People actually use those things?

I hate these greedy farks. I'm unsubscribing from them. I'm deleting my account. This is so much bullshiat. fark.

Happy Hours: LegacyDL: People actually use those things?

I see them sometimes when I go to buy cigarettes - yes, some of us actually still smoke too. I laugh at them. They probably think I'm stupid for buying cigarettes. I keep the minimum wage workers at 7-11 employed. I'm an important part of this economy.

Hell, one carton of cigarettes these days probably pays their salary for a month.

No, one carton of cigarettes keeps the state from defaulting on its bonds for a month. "Sin taxes" are basically the only taxes that any state that isn't hard-Left can increase without generating too much popular outrage...

Their video games are remaining the same price: $2 a night. Which is still a good deal.

Good thing their movies suck on ice, negating any real purpose to getting them.

Redbox, I liked your 99 cent DVD's because I don't want farking streaming video. If I did, I would have got it from Netflix or Amazon or Apple already. It was a simple and beautiful thing: a recent movie I hadn't seen, grabbed on a whim while at the grocery or drugstore, and I can return it anyplace in town. At 99 cents, hell, I might keep it an extra day if I feel like it. Shiat. Now you wanna gouge like Netflix, moreover, you've brought your price point up close enough to what the local mom and pop video chain charge, that I might as well go back there again.

Way to fark up a good thing.

Oh wow. Goodbye redbox, never getting a penny from me again.

good thing I can still rent 3 movies with a SILVER DIME!

netringer:

(YeahIknow you can only pay with a credit card.)

No, I use my debit card.
Anything with a Visa or MC logo.

BallZach: I hate these greedy farks. I'm unsubscribing from them. I'm deleting my account. This is so much bullshiat. fark.

You'll get over it

Jeez, a quarter more to see if a movie I'm so-so on it or didn't want to spend $20 in the theater? How do these monster live with themselves?!?

Oh crap, 21 cents. That's going to increase my movie rental costs by almost a whole dollar per month. I'm doomed.

[Ahjeeznotthisshiatagain.jpg]

/Redbox is the new Netflix.

Ken VeryBigLiar: Jeez, a quarter more to see if a movie I'm so-so on it or didn't want to spend $20 in the theater? How do these monster live with themselves?!?

You can even stick it to them by reserving online rather than thumbing through the crappy family movies left in the machine each weekend night!

LegacyDL: People actually use those things?

I do occasionally. You can also used them to buy used DVDs on the cheap.

Duh, is this really surprising anyone? The movie rights owners are now extorting money out of these people by demanding more with the thought that they dont deserve profit off our work.

Occupy Redbox

Why do people take these price increases so personally? I mean, yeah, I get it, none of us want to pay more for stuff but... some people act as if the companies do these things ONLY to piss people off...

(I left Netflix, and will be leaving BoA after my next paycheck, but I never assumed they made dumb decisions specifically to hurt me, ergo I don't really have an emotional reaction...)

Oh good, another streaming service to ignore.
I liked Redbox until the studios got all pissy and put a delay on selling rental copies to it. Instead they signed a more lucrative deal with Blockbuster which got new releases the week they came out. That would be great except Blockbuster rental kiosks charged $6 for one night with a new release.

\To be fair, that movie was Black Swan and it was very much worth the $6 I spent on it.

SamFlagg: Alright.........see this is the part I never quite understand in economical discussions..........we as consumers want everything to be as low cost as possible......then we as workers complain that we don't get paid enough. In general we would like our salaries to rise, but in specific we would like everyone in the economy who renders us service to earn as low a wage as possible so that we don't have to pay more for it.

Am I understanding this right?

The problem here is that people can't make a connection between "I stand with the 99%" and "I'LL KILL MYSELF IF THE PRICE OF THINGS I WANT INCREASES A PENNY"

Granted, it's not that simple and there is a hidden middle man (the 1%, usually) taking your money in the latter.

taxandspend: Oh good, another streaming service to ignore.

wat

Britney Spear's Speculum: taxandspend: Oh good, another streaming service to ignore.

wat

I use two streaming services: Hulu (free version) and Dish Online (my folks have Dish so I just use their online log-in). No need for Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu+ and any other ones.
With the exception of Dexter, every show I watch on TV can be enjoyed for free. As for movies, when I had Netflix it usually didn't have what I wanted to watch, so most of the time I end up watching a documentary about food.

