Will this be the end of lovefilm by post for you?

kbfern

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Lovefilm users report price hikes of up to 500%

Just seen this and am quite unsure what I will do.:(

I have been with lovefilm for years now and get unlimited 2 at a time (exclusively blurays) probably get 10/12 movies a month for £7.99. Just read this article and am horrified that they are going to be massively putting up their prices from Feb next year. I was paying £4.99 a couple of years ago then they put it up to £7.99, now it looks like £11.99 for the service I have now.

Must say I am not surprised this is happening as it works out at about 60p a movie for me now so don't know how they can make a profit. Even with the rise it will still only cost me £1 per rental which is still a relative bargain. I still buy 1-2 blurays a month for titles I will watch multiple times but lets face it most movies are watch once and forget.

I suppose I will have to pay up or do without movie nights so much with my pj and 100" screen so what will you do:rolleyes:
 
How much is their 2 discs a month deal now?

£1 a disc still sounds excellent. My friend who does just 2 discs a month is paying something like £5.99??
 
I still haven't had the email but presumably I'll be moving from my current 6.99 to 9.99 for unlimited two discs at home. Don't like it but will just swallow it and continue. It still represents great value for getting cheap blurays, if you use it regularly.
 
I've had the email, here's is a copy of it.
LOVEFiLM By Post said:
When LOVEFiLM moved to Amazon in February 2014, your billing was updated, so that you paid for your Prime Instant Video and LOVEFiLM By Post memberships separately. Since then, your LOVEFiLM By Post Price has remained unchanged. In order to continue providing a high quality service, we will be launching new plans and prices for all customers.

To minimise the impact to existing customers we are delaying the launch of new pricing until February 2016. From your February billing date, you will be charged £9.99 per month for your unlimited LOVEFiLM By Post plan, with 2 discs out at-a-time.

Our goal is to continue to offer the same great service and wide selection of titles to watch and we hope you will continue to enjoy the value that you get from LOVEFiLM By Post, which allows you to select from over 80,000 DVD and Blu-ray discs to rent.

For more information about this package change, please visit our help section.

Kind regards,
LOVEFiLM By Post

I currently pay £4/month for 2 discs at home unlimited.

This is the pricing structure from the help page.
LOVEFiLM help page said:
What are the new plans and prices going to be?
From February 2016, customers will be able to select from three membership plans: 2 rentals per month with 1 disc at home at £4.99 per month, 4 rentals per month with 1 disc at home at £8.99 per month (£7.99 alongside a Prime membership), or unlimited rentals with 2 discs at home at £11.99 per month (£9.99 alongside a Prime membership). If you would prefer to update your plan to one of these, you will be able to do this on your LOVEFiLM By Post membership page from February 2016.
 
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Tbh I'm surprised they're still continuing with the service. Think back few years and there were a few online rental firms now with just lovefilm guess it's take it or leave it?

May be better to buy watch and sell on? Or get a group together to buy and lend out between you?
 
In the comments at the bottom in the link, there are people saying they're currently on £2/month for 2 discs at home unlimited!:eek:
That's a crazy price & completely unsustainable. Not surprised they're increasing the prices.
 
How on earth did they get that deal?
 
Quite a while back before amazon I was paying about £12.99 unlimited 3 disc at a time. I then downgraded to 2 at a time unlimited for £9.99 IIRC as there was just too many to view a month and some were rubbish.

When amazon came on board they split the movies at home along with streaming on line. Quite a few of us on here saw we were being charged separately for post and streaming so we dropped the streaming and our cost went down to £4.99 IIRC.

This went on for a while till amazon realised it was too cheap and upped it to £6.99 for the service I get.

Now they have upped it again, it is obvious they really want to stop the postal side and get everyone onto streaming as that's where they make the money.
 
How on earth did they get that deal?

LOVEFiLM originally was £10/ month for 2 discs at home and unlimited online streaming. Amazon bought LOVEFiLM and eventually split the services and the online side became Amazon Prime. As not to upset and lose long time customers they reduced the cost of the LOVEFiLM at home side for existing members so the total of both services equalled what they were previously paying. For me that equalled £6 for Amazon Prime and £4 for LOVEFiLM.

To be honest it was only a matter of time. They must have paid more in postage for heavy users than what they were earning off them.
When I originally signed up I wasn't interested in the streaming side so effectively was paying £10/month just for the discs anyway. When you consider what video shops used to charge for rental films 20 years ago, the new pricing structure is still not that bad a deal if used to it's full potential.
Just look at it as being lucky to have had it so cheap for so long.
 
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Quite a while back before amazon I was paying about £12.99 unlimited 3 disc at a time. I then downgraded to 2 at a time unlimited for £9.99 IIRC as there was just too many to view a month and some were rubbish.

When amazon came on board they split the movies at home along with streaming on line. Quite a few of us on here saw we were being charged separately for post and streaming so we dropped the streaming and our cost went down to £4.99 IIRC.

