within 1 day's mailing from their Ottawa location, so, I anticipate that if they say they ship out my movies on Monday, I expect that I should receive them on Tuesday. Kudos to Canada Post employees for date stamping a few of the envelopes that I received which were postmarked (in some cases) several days after being labeled as being shipped. I have also received some badly scratched DVD's that were unwatchable. After returning and notifying them of such I received a nasty email stating that I was well below the curve of 95% satisfaction, and went on to further blame my equipment. My DVD players are brand new and problems occurred in the same places in multiple machines. Coincidence..... I think not! They DID credit me an extra free month, so, all but the bad taste in my mouth has been atoned for. I will probably continue to patronize them until I find a suitable outlet that supplies older TV shows on DVD. Don't trust their online reporting of when they receive or ship your DVD's as I have noticed numerous errors and if I wasn't such self righteous PR**K about honesty, I wouldn't be so put out |
Taryn from Whitehorse, Yukon on 2008-03-17 Rates them:
I first started using Zip when I was living in Edmonton, then in Kamloops and I didn't have a problem. The DVDs came on a regular basis and seemed to return in a normal timely manner. But then I moved to Whitehorse, Yukon and it started taking up to 10 days to receive/return DVDs so I cancelled the service. If you live in any of the Territories, do not bother getting this service. It is not worth it. |
Kevin from Vancouver on 2008-01-16 Rates them:
The problem is how the DVD's are mailed and returned. If either I or Zip don't receive movies how do we prove it was mailed. This is a CanadaPost nightmare and in the meantime your credit card gets charged the full MSRP of the DVD. You're assumed guilty! |
Mike from Toronto on 2007-11-22 Rates them:
Decided to cancel because I was moving and returned the last 3 DVDs a week before the end of the term. A month later my credit card was charged more than $85. It's a very strange coincidence that only the last DVDs 'were not received', all the dozens of DVDs I rented before that were received within a day or two according to their own website. I won't be their customer ever again. That's right, zip.ca - you lost a lot more than $85 worth of business. |
sam from toronto on 2007-10-26 Rates them:
I was a customer of zip for about 18 month,loved it because of the great movie selection they have,but not any more.They dont like people that rent to many movies in one month.
They also charged me for a movie i never recived it a cually happed few times so they canceled my a count.
in order for me to renew it they want me to take full responsibility for every lost movie.That is total crap. |
Jenifer from Toronto on 2007-09-28 Rates them:
This company is an absolute nightmare. I have been with Zip.ca for about 2 years and I will say, for the first year I loved them. I didn't even mind that I saw movies 4-6 months after they were released as I always had something on hand to watch. That was until DVDs started not being delivered. It turns out at least one had been shipped to another customer kind enough to report it. The other 5, who knows? Then they deactivated my account but still were "shipping" DVDs to me. Of course these phantom shipments never came but Zip.ca wanted me to pay for them. I refused to be treated like a thief and they refused to reactivate my account unless I agreed to financial responsibility for any missing shipments. They absolutely denied they were at fault. Zip.ca is that boyfriend who can't leave you because he wants to be seen as a good guy. I felt like they were making me break-up with them after treating me like poo but I look like the unreasonable one. After much emailing my account was finally permanently canceled but to add insult to injury I was charged my monthly membership fee anyway, twice. Really, how angry do they want me? Also, their customer service telephone number is not published anywhere on their website that I could find. I had to do a web search. What a bunch of idiots. |
David from Vancouver, BC on 2007-08-27 Rates them:
Terrible experience for me. I have no titles out, have over 6 on my waiting list ("Zip Refill"), yet I have not received anything in a couple weeks now. They keep telling me to put at least 20 titles in my waiting list, but I do not have 20 I want. If I put older releases, THAT is what I'll get & not the new releases I actually want. Also, they advertise that they will ship DVDs right after you notify them online you have returned yours, and before they actually receive the ones you return. They NEVER did it for me in over a year. Not once! I cancelled my membership and will never go back to this terrible company. |
Bill from Sarnia on 2007-08-07 Rates them:
Been wih ZIP for couple years. They have gone downhill. Service is terrible. They are ignoring the Zip Refill, they had a computer glitch that dropped me for two weeks. Had no movies delivered for almost 3 weeks and they still took all my monthly fee. My returned movies are received in 2 days but the movies they send take 3 -5 days. I don't believe them when they say they have shipped. Recent releases are all mixed up lately with nothing but TV series in the first pages. WOW, I don't know what else to say. It seems they have gone from a 7 or 8 to a 1 or 2 in the past year. All I can say, is I'm gonna be gone too |
Anne from Montreal on 2007-07-01 Rates them:
I was very excited when I first started using Zip. I like to rent lesser known movies, and they seemed to offer a wide selection of international, classics, and indie movies (wider than Blockbuster, anyway).
Turns out this is false. I have been waiting for over a year for some of the movies I have really wanted to see. It's a crapshoot what they decide to send me -- sometimes I really want to see a certain movie, but I'll have to wait indefinite periods of time to get it. I don't mind waiting a month or two. I mind waiting a year.
