I've been a LoveFilm customer for over a year now, and during that time I've encountered no real problems. The service has been pretty quick (a 2-3 day turnaround for disc delivery), relatively painless, and their website's good to use. My only gripe has been that their new envelopes are a pain to open properly, and that prioritizing your movie list of "wants" has little effect on what they decide to send you. Guess what, if you add a 1999 rom-com to your list and flag it as a low-priority, you'll get it before that 2009 summer blockbuster you want desperately. But beyond that, I've been very happy. Well, until now...
See, LoveFilm are embroiled in a contractual dispute with Universal. Nothing has been made clear, but it's assumed that Universal want a better revenue deal for their discs being rented, but LoveFilm aren't keen to change their arrangement as it would likely mean an increase in subscription fees for customers.
The upshot of this dispute is that most Universal movies are suddenly "unavailable for rental", such as: Bruno, Funny People, Inglourious Basterds, The Invention Of Lying and Public Enemies. In fact, it's becoming quite a pain how many movies aren't currently available through LoveFilm, particularly because the company continue to send e-mails asking people to try and keep 10+ discs in their list. I mean, that can be irritating at the best of times, but when it's their fault your list is down to a handful of choices, it starts to annoy me.
Anyway, I understand that businesses face problems from time to time, and it's probably a good thing that LoveFilm haven't just rolled over to Universal's demands. I'd rather they make Universal sweat as they lose what revenue they WERE making via LoveFilm (for awhile at least), before agreeing a compromise deal. So, unlike some people, I'm not going to just abandon LoveFilm (yet), because I've been happy with their service and they've accrued some loyalty from me.
However, in the meantime, I think LoveFilm should tell customers what the problem is (even if they can't go into specifics), because right now people are either (a) confused about why so many films are "unavailable" suddenly, or (b) beginning to think LoveFilm's selection of movies isn't as impressive as their adverts claim it is. Unless you make things clear to people, customers may just ditch LoveFilm and go to Blockbuster.
