Cinema Paradiso Reviews 

Cinema Paradiso is what every company should aim for. Customer service is top rate. If my discs go missing or take ages to get to me, I just tell them and they send a replacement immediately for no extra cost. I don't know what people here are moaning about. It's like they're reviewing a different company. I've been with Cinema Paradiso for about 15 years now and I wouldn't rent from anywhere else. If they don't have something in stock you can ask them if they'll get it for you and 99% of the time they do. If it's not available on disc in the UK then obviously they can't, but I've only ever had this happen a couple of times and I ask a lot. They have films from 100 years ago and things from streaming platforms this year, as well as the latest cinema releases as soon as they go to disc, and everything in between. They have films and TV programmes from all around the world, so you'd be hard pressed not to find things you want to watch.

Royal Mail are terrible. Stamps are expensive. It's over £1 just to post a normal letter, let alone a disc. So prices do go up when Royal Mail decide to treat their shareholders, but what else are they going to do? And all my post is delayed, so I don't understand why people are surprised when it happens to stuff from CP as well.

The more expensive it gets, the worse the service seems to get. The value for money is now hovering around the cancellation point.

By my reckoning (and I've counted over the course of a month)....

58% of disc received were unplayable.

That means scratched, cracked, or not visibly damaged but stops playback during the content. One even shattered whilst in the drive, requiring the drive to be completely dismantled and shards of disc taken out.

"feedback" left when reporting bad discs is ignored. Don't waste your time. I've reported over 100 bad discs and not had a single comment in return.

To make that even worse - if you request a replacement of the same film, they'll send the SAME DISC that you just reported as scratched or non functional. I have subtly marked labels with a pencil dot on bad discs to prove this.

Some weeks no good discs arrive at all. I raised this as a direct complaint via email. The response was dismissive corporate speak (but fair do - at least they replied).

I note they have not responded to any feedback on Trustpilot.

This is a strange review for me to write and a bit long winded but i'll try to keep short. I have 2 accounts with cinemaparadiso now the first account I subscribed and had a flurry of discs show up no problem and I was happy with the service but about 3-6 months into my original subscription I got an email to say I had returned empty sleeves which I most certainly did not so I replied to that email saying that was not possible as I put the discs in the sleeve and sealed up like I was instructed to do and went about my day. I got no reply to that email at but the discs stopped arriving I assume due to the lost discs? By that point I simply did not trust the service anymore and decided to cancel my subscription and move on to buying the blurays myself and no more was said. Fast forward 3-6 months again and I decided to try the service a second time and see if this was a 1 off experience... I tried to login to my orginal account and was told my account was "locked" and to contact the site admin team?... OK... I sent them an email asking why I could not login and they responded quickly asking for more information which I provided and then...Ghosted... Completely ignored the reply and that account is still locked to this day with no explanation at all. I made a new account and started a subscription and once again a flurry of blu rays turned up like before however I noticed this time around the postage/delivery times were a bit slower than before but honestly I was not too bothered about that. One disc arrived completely scratched beyond repair so I put it back in the envelope with a sticky note informing them it was damaged on arrival and sent an email informing them of this and once again I was ghosted entirely with no response but the blu rays kept coming so i figured they knew and handled it?... That brings me to last week when I received a very similar email as I did on my previous account... "You returned empty sleeves"....No...I most certainly did not return empty sleeves... Unlike the last time they said this this time around I recorded on video me packaging the envelopes, sealing them, dropping them into the postbox so there was no possible way they could claim this. I replied to the email the same day I received it with a this is not possible I have video evidence to prove this etc and once again I got completely ghosted with no response... The difference this time around though the blurays have completely stopped arriving now which I assume is because of the missing discs.

So the only reality is 1 of 3 options they are claiming i stole the discs.. which is pointless because i would be charged for them?....Option 2 the postman/royal mail are cleverly opening the sealed envelopes and stealing the discs and sealing them to a point you cant tell or option 3 they are claiming the discs are missing when they are not to charge people for replacements...Either way the same thing happening on 2 different accounts near enough identical incidents?....Sounds really dodgy to me. I have cancelled my subscription now for the second time and I will not be returning or reactivating it again. This maybe perfectly innocent on their part and it maybe the royal mails fault but either way it will only end up with me being charged a replacement cost for something i didn't do and I simply want no part in that.

I ended my membership due to extreme delays in delivery times, BUT I do believe CP sometimes mark the disc as dispatched when it is not sent until the NEXT day. They sent my final disc out 2 days before my membership ended and told me this must be returned within 7 days. However, the disc took 7 days just to arrive, therefore actually impossible to meet their return deadline, and I emailed them to say so. One month later, I examined my credit card statement to see they took out £20 as the disc had not been returned on time! I emailed to complain and they agreed to refund it. However, I believe this is theft, as they did receive the disc (as shown on their history) but had NO intention of making the refund until I told them this was unacceptable. What a way to treat someone who was with them for the last 15-20 years. I have given more than 1 star as it used to be a very good service and you can't blame them completely for price increases and delivery delays as Royal Mail is the main culprit.

returned to cinemaparadiso.co.uk after some years away, and how they have changed for the worst is appalling, just 2 delivery's in 3 week (granted we had a bank holiday) even though I return disk same day as recieving

I have been a customer for a short while on a 2 Disc subscription (2nd Class) and I can say the service has been brilliant.

I personally haven’t experienced any real problems with regards to receiving the discs.

If you are looking for a good Movie Rental service I would highly recommend Cinema Paradiso.