I tried conacting them about it, but they just had canned answers for me about their policies. Customer service was really unhelpful. |
Dan from Vancouver on 2007-05-25 Rates them:
A mixture of good and bad. The good: large title selction and fairly fast shipping. The bad: They offer something called "Zip Refill" whereby they claim they will send you a DVD after you notify them you have mailed one back, and before they actually receive it. This obviously speeds up turnover for you. This is after a short probationary period, but they NEVER have done this for me well past that period even though my record for returns is spotless. I wrote them about this and got some BS reply stating I needed at least 25 titles in my Ziplist (= titles wanted list). Nonsense, and very misleading advertising. |
Paul from Montreal on 2007-04-26 Rates them:
Too bad the ratings dont go into the negatives in terms of customer service. Zip.ca still has the best dvd selection in terms of the Canadian dvd companies. God forbid though if i suggest a dvd title. Their title request system is defective and they have no plans to change it. I have requested easy to find titles 6 to 8 months ago and they have made absolutely zero effort to add these titles to their inventory. They say they have a backlog but 6 to 8 months is not a backlog its crappy service. That used to be my only problem but now they've decided not to send me any dvds. i have like 20 dvds on my ziplist and they wont send any of them. They say that if you order a tv show they wait for the first title from the series to be available and they wont send any before that. This is supposed to be convenient to the customer. PAYING FOR A SERVICE THAT I DO NOT RECEIVE IS NOT CONVENIENT TO ME OR ANYONE ELSE FOR THAT MATTER. If any of the other canadian dvd's had any selection i would use them but they dont. PLEASE NETFLIX COME TO CANADA the canadian companies suck!!! |
Chad from Edmonton on 2007-04-12 Rates them:
I have been using Zip for over a year. I have read a number of the posts and think most of the idiots that are posting negative things should take their heads out of their asses. Zip is so easy to use and usually very fast. Hey guys get real about the wait times for new releases. As if they have 1000 copies of borat or the departed. We all have to wait in line for new DVD's so give them a break. I receive a balance of old and new releases each week. Some of you must have been abused children or something. What a stupid thing to vent your frustrations on.
Way to go ZIP!! Thank-you!!
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Steve from Winnipeg on 2007-02-28 Rates them:
I was pretty happy with zip.ca until just recently. I had joined their service in mid-October, 2006 on the 3 dvd's for $24.95/month plan. Since October 10 I've have had 42 dvd's shipped, received and returned without any problems whatsoever. But then things started to go wrong. I had my three dvd's plus one under their "Gotta Have It Now" feature which allows you to pay for single rentals outside of your plan. A week after I mailed them back to zip.ca their website stated that they still had not received them back. So I contacted them using their live help chat feature. This is the conversation that I had with their service rep....
Thank you for chatting with Zip.ca, how may we assist you?
steve: I put 4 titles in the mail last weekend and the website indicates that they haven't been received yet. I can't believe they haven't come in yet. It usually only takes 2 or 3 days in the past. What gives?
Salah: they have not been received yet unfortunately..
steve: I can't believe that
Salah: unfortunately that is the case otherwise they would have been scanned and others would have been shipped.
steve: nothing takes a week to get from Winniepg to Calgary.
Salah: but delays in shipment are possible..
Salah: or this might be a theft..
Salah: at this point we don't know since we do not do the shipping ourselves
steve: so what do I do. Wait until next week?
Salah: if it has been 6 business days of shipping time, you are required to go to your Ziplist page and "report a problem" so that we may conduct our investigation through canada post
steve: Okay, if I don't see them reported in by end of day Monday, I'll report it. But I find this very curious
Salah: "very curious"???
steve: Yes, never had problems before
Salah: we are not responsible for shipping but if you are insinuating that we are purposelly not scanning the dvds when they arrive, then I assure you that that is not the case
steve: The problem with mail service is there is no way to prove that a customer has mailed titles back when they claim they have. If they don't appear in 6 business days, am I going to be charged for the purchase price?
Salah: no, you are to report a problem.... so we can start an investigation. please refer to the Help menu or our "Terms of Use" for further details.
steve: okay, i guess we'll see on Monday
Salah: Are there any other issues we can help you with today?
steve: nope
steve: disconnected
Salah: disconnected
I found her response to my "very curious" comment very curious. Anyways, surprise, surprise the dvd's must have somehow turned up the next day because their website finally indicated that they were in. And then they shipped me another 3 dvds like they should.
So, I got those new dvds a week later, viewed them on the weekend and put them in the mailbox Sunday night. So now it's 10 days later and they claim these dvds haven't been received back by them. So being over 6 business days, I use their "report a problem" feature. The pages that you fill in implies that the dvds must have been stolen. So I submit the problem form and here's the email that I get back from them....
Your Theft Report
Dear Steve,
Thank you for completing the online theft report regarding the stolen DVD Throw Momma From The Train. We have now opened an investigation.