Blame the film studios.

taxandspend: Oh good, another streaming service to ignore.
I liked Redbox until the studios got all pissy and put a delay on selling rental copies to it. Instead they signed a more lucrative deal with Blockbuster which got new releases the week they came out. That would be great except Blockbuster rental kiosks charged $6 for one night with a new release.

\To be fair, that movie was Black Swan and it was very much worth the $6 I spent on it.

Wow. I hear of a better deal. You look at the internet for 5 minutes, find the movie you want, wait 1 hour, and there it is. AND no DRM or ads!!!

The ability to pay for this convenience is still being held up by the studios, but the functionality is still there.

I like the word "pissy."

Case in point: Avoid any DVD rental services that are colored red.

More BLOOD FOR THE STUDIO GODS!

Candygram4Mongo: The problem isn't that you're charging 20% more to rent the latest movies.

The problem is today's movies suck.


I used Redbox once to rent How to Train Your Dragon when a nephew was visiting. Ever since establishing my acct back then, about a year ago, they haven't really had anything I wanted to see when I looked.

So, yeah, in for a dollar, out for free!

Someone explain this to me? Why is there a 30 day delay on the Redbox films? Is it because they get their DVDs directly from the studio at a reduced rate in return for holding off 30 days?

I'm going to reserve judgement until I see if the CEO comes off as pretentious when he explains this price hike. The quality and price of the service matters little to me compared to how I personally feel about the people in charge. If they don't strike me as cool people I would want to have a beer with, I just don't want to give them my money.

SunsetLament: Someone explain this to me? Why is there a 30 day delay on the Redbox films? Is it because they get their DVDs directly from the studio at a reduced rate in return for holding off 30 days?

The studios want the delay so that consumers will be more likely to buy the movie rather than rent it (if they wish to watch it as soon as it gets to disk). If Redbox didn't bow down to this, the distributors would refuse to sell to Redbox directly, forcing them to procure movies through different channels at higher costs.

Vendain: SunsetLament: Someone explain this to me? Why is there a 30 day delay on the Redbox films? Is it because they get their DVDs directly from the studio at a reduced rate in return for holding off 30 days?

The studios want the delay so that consumers will be more likely to buy the movie rather than rent it (if they wish to watch it as soon as it gets to disk). If Redbox didn't bow down to this, the distributors would refuse to sell to Redbox directly, forcing them to procure movies through different channels at higher costs.

Except these people have already waited months after the movie has been out in theaters. Why wouldn't they wait another month?

Oh wait, movie studio logic. It's not supposed to make sense. Nevermind.

netringer: The Durbin amendment caused a price increase?

How does limiting what the bank can charge the merchant for use of the debit card force the merchant to raise prices?

The point was that the retailer should stop making every one pay the hidden cost of debit card transactions, so Redbox raised the prices or every customer to cover the cost of debit card transactions?

This is what I'm confused with, too. Can somebody smarter than me explain this?

Vendain: SunsetLament: Someone explain this to me? Why is there a 30 day delay on the Redbox films? Is it because they get their DVDs directly from the studio at a reduced rate in return for holding off 30 days?

The studios want the delay so that consumers will be more likely to buy the movie rather than rent it (if they wish to watch it as soon as it gets to disk). If Redbox didn't bow down to this, the distributors would refuse to sell to Redbox directly, forcing them to procure movies through different channels at higher costs.

Is it public knowledge how much of a discount RedBox is getting (ballpark figure) from the various movie studios to push the wait off a month? At some point, it might be economically feasible to tell Paramount, Warner Brothers, etc to fark off and just cut a deal with WalMart or Target to buy them in bulk.

SunsetLament: Vendain: SunsetLament: Someone explain this to me? Why is there a 30 day delay on the Redbox films? Is it because they get their DVDs directly from the studio at a reduced rate in return for holding off 30 days?

The studios want the delay so that consumers will be more likely to buy the movie rather than rent it (if they wish to watch it as soon as it gets to disk). If Redbox didn't bow down to this, the distributors would refuse to sell to Redbox directly, forcing them to procure movies through different channels at higher costs.

Is it public knowledge how much of a discount RedBox is getting (ballpark figure) from the various movie studios to push the wait off a month? At some point, it might be economically feasible to tell Paramount, Warner Brothers, etc to fark off and just cut a deal with WalMart or Target to buy them in bulk.

Mathematically, the bulk discount must be quite large... if each machine holds around 500 discs, there are over 25000 machines deployed currently. 12500000 discs at any given time. If bucking the system increases Redbox's cost by even $.50 a disc the number adds up quickly.

