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[c-lando]

Has anyone used it? Thoughts?

[va-vacious]

I have.  It's ok, though a little frustrating when the movie that you decided you want is not available, even though there is a picture of it on the outside of the box. I'll get something that I wouldn't put on my netflix cue, 'cuz this will only be $1. I've used it a few times. 

The biggest frustration is that it is slow sometimes. 

My mom really likes it- she won't commit to a video store or netflix, but she likes getting movies from redbox!

[Ella Minnow Pea]

I've used for when my Netflix movies are depressing, and I need something light to watch. (Although I teared up way too much during 27 Dresses - I'm not sure what's wrong with me).

You can use their website to check which boxes have which titles. If you have 2 equal distance - as I do, I'll check to make sure the one I want is there. If so, you can go ahead and reserve it.

I'll probably never go to Blockbuster again.

[whigsgeek]

Damn. I thought this thread was going to be about a porno starring Little Orphan Annie.

[Nate]

Damn. I thought this thread was going to be about a porno starring Little Orphan Annie.

Yellow card!

j/k. 

[Doug]

You can use their website to check which boxes have which titles. If you have 2 equal distance - as I do, I'll check to make sure the one I want is there. If so, you can go ahead and reserve it.

I'll probably never go to Blockbuster again.

Yes, that is nice.  I had a problem where they billed me two bucks for a movie, even though I returned it the next day.  I called their 1-800 number and their customer service was very polite and took care of it.  I really wish I had money to invest in this company.  It's businesses like this one and Netflix that are going to put an end to video stores.

[Butter]

Red Box?  You mean the thing at McDonald's?

[Doug]

I got me a free coupon for Red Box.  Time to get "Meet the Spartans"!

[c-lando]

I recently returned a movie one day after renting it and watched the machine accept the return and tell me that the return was completed. 5 days later, I got an email of my receipt and it said I had the movie for 4 days. WTF? I did the live chat with someone at Redbox and they took all of about 2 minutes to credit me for the extra 3 days. I was still feeling leery about renting from the machine again after that happened and they must have known that because they just sent me a free rental. It's kind of adorable. "Have an apology gift on us". Also, it has a drawing of the Redbox machine and it is saying, "We'd hug you if we had arms". Awwwwwwww. Excellent customer service from a machine.

[Kwyjibo]

We recently used Redbox for the first time to rent The Avengers.  Reserved the movie online from home and then went to pick it up at our local Kroger, however once I got there the machine couldn't read my card.  This presents a problem because they didn't build a way into the software to retrieve a reserved disc except through sliding the card attached to the account.  Which is weird because if you initiate the transaction at the machine you can use any card you want and it just asks for your user ID.  I evaluate application functionality for a living and I can tell you that would not have escaped me.  (Redbox, if you're reading you need a customer usability analyst and I'm available!)

Anyway, I called the number on the machine and while they couldn't release the disc for me to rent it on another card (Another shortfall in their systems... why couldn't they just cancel the transaction and release the hold on the disc?) they did credit me for that disc and give me a bonus freebie for my trouble.  I went to the next machine about a mile away and rented what I wanted using another card.  Sucks that I had to have a hassle on my first use but they handled it pretty well, we'll use the service again for sure.

[c-lando]

We recently used Redbox for the first time to rent The Avengers.  Reserved the movie online from home and then went to pick it up at our local Kroger, however once I got there the machine couldn't read my card.  This presents a problem because they didn't build a way into the software to retrieve a reserved disc except through sliding the card attached to the account.  Which is weird because if you initiate the transaction at the machine you can use any card you want and it just asks for your user ID.  I evaluate application functionality for a living and I can tell you that would not have escaped me.  (Redbox, if you're reading you need a customer usability analyst and I'm available!)

Anyway, I called the number on the machine and while they couldn't release the disc for me to rent it on another card (Another shortfall in their systems... why couldn't they just cancel the transaction and release the hold on the disc?) they did credit me for that disc and give me a bonus freebie for my trouble.  I went to the next machine about a mile away and rented what I wanted using another card.  Sucks that I had to have a hassle on my first use but they handled it pretty well, we'll use the service again for sure.

BOO and YAY!
Sucks that they always seem to have some hiccups. But, they are SOOOOOOOOO good at making things right that Mike from HOLMES ON HOMES would totally feel OK with them using his slogan.

[Butter]

We don't ever reserve anything, but on the rare occasion there is something specific we want to see (maybe twice a year, and usually happens on a whim when we are out) we just use their smartphone app which shows you which boxes nearby have a movie in question.  Works well.

[Cockney Rebel]

Attn Roku owners...

http://blog.roku.com/blog/2013/06/06/redbox-instant-launching-on-roku-this-summer/

[Kwyjibo]

It seems like Redbox is trying pretty hard to make the overall experience pleasant for it's users, and in general they do a good job but some of the things those kiosks can't do just makes me shake my head.

As I mentioned earlier if you reserve a disc and get to the machine and it won't read your card you can't get it any other way.  Why can't I login to the machine with my user name and password and then slide another card?  Since they can't do that why can't they at least cancel the transaction if you call them?  It's their systems, they don't have the keys?  Seems unlikely that they couldn't solve that one.

The other day we reserved a disc and I went to pick it up and it told me my reservation wasn't there and maybe I had used another card (I had not, which was proven later) or I had selected another location for pickup (this was indeed the case).  So most likely I fat fingered it and picked the wrong location, my bad, but why couldn't the machine tell me where the reservation was?  They identify your account by the credit card swipe, and it was the right card, why can't the machine say, your disc isn't here... but here's where it is?  Or better yet... why can't it say, hey, maybe your fat fucking finger hit the wrong address... we've got the same movie here, lets just transfer it to this box?  Or we don't have it here, do you want to say to hell with it and rent something else or just go home empty handed? 

These are easy things to do, or should be.  The kiosk software should be able to do just about anything... it's just a POS front end.  If their backend systems can't handle this sort of thing they have a really shitty backend system.