Zip.ca takes theft very seriously, as it imposes additional costs that must ultimately be borne by all members. Fortunately, theft of Zip.ca DVDs is quite rare, and four-fifths of our members have never reported one.
Please be advised Zip.ca's internal investigation process can take up to 21 days, during which time the rental slot on your account may remain closed.
As outlined in our Terms of Use (relevant portion reprinted below and available online), details regarding this reported theft will be provided to Canada Post and the police. At some point you may be contacted if additional information is required, and if so your further cooperation would be appreciated. Please note that Zip.ca, Canada Post and the police generally cannot release or publish details or updates of any nature concerning ongoing or past investigations, unless charges are publicly laid.
We appreciate your full cooperation in this matter and hope to have it resolved as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Zip.ca Member Services
Canada's Leading Online Video Service
Stolen DVDs
Occasionally rented DVDs may be stolen in transit. Zip.ca treats reports of such incidents very seriously, and requires completion of a Stolen DVD Form, to assist authorities in investigating such incidents and to minimize future occurrences. A copy of this form will be provided to the Canada Post Corporation and to police authorities for investigation. In cases where DVDs have been reported stolen, Zip.ca reserves the right to suspend service until a Stolen DVD Form has been signed and returned to Zip.ca, whereupon Zip.ca may, in its sole discretion, resume service and send a replacement of the Stolen DVD, discontinue service indefinitely, or suspend your membership and charge you the retail price of any DVD that is stolen. Zip.ca will contact you to discuss this before charging your credit card or debiting your chequing account.
Lost DVDs
Occasionally you may misplace a rented DVD. If you have lost a DVD, you must report it lost to Zip.ca as soon as possible. Zip.ca will charge your account for the retail value of the DVD and continue providing future rentals on an ongoing basis. Should you refuse to pay the retail value of the DVD which you have lost, Zip.ca may suspend or cancel your membership in its sole discretion and take such steps as necessary to recover the cost of the lost DVD, including, but not limited to, the institution of legal proceedings against you. Refusing to pay for a DVD which you have lost will be considered a material breach of these terms of use.
WHAT!!!!! "reported theft will be provided to Canada Post and the police." My account may be "suspended".
WHAT THE HELL!
This whole thing scares the hell out of me. I strongly suspect that they are actually withholding the dvds because I'm not a profitable customer. 42 dvds in 3 months can't be a money maker for them, so how do you get rid of a customer like that? Well, you screw around with them, that's how. There's lots more to go in this story, but my feeling is that it's going to end up that they'll be charging me for 3 dvd's that I put in the mailbox.
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Antony from London on 2006-12-21 Rates them:
I joined Zip.ca in the hopes that I could get some of the 'rarer' disks out there on the rental market... documentaries etc... but within my first 2 shipments i recieved a total of 3 disks damaged beyoned use. One was physically cracked, the other two were scratched enough to have continual skipping and lockups on my PC.
In addition after cancelling my membership and returning my 1 outstanding disk the company filed for an investigation about "unreturned" disks, which I had only mailed back 48 hours previously. They then proceeded to ask me to 'Reply' and 'log in' to confirm reciept of the said disks, and the system no longer allowed me to log in and make said requested reply.
Hence I spent 20 minutes f***ing around aiting for an online rep to acknowledge me.
I give this company a Zero (0) rating, sink them, nuke them and get me my credit card payments back, what a waste of my time. |
Robert from Montreal on 2006-11-26 Rates them:
I switched from Zip to Starflix after after beeing scammed for 2 months. What a relief,zip should be in the insurance business They never take care of the problems and never take the blame,they frustrate you until you've given up.The service and selection at starflix is far superior.
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Steve from Innisfil on 2006-09-25 Rates them:
been with the company for over 2 years, have not had one disk lost, the new shipping limits are because of the fact that just shipping the disks for them cost a dollar a disk(both ways) so if you manage to get 20 dvd's on your 3 or 4 disk out accounts, thats just shipping and you have not even payed a cent for the dvd rentals themselves. Their customer service does suck, I have the 6 dvd plan, get 16 a month, I do think the shipping charges should be lowered for extra dvd's though. Also they will not add new releases of old movies, unless the movie changes, ie, if it has a cool new feature interview, they will no longer get it for you. |
Adrian E.C. from Vancouver, BC on 2006-07-18 Rates them:
At the beggining it was fantastic, unlimited DVDs for $24. The next year for some reason they started to hire stupid people and I started to receive DVDs I never oredered, or the same dvd twice, and this happened 10 times in a year. If you ordered a tv series like 24 do not expect to receive the first dvd, instead you'll receive DVD 3 first and then the 5th, and so forth!! I order gods must be crazy 1 and 2 and invited my friends to watch, when I opened the envelopes I found both dvd were part 2!! so we couldn't watch neither! The problem also is that they just say we'll send you another, but what about the time I wasted?? waiting for the movies for 3 or 4 days, then realizing they were wrong so sending back, another 4 days, then another 4 days to receive the right ones, that's 12 days!!!! crazy. They do have a huge selection, and that's not the problem, if they only had people who can read... and also late last year they cancelled the unlimited DVD, now if you go over the limit you start paying extra, nuts. |
Bernie from Calgary, AB on 2006-05-25 Rates them:
I would not recommend Zip.ca. My impression is that they are actually run by a handful of incompetent persons with a very little resources (including access to a sufficient number of DVDs).
