Redbox DVD rental a satisfying experience for this techie
Last week I decided to try the Redbox DVD rental service. For those of you unfamiliar with Redbox, I’m referring to the new DVD rental service that has recently popped up at many McDonald’s locations.
The service works like this. You walk up to the Redbox kiosk (some are inside McDonald’s, some are outside), and touch the video screen to begin. At this point, the screen displays a list of all of the DVDs that are currently available for rental at your particular kiosk. You can click on a specific movie title to find out more details about the movie.
Once you have selected a movie, you swipe your credit card for payment and wait for the payment to process. If the payment is accepted, a plastic case containing the DVD you selected pops out of the side of the kiosk.
You are free to keep the DVD as long as you wish. The cost is currently $1.00 per night plus tax. If you do not return the DVD after 25 days, consider it yours for $25.00 plus tax.
Fairly painless
My experience with the entire Redbox rental process was fairly painless. I say fairly because the payment process took 2-3 minutes which made me think that something wasn’t working (trouble in noobieland). I’m not sure if the wait time was due to a slow connection to the credit card processor or because this was my first time renting. I guess I’ll have to wait until I rent my second Redbox DVD, which I definitely plan on doing.
Other than the lengthy payment processing time, it was easy to select and rent a DVD. And returning the DVD the next day was equally easy, especially since you are allowed to return the DVD to any Redbox location-great for travelers.
One other nice feature of Redbox rentals. You can log on to your account on their web site and request that a specific movie be delivered to the Redbox kiosk location of your choice. I’ll make a mental note to try this with my next rental.