This went on for a while till amazon realised it was too cheap and upped it to £6.99 for the service I get.

Now they have upped it again, it is obvious they really want to stop the postal side and get everyone onto streaming as that's where they make the money.
Well the price increase isn't too bad in your case, considering that you were paying £9.99 for lovefilm a few years ago. From what I remember, lovefilm streaming was supposed to be really rubbish so hardly anyone was actually using the streaming on lovefilm 'included' in the price you were paying.
 
I am in a similar position to Keith.

Used to pay a lot more for 3 films at a time and unlimited - this went down drastically as i don't use the steaming option and now have the 2 films at a time unlimited option.

Myself and 2 friends pay a third each and we pass the films round (don't tell Amazon!!) so 4 quid a month is still not bad.

It would be nice if they got all the films a bit quicker (Mad Max, John Wick, Jurassic World still not on there yet and some films never appear) but i appreciate that is the film studios dictating to Amazon.

I prefer blu ray to streamed films and i no longer buy them (still have a pile of blu rays i have not watched - we have all been there......) so will continue with this
 
The delays in new titles becoming available is a problem with Lovefilm too. I've just started using Cinema Paradiso. Same kind of setup but seem to get blurays sooner than lovefilm. I've had Jurassic World, Mad Max Fury Road and San Andreas, none of which are available yet on lovefilm.
 
Are they reliable in dispatching discs next day?
Too early for me to say. I'm in my 14 day trial period and thought I'd try getting the new releases not on lovefilm.
 
Cinema Paradiso certainly looks like an interesting alternative. Think I'll wait till the nearer price increase in Feb then maybe give them a try. They seem to have a lot more of the latest films that lovefilm don't have and for the amount I watch will be cheaper. I very rarely get through more than four a month so the £6.98/ month option would be fine for me.
 
Same boat too. Currently pay £4.99 a month for 2 discs unlimited and about £7 for streaming (I have full Prime membership which is annual).

The annoying thing is the discs have a far bigger collection than the streaming so I still don't think streaming can yet replace discs. Which is weird because you'd think the same company would have access to the same material whether it's physical or digital. Otherwise I think I would drop discs.
 
No email here yet. Assume it's all correct so that would be a 50% increase for me going from £8 to £12 for 2 at a time unlimited. Will probably stick with it as £8 was an amazing price - I was paying more (£13?) then it switched to Amazon who threw in the streaming which was pretty crap in my view so I chucked it for a discount - so back to where I was for 2/3 of the price.
 
I'm on £8/month 2 discs at a time, so it will be £12/month. For me that'll probably push me out of the service. I'm going to investigate a possible plan to buy used Bluray's for what I want and then sell them again, as a cheaper way to continue to enjoy proper HD Video & full HD Audio.

For me, looking back at prices a few years ago is a pointless exercise. We live in the present, so the only useful comparison is the new 50% higher price vs. any other method available now of achieving a similar or acceptable outcome.
 
Similarly, I'm on the £8 pm plan and struggle to get through 2/3 discs a month !! However I prefer discs to streaming purely for PQ and AQ.....if streaming could match that then I wold ditch Loverfilm. Might look at Cinema Paradiso
 
I cancelled LF 2 weeks ago, was on the unlimited 2 @ a time, for £7.99 I think.

Although I was planning on streaming only with netflix and purchasing disks I really want to own. I find that AQ is a big miss from streaming, dolby digital plus is ok but a lot of older material is in crappy stereo and its pants.
Going to try Cinema Paradiso trial on the £6.98 package. They seem to have better new releases as well such as Jurassic world which LF still don't have.
 
Going to try Cinema Paradiso trial on the £6.98 package. They seem to have better new releases as well such as Jurassic world which LF still don't have.
I think you can only have the free trial on the £9.98 option. So you have to sign up for that then change to the lower one after the free trial ends.
 
I think you can only have the free trial on the £9.98 option. So you have to sign up for that then change to the lower one after the free trial ends.
Yes they have four levels - the £10/two at once/six a month option is the 'free trial' one (for 14 days).
 
I think you can only have the free trial on the £9.98 option. So you have to sign up for that then change to the lower one after the free trial ends.

Yeah thanks, wasn't sure If I could change during the trial to the lower sub or afterwards before getting charged £9.98 so I just went for the £6.98 option from the off.

Hope its good, time will tell.
 
I pay £5.99 a month for 1 disc at a time.
I also signed up for Prime to avoid having to pay postage but don't use streaming.
Audio quality is more important to me so I'm sticking with physical media.
I am finding it hard to find discs I want to watch now and new releases take too long to become available, that's if your lucky enough to get one right away.
50% increase Mmmmmmmmmmm I think not.
I'll put the money towards buying a disc on release once a month.
Always the option to sell it on.
Maybe make more use of my Prime for films where top PQ AQ is not an issue.
Probably this is what Amazon want so they can stop physical media rental.
I'm happy to oblige.
 

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