GRRRR

if you had hardly any money in the bank and are on unemployment you
shouldnt be wasting what you do have on movies. Its irrisponsible to
be reserving movies, obviously if you bounced a one dollar movie, not
to mention 3!!, you should have known that if reservations were free,
you still couldnt afford to actually rent it.

I'm willing to bet that if you overdraft your account when you pay
your Netflix fees, you'll still be charged an overdraft fee.

From the sound of your letter, there was less than $1 in your account
when you put in the reservation. You state that Redbox charged you 3
separate transactions, each for $1 plus tax, and each transaction
resulted in an overdraft fee. Not a good practice to use your card
for any reason when there is so little money in the account.

Seems to me that the problem isn't with Redbox, it's with whomever is
responsible for keeping track of the balance on the account the debit
card is on.

Furthermore, although money is tight these days, the OP authorized the
$3.00 charge before he verified that his unemployment check had
posted.

you need to keep better tabs on your balance.
Running it that low is just setting the OP up for overdrafts.

hell i'll be honest, this past month i thought was going to be leaner
than 95% fat free ground beef, especially after i paid for my car to
be repaired.


i mentally sat aside the money i'd need for my expected bills (mainly
rent) and frivolous spending was put to an absolute minimum. even
groceries were only the basics. and i'll be honest... i'm not so
proud that i won't drink powdered milk if i have to - just pre-mix it
and chill it in the fridge and it tastes drinkable. (yes i have some
on standby for emergencies or baking)

movie renting was cut off until i knew for sure it was something i
could afford. and now that i know i will survive the month, renting
is back on the menu but... i've been getting mostly older movies.
(basically all of the Dune flicks and some old star trek movies).

my boyfriend was surprised i didn't buy a new movie i wanted but, as i
told him... it'll still be there later. besides i have a ton of books
to read.


and the idea bout the library... good point. i'm not sure how beat up
the local library's dvds are but hey, free is free. i can afford
free.

=)

Easy rule to live by, if you give your credit card information out
online it will be charged, always be prepared for it.

Also, always check your account BEFORE making a purchase, not after.

Instead of Netflix maybe you or your wife should check your local
library. Our library is filled with VHS tapes and DVDs that you can
take out for free (with a library card). They have lots of material
for children, and you can keep them for five days. I think you can
even renew online if necessary.

You might not be as lucky with your library, but you won't know until
you find out. It's worth looking into, don't you think? You can even
pick up some books for the kids while you're there.

They didn't force you to do anything. You didn't pay attention to the
policies, and that isn't their fault. Nothing "crappy" or "Scum"
about it.

What you think they should do doesn't matter. What they do does.

Per the FAQ's at redbox.com

Am I charged from the minute I click "RENT ONLINE NOW"?

Yes. But, once you've received your confirmation email, you're
guaranteed that your title will be at redbox when you get there. Sure
your buck could've earned .000006381 cents in a money market account
during those 5 hours, but imagine how much more relaxed you'll be
knowing you have your movie waiting for you.

but you assumed that there would be no charge for a reservation and
that assumption turned out to be wrong.

How is that Redbox OR the bank's fault?

Look at it this way: suppose someone reserves all the DVDs at a
location. This prevents anyone else from getting one.

So, to ensure that people actually want the DVDs they reserve, they
need to charge you.

Now, as for the fact that a $1 DVD turned into $30. It sounds like
that's due to the fact that, with a debit card, they put a "hold" for
$30 to ensure that they'll get paid if the DVD isn't returned. This
is a reason not to use a debit card (or a credit card near its limit)
with things like this.

This said, $1 DVDs do sound like a cheap form of entertainment. Much
better to spend $1 for the entirely family to watch a movie, than $12
for a theater ticker for one person.

I use redbox all the time, and what you had happen to you (how the
online res's are billed) is made very clear on the site. As a
consumer, it is your responsibility to look into things-and it is not
like this information is in tiny print at the bottom of the
screen-it's right there! This is actually exactly what it says when
you go to reserve the movie:

"By clicking "Checkout" I understand that my credit card will be
charged for my first night's rental plus tax. The rental period for my
title will begin immediately after the "Checkout" button is clicked,
and I will have until 9:00 p.m. tomorrow to view and return the DVD.
If I do not pick my DVD up by 9:00 p.m. tomorrow, it will be released
for other customers to rent. I also agree to redbox's Terms of Use."

I think they do it this way (charge up front) because the box may only
have 1 or 2 titles of each movie in it-if you could reserve it without
paying for it, it would hold it for 24 hours for you to pick it up and
not let anyone else rent it. Then you don't pick it up. They just in
theory have lost out on the sale of anyone else who wanted to rent
that particular movie from the machine. When the charge you up front,
it gives you incentive to pick up the movie.

I do find it annoying that you can't reserve more than 1 movie at a
time, it has to be a seperate transaction, but only from a
user-friendly stance.

I don't think they will or should do anything for you. It is your
responsiblity to make sure you have enough $$ in your account to cover
whatever it is you are purchasing.