Love Film provides a poor experience for new customers. When I signed up I received confusing emails and was told money may have been withdrawn —without notice— from my bank account .

Background

Love Film is the UK’s biggest online DVD rental service. The (annoying) tagline states 1 million members (nothing about what makes it different or what it offers me, but anyway…) It runs several other DVD rental services, such as The Guardian’s Film club.

Signing up is relatively simple, and the DVDs I was looking for were easy to find. The problems started with the emails Love Film sent after registration:

Dear Leon,

Thank you for your interest in LOVEFiLM, we are busy authorising your account and you will receive an email from us shortly to confirm all the relevant details of your new service!

Best wishes
The LOVEFiLM team

Hadn’t I already registered?

Let’s ignore the random decapping. This set alarm bells ringing. Why was Love Film still ‘authorising’ my account after I’d registered online, given them my bank account details and chosen a couple of DVDs. I waited for the confirmation email…

The silence

…And waited. 14 days passed with no email. I don’t think any interpretation of email shortly would allow that 14 days is acceptable. So I emailed back:

Was my account ever opened? I gave my account details: it’s very poor that I din’t [sic] receive the next email

To be fair, I was able to reply to the original email, and Love Film got back within a few hours.

The baffling reply

What followed was odd:

Dear Leon,

Thanks for your email with regards a suspected payment on your account. I can assure you that you have not been charged.

When a new account is set up on LOVEFiLM we will ‘pre-authorise’ your registered card up to the value of two month’s membership. A ‘pre-authorisation’ is where a merchant (in this case us) checks with your card-issuing bank if the card is valid. Please be reassured that no money is taken by us from your account at any time. Though some banks may temporarily reflect this against your statement for a short period, it is normally released after 5 working days.

Hmmm…I’d never mentionined suspect payments. Was there a ‘suspect payment’? No. But wait a minute. Love Film had never mentioned taking ‘pre-authorisation’ payments from my account anyway. I don’t like seeing unexplained debits against my bank account!

Why mention my bank account?

This genuinely mystifies me. The only reason I can think of comes from the reference to ‘account’ in Love Film’s original email:

we are busy authorising your account

But surely they meant my Love Film account? If they meant my bank account, wouldn’t they describe it as my bank account? And tell me what authorisation would entail.

How to improve the sign up process

Here’s some free advice for Love Film:

1. Complete the sign up process online and don’t allow users to select DVDs until their account is open (an email address validation email is acceptable)
2. Don’t tell the user they’re going to be contacted and not contact them
3. Declare and explain possible bank account activity during the sign up process
4. Clarify important terms such as account
5. Read customer emails properly

Like most people, I find experiences like this extremely frustrating. I’m giving a company my money and will continue to do so over a period of time. This shouldn’t get me worried or waste my time.

What about you? Have you any examples of good or bad sign up processes?