Fatso online DVD rental - anyone else finding they're useless?

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Bahrni

27 posts

Geek

#57154 4-Feb-2010 11:53

I'm not sure which topic this technically comes under, but I guess it's part and parcel of my home-theatre experience...

I've been a member of Fatso for a while now, and regularly (i.e. every week or two, at least once a month I'd guess) they screw up my disk picks. I use the "Get Now" feature for a disk, it gets classed as Outgoing and then the next day I get an email telling me they've sent something else and when I look at my queue, my requested disk is still listed as Outgoing.

Now sometimes this may be due to my requesting a disk as Get Now after the point when Fatso have processed the outgoing disks, but I've repeatedly had this when I've done a Get Now at 9am, or even the night before!

My colleague (on here as Nety) never seems to have a problem getting the disks he actually asks for, so I"m wondering whether it's just me being unlucky? Or is he the minority and Fatso's service is generally ropey?

Anyone care to weigh in?

Barny

AndrewTD

292 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#296009 4-Feb-2010 12:18

I've been a happy Fatso user for about a year now.
I almost never use the 'Get Now' feature.
We just keep a queue of around 100 running, and churn through them.
Because we watch so much, we don't care too much about what order things arrive in.
I do juggle the position of titles on the queue - e.g. I put the newish SciFi ones at the top of the queue, and we do get them eventually.
I have long ago resiled myself to the fact that using Fatso is not about getting the latest movie release quickly. In fact it is the opposite. I probably get to see titles at least 6 months after they are first available to buy off the shelf.
But, I save a fortune now. Before I subscribed to Fatso, I used to buy the latest titles that came out, and spend something in the order of $60 to $100 a month. Now I pay $28 a month, which works out at about $2 or $3 a title (as I watch 12 to 15 movies a month), and many of those are BluRay. So I'm way better off money wise.

kind regards Andrew TD

ToPGuNZ

389 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#296013 4-Feb-2010 12:28

I have had no problems using the get now or waiting to see what they send. Overall a very good service with only a few unwatchable scratched discs that they always replace.

System

521 posts

Ultimate Geek

#296039 4-Feb-2010 13:35

I have used fatso for a while now and have no problems like that, i have had a seemless experience, no problems at all

PC: 3.3ghz Core i5-2500, 8gb DDR3, ATI Radeon 5850, 27" QHD IPS Monitor

Mobile Phone: iPhone 5 32gb Graphite.

buzzy

217 posts

Master Geek

#296307 5-Feb-2010 08:39

Uesd them for a few years, never had these sorts of problems. There was a period 12 months ago where lots of the discs were scratched, but that seems to be resolved now.

Have you tried asking Fatso what's happening? At least give them a chance to respond and fix the problem.

Bahrni

27 posts

Geek

#296312 5-Feb-2010 08:53

Buzzy, to be fair to them, whenever I've rang them and ask them what's going on they've been very apologetic and helpful. And from the other responses on here it does seem I'm in the minority, so I guess I'm just unlucky. Perhaps if it continues I'll give them another ring and ask them to look into it. I was a member of both Fatso and Movieshack (I was testing them out at the time) and when they merged I had brief problems with "Fatshack" effectively having my email address tied to two accounts at once. Perhaps there's still some residual problem from that? Who knows... :)

buzzy

217 posts

Master Geek

#296319 5-Feb-2010 09:33

Sure thing - I didn't know whether you'd talked to them already so I figured it was worth asking :)

trallis

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

Trusted

#299935 17-Feb-2010 20:56

Hi Bahrni,

Rob here from Fatso. Sorry I only just picked up on this conversation. Get Now is an incredibly popular feature of our service. About a thrid of the DVDs we dispatch everyday are chosen using that feature and we aim to get that right every time. Of course occasionally there can be a hick up. You'll be pleased to hear we are about to luanch some improvements to ensure you are kept informed if we are unable to dispatch your GetNow disc for any reason, and we'll also be ensuring it gets added back to your queue and marked for dispatch as soon as it next becomes available (even if you already have your full quota of discs out). We just released an improvement last week so you can remove GN discs if you change your mind.

I'd be happy to look into your case for you if you want to contact our customer care centre, identify yourself and ask for it to be passed onto me.

Regards

Rob

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System

521 posts

Ultimate Geek

#299980 17-Feb-2010 23:18

trallis: Hi Bahrni,

Rob here from Fatso. Sorry I only just picked up on this conversation. Get Now is an incredibly popular feature of our service. About a thrid of the DVDs we dispatch everyday are chosen using that feature and we aim to get that right every time. Of course occasionally there can be a hick up. You'll be pleased to hear we are about to luanch some improvements to ensure you are kept informed if we are unable to dispatch your GetNow disc for any reason, and we'll also be ensuring it gets added back to your queue and marked for dispatch as soon as it next becomes available (even if you already have your full quota of discs out). We just released an improvement last week so you can remove GN discs if you change your mind.

I'd be happy to look into your case for you if you want to contact our customer care centre, identify yourself and ask for it to be passed onto me.

Regards

Rob

Those improvements sound like a good idea, thanks Rob

PC: 3.3ghz Core i5-2500, 8gb DDR3, ATI Radeon 5850, 27" QHD IPS Monitor

Mobile Phone: iPhone 5 32gb Graphite.

kiwitrc

4123 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#299994 18-Feb-2010 05:41

trallis: Hi Bahrni,

Rob here from Fatso. Sorry I only just picked up on this conversation. Get Now is an incredibly popular feature of our service. About a thrid of the DVDs we dispatch everyday are chosen using that feature and we aim to get that right every time. Of course occasionally there can be a hick up. You'll be pleased to hear we are about to luanch some improvements to ensure you are kept informed if we are unable to dispatch your GetNow disc for any reason, and we'll also be ensuring it gets added back to your queue and marked for dispatch as soon as it next becomes available (even if you already have your full quota of discs out). We just released an improvement last week so you can remove GN discs if you change your mind.

I'd be happy to look into your case for you if you want to contact our customer care centre, identify yourself and ask for it to be passed onto me.

Regards

Rob

Hey I have seen you on TV!! You shouldnt hit that Asian guy though, could cause employment issues.

Bahrni

27 posts

Geek

#300041 18-Feb-2010 09:34

Hi Rob,

I noticed that you can now retract a Get Now and thought it was a great idea. I still wish we could get secondary "special feature" disks for movies (perhaps they could be listed behind the main listing like the way that TV series disks are listed?) but I still think that overall Fatso has been improving since I start subscribing to it (GN problems aside).

For the last week or two everything seems to be going smoothly again, so I'm hoping it was just a post Christmas spasm. :) Still, I appreciate your attention.

Cheers,

Barny

paradoxsm

3000 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#300753 21-Feb-2010 17:31

I have used them off and on since the days they were MovieShack, never had any problems with Fatso but just the usual issues with NZPost getting things mixed up.

I've just set up my HT system again so this had kind of prompted me to rejoin, the local video shop no longer does it's $1 all movies Mondays" which was great.