Andrew has a common problem: he keeps getting someone else’s mail. Not in his paper mailbox, but someone else’s e-mail. A Justin Bieber fan in a different state entered his e-mail address when renting a DVD, and Andrew received the receipt. When he contacted Redbox to straighten out the mixup, their unhelpful solution was to block all e-mail receipts from Redbox. Yep, including his own.

He writes:

Some idiot in North Carolina entered my email address as their own when renting Justin Beiber’s document from the shitty Redbox machine.

I first called Redbox to alert them to the situation; my credit card wasn’t being charged, but I was getting emails about someone else’s rentals. They had no idea how to fix my problem, so they told me to email Redbox.

I emailed Redbox and their genius solution – block the Redbox receipts email! And even after alerting Redbox that it would block MY receipts if I ever rented again (fat chance), they still thought that was the best solution.

Here’s the message Redbox sent to him explaining their handy solution:

Hello Andrew,

Thank you for your email. We apologize for any inconvenience this situation has caused. It looks like a redbox customer has entered your email address at a redbox kiosk by mistake. This doesn’t mean that the customer has access to your email account or any of your personal information. The only result of the customer’s error is that you’re receiving his or her rental receipts.

As long as he or she keeps using your email address, you’ll continue to get receipts. To avoid receiving them, please block the sender’s email address or mark the messages as spam. If those options don’t work, you might need to contact your email provider. If you have any additional questions, please contact the redbox Customer Care team at 866-REDBOX3 (866-733-2693).

This happens a lot, especially if you’re the first person to register with your first/last name combination on a given service. (Lyle Northrup, I have your message board passwords.) At least the phenomenon gave us the wonderful blog Wrong kmiller.

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