Any reviews for RedBox's Online Reservations?

[NewIdentity]

I have to tell you if this works I am done with everyone else. (Netflix, Block Buster, DVD Play, and DirecTV)

My main problem with RedBox or DVDPlay is with their movie selections. It seems everytime I stop by to pick up one of their movies they are all out of stock on the current releases. I had to wait for 3 weeks to rent Push.

So, last night, Monday, around 11PM I went to RedBox.com and reserved Wolverine, so I could pick it up Tuesday after work. I will then reutrn it Wednesday night on my way home from work. And, this is all going to cost me $1.08!

I received my email telling me that my movie is there waiting for me to be picked up before Wednes day at 9PM. Does anyone know if RedBox will notify you if your movie is not available at the location you selected?

IF this works I am set.

[Alan T]

I have to tell you if this works I am done with everyone else. (Netflix, Block Buster, DVD Play, and DirecTV)

My main problem with RedBox or DVDPlay is with their movie selections. It seems everytime I stop by to pick up one of their movies they are all out of stock on the current releases. I had to wait for 3 weeks to rent Push.

So, last night, Monday, around 11PM I went to RedBox.com and reserved Wolverine, so I could pick it up Tuesday after work. I will then reutrn it Wednesday night on my way home from work. And, this is all going to cost me $1.08!

I received my email telling me that my movie is there waiting for me to be picked up before Wednes day at 9PM. Does anyone know if RedBox will notify you if your movie is not available at the location you selected?

IF this works I am set.


It does work, but remember to make sure you read what you are agreeing to. Your rental time begins at the minute you hit the checkout button. So basically once you "reserve" the movie, you actually have rented it. This is probably not a huge deal for you if you are just wanting to make sure it is there before you go pick it up. If you are caught by surprise on this however it can be annoying I'm sure.

The reserve online feature for redbox pretty much saves you a trip from going to the machine to get it yourself, but thats about it. The selection is usually just as poor as at the box, you just save yourself the trip is all.

[Alan T]

I received my email telling me that my movie is there waiting for me to be picked up before Wednes day at 9PM. Does anyone know if RedBox will notify you if your movie is not available at the location you selected?

IF this works I am set.


My morning brain doesn't work very well so re-reading my post it sounds pretty incoherent.

What I was trying to say is the reserve feature isn't as much a reserve feature as it is simply the ability to check it out from home before you go. Maybe your reservation was different because you reserved it before the movie was release, but normally they say You have until Wednesday 9pm to both pick it up and return it. You don't have until Thursday to watch it.

[NewIdentity]

My morning brain doesn't work very well so re-reading my post it sounds pretty incoherent.

Actually, I understood exactly what you were saying. When I reserved the movie last night, it was just like being at the RedBox stand buying it right then. I have until Wednesday at 9PM to pick up the movie and return it, because I have already prepaid for 1 night's rental.


I am just curious if anyone has ever not been able to reserve a movie online bacause of availability. OR, went to pick up your reserved movie and it was out of stock?

[cubboyroy1826]

I love the reserve online feature and as long as you get the DVD back before 9pm the next night you cannot beat a $1 rental.

[stevew]

They really need to revamp their model a bit. I understand that it's not a full fledged store, but it wouldn't kill them to have 4-5 copies of each new major release in the box. And then just sell down the used copies after a certain amount of rentals. My biggest issue has been the selection of films, otherwise it's great. The convenience factor is nice as well.

Although i will complain about one thing, the people who don't "get" redbox. I'll be waiting to return my movie, and invariably if I'm in a hurry there will be some moron couple in front of me browsing through the selection. Looking for things that aren't in the box.

Simply search by release date, if it's not in the place it should be, it's not available. Usually I can curb my redbox rage, but I almost snapped out one night when 2 kids literally browsed the selection, and then rebrowsed it for 10 minutes.

[Cringer]

I find it hard to have a huge problem with limited copies in a Redbox. After all, I think we have 7 within one mile of my house. Bump that up to a two mile radius and it's probably up to 20. They are everywhere, each Wal-Mart has two of them. Of course if you like going to the closest one then that can be a problem with availability sometimes, in part because of all the other ones around since you can return them at any location. Great feature of Redbox, but I can see how one machine ends up with 5 copies of a movie while the others have none.

That is where the reservation thing comes in though. I have used it once and what it did for me is it told me the closest location to my home with that movie in stock. There was no guessing on that part.

[Cringer]

They really need to revamp their model a bit. I understand that it's not a full fledged store, but it wouldn't kill them to have 4-5 copies of each new major release in the box. And then just sell down the used copies after a certain amount of rentals. My biggest issue has been the selection of films, otherwise it's great. The convenience factor is nice as well.

Although i will complain about one thing, the people who don't "get" redbox. I'll be waiting to return my movie, and invariably if I'm in a hurry there will be some moron couple in front of me browsing through the selection. Looking for things that aren't in the box.

Simply search by release date, if it's not in the place it should be, it's not available. Usually I can curb my redbox rage, but I almost snapped out one night when 2 kids literally browsed the selection, and then rebrowsed it for 10 minutes.

