Being an early adopter of something has its privileges and its disadvantages. Chris joined Gmail early enough that he gets to have an address that consists of his first two initials and his very common last name. That’s pretty neat for him, but has led to a really annoying case of mistaken identity. He keeps getting someone else’s Redbox receipts. A person who has a similar name, but lives in a different state and rents from Redbox an awful lot. The good news? Redbox has a solution for this. Kinda.

Over the past week I have received four receipts from Redbox rentals happening in Midlothian, VA. I live in Indiana and use Redbox on occasion but infrequently.

I decided to let Redbox know my e-mail address was being used by someone other than me, mostly because every receipt tells me that someone who probably has a first name that starts with a ‘C’ and the same last name I do lives in Midlothian, VA and goes the extra mile of giving me the last four digits of their credit card number.

I initiated a chat with Redbox and explained the issue, providing the latest Transaction number for their reference before the chat began.

I was told the person is entering my e-mail address by accident and pointed out it has happened four times this week.

I was then told to unsubscribe using the link in each receipt e-mail. This would ensure I would never receive messages from them. So I asked how I would get receipts sent to me when I do actually use their service again and that’s where things got interesting.

Redbox informed me that the act of unsubscribing from their receipts will ensure that I won’t receive receipts when someone else accidentally uses my e-mail address but I will receive receipts when I use the same e-mail address myself.

I told them their ability to determine who was using my e-mail address and whether it was being done accidentally or on purpose and then, based on that information, determine whether a receipt should be sent or not was pretty awesome. That’s when the chat ended.

The mystical powers of mistake divination could come from looking at which credit card had been used when the e-mail address was entered. Or the chat representative could have just been making things up, and now Chris’s long-lost cousin won’t get his or her e-mailed receipts anymore.

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I Don’t Want Some Justin Bieber Fan’s Redbox Receipts

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