For starters, I don't understand why they wouldn’t follow a proven successful business model (i.e., NetFlix). Instead they provide no way of organizing the order of one’s “ZipList”, handling charges are added if you go over a certain monthly limit. They provide no clear idea of the availability of a particular DVD (only a vague graphic) so you have no real idea of what you are going to receive at any given time.
My personal experience was that they shipped my very first DVDs to the wrong address. I reported and corrected the address myself but since then it has been a nightmare: the Post Office returned the DVDs to them. They claim they re-shipped the original DVDs (I did not ask them to do this). I never received them. I reported this to them and received various responses. Depending on who I was dealing with my account was de-activated and then re-activated (with apologies) several times. In the meantime, I started receiving my allotted DVDs from my remaining queue (not the original DVDs which they claim they re-sent). I firmly believe they have re-shipped the DVDs to the wrong address again.
Finally, despite the fact that I have continually been in contact with them regarding this matter, they deactivated my account again. At that point I insisted they cancel my account and provide a refund. They said they would only provide a partial refund for 1 of 3 months because my account was 2 months old. This regardless of the fact that my account was repeatedly deactivated and I had only received about 8 DVDs in a two week period.
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Liz from Toronto on 2006-05-16 Rates them:
I was actually very happy with zip until a DVD was "lost" in transit from my home to theirs. They reduced my privileges and it took a week for my DVD slot to reopen. Now that it's happened a second time, I'm on "probation". Very frustrating -- why do they mail them in those visible envelopes? Beware of lost DVDs. |
David from Calgary on 2006-04-11 Rates them:
I was a member of VHQonline and was transferred to Zip.ca I loved VHQ they had great service. Zip.ca service is extremely poor, they have a large movie list but the new releases and popular movies you will be waiting forever to get.
You are unable to move your movies around in your Ziplist and ASAP priority never worked for me. They now have a cap of 11 movies a month and if you wish to rent more it will cost you $2.49 a movie.
I am now a member of Canflix for only 3 days and I am much happier, they remind me of the VHQ days. |
frod from vancouver island on 2006-02-04 Rates them:
been with them for a year generally happy with service- ive been getting at least 16 discs a month for my 25 bucks seems l.ike a bargain to me... |
Hi from Vancouver, BC on 2006-02-03 Rates them:
I am another VHQ transfer. Like many of my fellow transfers, I Loved VHQ. It was fast, it was affordable, and I got the movies I want.
I HATE Zip.ca. Its service is pure CRAP. The following are just several reasons why:
1) Takes a long time for movies to arrive. Before, if I return on Monday, I usually get new movies by Wednesday. Now, I don't usually get them until next week.
2)You CANNOT choose the order of the movie to arrive. Yes, it has a "ASAP" option, but like many have said, it doesn't seem to work. Originally, I had a big list full of old, foreign, or other movies that I would eventually like to see, but not before the latest released or blockbuster movies. I had to delete all of those "other movies" from my list just so I can sort of control what I get.
3) Yes they may have a big inventory, but they also have more members. That means that Many of the latest movie runs out and you still end up not getting the movies you want. VHQ had a smaller inventory, but because their turnover rate was so fast and had fewer members, you get better service from them.
4) This really ticks me off. When Zip.ca first took over VHQ, they said that the service will not change (or something along the lines of that). I just received an email saying that are abandoning the 3-movies & 5-movies plan. Real smart, 'cause they know 2 will not be enough for most people, and they will have to settle for 4 and pay a higher monthly rate than before. I am not paying more for 4 movies when I only need 3.
5) Finally, this takes the cake. They are now going to charge shipping!!!! They give you a limit for free shipping each month and every movie after that, they will charge $2.49/movie!!!
I have since CANCELLED my membership. |
Cy from Montreal on 2006-01-28 Rates them:
what a bunch of money-grabbing liars they are!!!
they lured me in with 'unlimited rentals with no extra cost', then they just decided to forget the promise they made to their loyal customers.
38 bucks for 16 movies (mostly old titles)! i can rent 12 old movies for less than 15 bucks at a local video store. the only problem is the small size of their selection.
didn't they expect how many movies customers would rent when they made the promise of unlimited rentals?? it's not like anyone can rent 30-40 movies a month, considering the 3-5 day delivery time in both directions. my guess is as they're getting bigger, they're also getting greedier.
BOYCOTT ZIP!!! |
Reg from Edmonton on 2006-01-27 Rates them:
Zip used to be good. Now they give you "Unlimited Rentals" but charge you for "Shipping". With the 4 DVD plan, they charge you $2.50 per DVD after 11. If you figure 4 DVDs per week equals 16 DVDs in a month, suddenly your $24.95/month plan becomes $24.95 + (5 DVDs X $2.50) = $37.45/month!!!