What I don't understand are people who do that and don't let you return your movies before they look. You may have something they want. I always let people return movies if they get there while I am or we get there at the same time.

[cubboyroy1826]

I have not had issues getting a copy of something most of the time. I think they do have multiple copies per location because periodically see them selling older titles at the Redbox.

[NewIdentity]

Slicker than shit. Everything went great. I wish I had known about this feature a long time ago.

This is also going to be cool to look up the movies I want and then be able to find out at what locations they are available.

[Shkspr]

Oh, this'll be a fun chain of events for Redbox execs. What's going to happen now is that now Redbox is making money off of people whether or not they pick up their movies. So on Tuesday night, for example, a RedBox might have four copies of Wolverine inside the box, but none of them are eligible to be checked out because they're "rented" already. Walkup traffic is going to be disappointed and walk away.

And then someone at RedBox corporate is going to do an analysis somewhere down the line, and figure out that say, 20% of people are not picking up their movies. The next logical step in the chain, therefore, is to overbook their selection so that they can charge 12 people to rent ten movies, knowing that only ten people will pick up their movie. When the eleventh person goes to pick up that movie is when the fun will begin.

Watch for it. Walkup traffic will be the first thing to die at boxes, as content is reserved remotely, and then the moment Redbox tries to doubledip to get revenue both from reserves and physical copies, they're going to go into the pooper.

I will have to see how they plan on handling reservations for Wednesday overnight given that only 30% or so films with an open return date tend to come back the next day. How do you reserve something when you don't know when the previous person will bring it back? Netflix can use the behavior of crowds, but each box only has a few copies. Are people really going to let their email tell them which of twenty boxes to pick up their movie at a day or two later? That's pretty damn sheepish.

[samifan24]

The Redbox online reserve option works really well. I love Redbox.

[bob]

How do you reserve something when you don't know when the previous person will bring it back?

I thought you could only reserve something that is physically in the machine at the time of the reservation, and only for pick up that day.

[Alan T]

I thought you could only reserve something that is physically in the machine at the time of the reservation, and only for pick up that day.


That is my understanding. Like I said, the online reservation is not a reservation really. You basically are checking out a movie that currently is in that box from your computer. Your checkout time starts the minute you "reserve" it from your computer.

As far as I know, they don't oversubscribe or any such currently.

[Shkspr]

I might have made it clearer in my original response that I'm anticipating their next move; as with any other reservation service, there will be a certain percentage of people that don't follow through and pick up the actual movie they are renting. At some point in the not-too-distant future, RedBox executives will sit there and realize that a) they've got physical copies sitting in kiosks, paid but unplayed, while b) they've got disappointed customers walking away from kiosks without the movies they want to rent. They will inevitably put two and two together and figure they can squeeze 4.5 out of what should add up to 4. (That's a 12.5% increase without additional capital outlay, you know). That's when they'll overbook; that's when they'll start queueing; that's when they'll start directing users to boxes miles away.

The real bottom line is that reserving rentals is a Netflix strategy in a business model that is closer to Blockbuster. It works great now because you're early adopters. When more people warm up to the idea, it'll go downhill fast.

[QuikSand]

When more people warm up to the idea, it'll go downhill fast.

I'm open to the notion that this might one day prove true.

But for now, I am an unabashed redbox fan. I don't rent or watch movies often enough to merit Netflix, but I love the concept and business model, and it's a great fit for me.

[RomaGoth]

I think RedBox is a good idea, and have used it several times (although not the online portion).

I still prefer Netflix. We can keep the movie as long as we want, I don't have to go to a location to pick it up, and I know whether or not the movie I want is available. If you watch a lot of movies, NetFlix is the best option. If you don't watch too many movies per month, RedBox might be a better choice. I can see where both of them could have their own customer base, with some overlap.

Regardless of which one you like, say goodbye to Blockbuster. In case nobody knew they already were going down the tubes. The days of a rental place ripping people off with excessive late fees are over (at least for Blockbuster).

Mwahahahahahahahahahaha.......:devil:

[Cuckoo]

Does RedBox have blu-ray yet? I'm absolutely hooked on blu-ray now and it's not even necessarily because of the picture quality, though that's certainly nice. Really, I'm just sick and tired of renting a DVD and not being able to watch it due to scratches thanks to some careless treatment by previous renters. If I don't start the movie until late, after the stores close, I'm pretty much screwed.

[Cringer]

Ok, had a negative Redbox Online Reservation experience just now. It's not horrible, just not as planned. Reserved a movie, ran down to pick it up. The touch screen on the box was not working (I thought maybe it was because of the rain we have right now but the other two down the road worked fine). So I got in the car and called the 800 number. They answer quickly which was nice.

The problem with them it seems is the guy said they are not given the access to do things like cancel someone's reservation. So at 9 pm tomorrow I will be charged for the movie. I was given two promo codes to make up for it though, so basically two free rentals. Not bad, but a dumb little hassle for a $.99 movie rental. When I got off the phone I ran down the street a couple blocks were they have two boxes and grabbed the movie I wanted there.