Comments on: One thing about iTunes movie rentals…

By: milton franklin

milton franklin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:48:56 +0000

A Ipod Classic160 GB that can not sync a movie rental…unbelievable. But i can purchase a movie through itunes and it plays very well. Some rip off scheme Apple has going on. Hey, my fault, I purchase the rental and to think of the red tape for a refund. Thanks Apple for showing all of us the kind of business that have American viewed around the world as shady, corrupt and will do anything to steal a dollar from its patrons and consumers.
Are you aiming to be #1 or #2 behind Toyota.
Keep up the good work guys, there alot more suckers out there to be hoodwinked.

By: MarlonLevy

MarlonLevy — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:14:02 +0000

Well it’s January 2010 and the problem continues. just wrote to apple and now i await a response. Bit torrents are looking very good to me now as an option. Come on apple two years ?

By: MT

MT — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:14:29 +0000

My rentals are freezing also but purchases are fine. At first I though it was a bug in an individual movie so I emailed Apple support. They were nice enough to apologize for the problem and state the following;
“Thank you for taking the time to contact us. I am sorry to hear that you have been unable to enjoy the movie rental “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” as your computer freezes when you attempt to play the movie. I appreciate how important it is to you to have this issue quickly addressed, my name is John and I am glad for the opportunity to take care of this for you.
To resolve the issue, I have added this movie to your download queue for a new download.”

With that said, I wasted more time downloading the movie again only to have the player lock up and give me the same “not responding” message. They did issue me a credit after I complained but a few days later I tried downloading a different movie and the same thing happened. My question is this… If “annoyed!” reported this issue in January of 08 as did I’m sure many others, why is Apple not addressing the problem? My guess is JB was correct in thinking, “”I wonder how much money Apple makes from people who say, “Oh well! I won’t bother calling them. It’s only $2.99. It’s not a big loss.””
Seriously… how long is Apple going to get away with this scam?

By: JB

JB — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 06:47:05 +0000

Yep! Just rented a movie today, September 12th, 2009, and I can’t get the movie to play. I purchased a movie a few days agao, downloaded it to my computer, and it plays fine. But, for some reason the rental won’t play. It almost seems as though the movie is not downloaded to my computer…even though it shows I have 19 hours of the total 24 hours available to watch this movie.

Here is what I’m going to do. Because of all the time I’m spending to try and figure this out, and because it looks like it’s going to require a call to Apple to resolve the problem or get a refund, I plan on firmly asking for not only a refund, but a credit.

My time is valuable. My time is money. Apple will bill it’s customers in a heart beat for additional fees, etc, so I want a credit for the time I have to take to call them and get this worked out. They should have to compensate me for wasting my time, because their movie won’t play.

I wonder how much money Apple makes from people who say, “Oh well! I won’t bother calling them. It’s only $2.99. It’s not a big loss.”

Imagine if thousands of people do this. Apple would make a lot of money, simply because people don’t want to deal with the hassle of going through the process of getting a refund, etc.

So, since my time is being wasted by Apple, I believe a few rental credits, or a credit toward a full movie purchase ($9.99, well below what my time is worth) is reasonable.

We’ll see.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:36:54 +0000

I rented a movie and it was great but after the movie was gone it still took up the memory from the movie when it was not even there!!!!!! what do i do?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

By: Les

Les — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:23:41 +0000

G’day, Glad to see i am not the only sucker who can not play itunes rented movies
This is the second time i have tried to watch a rental from itunes.
Never again, !!!!!!!!
Les

By: mkb

mkb — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:56:05 +0000

Ptah what a idiot response.

By: SAT Lawyer

SAT Lawyer — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:29:36 +0000

I had the same problem on recent travels. That an active internet connection is a prerequisite to starting a rented iTunes movie renders the iTunes movie rental service virtually worthless to the frequent flyer since connecting to the iTunes store via the internet at 30,000 feet isn’t a viable option.

