We have a list of 60+ and always seem to be sent whatever we have rated as our top priorities. In fact we have often just selected one film as the top priority and have received that one. All-in-all LoveFilm have provided excellent service so far.

My problem with it is that the "free" trial period is a big fat freakin' con. I think the vast majority of users who try the free period will undoubtedly end up paying because it is simply nigh-on impossible to bail out before the offer ends.

They have to be in possession of the last film you send back before they honour a cancellation - but, of course, because you have populated a list of ten favourites, they send out a new film as soon as they receive the old one. So, they are never in possession of your last film. There's always a film in transit.

Try getting that timing right. (The key might be, if you want to bail out, cancel your list of ten items first. They'll nag you about it, but the sweet release of cancellation will be worth it.)

I also second the experience of never receiving any decent films from the list. In the beginning, yes, one or two latest releases, but when the payment kicked in, forget it. It sounds cynical, I know, but that was certainly my experience. It also wouldn't surprise me if those who pay the higher price get preferential treatment, but I didn't bother testing that one.

Lovefilm is the Britannia Music of the 21st century, and it stinks.

....and I've been a member for over 4 years. On the rare occasion that you don't receive what you're wanting, a quick email always does the trick. I think 90% of people in my office use it, and considering they now can stream any film they like through their PS3 (and once you have a password, anywhere you like), lovefilm is definitely ahead of the game.

After about six months of getting nothing from my top ten I jacked it in

..never got around to listing ten wannasees but never had any problems. Talking to others who have used the service, it seems that keeping a short list, or no list, works best.

I was a member for about four years and never had a single problem - always got what I wanted - but over the last year I simply stopped viewing the DVDs. And if you're paying £4.99 a month for a single Sopranos disc you never watch, you may as well stop paying and buy the box set. It's like gym memberships - they make their money on the customers who don't really use the service.

the cat-scuffed 'Welcome' rug at G Towers were, I fear, scratched to buggery and damn-near unplayable.

It's the LoveFilm/Tesco combo.

LoveFilm: My list consists mainly of foreign films and classic films, which I really don't give a hoot about which order they come in. I use it to catch up on films from the 30s, 40s and 50s that contain no CGI, just fabulous cinematography and zippy dialogue. I also stick lots of recommendations from The Massive on there.

Also I cancel my subscription once every six months or so, wait a couple of months, and they send you an invitation to resubscribe, offering you three months for the price of one or some similar offer.

Tesco: £12 in Tesco loyalty vouchers will earn you 12 rentals from Blockbuster, which by anyone's standards is a bit of a bargain. So I use these for new releases I want to see, as Blockbuster stocks up with scores of copies of the latest films. One voucher will even get you an entire box set.

Job's a good 'un.

and for some reason the flat I was in had an unfeasibly small letterbox that not even a DVD could fit through (I know!)Still I didn't have a problem going to the collection office to get them. However of five discs that were sent out just one made it as far as the Post Office, the rest 'vanished'.
On the plus side Lovefilm had no qualms about the repeated 'items never received' claims and let me out of my contract with no problems.
I just wonder which Post Office employee collects Lovefilm DVDs in teh Wandsworth borough.

I generally get my top priority items and sometimes get a duff one, but I myself am the main problem - you have to get on and watch them otherwise you spend a fortune on one film. I reckon I paid 40 quid to have "Phone booth" sitting on the self, then when I watched it it was a duffer. They offered to send a replacement but I had struggled though it and had seen enough to know it was a crap film anyway. So we try to be disciplined about watching things. Thing is we used to go to the cinema 3 or 4 times a week and now go about once a year since small nipper so it is our only route to decent films.

And it is completely random what order you receive discs.

Of course the simple solution is don't put any rubbish on your list.

My only gripe with Lovefilm is that they need to sort out their dispute with Universal because my boy wants to see the Super hero squad.

I was a member for a couple of years, but grew tired of rarely (if ever) getting sent anything in my top ten, so I cancelled.

I used Netflix 9/10 years ago when I lived in the US, and that was fantastic - your DVD's came in the order in which you had them queued (though clearly this meant that they needed a HUGE stock of tha latest releases), so there was never any disappointment... you knew exaclty what was going to be in the mailbox. Add to that the fact that I lived about 20 miles from their distribution center, which meant that I could send a disc back one day, then receive a replacement 2 days later, made for a great service, and I've always been disappointed they've never launched in the UK. I suspect that when they do, it'll be a download rental service rather than physical discs though...

My current solution is a combination of

a) Filling up on "10 DVD's for £10" titles when I'm at the local Cash Converters

b) Keeping an eye on the local charity shops.. had some great movies for £1.50/£2.00

c) For new releases, the on-demand movies though Virgin Media

Shortlist, shortlist, shortlist. Otherwise love them.

and haven't had any problems in 3 years or so.

Never had a DVD that didn't play.

Had a couple that didn't make it back to Lovefilm Towers and they just wrote 'em off.

Almost always get the 'High Priority' DVDs off my picklist - I tend to have a short list though and it's rarely any blockbuster Hollywood moveies - maybe that makes the difference.

I'd definitely recommend it.

I do tend to get the high priority films in my list but I've given up hoping to get the latest releases as they seem to always have a waiting period caveat attached to the.

This leads to the decision to list instead those classics you've never got round to watching, the problem then being (as others have mentioned above) that, well, you still never get round to watching them and they sit on the shelf for months.

They also seem to have cottoned on to the fact that my FPO hasn't got much tolerance for subtitled films. We get loads of them.

In short: there's a knack to it, which I haven't got yet.

and the only problems I had were my fault, such as having too long a list, not categorizing them properly (so films I was vaguely interested in were listed as the same priority as ones I really wanted to see) and not watching my allocation.

