This is just silly.

I reserved a film at Redbox online this afternoon, using the account I’ve had set up there for several months. It’s got my email address and my credit card data stored, so reserving is easy. Pick the kiosk you want to go to, pick the movie out of the selection at the kiosk, and go get it. Slide your credit card into the kiosk’s reader and take your movie. Nothing could be simpler.

Unless the machine’s broken. I got there, hit the “Reservation Pickup” button, slid my card, and got an error message. “Redbox is unable to identify a movie reserved with that card. Could you have used a different card? If not, please call 1.866.733.2693 for help.”

Grrr. It’s the correct card, so I call the number and get some poor schmoo working the weekend shift who, after taking down my info, comes to the conclusion that the machine is broken. He says he’ll send me a couple of promo codes to make up for the hassle, but I can’t get a movie out of the box.

Okay. I don’t feel like driving out of my way to the next nearest kiosk location, so I resign myself to the idea that there’ll be no movie tonight. I got home and he has sent me the promo codes and there’s no movie in my cart, so hopefully I don’t get charged the $0.70 (I had a promo code which reduced the price from $1.20 down to that), and I have a couple of free or reduced-price movies in the future. I guess I can’t complain about the service, but I’d rather have had the flick.