Reader A. says Redbox randomly tried to charge him $1.25 for a $1 normal DVD rental. What’s up with that?

A. says:

Last week on my way back from the mall, I decided to stop over at a Walgreen’s Redbox to rent a movie. It was my first time renting at this location. I browsed through the catalog and was excited to find Greenzone, a movie that I was looking forward to watch.

I added it to my cart and was almost an inch away from touching the “Checkout” button when I noticed something strange. The taxes were higher than usual! wait what? that cant be! I looked up a little more higher and it got more interesting, Redbox was actually charging me $1.25 per night for the movie instead of the advertised rate of $1. Well at east that explains the higher taxes but why $1.25? Did they increase the rates?

I looked around the kiosk to find any notice of rate increase but everywhere it showed a $1 per night. I then verified the movie to be normal dvd and not a blu-ray (which then should be have been a $1.50 instead), but nope it was a normal dvd! I canceled the transaction but I did decide to snap some pictures before I left.

So how do we explain this? Was it a glitch? Is Redbox practicing a bait and switch? or is it a random scenario setup to squeeze an extra quarter of people? Give me your opinion. As for my advice, always verify the total price before you swipe your card!

We think what happened is that they are testing higher prices in certain markets and they didn’t update the signs on the kiosk.

Tsk, tsk, Redbox. That’s not nice.

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