This is a total scam. Avoid at all costs. Cancel your subscriptions now. |
HA from Northern BC on 2006-01-23 Rates them:
Do not deal with this company.
I was on VHQonline and was moved to Zip.ca when they aquired them. I was told service and selection would be even better! "Great!" I thought. Well, as it turns out they fell very short...
First, their "ziplist" is a joke. VHQonline allowed you to have a priority list full of things you'd like to see. Whatever is on top is sent to you next. If that is not available the next one down is sent.
Zip.ca? Well, you have a list of movies you're interested in - in our case over 50, mostly old and foriegn films, things that are not popular by any means - and then you can set priority to ASAP or normal.
But really that makes no difference. There's no guarantee you'll get anything on the ASAP list within a week, three weeks, a month... or four months. What they send you is completely random.
They have responded to countless complaints on this matter saying only, "We're working on it" - but I waited months to get one of the 5 on our ASAP list and never got it. I eventually quit, with them still saying that we "owed" three DVD's to them (their admitted mistake).
Forget joining if you live in a rural area, too! Their customer service is terrible. |
Mike from Markham, ontario on 2006-01-13 Rates them:
Excelent selection. If your after new releases, forget this service even esists. Thats why new releases cost $6 at the video store. I like to rent only older movies, so random list selection is not a problem for me. The problem for me was my expectations. The first 4 dvds where sent to me by express post. These arrived 1 day later. Unfortuenetly, expresspost is only for the first shipment, afterwards, it uses 2-3 day regular mail. I was initially hoping to get 32 DVds a month on the 4 DVD a month plan. I figured, If I recieve 4 discs monday, ship them back tuesday, they get then wednesday, then I should have another batch sent to me for friday. But like I said, thats with express post. In reality, its impossible to get more then 4 DVDs a week. This results in 4x4 = 16 DVDs a month for 24.95 + Tax which means you get 16 DVDs a month at $1.79 each. I suppose this is good for some, but with some local video stores offering 7 DVD 1 week rental pacakges which work out to $1.99 a DVD (which rogers used to have), this service is barely a money saver for the hassel of all the mailing that needs to be done.
Perhaps some might find it a worthy deal, but 16 movies a month is not enough for me when I can just buy newsgroup access for $15 a month and get close to 100 movies.
At least with the free Trial I was able to get some rare DVDs I had been wanting for some time, because zip.ca does have a nice selection |
Andrew from Montreal on 2006-01-12 Rates them:
I don't get all the bad reviews. Their Customer Service may be a bit poor. But I have been receiging movies with no issues since i signed up with them the first month they came out. Movies sent back get there next day, and movies sent to me are generally received in 2 days. ZipRefil is great too as they send you another once you've told them you mailed 1 back.
My only complaint is its true sometimes they never get back to you when you email them |
BJ from Vancouver on 2006-01-04 Rates them:
I think Zip .ca is probably corrupt , from the top on down.Their website selection process is misleading,they tell you only what they have to. Their email customer service and phone cust service,would not even answer my calls-All I wanted to ask was "How come the ASAP dvd selections , don't work for me"??? I beleive that he knew very well what I was going to ask,and other than be a man about it, he just didn't answer. I had other problems with them sending the completely wrong dvd's-out of the blue.DO NOT GO WITH THIS SERVICE!.
I am a VHQ online transfer, and for the most part,they were GREAT. Does anyone know of a comparable,honest service,that compares to VHQ online?
Brian in Vanc b22@telus.net |
Dana from Toronto on 2006-01-03 Rates them:
Turnaround time is ridiculously slow. I often ended up with only one DVD at hand over weekends. The only thing that helped speed things up was ZipRefill, but Zip decided I didn't deserve that service after 2 DVD's never reached me. When I wrote to complain, they stated that there is no set time limit for reinstating ZipRefill eligibility and to rub it in they added that it was 'at their discretion'. So I used my discretion to cancel the service. It seems that customer retention is not one of their priorities. |
Paul from Ottawa on 2005-12-08 Rates them:
I've been a customer for 3 months and loved it.
I live near a distribution site, and turn around from mailing a film to recieving the next one is very fast ! 2-3 days. Turnaround is fast enough to watch at least 4 per week, I've topped off around 10. The longest I have waited to recieve an ASAP title is 7 days. When canada post lost a film, No questions asked, they sent me another one. I did not pay for the film. About one in 15 is a little scratched, and only one film out of all those i've watched has been seriuosly damaged. I returned it and recieved a replaecment in 5 days.
My only complaint is that when My profile screwed up online, it took 30 minutes on hold to be able to speak to a rep. The problem was solved before I got off the phone.
