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BigPond Movies

A wide range of titles, OK search engine, and competitive prices; the biggest, but not necessarily the best.

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BigPond DVD Rental Review
   
Visit Bigpond SiteBigPond, (originally called 'Fetch Me Movies'), is currently the biggest online DVD rental company in Australia. Their catalogue of 30,000+ is perhaps ten times more than the average rental store. Best of all, in our opinion, they offer a full one month free trial; we think they're worth giving a go just on that basis, even if you then switch to a better company.

In the early days BigPond had a reputation for having minimal waiting times for higher priority DVDs and new releases, but has slipped over time as their customer base has grown -- perhaps victims of their own success. Additionally, being such a big company, BigPond just can't match the customer care that some of the smaller companies pride themselves on. We have heard plenty of reports of BigPond failing, or being very slow to respond to customer emails, and have scored them lower on service for this.

The website is easy to navigate, offering browsing by genre, actor, director, and language. It also includes recommendations, and listings by award winners, all time top 50, critic recommendations, and even provides film trailers. Our main design criticism is that their search engine isn't as advanced as some of the other sites.

We like the idea of BigPond's 'returned option' which allows you to tell them that you've returned a DVD so they can send you the next one - a major plus if you live some distance from their nearest distributor. Or, at least that's the theory - we've received reports that it seems to make no difference at all and even people living in major cities, using their 'returned option' as per the instructions, are still waiting up to 4 days for the next DVD to arrive.

BigPond has added some new content, like trailers, critics reviews, and an assortment of favorite lists. In fact, they have something anyone can create, a PopList. These are created by BigPond Movies members on anything and everything, from the general ("My All Time Favourite Movies") to special interest ("Buffy's Greatest Slayings"), and the downright strange ("Films with Green in the Title"). They're a great way for people to explore different films and interests they might not otherwise be exposed to.

The size of BigPond's High Definition Blu-ray disc inventory is difficult to discern, as they list the defunct HD-DVD format in the same category, but based on the percentages of each format on their sample page, we believe they stock around 264 Blu-Ray titles; decent, though a bit less than Quickflix.

Prices: BigPond changed its pricing plans in April 2008, streamlining the choices and generally making them cheaper. They start at $9.95/month for 2 discs at-a-time (with a limit of only 2 per month) and allowing cancellation at any time. All of BigPond schemes have fixed DVD rental limits which on the lower priced plans are really quite restricted. We do feel there is better value out there with one of the good unlimited rental services if you want a two or three disc at-a-time deal with as many as you can watch in a month; this is why we rank the largest Australian DVD rental service number three in our overall list.

Since BigPond are owned by Australian national telco Telstar, they offer a discount of a couple dollars to existing subscribers to the cable service. BigPond also offer a discount of $3 per month if you sign up in advance for a 12 month contract, but do note that they charge early termination fees if you cancel your contract before the end of the agreed term.

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BigPond DVD Rental Customer Comments
 
Featured BigPond Customer Review

Nicky from Adelaide, January 13, 2008

Beware of these guys!

I was only one week into my free trial and I decided to change my plan to a higher one. Then I noticed that BigPond had charged $36 to my account when I was still in the trial period. I rang them up and they advised me that my trial period ended early because I had changed plans during the free period. I asked to go back on the previous plan I was on but they said that they could not put me back on the free trial again! I got one week of free DVDs when it's supposed to be 1 mth!!! I said to them that it's not a very good customer service and hasn't made a good impression on me as a new customer but they didn't care. I've cancelled my account now and am joining up to Quickflix!!!!

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Most Recent BigPond Customer Reviews

Paul from Newcastle, 13 August, 2008

I have tried four of the seven sites listed, and have used Big Pond Movies for about a year and find them to be quite good. I would agree with the main review given and also some of the complaints by customers. Big Pond falls down on detail mainly-scratched and broken discs, lost discs, fair turn-around and service. Could be better[I prefer QuickFlix, which I also use].

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Amber from Melbourne, 8 July, 2008

Don't know for service etc as I am just about to start free trial...thanks to Gary for code word for six week trial. It is still valid..will add more when I get into the free trial...otherwise Ill switch. Great Website thanks for the help.

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George from Melbourne, 24 May, 2008

I have been with Bigpond for more than 3 years and the turn around on the DVD's has been excellent. I am on the old 3 disk at a time plan (not available any more)and sometimes I go through 30 DVD's in a month.

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Greg from QLD, 3 March, 2008

WAS EXCELLENT IN EVERY WAY !!!
CANCELLED MEMBERSHIP WHEN BIGPOND WHEN THEY CHANGED THE LAYOUT OF THEIR WEBSITE-----ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO USE NOW----NO THUMBNAIL PICTURES ON EACH TITLE ANYMORE !!!
Its like being in a cheap video store with the dvd's stacked with the names only visible. And no sub-genres.

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James from Brisbane, 20 February, 2008

BigPond Didn't give a refund for overcharging and the first two DVD's they sent were scratched. Quickflix is by far the better choice!!!

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Garry from Melbourne, December 2, 2007

I'm about to sign up for a trial. Mainly because I'm a bigpond customer who has recently had Bigpond's billing system changed and bigpond sent out an offer for the trouble.
The offer 4 discs at a time and unlimited discs for the 6 weeks.
The offer code is 6weekfree01
Stargate season 1 to 10 should keep them busy for starters ;)

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James from Sydney, November 16, 2007

I had a lot of problems with customer service, particularly lost dvd. There are up to 6 dvd that were returned, but bigpond claims they never received. Once these were mark as lost, I was charged for each one of them. Customer service was very poor. I ve stopped y plan. Not recommended.

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Lesley from Tasmania, November 9, 2007

I signed up 3 days ago and still have not seen the movies marked as sent I phoned them and they say they have site problems also said supervisor would not even look at my problem till I had 20 movies in my Q !
nowhere does it state you have to have this I think its Bigpond making it up as they go along .....very bad service

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Malcolm from Holbrook, November 2 , 2007

Good library, excellent delivery and return system, but Bigpond's website is terrible - very slow to download, so each time I need to update my list of movies it takes typically an hour or so... once I needed to suspend my membership while away from home for a month, and another time a broken DVD arrived and was replaced quickly, no problems at all with service.

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Susan from Woy Woy, November 2 , 2007

I decided to sign up for the one-month free trial after looking up their catalogue for the TV shows that I could not get at local video stores.
The catalogue looked great and the price as a Big Pond customer signing up for 12 months okay. Three days later I am still waiting for my registration to be confirmed. I called the helpline three times the day I tried to sign up and I'm not looking forward to calling them again. Rude, impatient, condescending. Maybe it's not a happy workplace. On the last call I was told there was a problem in their system and another email would be sent within two days. Still waiting. I'm glad I found this site. Thanks for the previous comments, very informative. I now have reservations about signing a twelve month contract.

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Key Facts


Bigpond Logo

(Non BigPond members)
1 disc, 2 total: $9.95
2 discs/ 3 max: $12.95
3 discs/8 max: $29.95
4 discs/12 max: $39.95

Free Trial: 1 month, 3 discs at a time

Titles: 30,000+
Game Rentals: no
Blu-Ray HD: 264 (estimate, as they lump HD-DVD in this category)
Adult Films: no
Phone Contact: yes

Based in: unspecified, multiple centers

Service: All Australia

Contact:
1 800 502 502
BigPond Movies
Locked Bag 9000
Preston VIC 3072
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