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Redbox Raises Its Prices To $1.20 Per Day
nixkuroi writes "Redbox, apparently not having noticed the backlash against Netflix, has decided to charge its customers 20% more per day. Though there will be a discounted grace period for the first day of rental until Nov. 30 2011, the full pricing increase will kick into effect on December 1."
The price of everything else is up 20% in the past few years (other than salaries), so why not Redbox? Netflix raised their base price 60%, and fumbled with Qwickster - different story.
It would be great if the value of the dollar were stable, but it's not, so prices rise. Thanks, Helicopter Ben.
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Just like with Netflix, I understand there is a cost of doing business. The costs for these companies to pay for content is rising, and the means to deliver it is getting more expensive. I am willing to pay for it until it reaches a price I feel is too high, then I'm free to cancel. Why get angry?
It's a luxury item, if you can't afford it don't do it. That simple.
Redboxes do not operate on cash, you pay with a credit card. That way, if you never return the movie, they can just charge your card for the full price and be done with it.
No. They don't take coins, so it doesn't really matter what they charge. You have to pay with a card. Incidentally, we've found they're great on multi-day road trips with the kids, you can pick up a movie at a RedBox when you stop for lunch, the kids can watch it, and you can return it the next day 800 miles from where you rented it.
I don't see this as an inflation response, nor is it a fair comparison to Netflix. Redbox is a la carte. You subscribe to nothing. Use it a little, a lot, or not at all.
As they built out their system $1 was a simple price point, easy to advertise and a good entry point. Now they have a business model and usage metrics. $1.20 is a price point that they probably think is sustainable and will generate revenue and profit.
I like Redbox and probably use it 3-5 times a month. It's easy to grab something for the family and just as easy to return to about 10 different boxes within 2 miles of my home and shopping areas.
Redbox pricing change and Netflix erstwhile split are not really in the same league.
Netflix customers would have had to pay two membership fees monthly with the new Qwikster arrangement, a 60% increase over the prior setup. The key here is that the "service" that customers were paying for and to which they were accustomed, was being substantially modified - into two new services.
Redbox is simply raising their price, by a marginal $0.20 per rental. For heavy renters, this may be significant over the course of a month. But for most normal renters, this increase is tolerable.
Even at one rental per day, the difference over a month is only $6. If this is too much for you, perhaps you shouldn't be renting 30 DVDs a month.
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The entire business model of RedBox is based on giving away free promo codes and then charging fraudulent late fees one or two months later. So if you (or your friends) haven't used one of their free promo codes, just consider yourself and your friends lucky.
No.
The Netflix exodus wasn't just because of the price increase. People understand price increases. It was about the non-chalent contempt that they showed their customers by wording their email "don't you dare complain, the increase is less then the cost of that fancy coffee you're sucking on". The price increase was of course a big factor, but compared to renting at Blockbuster in the 90s, even with the increase Netflix is a steal. The Quickster thing was just icing, the cake was baked and burned.
It was the sort of dumbass move only someone with a job title that abbreviates to a three letter acronym could make. Speaking as the CEO of a small company, I'd say that the brass had their heads so far up their own asses that they honestly couldn't see what was going to happen. My advice: if you're the CEO, you owe it to the company to spend at least 3 hours a day doing customer service or tech support, so that you know what the people you are serving want. Even if you can't give it to them, you know what to shoot for. Otherwise, you can let a singe sentence slide (the latte thing in Netflix case) and ruin a business hundreds or thousands of people have worked tirelessly on.
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