Maybe I've been lucky, but zip has been overall fantastic. |
Stephane Evoy from Edmonton, AB on 2005-12-06 Rates them:
I also was an avid customer of Netflix while living in Philadelphia. Upon relocating to Edmonton last year, I first subscribed to VHQ online. VHQ turn-around shipping to Edmonton was substantially slower than what I was accustomed to from Netflix, but indeed, the company was doing a decent job at providing the titles in the order you proritized them.
Indeed, VHQ was recently bought by Zip, and I did transfer my membership to them. On good side, I do get my DVDs much faster now, as they apparently have operations in Calgary. But I must echo everybody else's complaint about Zip's obvious lack of committement towards shipping recent releases to their customers...it just does not happen.
What other mail-in services are there out there ? Im also thinking about taking my business elsewhere...
-S |
Robert from Toronto on 2005-11-25 Rates them:
Zip dropped me after losing several discs on me. I did nothing but mail them back in a bright red envelope they provided which just begged to be stolen - what are they thinking with that packaging???
I signed up with VHQonline.ca and was thrilled with their service and not a single problem, of course they used plain brown envelopes. Zip buys them a few months ago and suddenly I'm stuck back with these idiots. Do not use zip. They are horrible to deal with and not a clue what they are doing - I have some classic e-mail exchanges with them...oh goodness! DO NOT rent from them ever, for any reason...EVER! |
Kevon from Kelowna on 2005-10-20 Rates them:
Was renting with VHQOnline and was very impressed with their service as I was able to priortize my selections and they would send me them (new releases) 9 times out of 10. With Zip, it was the opposite. They didn't allow you to priortize your selections with the exception of an ASAP option which never seemed to work, 9 times out of 10, I would get an older (very sometimes) movie instead of a new release, even with the ASAP option selected. It took me a month and a half almost to get the new release that I had selected. I cancelled my membership.
I love the concept, but you need to be able to get the DVDs that you request otherwise it is not cost effective to the consumer. |
Sandra from 100 Mile House, BC on 2005-10-20 Rates them:
Well I share in the complaints already posted here by other disatisfied customers. It takes way too long to receive movies and you never get the ones on your ASAP list if they are even close to being recent. I have shipped back 4 dvds to them 10 business days ago and they claim that they haven't received them yet. I have put in a claim but after reading all these complaints I suspect they will make me pay for them. I guess I should probably cancel too after they get the movies back or make me pay. Too bad since we really only have one good video store in town. |
Marko from Kitchener on 2005-10-06 Rates them:
They are OK for renting harder to find old movies, but not very good at all for new releases. The top of my ziplist tends to be all new releases, yet they keep shipping older stuff from the bottom of the list. Using the "ASAP" options doesn't seem to actually do anything. It seems I also lost my "zip-refill" (cross-shipping feature) recently for unknown reasons, so it will now take even longer for them to ship stuff. Although I really like the concept of renting online and zip.ca is supposed to be one of the best there is here in Canada, I don't think I'll be renewing unless I see some big changes soon.
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April from Comox, BC on 2005-10-05 Rates them:
I'm not impressed at all and will be cancelling my service today! I was a member of VHQ and loved it! Unfortunately they were bought out by Zip.ca in August. I thought - what the heck - I'll give this new company a try. In the change over I didn't get any movies for almost a month. They did give me a discount for that month at least though. The shipping is pretty slow (compared to what I was used to at VHQ) taking about a week for my movies to arrive once they report them as sent. The movies are in horrible condition - we have had several that skipped and two that were unwatchable. Never had a problem with that through VHQ. And the thing I hate the most about Zip - you can't put your movies in order of preference. The order they send your movies in is completely random. You can put two movies on an ASAP list - but that seems to be uselss. I've had two movies on ASAP for over a month now and still haven't received them. With VHQ I used to get my number one movies right away (even new releases) all the time. With Zip it appears that I am never going to get to see new releases until they are ancient. If I want to do that I may as well go rent them from the old movie section in the video store. It will be cheaper ($1 - I'd have to get 30 movies in a month through Zip to equal that. And at this rate I'll be lucky to get 10!).
Anyways... Zip.ca is definitely not for me! I miss VHQ!!!! I'm not sure if I'll try another company or just give up on the online dvd rentals for now. |
Anne from Burlington, ON on 2005-09-16 Rates them:
Member since October 2004.
Originally delivery times 2 days (sometimes 3, rarely more).
Starting about 2 or 3 months ago delivery times - best 3 days, worst 8 days. As well, 1 missing disk in (March) - six this summer alone. However, you read their front page and they are claiming better delivery through postal depots. Mine go to ON15 - and I can tell you it's not better.
Customer service - originally good, now horrible. I think I've had less than 6 tickets, but the last few it's almost impossible to get a response to a reported missing disc.
And what leads to the '1' rating? After sending me a form response to the last help ticket, they've sent me a survey about how the service was. It's a shame they seem to be buying up all the alternative sources of rentals.
