I am a long-time subscriber to the DVD rental service offered by ZIP.CA. As time has gone by, Zip has become more and more efficient in getting discs mailed out to subscribers, to the point where I usually receive my discs the very next day, and they usually receive the discs I mail back to them the very next day as well. Unfortunately, this means the cost to Zip to service my account has gone up. Tremendously. Their single biggest expense is postage, and I'm turning around discs faster than the Tasmanian Devil on meth. :-)

Now, part of me feels guilty for bein' so darned greedy, but another part of me says, well, Zip set the rules of the game, and I'm playing within those rules. In Vegas, the "House" sets the odds in such a way that they always win in the long run - but Zip, by striving harder and harder to deliver better customer service, actually guaranteed the unprofitability of their "unlimited" rental service.

So, starting February 27th (more specifically, with each customer's first billing period on or after that date), Zip will now cap your account with a (rather low) specific number of discs that you can receive with free shipping, the number depending on which plan you are on. If you wish to go over your limit, you can - by agreeing to pay $2.49 per disc.

It's all my fault. :-)

I've become something of a "celebrity" over on the onlinedvdrentalguide.ca website because of my claim to have once received 63 discs in a single calendar month - specifically, September of 2005. I'd have thought people would be rather angry at me for having upset the apple cart (and some may in fact be), but instead many have hoisted me onto their virtual shoulders as some sort of conquering hero, sticking it to The Man (in this case, Zip). Go figure. :-)

But I've also had a few people tell me they aren't prepared to believe my claim, and can't see how it's physically possible to get that many discs in one month. So the point of this page is to show exactly how it was done.

My claim specifically was that I received 63 discs in one calendar month, and that's true. I can't prove this, but it's true. What I can do is reproduce my rental activity screens from the Zip website. However, these screens show only dates that they shipped, not dates that I received, and this tends to offset the results slightly. Nevertheless, the evidence you're about to see does clearly show that Zip shipped me 60 discs during September 2005, so even if you're not prepared to believe my claim of "63 received", I'm afraid you do have to believe Zip's claim of "60 shipped". Not bad for thirty five bucks plus tax. :-)

How It Happened

Well, basically, here's the setup:

1. I was on the 6-DVD's-out-at-a-time plan for $34.95/month.
2. I had cashed in 900 ZipRewards points for an additional "slot" for the month, meaning my 6-out plan was actually a 7-out plan during September.
3. I also qualified for ZipRefill, meaning Zip would send me one new disc if I marked a received disc as being "returned", prior to actually receiving it. This effectively turned my account into an 8-out plan as I was usually returning discs the same day as I received them, because:
4. It was a particularly slow month at work. I have my discs delivered there and watch them during slow times. Any discs I finish before 5pm get returned that day, to a mailbox with a 5pm pickup, and any others get returned on subsequent days. During September, I was watching a *LOT* of DVD's at work, and then finishing 'em off at home that night.
5. Canada Post was having a particularly efficient month. Most of the time, 50% of my discs take 1 day to arrive from Zip (and 1 day to get back to them), while 50% of the time these delivery times will be 2 days (occasionally even longer). But during September, Canada Post outdid themselves and nearly always gave me 1-day delivery times both ways.
6. The moon was full, the stars were in perfect alignment, and the DVD Gods were smiling upon me.

As a result, Zip would ship discs to me Monday, I'd get 'em Tuesday morning, watch 'em all day Tuesday, and drop them in the mailbox by Tuesday at 5pm. Zip would receive them Wednesday morning and ship replacements Wednesday afternoon, and I'd receive those discs Thursday morning. Repeat ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Start September 1, repeat until September 30. Final tally: 63 discs received during September 2005 (some of which were actually shipped in August). Zip's records, as mentioned and as shown below, show 60 shipments made during that calendar month, and show many examples of the 2-day turnaround.

And that's basically it. I can't see myself ever coming close to this record again, even if I agreed to pay for unlimited over-the-cap shipments (at an outrageous $2.49/disc, which is MORE per disc than the discs received WITHIN the plan). Zip's efficiencies have actually fallen off slightly since then, now that they have three warehouses and sometimes don't always ship to me from my nearest (Calgary) warehouse (and thus those discs take a week or more to get here), and Canada Post also isn't currently delivering the service they did in September (but hey: next September might be another banner month!) About the only way I might beat it is by moving up to their 8-out plan and then cashing in some ZipRewards for a 9th slot. I'd certainly come close, but I'd pay through the nose for it. (If I equalled the 60-discs-shipped record, it would cost me $144.57 plus tax, rather than $34.95 plus tax.) I like Zip, but not that much. :-)

Anyways, without further adieu, here are the screenshots. Enjoy. And stop drooling on your keyboard. ;-)