If You Are Thinking Wal-Mart For DVD Rental...

december 17, 2003

Think very carefully about joining Wal-Mart's DVD rental program and think twice. Why? There is a very disturbing clause in their Terms and Conditions that will cost you money for something that you have no control over. If you are joining them because of low prices, this clause will cost you more money in the end when you leave them. I was over at [url=http://www.epinions.com]Epinions[/url] reading some reviews and stumbled apon [url=http://www.epinions.com/content_116023332484]this glowing review[/url] of the Wal-Mart DVD rental program. Strange, sounded too good to be true. I am a [url=http://www.netflix.com]Netflix[/url] customer and stock holder (all of 10 shares), so my interest was piqued about this. I took some looking around at the Wal-Mart deal and, just like most stuff at Wal-Mart, it looked pretty good. Their prices were low compared to Netflix -- though in Wal-Mart fashion it was only low by a tiny bit ($18.76/mo for 3 movies out compared to Netflix's $19.99/mo for the same). But the most disturbing thing about the service and the thing that everyone will probably overlook is their staunch stance on DVDs that are lost in the mail. [b]Wal-Mart will "[f]or each DVD lost or not returned, a $17.88 fee plus tax will be charged to your credit card."[/b] What?? Good lawd! Netflix on the other hand understands that the Postal Service is not perfect, [b]Netflix is "aware that a disc may occasionally be lost during the shipping process through no fault of the customer. Therefore, it is our policy to accommodate for the occasional disc lost during shipment."[/b] So, think twice about Wal-Mart's DVD rental program if you're going to sign up for something. If you don't believe me, go to Wal-Mart's site (I will not give them a link referrer) and look in the Terms and Conditions about lost discs.


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