Up until this month, I had used only Blockbuster Express and had success with that. Since, I am a Smiley360 member (If you’d like to join Smiley360, join via my link!), I was given a mission for a free Redbox rental and to share my opinions of it. Awesome! I was excited and since I got this right before the holidays, I waited until January to utilize my freebie.

I thought I was following the directions to get my movie for free, per the mission…but…I must not have been. Here’s how it went: I went online and created an account. I found my local Redboxes and then picked out a movie. It said I had to rent online and then enter the code to get free…well…no place to enter a code. So, we went to the box to pick it up…and no place to enter a code when just picking up a movie. I was not happy, but we had a movie to watch for cheap…home we went. I was annoyed, but since I still had my code, figured I’d give it another try.

 Attempt two..HA! Well, since I had made my first movie purchase online, Redbox gave me a free code for my next online rental reservation. Of course, I used that…haha. Everything went fine online, and used the code…ta da free. We rode over to the box…and wouldn’t you know the box was broken! Not a single touch screen button worked on it…I slide my card…and nothing. No movie for me. I was pissed this time. I mean two times nothing is going right with my Redbox movie renting experience….when I got home I immediately went online and wrote Redbox. Then I went to their Facebook page and wrote a note there…only to see others were having a similar issue as mine (albeit different states and not really related, but wow). Amazingly, there was a wonderful person from Redbox answering people’s posts and was really courteous and apologetic and helpful. Seriously, someone was on there after 10pm at night…helping us…I can only say this impressed me and brought me out of my bad mood. A couple days later an email response appeared with an apology, said they were going ot look into the box, and gave me 2 free movie codes that do not expire for 45 days.

Redbox’s customer service made things right and really impressed me. So, with my movie codes…I went to rent again…this time with the knowledge that codes must be entered at the box at the time of rental. CHECK!

Third attempt was this Friday night past…we picked out a movie online, but did not rent it. Then we headed to the box for the rental experience. The box worked…the movie we wanted was there, and my original Smiley360 code was finally used. Ta da…success! I was a happy camper that still has 2 movie codes to use! Free movies are wonderful. Of course, my Redbox experience can’t go without some sort of error…this time it was my fault completely…we forgot to return it and I paid for a night…haha! To make myself feel better, I let Pete’s brother and his girlfriend see it before returning the movie.

So…the bottom line is…for some reason Redbox movie rentals are not going so smoothly for me…but they have a great selection of movies, they are convenient, and their customer service ROCKS! Redbox…you’ve gained a customer that will proudly tell my COMEDY OF ERRORS that got me to enjoy you!