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Redbox Streaming Service To Shut Down October 7th

Posted by Soulskill on from the if-you're-going-to-copy,-at-least-try-to-do-it-well dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Redbox, the company behind the giant red boxes at malls and grocery stores that dispense DVD and game rentals, partnered with Verizon in 2013 to launch a video streaming service to compete with Netflix. This naturally led to accusations that Verizon was throttling Netflix to tilt the scales in favor of Redbox. Well, as of Tuesday, they're packing it in. Redbox's streaming service will shut down at the end of the day on October 7th. They'll be refunding all current customers, though that number took a hit over the past several months as a credit card fraud problem caused Redbox to shut down their billing servers. This meant no new customers could sign up, and existing customers couldn't renew their subscriptions.

10 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Customers by Dan+East · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you can't let your customers send you money, then there's not much point in being in business. Also, whoever was responsible for setting up their payment system won't be laying claim to that fact in their advertising and testimonial material.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
    1. Re:Customers by stephanruby · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you can't let your customers send you money, then there's not much point in being in business. Also, whoever was responsible for setting up their payment system won't be laying claim to that fact in their advertising and testimonial material.

      RedBox was a scam. It wasn't a technical issue that shut them down. It was most likely the number of charge-backs that did. I'm just surprised that it took this long.

      They would frequently email you rental coupon codes that allowed you to rent a movie for free (which really, was the only reason I'd get a movie from them, their selection was mostly B movies that you had already seen, or that you wouldn't bother to rent in the first place, so when I had a free code, I'd force myself to to go through their selection to find something I'd like). Then three months later, after having returned your movie on time three months earlier, you'd get a ridiculous charge on your credit card for not having returned the disc to the right rental kiosk.

      The main problem was that there were two kinds of red rental kiosks, sometimes they were both even in the same store. One was called RedBox. And I forget what the other was called. In theory, they were both owned by different companies, but in actual practice, they were both using red kiosks and very similar branding, they both accepted the same custom DVD plastic cases, and according to other customer complaints, both boxes were also operated and serviced by the same technicians.

      And the large fine would work both ways, you'd get a DVD from RedBox and accidentally return it to the wrong one, or you'd get a DVD from the other one and accidentally returned to RedBox (either because you were an idiot, or because you told someone else in your household to return the movie to a red box), and the drastic outcome was identical. Even thought the company had your email address on your file, it didn't bother to notify you that it didn't receive the DVD on its end. It just charged you after three months. And even thought, this problem was happening very frequently and the boxes both shared the same company that serviced them, the companies were apparently not capable of telling each other about any extra DVD they had received by mistake.

      Which is why I think this systematic failure on their end was really an intentional attempt at defrauding people. No doubt, the start up had a legitimate business model at the beginning, but once it couldn't compete on selection (even for the extra convenience and the very reasonable price of $1 a day), instead of opting for bankruptcy, it started scamming people in a systematic way.

  2. Re:I didn't know it existed... by Spy+Handler · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nobody can compete with Francis Underwood! Well you can, but you might die in a mysterious subway accident.

  3. Re:won't someone please think of the grandmas by Teresita · · Score: 2

    They already turned all the FotoMat islands in the parking lots into espresso stands, so all they have to do is figure out how to fit a barista and her stuff into a hollowed-out Redbox.

  4. Re:I didn't know it existed... by Dahamma · · Score: 2

    "I didn't know it existed..."

    I think you answered your own question in the subject...

    Competing with Netflix is "easy" - if you are willing to outspend them on advertising and content while offering streaming at a lower price, and somehow stealing their mostly satisfied customers in a near-saturated market. Doing it *profitably* is another story - which is why the giants like Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc haven't bothered trying...

  5. Throttling by nitehawk214 · · Score: 3, Informative

    This naturally led to accusations that Verizon was throttling Netflix to tilt the scales in favor of Redbox.

    Well, the accusations were just adding the reason. It was already well known that Verizon has been throttling Netflix for years.

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  6. Well by DaMattster · · Score: 2

    All I have to say is good riddance. It was a lousy service anyway and could hardly compete with Netflix. This begs the question as to why Verizon would not have teamed up with Netflix in the first place. I'm sure the two could have come to a mutually profitable agreement.

  7. Re:You know what's crazy? by WoodstockJeff · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Some people don't have a broadband connection to support streaming media. It is a lot cheaper to rent a DVD or three each month than to support a broadband connection. It doesn't make them crazy.

    Some people watch movies and other things that aren't available on streaming, but are available on DVD. It doesn't make them crazy.

    Now, it is true that there are a lot of crazy people who don't have a broadband connection. And there are a lot of crazy people who watch movies and other things that aren't available on streaming. But that doesn't imply that renting DVDs is proof of being crazy.

    It may just be a symptom!

  8. Phrasing! by fph+il+quozientatore · · Score: 2

    As a non-American: are you telling me it's not porn, with that name?

    --
    My first program:

    Hell Segmentation fault

  9. Re: I didn't know it existed... by Dahamma · · Score: 2

    As far as their original content, seems like Netflix has had the perfect combination of risk-taking, intelligent choices, and a bit of luck.

    I read an interview with Kevin Spacey where he said after pitching House of Cards to all of the network and cable channels with lukewarm reception, Netflix jumped all over it. Not only that, when they said, "ok, we'll go film a pilot", Netflix said, "pilot? Forget that, here's $100M, go film a full season. Oh, and we won't mess with your creative vision, we trust you."

    Just like more and more traditional "movie" actors are doing TV because HBO, Showtime, AMC, etc have allowed TV to be smart and edgy (and the filing schedules and promotions are mud mrs relaxed, etc), if you give producers and actors support and creative freedom they are going to start experimenting a lot more with streaming original content.

    Then again, Netflix has basically stated they want to be the next HBO (and HBO is becoming a significant streaming service). Wouldn't be surprised if 5 years from now you couldn't tell the difference between the two - $10-15/mo subscriptions with a mix of original and licensed content...