Red Box Block

My husband and I used the redbox last night for the first time. We rented "Swing Vote." I gave it a C+ and Phillip gave it a solid B+.

If you're not familiar with redbox, it's a red box - literally - that dispenses movies for $1 each. The movies are due back by 9 p.m. the next night. The redbox has all of the new releases that Blockbuster and Netflix have, but for a much cheaper price, which may explain why some of the Blockbuster stores are closing.

There are more than 12,000 redboxes across the United States. It's convenient to just run into your local grocery store, Wal-Mart, etc. and select a movie. The box spits it out. And it should be just as easy to return the movie.

But when I went into my local grocery store tonight, I couldn't immediately return the movie because the redbox was full. 

What?!

A message appeared on the screen indicating that the redbox wasn't accepting videos because it was full. I was instructed to find another redbox. It was 10 minutes to 9 p.m. and I didn't know where the next closest redbox was.

Yes, the late fee would have only been $1, but it's the principle that the redbox should be convenient, but it wasn't. 

A second after I received the "I'm too full to eat another video" message, another customer walked up. I asked him to go ahead of me because if he rented a video, the redbox would hopefully accept mine.

It did.

I lucked up tonight with the customer walking up right after me. But I would have had to pay an unnecessary late fee if I would have missed the deadline for no fault of mine. 

I understand that redbox is new, but I hope the execs are working out the kinks to make returning videos as easy as it is to rent them.