It’s almost impossible to watch a movie on a weekend in Bangalore unless one has booked the ticket well in advance. Renting movies from the neighbourhood rental shop is almost useless. It’s obvious that they haven’t grasped the concept of a DVD (Just like VCD, but with four movies on one disc!). So, I was happy to read that a new online rental service, Seventymm has started operating in Bangalore. I’ve read a lot about Netflix and was hoping someone would start such a service here. The entire idea is very appealing and sounds convenient. But, once I actually signed up for an account on their site, I’ve decided not to pay for Seventymm’s service and complete the transaction. Here’s why…

• Our “no late fees, no due dates” online movie rental model eliminates the hassles involved in choosing, renting and returning movies… says their site. All the messages on the site indicate that you can keep the movie for as long as you wish, but the real deal is hidden in the Terms of Service. Provided you continue to be a paying subscriber of our service, you may keep the DVD/VCDs delivered to you as long as you like but up to a maximum of two weeks. You will not be charged any late fees as long as you return it within two weeks. As long as you like, but not more than two weeks. What does that mean? Why try to hide stuff unnecessarily from your customers? They’ve now lost my trust, but there’s more…
• The prices are advertised all over the site as Rs. 199 and Rs. 549 for the two plans that they offer. The Rs. 199 plan offers four movies a month and I figured that would be enough. But, after filling the forms and giving them all my personal information, when it’s time to pay, I’m told that I now have to pay Rs. 199 as the subscription fee, Rs. 499 as a registration fee and Rs. 2000 as a refundable security deposit. Are you kidding me? Why wasn’t I told this earlier…before I went to the trouble of registering?

Though I won’t be subscribing to their service, here are a few suggestions to improve it. They are very new and may be working on some of them, but still…

• There is absolutely no way to help the user choose a movie apart from the genre information. It’s a chore on the user’s part to find something that he may like. Syndicate content from sites like MetaCritic and Rotten Tomatoes to let the users know which movies are actually good.
• Add a feedback mechanism where users can rate and comment on the movies they’ve watched.
• Allow users to suggest movies to friends.
• Get a better search engine. It sucks right now.
• Provide a list of the newest movies added to your collection.

There are many such features that can be added to make the user experience much better. I’ve never used Netflix, but it surely provides all of the above features, and considering that a co-founder of Netflix is an advisor, they should find their into Seventymm soon. Maybe the offer will then be more attractive.

Update (March 14th): It looks like they’ve got some feedback about the issues I raised. Now the Terms of Service says Provided you continue to be a paying subscriber of our service, you may keep the DVD/VCDs delivered to you as long as you like. The two week clause has been removed.
Also, the pricing details page clearly mentions the registration fee and refundable deposit. It’s good that they are listening to feedback.