The apparent workaround of stating the movie(s) you want to watch on the ground while you have an internet connection up and running is a lousy one as the ticking 24 hour expiration clock requires you to make a guess (at your own expense) in advance of your flight as to when you will watch and complete a particular movie, how many movies you expect to watch, and which movies you want to watch.

Does anybody know of an alternative to iTunes movie rentals that would allow customers to download individual movies for rent to their computers to watch during a flight? I know that DVDs can theoretically be copied to one’s hard drive, but what about those of us whose ultraportable laptops don’t have an internal DVD drive and who don’t want to buy an external DVD drive and deal with the hassle of transferring movies in this manner?

By: Don E.

Don E. — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:34:29 +0000

Add me to the list.. Just downloaded the latest of everything (including Safari for XP now..) I thought maybe this would fix the rental freeze I experienced a couple of days ago. I emailed Apple, and my oh, so helpful helper reset my rental time and let me download again. Still nothing. Gray screen and ‘not responding’. So I’ve emailed back again. We’ll see what they say. If it doesn’t work again, I’m going to mention all the blog posts I’ve been reading..
Apparently, Apple doesn’t respond either.

If they can’t fix it this time: money back, no more rentals!

By: glad i read this

glad i read this — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:44:29 +0000

im really glad i read this, i was thinking of just playing it on the plane ride too, and wouldnt have had a connection. i don’t mind, i think i will have enough time to start it at home with a connection and then play it on the plane. i just hope i dont get the same problem as annoyed and others

By: f**king pissed off at APPLE

f**king pissed off at APPLE — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:43:03 +0000

This is the second time this has happened to me (the “not responding” issue with rentals). It ONLY happens with rentals, it does NOT happen with purchased movies, which play just fine, so I do not see a single reason why rentals should not work on the same machine with identical settings, iTunes version, etc. as well. And YES! I DO have the latest version of iTunes. I checked for the latest version just before I downloaded my rental today. Several months back I had this exact problem. iTunes refunded my money and all they said in the email they sent me was, “Please try again later”. I have tried again MUCH later, and yet it appears that Apple has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to rectify this problem. I don’t know WHAT they’re putting in the DRM for rentals that’s doing this to my computer, but it has angered me to the point that I have decided to boycott all Apple products from hereon out, and will tell everyone I know to do the same.
Good riddance, Apple.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 19:41:54 +0000

one more thing on this Internet connection issue. Of course the whole time iTunes was complaining about no Internet connection, my iPhone was plugged into its USB port with a fully working connection… So not only is it complaining that it needs a connection that it doesn’t really need, but actually there is a connection that apple and the telcos in their infinate wisdom have decided not to make available. (unlike my old nokia phone that worked great as an edge modem via Bluetooth with the same telco…)

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 19:36:20 +0000

just had the same issue on needing Internet connection. Rented some movies for kids to watch on vaction, no internet. Can’t watch them. Can’t even use the tiny iPhone screen as a workaround since it won’t do the transfer to iPhone without a connection.

What were these people thinking?

I thought this would all work ok since I already watched a movie on a plane with the iPhone. (having done the transfer with a connection).

If the iPhone can handle the drm on the rental without an Internet connection, then obviously a PC or mac could do the same.

Maybe Steve has wifi on his plane.

By: Larry Krug

Larry Krug — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 06:34:11 +0000

also pissed off with Apple. Rented michael Clayton, tried to transfer it to my 60GB video and it wont do it at all. I start to think that i am doing something wrong but im not it jsut does not give that option and I have all the latest software updates.

. Nowhere does it say that you cannot transfer to your ipod 60gb video. This is a simple one. Somebody is really fast asleep at the company. Such a basic thing. How did the Tech guys miss this. I want to watch it on my Tv with my ipod RCA cables. All my other movies and music videos work. How can they be so stupid not to have made this work before.

highly frustrated itunes customer
Larry

By: annoyed!

annoyed! — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:30:35 +0000

Equally Annoyed and others; I emailed the Apple Technical support from the help page and they got back to me a couple days later. They apologized and refunded my money. They never said why it wouldn’t work. No more movie rentals for me from Apple. I will stick to Red Box.