What can you do when a company bans not you, but your only credit card? John explains that he returned some Redbox movies before his vacation. Then his vacation got really exciting, and his credit card was briefly and accidentally reported stolen. He straightened things out with the credit card company, but Redbox was not so forgiving. He owes the company $15, but they won’t accept his money. Now he’s unable to borrow from Redbox, and their customer service is no help. [More]
rentals
Blockbuster Doesn't Believe We've Returned Their Stupid Movie
By 11.27.09
Reader and admitted Geek Squad employee Mike says he and his girlfriend rented and returned The Ugly Truth at Blockbuster, but the floundering rental chain insists it can’t find the movie so his girlfriend is stuck with late fees that Blockbuster supposedly did away with years ago. [More]
Sony Hunts For Morons Willing To Pay $25 To Rent A Movie
By 11.12.09
Has Sony got a deal for you if you’ve got a Sony Bravia HDTV that can connect to the internet: Rent Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 30 days early for the low, low price of $24.95. Movie blogger Colin Boyd gushes about the fantastic offer on his site (citing a ZDNet story), Get the Big Picture:
Netflix Will Screw You For The Right Price
By 11.11.09
Hollywood studios are sick of you renting their DVDs and want you to start buying them again. The way to trick you into this, they figure, is to withhold the discs from rental companies for a month, forcing you to get all antsy and run out and buy them.
You Will Probably Never See A Blockbuster SD-Card Kiosk
By 11.10.09
Here’s an idea: When your top rivals are renting dirt-cheap DVDs from ubiquitous kiosks, or streaming thousands of films as a free bonus to customers who rent mail-order rmovies, what do you do? If you’re Blockbuster, you start a trial run of kiosks that will allow consumers to rent DRM-protected videos on SD cards, and play them back using a proprietary box that will do nothing else. Yeah, that’ll show ’em.
MPAA Asks FCC For Control Of Your TV's Analog Outputs
By 11.9.09
The Motion Picture Association of American wants to rent movies to TV viewers earlier in the release window, but they don’t want anyone potentially streaming that video out to other appliances. That’s why last week they went back to the FCC to once again ask for the power to disable analog ports on consumer television sets.
Rent Someone's Home On Your Next Vacation
By 10.30.09
The next time you travel to another city, it might be cheaper, or at least more interesting, to rent directly from a local homeowner. Cool Tools says Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO.com) is a great way to find rental opportunities when you travel.
Would You Live With Ghosts For Cheaper Rent? 69% Would
By 10.27.09
Rent.com conducted a survey that found more than 2/3 of renters ain’t afraid of no ghosts, and would live with them as long as they got a hefty discount on rent.
Woman Arrested For Keeping Rented Movies 10 Years Past Due Date
By 10.5.09
A woman in Iowa was arrested last week for the theft of three video tapes from a local video store. She rented them in May of 1998, and a charge was filed against her in September of that same year after she repeatedly neglected to return them.
Rumor: Game Crazy To Close 200 Locations
By 9.29.09
Joystiq reported last night that Game Crazy “plans to close 200 of its approximately 680 locations at the end of October.” There’s no official list of which stores are closing yet, so feel free to ask your local Game Crazy employees and see if you can scare them.
Comcast Raising Cable Modem Rental Fees This Fall
By 9.16.09
Comcast is going to start rolling out a $2 fee hike across the country this fall, which means your cable modem rental fee will go from $3 to $5 by the end of the year. Comcast says they absolutely have to do this or they’ll never be able to pay for service and equipment upgrades, which makes us wonder how the poor underfunded company manages to stay afloat at all.
Ryder Refunds Customer $120 For Forcing Him Into U-Haul's Arms
By 8.25.09
Jesse, who wrote to us last week to complain about Ryder’s broken guarantee, has contacted us again with a follow up. We also spoke with Ryder directly to ask how their “Guaranteed Availability” promise actually works, so that future customers know what to expect.
Redbox Sues Warner Bros. And Asks For Help From Consumers
By 8.20.09
Concerned that rentals are hacking into DVD sales profits, Warner Bros. has restricted rental companies such as Redbox and Neftlix from offering its movies until 28 days after movies hit retail shelves.
Zipcar Apologizes For Terrible Experience
By 8.19.09
Jen, who was left stranded in another city recently when her Zipcar lost its zip, managed to get through to the New York area general manager for Zipcar this morning:
Zipcar Ceases To Zip For Temporarily Stranded Customer
By 8.19.09
We’ve always heard good things about Zipcar—the biggest complaint from friends here in NYC is that reserving one in the summer requires a lot of patience. Jen and her friend, however, just had an experience that was so bad that Jen finally had to dispute the charges on her card, and now she says she’ll never do business with them again. Based on her encounter with them, we think she has a good reason to feel that way.
Ryder's "Guaranteed Availability" Does Not Guarantee Availability
By 8.17.09
If you saw this image on the Ryder website, you might think that it means two things: that they guarantee some sort of vehicle availability to customers, and that they will make sure you are satisfied with your experience. You would be wrong. Update: Ryder has responded to Jesse’s complaint.
Students Can Use Internet To Rent Textbooks Rather Than Buy Them
By 8.7.09
The college textbook racket is a cruel exploitation of a captive market, and book prices seem to rise faster than Google stock.
Deciphering Netflix Pricing Strategy
By 8.4.09
If you’ve found Netflix’s pricing pyramid a bit tough to unravel, you’re not alone. The cost of renting 3 DVDs is $17/month, whereas 6 DVDs is $36 (16.99 and 35.99, to be precise, but we don’t count pennies here). Similarly, 4 DVDs is $24/month, 8 is $48. By traditional economies of scale, this may not make much sense: Getting 6 DVDs costs MORE than getting two 3 DVD subscriptions. And getting 8 DVDs isn’t any cheaper than getting two 4 DVD plans.
