This past Friday, I was sitting around without much going on, seeing how I’m unemployed and such. I decided that I should open a Redbox account so I could rent the new WWE 2K14 game. Earlier in the week I almost bought the game outright, but somehow managed to show some self-restraint and decided that I should try the game first before diving in with a purchase. I figured that I could play it a few hours, get a feel for it and then decide if I wanted to spend my hard earned gift card from Discover on it.
I haven’t owned or even played a wrestling game in quite some time. I find that these games slightly improve from year to year and there just wasn’t enough substance to warrant a purchase in years past. I barely use my PS3 to play video games as it is now. It has turned into my television viewing device as I use it mostly for watching Netflix and Hulu Plus.
The newest incarnation of the WWE game has something that I have been clamoring for though, old school wrestlers. As a kid, I grew up loving wrestling and it still has a soft spot in my heart. Just ask my box set of the first fifteen WrestleMania’s on VHS. In this game I could wrestle as Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Macho Man Randy Savage and many more. What a selling point!
I finished filling out all the necessary information for my Redbox, reserved a copy of the game at the Price Chopper just up the street and swiftly set forth to pick-up said game. Even though I signed up for Redbox solely for the purpose of playing this game, I figured with so much time on my hands, maybe I would start watching movies, or trying out new games here and there since I rarely watch movies or play new games.
I made my way home and took care of a few loose ends for the day before I knew I would be dedicating hours to playing this game. I finished my tasks, grabbed myself a beer and pried open the plastic case. Much to my chagrin, what I found inside was not the game itself, but a photocopy of the game cut out to fit within the confines of the plastic case. What a bummer! Though disappointed, I couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. Someone out there loved this game so much that they went through the trouble of photocopying a disc. I have never seen that or even had the thought cross my mind. I’ll also admit that I thought it was also a little ingenious.
One of the first things to cross my mind was that I needed to contact Redbox and bring this to their attention; lest I be the one blamed for doing it once I returned the game. I hopped on the Redbox website and began chatting with one of their customer service representatives. Needless to say it didn’t go as I had thought it would. Though I will admit that I became more dick-ish as our conversation proceeded; working in retail has made my critique of the customer service I receive razor sharp.
The lady on the other end of the computer offered me one free rental and suggested that I travel to another Redbox to get the game I wanted and the free rental would cover the cost of the game. The next closest Redbox to me is five miles away and I asked if they would pay for my gas as well (dick-ish). That didn’t go over so smoothly. I was told I could go back to the terminal near my apartment and rent a different movie or game until the fake game was replaced. By this point, I was having none of it; especially after the suggestion that I waste gas, and therefore money, to go and use my free rental. If I have to spend money to get something for free, that doesn’t constitute “free” in my book (The Book of Ponds). It was at this point that I just asked for my refund of $2.16 and that my account be terminated. I figured I have survived this long without a Redbox account; I can probably go on without one. Thus, my relationship with Redbox ended. It was a crazy two hours. 
Perry Ponds 