The wait time is not preventing these machines from selling out their new releases, so it's questionable as to whether removing it would result in higher profits.

Vendain: SunsetLament: Someone explain this to me? Why is there a 30 day delay on the Redbox films? Is it because they get their DVDs directly from the studio at a reduced rate in return for holding off 30 days?

The studios want the delay so that consumers will be more likely to buy the movie rather than rent it (if they wish to watch it as soon as it gets to disk). If Redbox didn't bow down to this, the distributors would refuse to sell to Redbox directly, forcing them to procure movies through different channels at higher costs.

I don't get this. For me, I'm not buying a DVD unless I've seen the movie and enjoyed it enough that I may want to watch it at any time on a whim. So far in my life there have only been about 20. Is this maybe to avoid the "burn and return" trick being played by those who must possess a physical copy of a movie the moment it arrives on disc?

Chevello: I don't get this. For me, I'm not buying a DVD unless I've seen the movie and enjoyed it enough that I may want to watch it at any time on a whim. So far in my life there have only been about 20. Is this maybe to avoid the "burn and return" trick being played by those who must possess a physical copy of a movie the moment it arrives on disc?

I really think it's just part of their strategy of milking every tit until it's not only dry, but crusty red and bleeding, before moving on to the next nipple. I don't know that your burn and return folks are really cutting into profits that much.

If the movie industry had their way, there would be no rental industry.

thisisanoutrage.jpg

Ken VeryBigLiar: Jeez, a quarter more to see if a movie I'm so-so on it or didn't want to spend $20 in the theater? How do these monster live with themselves?!?

This, an extra quarter is not going to break me. Between netflix (download) and redbox I am still covered movie wise,

Sigh. I've said it before, but not on Fark, not that I expect anyone to really listen.

We're not actually flipping out about $0.20. We're flipping out over price increases for what very much appears to be no practical reason besides greed.

Rant and rave about supply & demand all you want. The fact is that "Redbox", "Bank of America", "Netflix", and all the rest are entities with huge swaths of black ink on their balance sheets. We, their disenfranchised customers, are getting redder and redder every month.

They already have lots of profit, relative to the scale on which we as individuals perceive money. Therefore it seems (and may be, I'm not really positive yet) manifestly unfair, greedy, and shady to continually (and, of late, frequently) raise prices and not change the service or product one whit.

It's still "more money for the people rolling in money already, sourced from the people rapidly watching all their money vanish".

Is it really that hard to understand the outrage now? It's a SYMPTOM, not a problem in and of itself. Things are finally bad enough in America that even a tiny price increase in a luxury service (with, admittedly, mass appeal) is front-page news, and cause for much hand-wringing and angst.

Now, this strikes me as a cultural thing, tied up with corporate rights as people (sociopathic, monomaniac, profit-obsessed, extremely wealthy people who can't be imprisoned or sanctioned in any way besides fines and injunctions, and often not even that). It's like you have a rich uncle who pays you a huge "allowance" just for asking... but kills orphans to do it. Always out of your sight, of course, and, for some reason, the cops can't actually arrest him for it. Wouldn't you find a reason to forget the orphans and keep taking the "allowance"? This is what it means now to be a corporate executive in America. Transference of guilt.

Anger and outrage, hopefully constructively applied, at actions like this is the only way our culture will eventually change into one where it is unacceptable to take profit simply because it is possible, with no thought to the wider or longer-term consequences of impoverishing your customers, or contributing to the general impoverishment of a nation.

And yes, pricing even a luxury like entertainment out of the range of the poor DOES impoverish us all, it fractures our culture, keeping us separate and afraid of the different-looking folks that live on the other side of town.

I had Netflix. I wasn't really using the DVD service so I canceled that when the price went up and kept streaming. Then the thing about only one stream at a time came out just as fall and winter were coming and my wife and I were both more likely to be watching different things at the same time. So I canceled that before they alerted everyone that it was a "mistake".

So then I thought I'd use Redbox, but the only one nearby never actually has anything in it except crappy kids cartoons because everything else is already out.

Now I read books.

/ fark the movie and video game industries

It's only 20 cents.... yet it's a 20% price increase. Depends on which way you look at it, could be nothing or could be a large increase.

$2 a day for a game is a good deal?! Heck Gamefly is way cheaper than that a month.

LegacyDL: People actually use those things?

Yes. And they are strategically placed by the exits so that I have to blunder through the cows sitting there staring at the screen like it's the first time they've been to McDonald's.