Best Free Stuff on the Internet: Movies
Movies
Whether you're an old-school DVD watcher or a new-school digital video downloader, you can get free movie rentals online in a flash. Both Netflix and Vongo offer free two-week trial memberships; the former allows you unlimited DVD rentals as fast as you can watch them (and the post office can get them to you), while Vongo allows for unlimited movie downloads to any PC with Windows XP or Vista (Mac support is still in the works). And with about 1,000 movies in its roster, Vongo offers way more than you could possibly watch in 14 days. So the next time you've got some vacation time and want to save on entertainment costs, you'll have your movie budget covered.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Alicia Satterfield @ May 17th 2007 8:26AM
Both Netflix and Blockbuster take up to four sometimes 5 days to send you a movie and four or five days to receive the movie back before they send you another one.
You pay more than you would renting them at the Video Store.
Julie @ May 17th 2007 8:38AM
I LOVE, LOVE Netflix! I HIGHLY recommend them to anyone. I always get my movies fast and I save a ton of money! They have a great movie selection too.
shzusuziq @ May 17th 2007 9:04AM
I love Netflix. They always get my returns the next day and mail my new movie out that same day. When I moved they even let me put my account "on hold" for no charge! Alicia must live far away from the closest netflix location to wait so long for her movies....
cyclops @ May 17th 2007 9:12AM
I use Blockbuster. I get my movies in a day or two. I don't have to mail the DVDs back either. You can drop them off at a Blockbuster store. I save tons of money! They have a huge selection of hard to find movies, new releases, games, and TV series. I get free rentals at least once a week. I highly recommend it.
h @ May 17th 2007 9:16AM
I use Blockbuster online and Love it. I get unlimited rentals 2 at a time for $15 a month. Plus instead of sending them back through the mail if you take them into A store you get a free rental for every movie your sending back. I take my 2 rentals in on Fridays get me 2 free in store rentals and by Monday like clockwork i have my next shipement. I wouldnt consider changing, I m hooked.
Michael @ May 17th 2007 9:38AM
I have been a Netflix user for almost 6 months and I have to say that my experience with them has been stellar. I have never had to wait more than three days for a movie, except when the mailing was around a holiday. Most of the time, I get the movie within a day or two. We have so many movies lined up to watch that it will be a long, long time before we run out, so it is worth it for us.
Kelly Engler @ May 17th 2007 9:49AM
I have been using Netflix for almost a year now and absolutely love them. As for the post that said it took 4-5 days to get the movies and then 4-5 days to send it back, I wonder where she lives-the North Pole? I send in the movie, takes about 1 to 2 days for them to get them, then about 1 to 2 days later I get the next movie. In total, it's about 4 days(maximum) in between movies. I can watch two movies a week if I send it back the same day I watch the movie. That's two a week, 8 a month, for $10. Not bad, $1.25 or so a movie! If I'm busy, I pay no late charges and in the past I paid so much for late charges I wasted a huge amount of money and it made me sick. Now I might waste a buck or two if I'm late watching the movie but that's nothing compared to before Netflix.
Kim @ May 17th 2007 10:21AM
I have no problems with NetFlix infact I live in 100 miles away from a "real" town and it takes 2 days for them to recieve my movies and 2 days for me to recieve movies from them so a total of 4 days. But I get 3 or 4 movies at a time watch one send it back and have a new one by time Im sending another movie back.Unless you sit home and do nothing but watch TV and Movies all day the amount of time it takes the POSTAL service(not netflix) to get you a movie isnt bad
bwilliams5 @ May 17th 2007 10:43AM
I used to use Blockbuster, but their customer service was the pits! Was paying for the three movie service and getting 1 movie at a time. After complaining for over 2 months, canceled service and now use Netflix. Much better!
Maureen @ May 17th 2007 10:56AM
I'm in a large town next to a big city and I've seen that Netflix DOES play games by slowing things up. I've mailed the movies back the same day, yet it sometimes takes two additional days for them to get one of them. This has been a problem with them for years.
