SHOW when a movie is NOT AVAILABLE!!!!!

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SHOW when a movie is NOT AVAILABLE!!!!!

(9 posts) (3 voices)

Started 1 month ago by redguy
Latest reply from rbrannan

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redguy
Member
Reputation:4

The webmaster of redbox or the person in charge of their web site is a moron. Go do a search for a title like I did, next type your zip code. What you see next is a list of locations in my area and a small line of text that says "View more titles". Being a guy of fairly average IQ, I assumed that the movie I wanted was available in the locations presented. Right? Wrong!

My wife and I spend the next hour driving from redbox to redbox only to find that no machine had the movie. That's because the dumbass who signed off on their web site didn't think it would be a good idea to add a hmmmm.... NOT AVAILABLE button!!!!! Christ, how about the words not available next to "view more titles"? How about not listing locations unless the movie is available at that location!!! If you do choose a movie and it IS available we see a RENT button. Wow!!! Freaking genius thinking. But no Not Available anything is simply moronic.

Thanks for wasting our time RedBox!

Posted 1 month ago #
rbrannan
Member
Reputation:27

You say moron, I say acceptable business strategy. If you see "rent" button next to a kiosk location, and "view other titles" next to other kiosk locations, it's pretty easy to figure out "view other titles" instead of "rent" means that that kiosk doesn't have the movie you selected. The strategy is in hopes that you do "view other titles" and end up seeing another movie that you might like to see-RENT!

Posted 1 month ago #
Michael
Admin
Reputation:81

redguy,

As rbrannan said, I think it is pretty obvious that "View Other Titles" - the operative word being "Other" - means that the title you were looking for is not there. There is no big red "Rent" button like there is next to the other locations. Perhaps there were no locations that had the "Rent" button in your search, so it makes it a little less obvious, but not too much, I don't think.

Now, if I designed their site, yes I might include a greyed out "Unavailable" button above the "View Other Titles", but it is pretty obvious what it means now, so it's probably not needed.

Plus, why drive around for an hour looking for a movie? Just reserve it online (when it is available) and go pick it up. Much easier.

Posted 1 month ago #
redguy
Member
Reputation:4

View more titles could mean, just that. Would you like to view more titles so that perhaps you'd like to rent another while picking up your movie. My point is that there is no logic. If I had selected to "see locations" then sure give me all the locations in my area. But to choose find a movie, then choose a zip, the next page should show only those locations that have it... right? That makes sense otherwise it's the same as "show or see locations".

All they need to do is to somewhere on the page simply state not available. It's pretty simple. "View other titles" means just that. It's stupid not to add a button or text that states, this movie is not available. I use the net all day long and trust me we see bad web design everywhere, but this one is soooo in your face lazy or dumb. My wife and I are both college grads. So the only thing we can think of is that it's be design that they want to confuse people or sheer stupidity.

One last thing... I just realized that perhaps all of you have been to redbox.com before. You've seen the RENT button before and that you're aware of it. Now imagine it being your first time. You do a lookup for a movie and you're presented with a list of 7 or 8 locations per page and multiple pages and ALL of them say "view more titles". No RENT button. Perhaps you'd see my point. If you see a page with 2 RENT buttons and the other listings do not, then yes it's pretty obvious. But when you've never seen a RENT button and all you see is page after page of locations with no RENT button, then you automatically assume the movies are available at those locations. Get my point?

Posted 1 month ago #
rbrannan
Member
Reputation:27

Redguy,...it's not so much that "view other titles" wants to confuse people, it's a business strategy to get you to view other titles (in hopes you'll spend money and rent another title you see while "viewing other titles" since at that time they don't have the title you originally wanted. Like any business, Redbox doesn't want you to walk away empty handed. When you go to a store and walk up to a counter to buy your items and there's a sign at that counter "Try next counter", do you just drop your items and leave without buying anything,or do you go to and try the next counter, and buy your items? If the sign on the original counter doesn't specifically say "CLOSED", is it that confusing to you to not know what to do if it says "Try Next Counter" instead?

Posted 1 month ago #
redguy
Member
Reputation:4

Hi rbrannan,

I understand business and marketing strategies very well. That is was my major and is my profession. I don't know if you saw the last paragraph to my post. I just edited it after giving thought at to why you wouldn't think it's a big deal.

Did you read this?

"One last thing... I just realized that perhaps all of you have been to redbox.com before. You've seen the RENT button before and that you're aware of it. Now imagine it being your first time. You do a lookup for a movie and you're presented with a list of 7 or 8 locations per page and multiple pages and ALL of them say "view more titles". No RENT button. Perhaps you'd see my point. If you see a page with 2 RENT buttons and the other listings do not, then yes it's pretty obvious. But when you've never seen a RENT button and all you see is page after page of locations with no RENT button, then you automatically assume the movies are available at those locations. Get my point? "

I don't see anything wrong with a link to "view more titles" that's not the issue. The problem is that no where does it say not available for a first time user like ourselves. Perhaps we're a fluke, in that Land Of The Lost is too new and that none of the dozen locations in our area have it. But to just add the words, not available, would have taken 2 seconds. If we had this problem then others have as well. Why piss off a customer when you don't have to.

Posted 1 month ago #
Michael
Admin
Reputation:81

redguy,

Yes, I agree with you. Having not previously seen the "RENT" button could be a definite cause of confusion.

Actually, I think Redbox used to do exactly as you say, but with some recent changes to their site, this got lost.

Good suggestion, and hopefully Redbox will fix it thanks to this thread.

Posted 1 month ago #
Michael
Admin
Reputation:81

Redbox has made some changes that addresses this issue. Check out their new map and online flow:
http://www.redbox.com/Locations/LocationSearch.aspx?l=84043&movie=2812

Posted 3 weeks ago #
rbrannan
Member
Reputation:27

I looked at the changes Redbox just made on their site. My first thought was wow, Redbox reps must really view this Insideredbox site/insiders comments! Within the past two weeks insiders made the complaint that when you go to find a local kiosk on their site and put in your zip, the Redbox site will only list a max of 10 kiosk even though there may be 15 or more within your zip/20 mile area. The changes they just made allow you to view ALL the kiosk within 20 miles at one time. Secondly, they did put "Checked Out"/view other titles when a title is not available at a certain kiosk. HOWEVER, I hate to say BUT "checked out" is a little deceptive. I know this because I was checking their site all yesterday for my local kiosks for ORPHAN. It was not available most of the day until later at one Walgreens. One copy at one Walgreen. It was never and is not now available at any of the other local kiosks YET at all those other local kiosk it says "checked out" and at the one Walgreen it says "rent". At all those other local kiosk ORPHAN can not be "checked out" when it was never available at those kiosks! I assume by the end of the week, Redbox will purchase several ORPHAN for those other kiosk to actually be able to be "checked out".

Posted 3 weeks ago #

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