I now keep my list short, only include things I know I'll watch and, most importantly, watch them so I use my allocation each month.

They also give you credits (based, I think, on purchases from Amazon)so if I ever use up my three films per month I can get another by using a credit.

All in all, I'm happy.

Several times films I was expecting never showed, and a quick email to Lovefilm got a replacement sent same day no questions. Even cancellation (I've been a member more than once)wasn't a problem providing you cleared your list.

The choices sent me always seemed to be dependent on whoever was packing it that day. I had several horrors on the list and the same packer would always send horrors. Whereas that person would never send rom-coms or serious dramas....

with LoveFilm per se, but I've had the same problem that Fraser had, insofar as I never got round to watching the DVDs, so it's cost me about £50 so far to watch 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip', of which I saw the last episode on Sunday. Box set on Amazon this morning, £11.93. Hmmm....

They nag you if you have under 10 but they still ship even if you only have one or two items listed.

I find the priority buttons make no difference - a medium priority is just as likely to turn up as a high priority.

We used it for a while back when in was still called Screen Select (or something) and found it a wonderful way to catch up on older/foreign/more obscure films but not so much the latest blockbusters which was fine by us. We only cancelled it due to a sudden lack of income but we've talked about signing up again soon and look forward to it. There's something about the random nature of the selection process that makes it quite exciting!!

Been using the service for over 5 years and have few complaints. I keep a big list of older classics, art house and foreign stuff and these come through promptly and with the discs usually in good order.I can imagine the service could be frustrating if you stick to major box office as it has been slow when I have prioritised anything popular.

I have recently downgraded my account from unlimited to 4 films per month as my viewing has sharply declined since I subscribed to Sky Plus in the Autumn and instead am working my way through a number of the major series listed in Bob's recent thread.

This works well for me. I've recently cut down my subscription to two DVD's per month as I was developing a backlog of box sets to ctach up on.

I’ve been a member for three or four years now and I’m very happy with the service - in fact, I’m quite surprised at the number of complaints here.

For the record, I keep a list of about 30 titles, split evenly between high, medium and low priority titles, and the high priority ones almost always arrive first, and promptly. I've only ever received one faulty disc (Moon, which refused to play without the director’s commentary).

I also like the flexibility of the service. I used to pay for three DVDs a month but found I wasn't watching them, so downgraded to two, which is about right.

FWIW, I met the founder of the company at a conference last year; a really nice guy who is genuinely passionate about giving his customers good service. He was telling me about one time a few years ago when there was a fire at the warehouse where they store the DVDs. Apparently all the staff came in voluntarily at the weekend and worked round the clock to make up for time lost while the fire brigade were putting it out.

Can't understand all the furrowed brows. I've had no problems whatsoever, except a brief period when they bombarded me with emails pleading with me to sign up when I already had. I'm on the as many as I want 1-at-a-time £8.99 a month deal, and if I have only one priority title that's what comes, and other times I like to be surprised. Any glitches (eg damaged discs, very rarely) are dealt with briskly and efficiently.

A new FPO who has little patience with the oeuvres of Kenneth Connor and Sid James means I watch more Iranian films than I would like, but that's hardly LoveFilm's fault.

I have too many DVDs so rental is a much better choice - most things you only ever watch once, and Lovefilm do Blu Rays so I get to watch any old thing in HD without spending a fortune and filling the house with them.

There's the streaming service as well (if you have a Sony Blu Ray player) - a more limited selection, obviously, but you might find yourself watching something you wouldn't normally think of renting (I watched Blood on Satan's Claw and The Monster Club on there recently). There's a bunch of music and TV titles on there too.

Why would you ever have a massive list with stuff you don't want to watch on it?

I'm on a low package (two a month for four pounds) as otherwise I'd not get round to watching them all. I also seem to have at least one credit, so often get three a month for that.

I almost always get my high priority titles, and have never receieved my low priority, although occasionally my medium priority.

When big films are first released, there is a wait, but for me, if it was a huge film I'd have seen it at the cinema if I was that bothered by it that a couple of months wait was too long, so not a problem.

At four pounds a month, I think it's a bargain, and means that I don't buy films that I'd only watch once, saving money and space.

Never used to get my top choices, and the whole Universal dispute meant a lot of what we wanted wasn't even available. Went over to Blockbuster a few months back. So far I've had a really good experience, top choices have arrived pretty quick and you get discount vouchers to use in store.
Thanks for the reference to thieving posties, you cant beat a really good generalisation, and it makes my job so much easier when every one thinks I'm a thief. Sorry to sound so chippy but it really pisses me off.

Just caught me at a bad moment.

Can honestly say I never even noticed the missing Universal films. But why do eg Andy M assume that LoveFilm need to be punished for this? Giant media combines aren't really famous for putting the consumer's interests first, are they?

I was very happy with Lovefilm until quite regularly I would click on a film and find that it was unavailable to rent. I don't think it affected Universal's back catalogue only the new releases. My kids really wanted to see Scott Pilgrim, Lovefilm didn't have it so I took my business elsewhere. Why would I pay £13 a month for a service I wasn't getting the most from? Lovefilm are now owned by Amazon so maybe the Universal issue will be resolved. If so I'll probably go back, as I do miss the streaming service.

They have a vast array of music DVDs, musical tuition stuff, sports etc over and above film. Which is another good thing about the service.

I'll definitely give it a few months anyway then consider things anew.

I use the local shop.

love film gives excellent service (I have been a member for a couple of years) They reward loyalty with extra rentals.

I have found their watch online service really good too.

I ordered Our friends from the North when I read the Guardian best dramas list, high priority, and disk one arrived this morning!