Comments on: Redbox Gets Robbed: 80 DVDs Stolen

By: moviecrazy

moviecrazy — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 09:28:32 +0000

In my experience every time a box says it’s “warming up” it’s actually broke down. You could wait for days and it would still say the same thing until someone finally fixes it, which at the Walgreens by my house is usually over a week. In fact the last time it was broke down it was down for 2 weeks! And that’s with me calling them twice to tell them about it, once per week. From the 12th of January until just yesterday the 23rd. So i’m not guaranteeing it will be broke down every time it gives that message but i sure don’t waste my time waiting on it anymore. If it says warming up i just leave.

By: CathyinTX

CathyinTX — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 06:42:19 +0000

DH recently reported that somebody had put a DVD into the slot wrong at our closest Redbox and jammed it so he had to go to a Redbox that was further away to get a DVD.

A few days later, it was still jammed, so I drove to the next closest place, a Walmart, to return the DVD. The Redbox had the regular screen showing, but when I touched it to return, it put up a message that it had to warm up and it would be about 3 minutes. I waited a full 10 minutes, and just as I took my first step to walk away, it changed to the next screen. Unfortunately, that only stayed up a couple seconds and then it returned to the original idle screen. I touched it to return the video and it went to the warming up screen again. Arrgh, two Redboxes in one night! I had to go to a third location to give back the durned DVD. I was none too happy, as that location was in a dark, deserted area, outside, and it was somewhere around 3 in the morning. (What can I say, I’m a night owl.)

Incidentally, the Redbox was originally jammed on a Monday night, and I figured when the employee arrived to stock in the new releases for Tuesday, that he or she would discover the jammed box. No such luck, it was jammed most of the week.

By: assman1060

assman1060 — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:03:26 +0000

The other day I was at the Redbox around the corner from my house In Lansdale,Pa.I rented a Movie,and with it came an extra movie that I did not rent.Being the Honest person that I am I gave the DVD back.When I got home I checked my e-mail to see if they charged me for it and they didn’t.If I was dishonest I would have had a free dvd,Redbox does malfunction at times but what can you expect it is a computer.

By: GadgetKen

GadgetKen — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:59:57 +0000

Occassionally see Redbox on their location search engine showing a location “online rentals unavailable” which I suspect is either the machine temporarily being offline while being loaded with new DVD’s or being out of service. Most Redbox location in my area of Connecticut are inside but the outside Redbox in a PriceChopper near my office once broke from extreme cold weather (you could tell from weird mechanical noises it made when I tried to do a rental)…they fixed it fairly quickly. Still like the outside machine for a very late night rental though. Also have occassionally gotten the marginal touchscreen problem others have mentioned.

By: Car

Car — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:55:41 +0000

> I could react it got pulled back in.

Calm down, have a little patience. If you would have waited a little bit, it spit it back out again (2nd time) because nothing changed from the first time.

You needed to flip it over.

And…. Always wait for the screen to say “returned successfully”.

That means the computer scanned it OK.

Sticking the movie into the slot doesn’t mean it’s “accepted”.

Throwing it on top of the Redbox doesn’t work either :)

By: Ski26er

Ski26er — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 10:06:12 +0000

I found our machine unlocked one time right after we got it and it was loaded with DVD’s! I stole everyone of them (lol). Nah, J/K . I called redbox and they told me to lock it back. A promo code would have been nice though.

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 06:08:14 +0000

The last time I returned a movie the Redbox malfunctioned. I May have put the dvd in wrong, (i dont think so) but I stuck it in, and it accepted. I hopped over to the second redbox to check out another movie. While I was there, I heard the mechanical noise at the first one. I looked and saw my movie sticking out! Before I could react it got pulled back in.
A quick chat with Tech support and they made sure my account would be credited, because they were showing the DVD was still out.

I’m really curious to see what the inside of a redbox looks like.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 04:55:00 +0000

Spoke with one of the Redbox techs the other day. Really nice guy. Explained how it all works. Said the unit he was checking could hold up to 430 DVD’s and a new one can hold over 600 DVD’s. Also mentioned McDonald’s had a lot of money invested in Redbox. Enjoy your movies.

By: Tristan

Tristan — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:21:53 +0000

Every time that I have called customer service for RedBox. I have always received professional and courteous service. I have never had a problem with the promo codes and have never seen a RedBox malfunction. GO REDBOX!!

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:40:22 +0000

My RedBox in MD is frequently down. I’d say it is unavailable at least as much as it is up. Luckily there are two more locations a mile away, which is good for a return, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to rent something.