Greencine

I like it.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Anness on January 12, 2009 at 1:18pm: OP, you like it; however, do you think it is better than Netflix? Is it worth it to have both subscriptions? What other services have you used or currently use?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bruce on February 6, 2009 at 6:55am: Greencine was my first DVD by mail service back in the stone age. At the time (Feb. '04) they had a big edge over NF in the kind of obscure cult titles I'm looking for. Being in SoCal, the turn around was great for me. However as time passed, NF's selection improved dramatically while GC's purchasing declined. By Jan 06 my Greencine queue was down to about 30 titles that had been "very long waited" (red-bars I think GC uses) for so long that I suspect they didn't have copies any more. Out of those 30 titles there wasn't a single one they could ship to me. I gave them a week to try to scrounge up a singe disk and then canceled my membership when they couldn't.

They were however about 4 years ahead of NF in reviews and community building. At this point I can't imagine having GC as my only movie service and would warn that their rental list includes (or did 3 years ago) titles that are not available.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Pihk on February 6, 2009 at 8:05am: Hello Bruce! Been awhile since you last graced our little happy place here!

Your observation of how GC declined reminds me of the now defunct nicheflix.com, which was run out of Indiana and specialized in hard to find import titles.

I think a lot of these smaller outfits got caught in a bind when their subscriber base grew larger but the influx of subscription $$$ was not enough to proportionately expand their inventory. My turnaround at nicheflix gradually worsened to the point where it was 2 weeks or longer around the point where they closed shop.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by janes'_kid on December 19, 2009 at 2:09pm: GreenCine was my first too. I still have a one disk subscription for some obscurities. Also on many older disks the links to complete cast is more complete than Netflix. Turnaround is not relatively good if you are near a Netflix shipping center. Unfortunately, unless one is a niche aficionado of old, rare or unusual foreign movies it is probably not worth the price of a subscription and even then it is borderline. I find that perhaps one of twenty on my Netflix saved list is available at GreenCine.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Count Orlok on October 26, 2009 at 7:00pm: Green Cine declined rapidly after they moved to southern California in '07. As someone else noted, their eclectic library became known as much for its high percentage of unavailable titles in the queues of "niche" film lovers as they were for the number of titles they listed as available that neither Netflix or, more recently, Blockbuster Online, carried. I ditched GC when they simply stopped responding to my customer service requests. The ONLY way you could contact them was by email, and they just quit answering their email. Did they get bought out? I wonder if that's why they moved to SoCal. When they were in the Bay Area they gave good service and were very much on the leading edge of community building.

BTW, at one point in '07, I subscribed to all three services at once, as I discovered that each had a few titles I wanted that the other 2 didn't have. I was surprised that Blockbuster often had out of print discs that neither GC nor NF carried. And for a time, Blockbuster had a sweet deal where you could take the DVD that you got in the mail to your local BB store, and trade it for a different disc! They got a lot of pressure from their franchisees, though, because people were taking the franchisees' movies thereby making them unavailable for rent by paying customers. Their delivery time was very slow, though, and their chaotic policy changes (remember "no more late fees"?) contributed to a continuing erosion of customers. BB has hovered just above bankruptcy for nearly a year now.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Guy on October 26, 2009 at 7:10pm: Thanks, very informative. I like Greencine mostly for their new release blog and their DVD review blog.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Spindaddydad on October 26, 2009 at 7:23pm: The ONLY way you could contact them was by email, and they just quit answering their email.

Hmmm, and to think some prefer the efficiency of tech support via e-mail over phone.; ▶ Reply to This