Rethinking Zip.ca

Last month I received an email from Zip.ca that announced they were raising their prices and making some changes to their offerings that will improve their service. For example on most plans they will start charging a $1 fee for every Blu-ray title. Uh-oh!

I’m currently using their 2 DVD Unlimited plan for $19.95 – 2 DVDs out at a time with unlimited shipments/month. If I want to rent a Blu-ray they will charge an additional $1 each time. Any time a company raises their rates you have to review their service.

Zip.ca has a great library but I almost never receive the DVDs I want when I want them. I put films on my ZipList queue and months go by. I just checked my list and removed 7 movies that I’ve watched on satellite TV – Casino Jack, The Mechanic, 44 Inch Chest and Bronson.

Half the time I get their discs and they sit on my desk for weeks before I get around to watching them. Lately I’ve been “backing up” the DVDs to my computer so I can watch the films later if I know I won’t have time. For now I’m going to remove all of the Blu-ray titles off my ZipList so I don’t get billed extra each month.

I have so many unwatched movies on my shelf that it is getting harder to justify spending $240/year on films I might watch from Zip.ca. I attend some film festivals for free and often get screeners for review. Throw in the odd film I purchase from Amazon or the films sitting on my PVR and I probably have 50-75 films waiting to be watched!

Where am I going to find 100 hours to watch movies in the next couple of monhts? And you thought you had problems.

Posted in Movies at 10:25 PM