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I had a terrible experience with Redbox, I liked the idea of avoiding the teenagers at Blockbuster, but when I rented a movie it was unplayable because it was s

by nym 17y ago

I had a terrible experience with Redbox, I liked the idea of avoiding the teenagers at Blockbuster, but when I rented a movie it was unplayable because it was scratched beyond repair. I suppose I could have contacted their customer service reps, but at the price of a rental vs. my time it just didn't make sense. On the other hand, I wish I had shares in their company.

idoh 17y ago
No need to wish, they are part of a publicly traded company, cstr (Redbox is owned by Coinstar). http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:CSTR http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:CSTR
- jfarmer 17y ago
  Which is also one of those "Why didn't I think of it?" companies. Coinstar makes machines you dump your change into and, for a percent of the transaction, prints out paper bills. Free money! You build the machine, give the store a percent of the cut, and every (non-premium) store will let you put one of those up front. They're in every Safeway I've ever been in. I'd expect to see them in Wal-Marts, Targets, etc. too.
  - me2i81 17y ago
    It has to pay the store well enough to cover the cost of the Safeway manager standing in front of the machine, scratching his head when it jams up.
    - philwelch 17y ago
      Really? Vending machines, pay phones, and coin-op laundry machines are all the same business model, and typically, that business model involves the owner of wherever the thing is installed calling the owner/operator of the machine when it breaks down instead of fixing it yourself. My landlord knows nothing about fixing the washer and dryer in my apartment building, that much is for sure. All the head-scratching should probably boil down to "put an out of order sign on it and call Coinstar" at worst.
philwelch 17y ago
There's no obvious solution to the tragedy of the commons for Redbox and scratched discs: people will probably lie about scratched discs to get a free return or new movie if you make it an automated system, but people will also scratch discs themselves and not report it. Netflix has a lot of these problems solved just by virtue of their membership model: they can probably write off the scratched discs people return because of how secure their revenue stream is, and all you get from falsely reporting a scratched disc is the same disc mailed to you. (Maybe Redbox could just give you another copy of the same disc if you report it as scratched?) On a related note, does anyone else think Redbox is angling for an acquisition by Netflix? It's almost obvious how to integrate the business models. They even have the same color!

by nym 17y ago

idoh 17y ago

No need to wish, they are part of a publicly traded company, cstr (Redbox is owned by Coinstar). http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:CSTR http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:CSTR

jfarmer 17y ago
Which is also one of those "Why didn't I think of it?" companies. Coinstar makes machines you dump your change into and, for a percent of the transaction, prints out paper bills. Free money! You build the machine, give the store a percent of the cut, and every (non-premium) store will let you put one of those up front. They're in every Safeway I've ever been in. I'd expect to see them in Wal-Marts, Targets, etc. too.
- me2i81 17y ago
  It has to pay the store well enough to cover the cost of the Safeway manager standing in front of the machine, scratching his head when it jams up.
  - philwelch 17y ago
    Really? Vending machines, pay phones, and coin-op laundry machines are all the same business model, and typically, that business model involves the owner of wherever the thing is installed calling the owner/operator of the machine when it breaks down instead of fixing it yourself. My landlord knows nothing about fixing the washer and dryer in my apartment building, that much is for sure. All the head-scratching should probably boil down to "put an out of order sign on it and call Coinstar" at worst.

philwelch 17y ago

There's no obvious solution to the tragedy of the commons for Redbox and scratched discs: people will probably lie about scratched discs to get a free return or new movie if you make it an automated system, but people will also scratch discs themselves and not report it. Netflix has a lot of these problems solved just by virtue of their membership model: they can probably write off the scratched discs people return because of how secure their revenue stream is, and all you get from falsely reporting a scratched disc is the same disc mailed to you. (Maybe Redbox could just give you another copy of the same disc if you report it as scratched?) On a related note, does anyone else think Redbox is angling for an acquisition by Netflix? It's almost obvious how to integrate the business models. They even have the same color!