When they receive my discs a disc is sent out straightaway, i think majority of the reviews on here should be on royal mails trustpilot.
Well priced and have used since december.
If they had an option of 6-8 discs a month sent tracked parcel i'd join back up but Royal mail is so crap its just all a bit annoying. I'll do 4 films for £60 with Zavvi or something.

I have been a member for many years and before that with Lovefilm. The variety of films to rent is great and you can often find titles that you can't get anywhere else. However, lately several of my discs have not arrived and I have twice been told that they would have to cancel my subscription because of this (hardly my fault!). It has just happened again, so I imagine they will certainly cancel my subscription this time. This seems very unfair on the customer.

I have been a customer of CP for almost 8 years and sadly I can only confirm the many, many disappointing reviews on here.

Discs now routinely go missing in the post with CP taking little to no accountability.

The prices have gone up a lot, and for a reduced service too [from 1st class post regulated to 2nd]. This I can take.

However, when dispatched discs do not arrive, I'm left paying for a service that does not provide what was promised. This is happenning regularly. Some months only 1 disc is sucessfully sent/returned, costing me £9/rental! [And yes, I watch them as soon as they arrive and return promptly]

As I said, I've bee using CP for 8 years nearly and the service has become untenable.

This month my first disc was sent out on the 13th, it's now the 23rd and still no sign. I reported the disc lost and a new film was sent out on the 20th. If that doesn't arrive tomorrow (Sat), I'll have to wait and hope it come on the 26th - a full two weeks without a disc and my money and loyalty being abused.

They need to start refunding their customers for discs that do not come, because it massively eats into the user's time to receive and watch films, which is ultimately what we're paying for.

I never received my first disc, it was "lost" in the post, I cancelled my subscription after one and a half weeks, I am disputing the £11.99 monthly charge with my credit card company.
I suspect they are money grabbing before they shutdown.

Having wrote a negative review on here recently can confirm that I have subsequently cancelled my subscription to CP, Further titles went missing in the post and demands for payment were untenable. Compromise was only attempted by one party (me) . Noticed that their fees have increased by nearly 60 % in under 12 mths, however with an appalling approach to customer service I’m wondering how longer they will be a viable business alternative to streaming.

I’d been with Cinema Paradiso for years but their skyrocketing prices (now up to £34 a month, up from £20 just a few years ago) drove me to cancel. I recently restarted my membership for a few choice films but so far my account has been ‘pending approval’ for a couple of days and yet next month’s renewal date ticks ever closer. So basically right now I’m paying over a pound a day for no films to be sent out. It’s things like this that make me wonder how many delays are purposefully baked into Cinema Paradiso’a business model to ensure the very absolute minimum number of discs are sent out to its members every month. Unfortunately this really does look like the final death throes of a company desperately scrabbling to milk its dwindling subscribers whilst it still can. Which is a real shame because nothing compares to the video quality of physical media and Cinema Paradiso is the final bastion of this.

Very poor service recently, used to get at least one delivery a week no problem but for last few weeks it has been dreadful. I am still waiting on 2 discs from 2 weeks ago (i've reported them lost obviously).
I ordered extra rentals supposedly sent by first class post last week and they still haven't came. So if you include the replacement discs and more , i haven't had any deliveries in almost 2 weeks and 9 discs are undelivered. I've been a loyal customer for well over 10 years, they definitely have never been as fast at sending out discs as lovefilm or blockbuster and if there were any alternative for films that aren't on streaming etc I would be more than happy to sign up. It almost feels like they want me to cancel, utterly appalling.

Great for hard to find titles you probably won't find on streaming platforms.
Been with them on and off the last few years and pretty reliable. Any problems are soon resolved.

For me, in addition to the superior picture and audio quality of the blu ray format, is the amount of titles cinema paridiso has available, big blockbusters from every decade to independent films from across the world that no streaming service can match.

You also get the studios dvd menu when watching blu ray's which has deleted scenes, interviews, the making of, etc.

I honestly think Cinema Paradiso is a scam. They’ve been taking money from me and never sent a single disc. The excuse was always “lost in the post,” but nothing ever turned up. They kept charging my subscription and completely ignored my refund requests despite several emails. I’ve now had to report them to my bank as fraud. Please don’t fall into the same trap I did. From my experience, they’re not legitimate and I doubt this company will be around much longer. Avoid at all costs.

We’ve been using Cinema Paradiso for a while and honestly it’s brilliant. The range is huge — loads of films you just don’t see on streaming — and the discs always turn up quickly. Blu-ray night has become a bit of a family ritual in our house. It feels special somehow, and much easier than wasting half an hour scrolling through menus trying to agree on something.

If you’re into home cinema it makes even more sense. Streaming often looks and sounds ropey, and buying discs all the time is pricey. This way you get the proper Blu-ray quality without the cost piling up.

All in all, I think it’s a cracking service and well worth it if you love films.

I joined around Christmas and, although not the companies fault, the postal service was broken but their policy of not dispatching or processing discs in a Saturday was just making things worse.

This improved, but the next issue was very average titles at the top of my list (oldies, not new release) never being sent out. Then I started getting broken discs. Again, OK, this happens, but the absolute kicker was that the same clearly broken, cracked disc would be sent back out again!! All eating into the amount of discs you could get in a month.

The email today stating that those who don't upgrade (pay more) will only get 2nd class postal service, is the end for me.

Been a customer for several years, and I can't fault their catalogue or customer service. Disks are sent rapidly, and (from memory) I've only twice failed to find films (admittedly challenging to locate).

I've been a subscriber for a few years and honestly, I can't fault the service, turnaround is fast with a great selection of films, may of which aren't available digitally. Their recommendations are great and it's helped me watch loads of films that would have otherwise passed me by. Keep up the great work. This one service I won't be cancelling anytime soon.