Mail Order Video

The continually growing and ever expanding online mail order market has, in recent years, found two major contestants in the mail order video category in its midst; Netflix and Blockbuster.  And the two are butting heads in a fierce competition in their pricing, in the speed of their delivery, in the assortment and the variety of videos they offer and in the ease with which customers navigate their websites.  A handful of smaller specialty mail order video companies such as Redbox and several others have also joined the two giants in the race to win over a share of the online video rental market.

Using mail order video services is a huge convenience as well as being a great cost savings on your home entertainment.  And this is how it works:  You enter the website of the mail order video company of your choice and follow their procedure for signing up.  Once that is completed, you are free to browse through their video collection which is by far greater than what is available in any brick and mortar video store and select as many as you like.  To help you through the selection process, suggested lists of videos may pop-up and each individual video displays a synopsis.  The videos you have selected will be placed in your own designated queue, in the order in which you chose them.  However, you may reorganize them in a different sequence, add on to them and remove those you changed your mind about at any time you wish and as frequently as you desire.  The videos will begin arriving into your mailbox in sequential order.  As there are no due dates to worry about, you may keep your videos for as long as you wish but know that the next video will not be issued until the one you are currently holding has been returned, in the prepaid postage envelope, to the mail order video company.  The flat fee you have signed up for will be debited to your bank account once a month and that is all that this service will ever cost you.

Once you have subscribed to one of the mail order video companies, you will never again have to drag yourself to the video store on the other side of town only to find out that the video you really wanted has been checked out.  You will no longer need to settle for second or third choices or stand in long lines at the checkout registers.  Also, you will never need to rush back to return the video before it begins accruing late fees.  As I have mentioned above, there are more than several online mail order video companies to choose from and the criteria by which to choose them should be reviewed on exactly those aspect which the two giants (Netflix and Blockbuster) are competing on and then, of course, they should be matched to your personal needs.

• Price.  Going for the lowest price is usually the best choice but not always.  Each of the mail order video companies have several plans to choose from; one, two, three, four or more videos per month.  Comparing wisely means comparing like plans to like plans but you will find that the differences are not significant.
• Speed.  The mail order video company that processes your returns and issues the next video in your queue the fastest enables you to watch more movies.  To test this out, take advantage of the free 30-day trials most of these companies offer.
• Assortment.  The assortment of videos available in the databases of each mail order video company is an important factor.  Take some time to peruse through their selections and see which of them best meets your requirements.
• User friendly websites.  As you will be doing all your transactions through the company’s website, you want to be sure that you are comfortable navigating through all its pages.  Again, that can only be determined by perusing through them, one at a time.

To get you started, brows through the following:

• Netflix
• Blockbuster
• Redbox