Blockbuster Express

Have you guys heard of or used the new Blockbuster Express? Well if not, it's Blockbuster's recent development to compete with RedBox. The main difference is that they have way fewer locations to rent from, but they do get some movies before RedBox does.

Anyway, last night marked my first opportunity to return a DVD to this machine on my own. I've gone with Jake before to pick them out, but he always takes them back. So in an effort to be helpful I decided to run up to return it before he got home. It started pouring when I got there and after watching the onscreen demo and selecting the "more time" option over and over again, I gave up... movie not returned. I know that may sound funny, but with the pounding rain and zero progress after several return attempts I was so frustrated I just had to walk away.

Once home, I decided to check out their website and see if there were more clear directions for returning the movie. I promise, the demo they showed depicted a case that does not resemble the actual DVD case- making it very hard to see which end goes in first, which side faces up, etc. I searched their website and even YouTube to no avail. Embarrassed, I knew I had to go back and try again. How could I actually explain to Jake that I couldn't figure out how to return it? I couldn't, so I headed back for round two. After somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes of trying I still had no success. I brought it inside to ask the clerk if there was a trick to getting it to work and he just referred me to the on-screen demo. Frustrated, I got back in my car and went home.

As soon as Jake got home I confessed my struggle, and to my surprise he told me he always has trouble with it too! What a relief! He tried taking it back himself that night and also had no luck!

Turns out the machine was actually broken... confidence restored!