I know they can't control the post office, but blowing off customer issues is what the low rating is for. I'm now looking for an alternative. Hell, for Aug. and Sept. I'd have been better of renting in town, I've had so few rentals since 3 slots have been open with missing disks since Aug. 15th. |
Nathalie from Ottawa on 2005-07-29 Rates them:
When I was living in the US I used Netflix and absolutely loved it. But when I moved back to Canada I found out it did not exist so I tried Zip and have been a customer for about 8 months. I find the service has greatly improved over the past months, however I miss not being able to choose the order of the movies I rent. The selection of foreign movies is pretty good. I usually get my movies pretty quickly and when I indicate on their website that I have returned a movie, they usually send the next one the same day, before receiving the other one (maybe a feautre for longer term customers). I only had one problem once with a lost movie, although it somehow was found a couple of weeks later and I was not charged anything. I would recommend Zip as the service and selection is improving daily. |
Ken from Toronto on 2005-06-20 Rates them:
Good overall service. They're pretty quick in processing your returns. However, I have to echo what the other people have mentioned.. if you want a newly released movie, it'll take you at least a month before you get your hands on it... beware.... |
Peter from Ottawa on 2005-06-05 Rates them:
I remember thinking as I reviewed this site that I should write back after a few months and say how things are going. I was originally trying to decide between VHQ Online and Zip. VHQ because I only wanted a 3 for $20 plan and Zip because I lived in Ottawa. After a lot of research I decided to go with Zip on the theory that being located in the same city would increase my movie turnaround.
Concerned about some of the issues brought forward here (lack of communication, movie turnaround, ASAP selection), I decided to write to them asking for their feedback. I got a great response in less than 15 mins. I have kept detailed track of the movie turnaround. If I have the DVD’s in the mail box on Tues will get picked up at 1700hrs. Delivered overnight, Zip has almost always received sometime Wed and has sent me a email on COB weds to inform me they have been received and new ones shipped. Will get them 30% of the time on Thurs, otherwise almost certainly on the Fri. On one occasion, they didn’t arrive until Mon. A return to them on a Thurs will mean (90%) that I have the next movie on Monday. If they really sped things up, they could probably get them back to me a fraction earlier, but honestly, with 4 DVD’s in the rotation, I have never ran out of DVD’s to watch. As it is, I am very pleased with having a rotation of 4 vs 3. As for the “ASAP” selections, I purposely have always filled them with new releases or almost new releases. After two months, I have always received my ASAP selection immediately with one exception – “National Treasure” skipped the rotation twice and I received it 10 days after it was released on DVD. One additional benefit I discounted when trying to decide on which company to join was the selection available. Zip has a HUGE selection. They have had every DVD I have looked for without exception. More importantly, they have every single TV series that is available on DVD.
Overall, I would wholeheartedly recommend Zip – Especially if you live in Ontario/Quebec. It has greatly exceeded my expectations.
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Jeff from Montreal on 2005-05-02 Rates them:
Don't sign up if you want new releases. Was a member for 6 months & took 3 months to fill up my Ziplist because everthing I got was 3 months old. Cancelled my membership and they say they never received the last old movie I sent back. Another $27 down the drain. Don't expect to get a movie under a week after you send it back either. Customer service are Morons. I don't even think that they read what they e-mail back to you. Please find another way to rent your movies |
CL from Hamilton on 2005-04-26 Rates them:
So far, so good....I know I'll have to give it a month to really gauge whether or not this service is for me but I have to say that I signed up less than 24 hours ago and I already have my DVDs in my hand....including the two I had on ASAP. I've read all the complaints and was a little wary but this is an excellent first impression. I'm more interested in renting obscure, older titles and documentaries rather than new releases so I have a feeling that Zip.ca and I will have a good relationship... |
Jason from Coquitlam, BC near vancouver on 2005-04-11 Rates them:
When I joined for a two week trial and did not receive anything after 4 days I cancelled. They need to work on their customer service. They seem to have great selection but I never got anything whereas other services were better with their response time! |
brenda from nova scotia on 2005-02-27 Rates them:
My trouble came in simply trying to join! The website kept me from finalizing my application. A phone call to their 1 -800 number told me all would be resolved in an hour. It wasn't. My emails were responded to with useless automated messages. All in all, it was a most unimpressive experience. So with this loss of faith in their ability to maintain good customer relationships, I'm looking to another company to rent my dvds from. |
Pissed off customer from Hamilton on 2005-02-11 Rates them:
