I mentioned the other day the local Oovie machine for renting DVDs and dropped into the Safeway at Templestowe Lower on Saturday to pick up a DVD only to find that machine with a black screen. One of the disadvantages of kiosk delivery of services is they fail and technology often fails then there is no service. Over the years I’ve not had a video store not be available to rent a DVD. The distance to the next closest Oovie machine was probably 10-15km of extra travel. When you take into account the inconvenience and the travel cost this needs to be taken into account.
If you collect a movie whilst shopping and the Oovie machine is down you’ve only missed out on a movie. But if you make a special trip to an Oovie machine to find it not working, then that’s a considerable waste of time and quite inconvenient.
The other issue I had on the following day was I picked the movie “The Girl Who Player With Fire” and it wasn’t apparent to me the movie was not in English and had subtitles. I’ll be more careful next time reading of the description the genre. Again I’ve not had this experience previously from a video store so I feel sharing this mistake on my part may help others avoid the same mistake.
This time I also decided to take advantage of the rent one get one free voucher if you rent another movie within three days from the same kiosk. This worked well.
One more comment is I’m wondering about the range offered via the Oovie machine. I have a feeling there isn’t as much choice as would be available at a store but only time will tell if that is an issue.
I also decided to check if the web based service provided any indication as to whether or not the Oovie machine was available for reservations. The machine was dead on Saturday and it is now Monday. I expect it will take a while for them to fix the machine. The online service reports the machine is not available for online reservations which is a good clue the machine is not working. I’ll check via the web first next time and save some time. This is a good feature however it does indicate a dead machine may be out of action for a while which isn’t good service.
Overall the lower cost of the DVDs and with a little pre-planning in terms of shopping so no or perhaps only one extra trip is required still makes the Oovie option a good option.
Kelvin Eldridge
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