Oovie DVD Kiosk Could Leave You With An Expensive Movie Collection
It sounds pretty good in theory. A self-serve kiosk with new-release DVDs inside for rent at the bargain basement price of $2.99 a night. All you need to do is swipe your credit card and pick your flick. But then comes the whole returning thing…
That $2.99 is a nightly fee, so if you don’t get around to returning the film, you’ll end up paying $2.99 each night you hang onto it. That can wind up costing you a pretty penny. The good news is that if you don’t return it within 14 days, the movie is yours to keep for $36, which is automatically charged to your credit card. Coupl ethat with the original $3 renatl fee, and you’re looking at almost $40 for a disc that would cost you anywhere between $15 and $30 in stores.
What’s more, the nightly fee is only charged when you return the movie, so if you reach 13 nights before you return it, you may as well just keep it – it’ll be cheaper for you.
Having said all that though, there is a lot of potential here – not only is your first rental free, but they also have “Free oovie Wednesdays” where you can grab a disc for nothing on a Wednesday. If you’re diligent in watching and returning your discs, this could be a great way to enjoy free films.
There are 80 kiosks now in NSW and Victoria, and the company plans on expanding that number to over 1000 over the next two years. But for me, I think I’ll stick with options like iTunes, Foxtel and the upcoming Xbox movies option to get my entertainment on…
[oovie]
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Comments
How is this “risk” any different from a DVD store, which charges late fees on a daily basis?
That is what I was going to say too. A new release DVD from a rental store would incur the same if not more charges for being kept out extra nights. My local one charges pretty much the full rental price for overnight late fees. That’s $7/night! At least with the DVD store they sometimes ring you and remind you that you have it out!
not only do they remind you, you can usually pay a much smaller fee than what they come up with.. i used to always pay about 50% of the actual fee..
I’ve got one of these in the Supermarket near my place. Very handy.
I have their competitor – InstantDVD (sp?) near me. I don’t use it much as I am a blu-ray snob now, but have used it occasionally and found it to be great.
Hi movie lovers,
As a co-founder of oovie (formerly Instant DVD) I thought I’d add a few comments. Glad to hear most people enjoy our service. We’re confident we offer the best value rentals at the most convenient locations. We offer:
- Free Wednesdays, every wednesday
- 1st rental free, for every customer “DVD123″
- 2-for-1 rental Promo Code in every email receipt
- you can return to any oovie machine
- $2.99 is great value for a new release DVD rental
- you get to keep the DVD after 14 days (rather than just pay late fees and have to give the DVD back to the video store)
- when you rent we send you an email with what you rented, when it is due back and how much you paid.
- if you want you can reserve online in advance
I hope you enjoy your free movies. And we’re always open to feedback to how we can improve our service.
Regards
Ian
How do they stop someone from renting a movie, keeping the disc and returning the case empty? Or exchanging the real disc with a blank one or, worse, Dude Where’s My Car?
Just read on their site that the discs are tagged. Sounds good! Though it’s probably a bit of a gamble whether you’ll get a readable disc or a scratched one, with your only option in the latter case calling their hotline.
You guys haven’t heard of RedRoom DVD? They’ve been around for at least 2 years… and are awesome
do they do blurays? if not… DO BLURAYS!!
sounds awesome! and I think the fee structure is completely reasonable!
if you don’t have the organisational skills to return it after the one night, I think you have bigger problems than being another $3 out of pocket!
only issue would be is if they are in shopping centers and stuff that have worse opening hours than your dvd rental place.
I used to use redroom, and they charge you the same price, but you have to watch it quickly and return it within 6 hours. Which is annoying if you rent it in the evening and have to go back to return it late at night to stop any extra fees. with oovie you just return it before 7pm the next day which is great.
I rent from RedRoomDVD and yes you can get a cheaper rental if you return it within 6hrs but you can keep it overnight for $4.95 or get 3 for $9.90. I think they even do $2 movies on Tuesdays!
RedRoomDVD is great for its 24-hour convenience, but their lack of older selections is really annoying! I mean, how can movie rental place be called a movie rental place when they don’t even have The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!
Does anyone have experience with DVDZONE24? They have kiosks in NSW, not sure about the other states.