This service is far from ready for the public. First of all, and sorry if this gets long, but in less than a month, I have a host of complaints about the service which I will try and document here. When I originally got the email from FutureShop regarding Zip.ca, I was interested, and did lots of reading on their site. I decided to sign up, but the "Free 2 week trial offer" was no longer there, they cancelled it for about a week, of course the week I signed up, and paid 3 months in advance. Now it really gets stupid, I reffer a few friends who asked about it after I told them I signed up, and they get emails saying they got a free 2 week trial!! This is just stupid. My DVD's always take 1-2 extra days from thier ESTIMATED DELIVERY DATE, and the only movies you get are the super old ones. All the new releases, they want you to pay for, by using "Gotta have it" which costs an additional $4 per movie, on TOP OF WHAT YOU PAY MONTHLY!! Now, they do have what they call an "ASAP" list which they tell you, will put up to 2 movies at the top of your list, well the 2 I have had on the ASAP list, since I joined a month ago, are still there!! They don't send ASAP any faster than the oldest stuff on your list. If you read the emails they send you, they can't even figure out how many DVD's they have, some say 16,000 some say 18,000 and then the banners all say 25,000 how hard can it be to get that right? If you email them, they don't get back to you for days, all the time estimates are way off. If you are trying to figure out how many movies you will get every month, I would say on the 4 dvd at a time plan, about 16, that is if you return the movies the next day, if you keep em a few days, drop that number drastically. Just to see what they would do, I removed all the old movies and loaded it up with new releases, and now they send me emails saying they received my returns, but don't send any out to me, reducing the number I can get. To top it off, they have NO TELEPHONE CONTACT POSSIBLE. All communication must be done via email. For old movies, you will probably do ok, but if you like current movies, forget it, stick to the local video store. These guys need to seriously take the customers complaint and do something about them, not just send out auto responders and say "We will assume this is resolved now" What a crock. Do some serious reading on the site, do your homework. If you live in rural areas, delivery times are long, I live in a major city, and the delivery always takes 4-5 days, the site says 2-3 max, sometimes 1 day! Bullpucky!! And returns take just as long, so do the math, no value here, and if Canada Post loses a disc, YOU PAY!!! I betcha the posties are lovin that, just grab dvd's out of the mail and nothing anyone can do. Zip sux, but find out for yourself. |
John from Waterloo on 2005-02-07 Rates them:
Great selection of old stuff. I gave them a shot for one month. I was able to rent 12 dvd's. One got lost (Canada post?) on its way back to them, and I was charged for it. Sorry but I can't afford to have that happen every month. I quit, but I may check back in a few months and see how the reviews look. |
Rob Bellenie from Kitchener on 2005-02-02 Rates them:
I've tried this service for three months now and have nothing but good to say about it. It's great for those of us who are fed up with seeing the same fodder at the local video store. I'm not too interested in new releases but want to see older obscure releases and they have them. They have a great selection of music dvds for concert addicts like myself. They even allow you to make suggestions for movies that they don't have in their collection and have followed through on a couple of my suggestions. |
Eric Vallee from Ottawa on 2005-01-10 Rates them:
The ASAP feature is a scam when used with the new releases. Apparently the new releases are for those desperate enough to click on the G and pay an aditional $5. Apart from having never received a movie newer then 2 months old I have no complaints. So if you are interested in seeing new release, go to your video store instead. |
Jim from Ottawa on 2005-01-05 Rates them:
Been a member for 2 months now and have no complaints. Service has been very good. Without fail, DVD's are received by us always 2 days after mailing the viewed ones back. We do live in Ottawa however so that helps. Website has been improved and is easy to search. Only minor complaint would be that new releases are hard to come by. |
Geoff from Niagara on 2004-12-14 Rates them:
This was a great deal, however they have since "cleaned" up their website. As such it has been 2 days since I have been able to add movies to my list! The only problem is the agreement seems to state you are 100% responsible if a movie is lost, even if they loose it! I have been lucky so far! |
Bruce from Vancouver, BC on 2004-10-21 Rates them:
Waited for over 2 weeks during "free trial" -- never received ANYTHING. Have tried to cancel my membership, and am trying to resolve a dispute about movies they NEVER sent me. Automated emails and VERY slow response time is really frustrating. They have NO phone customer service and their address is a PO Box. |
Jim Anderson from Saskatchewan on 2004-09-09 Rates them:
Toll free no says office not open ( calls made during week days) Emails are automated responses which is frustrating.
Sent 4 emails with human response to last one. |
S. from Greater Vancouver on 2004-08-23 Rates them:
The GOOD: Best Selection of any CDN online DVD rental service (Criterion, classics, CDN, and even Television Series) Toll Free Number is handy, customer service is good and professional. Zip picks, and Top100 lists handy. The BAD: Website interface is clean and informative however very slow to add to your rental ziplists, Can't add multiples at once, clunky interface for browsing. The UGLY: 4 Business days to ship out to Vancouver and 4 back delays new shipments. Furthermore, your zip list, only has alocation for two titles to prioritize as ASAP delivery, the rest are chosen randomly based on availability so you will get your 85th choice first:( They should offer more of a priority scale or top 20 type idea. If delivery times improve, and zip lists become more flexible it will be even better. Still best one out there. |
Aaron from Montreal on 2004-08-17 Rates them:
They were very fast from Ottawa to Montreal but I'm tired of this business forgetting to put stamps on the envelopes. O.k., that only happened once in the two months, but they put stamps too far to the right on five occasions. Goodbye, maybe I'll return if RentaDvd.ca closes again or NetFlix Canada arrives with success. |
Joe Frasca from Toronto on 2004-08-15 Rates them:
Excellent service...great company...they have a great selection of old movies and new releases!
Joe
www.MovieDepot.ca |
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