Between disappearing rental kiosks and attempts to break into the streaming market, one might get the impression that Redbox was ready to leave physical video rentals behind — but that’s not the case: The video rental company is preparing to add 1,500 kiosks to its roster. [More]
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Is Redbox Removing Its Kiosks, Or Just Moving Them?
By 1.3.17
Reader Jerry noticed a trend in his neighborhood in New York City: the Redbox kiosks were starting to disappear. Is Redbox cutting back, is this a local issue, or has he fallen into a Redbox-less alternate universe? He asked us, and we tried to find out. [More]
More Companies Turn To Mandatory Arbitration: CreditKarma, Redbox, Kitty Bed Maker
By 10.20.16
People in a wide variety of circumstances, from drivers signing up to work for Uber to senior citizens entering a nursing home, sign mandatory binding arbitration agreements. Two popular online services have recently started to require that customer disputes go to arbitration, and a reader sent along a product purchased online — a cat bed — that came with a arbitration agreement of its own. [More]
Private Equity Firm Buys $1.6 Billion In Redbox DVDs And Coinstar Change
By 7.25.16
Outerwall, the company behind the seemingly ubiquitous Redbox and Coinstar kiosks, hasn’t been doing so well lately. When both DVDs and cash are losing popularity, what should a company with a business model that depends on people using both do? The company’s new owner, Apollo Global Management, will help it to figure that out without the pressure of worrying about the stock price. [More]
Redbox Officially Wading Back Into Streaming Service With Tests Of “Redbox Digital”
By 7.22.16
Second times the charm? That appears to be the mantra for Redbox. Two years after it officially declared Redbox Instant dead, the DVD rental business is getting back into the streaming service arena by testing a previously rumored new version of the product. [More]
7 Products By The Biggest Tech Companies That Failed Miserably
By 5.17.16
Hearing the news that Google is taking another stab at social media with a new group-chatting app dubbed “Spaces” may feel like deja vu for anyone paying attention to the tech giant’s previous, mostly unsuccessful efforts to gain traction in the social media world with Google+. But Google isn’t the only big name in the tech world that’s tried and failed to popularize a new tech product, not by a long shot. [More]
Redbox Reportedly Looking Into Starting Streaming Service – Again
By 3.25.16
Two years after Redbox Instant was officially declared dead, the DVD rental business is poised to dip its toes into the video streaming service waters yet again. [More]
Redbox President Steps Down As DVD Kiosk Business Struggles (Yes, Redbox Still Exists)
By 12.8.15
Let’s get one thing out of the way before we start: yes, Redbox still exists. But because many folks would rather get instance access to a digital version of their desired flick, rather than leave the house to visit a DVD kiosk to rent a movie and then have to return it later, business is not doing so well, prompting the company’s president to fly the coop after less than two years on the job. [More]
Sorry Canada, No More Redbox For You
By 2.6.15
Bad news for our readers to the north: Redbox DVD-rental kiosks are going the way of, well… DVD rental in general, with the announcement the the boxes days are numbered in Canada. [More]
Redbox Hikes Prices For Movie And Video Game Rentals
By 11.24.14
The cost of a night in with a rental DVD is about to get a little more expensive for those of us out there who still rent physical movies and video games: Redbox is increasing the price of DVD rentals by 25%, as its parent company Outerwall Inc. tries to boost its revenue stream. [More]
Redbox Is Running DVD And Blu-Ray Price Hike Tests Again
By 8.28.14
Movie and game rental kiosk company Redbox is considering another price change to its DVD and Blu-Ray rentals. They’re testing out new pricing schemes in different markets, presumably to figure out which pricing scheme consumers hate the least. In the market where reader Dave is, in Salt Lake City, Utah, they’re trying the price points of $1.50 for DVDs and $2 for Blu-Rays, a price hike of 30¢ and 50¢ respectively. [More]
Redbox Customers Discover Typing In Zip Code Might Be Pretty Much Pointless
By 10.18.13
When you scan your credit card on a Redbox kiosk, the system prompts you to type in your zip code. That’s to verify that you’re you and not someone who picked up your credit card on the sidewalk and decided to go crazy renting DVDs for $1.20 per night. Right? Well, maybe not. [More]
Evil Redbox Tricksters In Chicago Make Game Renters Sad
By 9.23.13
We’ve shared with you before first-hand accounts of what happens when you’re the victim of a Redbox scammer. These are people who copy a barcode and illicitly return a game or movie’s case without the disc inside, leaving the next person to check it out sad and disappointed, holding only a piece of paper. [More]
Verizon’s Redbox Instant Video Service Launching New App For Xbox 360
By 2.6.13
Entering the already busy arena of online streaming video services, Xbox 360 announced yesterday that it’s teaming up with Verizon to offer the company’s Redbox Instant Video exclusively on its gaming consoles. It’s always good to have options, and it seems companies are going to continue coming up with competitors for Netflix, Hulu and Amazon’s video services. And when companies compete, we win. Hurray! [More]
Dear Redbox Users, Please Stop Using Handicap Parking Spaces
By 1.21.13
We understand the temptation — you’re just going to pull up for a minute or two to pick up or return a movie from the Redbox kiosk and the handicap parking spots are right there. It would be so much easier to pull into that spot than find one elsewhere and trek back. [More]
Watch Out For Photocopied Fake Discs In Your Local Redbox Kiosk
By 12.17.12
Ian was annoyed. He sent us this photo while on hold with Redbox to complain. “Some jerk replaced the disk in the case with a paper photocopy so the return code could still be read,” he wrote. Well, that’s an evil trick. And not foolproof: Redbox knows who had their discs out at any given time, and also happens to have their credit card numbers. Once Ian got through, he explained what happened, and also how Redbox tried to make this up to him. [More]
Verizon & Coinstar Launching Redbox Instant Streaming Video Service This Month
By 12.12.12
Sure, finding a Redbox kiosk in your neighborhood might be pretty easy. But going anywhere to get a movie, even as far as your mailbox, much less getting in your car to drive somewhere, is so 2009, right? That need for instant access to movies is what’s leading Redbox owner Coinstar to hook up with Verizon to launch their very own video streaming service, set to debut later this month. [More]
Can Redbox Do To Ticketmaster What It Did To Blockbuster?
By 10.4.12
Perhaps realizing that disc-based media will soon go the way of VHS, the folks at Redbox have dipped a toe into the shark-infested water of selling event tickets. Keeping with the company’s $1 theme, Redbox is only charging a $1 fee for each ticket, compared to the complicated, expensive fees tacked on by industry leader Ticketmaster. [More]