Westlake Willy @ May 17th 2007 11:01AM
I subscribe to Blockbuster Online, unlimited rentals 3 at at time. They have an excellent catalogue of hard to find films and classics. I take each mailed one back to the store, they exchange it for any other DVD movie or game in the store and they log my returns in on the spot. Within 1-2 days Blockbuster Online has shipped me my next DVD(s) from my queue and so I have up to 6 DVD's at once. I usually get a brand new release right away, often before it's generally available in-store. I just return their in-store DVD's within their grace period, no late fees, one flat fee. Also, the DVD's I've received by mail as well as in-store have been flawless.
Friends who use Netflix have found Netflix just slows down their delivery if they average more than 3 DVD's a week, as though they were put on "an S-List" at Netflix. Maybe that's what happened to Kelly above...
Manny S @ May 17th 2007 11:04AM
Blockbusters program is AMAZING! I get movies in 2 to 3 days and much faster if I return them to the store. And I get an additional movie FREE at the store with the one I return. It's an awesome program. I pay for 3 at a time and I get to watch as many as 8 movies per week!!! Amazing! P.S. Great customer service too!
Rick D @ May 17th 2007 11:39AM
I belong to the Blockbuster Online 9.95 plan which allows one movie out at a time. Between turing them in at Blockbuster and the ones they send, I average about 4 movies a week. As long as I turn it by 11 each day, my next movie always arrives the next day. Course I guess it also helps in that the local distrubtion center for Online in my area is only about 60 miles away.
kim in cincinnati @ May 17th 2007 11:56AM
Blockbuster will donate old movies to our Veterans. Netflix will not. I perfer to support the businesses that support our Troops! Thanks Blockbuster for your generous and thoughtfulness! Keep up the GREAT work!
robz @ May 17th 2007 12:00PM
I used to belong to Netflix, but never again.
If you watch a movie and return it fast all of a sudden they slow down your shipments so you can't get more movies than they deem normal I guess.
They even admit to what is called throtteling. Go with blockbuster.
MSAR @ May 17th 2007 12:09PM
I use Blockbuster and they receive my movies in one day and I get new ones 2 days later. I have 6 movies at one time when I take the movie back to the store and walk out with 3 and then receive 3 in the mail.
Wanda @ May 17th 2007 12:22PM
I have never had to wait more than 4 days for a movie to come back from Netflix.That is From the time I drop the old one into my mailbox until the nest one is back in my hands.If I were to rent from the local video store, It would cost me approx. $3.99 for each rental. I get at least 4 rentals a month from Netflix for less than that. If you need to have more than that, Netflix offers you other packages to rent more than one DVD.
Ann Mare @ May 17th 2007 12:47PM
Even better than Netflix or Blockbuster. . . your local library! They all have web sites and you can browse and find a movie you want and have it delivered to the library you want to pick it up at. They will tell you when it is in and you have a week to watch it! FREE!!!! Depending on how new the movie is - you may have to wait a week or so to get the movie, but no movie rental fees or monthly Netflix fees!
Judi @ May 17th 2007 1:10PM
I get great turnaround with Blockbuster and I love the convenience! Then there's the additional perk of returning them to the store and getting free rentals. I can't see myself going back to renting in a video store.
Universus @ May 17th 2007 1:12PM
I have used Netflix for at least 2 years, and it is great. If i drop a movie in the post office on monday night, 8 times out of 10 they receive it the next day (and if they do not it is most likely the postal services' fault for any delays), and then send the next one that same afternoon. No more than three days, four at tops, does it take to receive a new movie. One thing about the article is untrue, however, in that you can't get movies as fast as you can wtch them. If you read their terms of service, if you keep sending back movies too quickly they will delay processing for a couple of days so that it takes longer to get them, but hey, they have to make money. $18 dollars a month, three movies a week, 12 movies a month (minumin), which is far less than 4 dollars a film from the local store.
Also, i tried blockbuster's free trial, and i hated it. The first movie i ordered came THREE WEEKS after the trial started, which was after i had cancelled the trial. The other movie took a week to get here. Even though blockbuster annouces the fact that you can bring movies back to the store for an immediate replacement, well, one of the reasons i like Netflix so much is because they have 60,000 + films, films that video stores do not carry. So unless you like new releases and most other video store garbage (granted, they have some good ones, but not very many), then that might work for you, but Netflix has underground, foreign, independent, tv shows, you name it--an array of films, like a treasure house.