Eating my words.....on Red Box free movie codes

I have always promised my readers to approach this whole money saving game with honesty and a commitment to ethics. I have also promised to gladly "eat my words" if the facts ever proved me wrong. And I am more than happy to do just that in this case because it means MORE SAVINGS for us all!

I decided to email Red Box regarding the sharing of their free codes with others and here is their official response:

Hello,
Thank you for your email. We do encourage the codes to be shared with family and friends so it is fine that blogs and others are giving out the codes. Thanks for checking with us.

If you have any additional questions, comments, or concerns, please let us know and anyone in customer service would be more than happy to assist you.

Thank you,
Nicolette
Redbox Customer Care
1.866.REDBOX3
www.redbox.com

I would also like to offer my humble apologies to all blog owners who have been sharing these codes for accusing them of splitting hairs. While we may not ALL always agree on the best savings practices, we can always strive to respect one another.


This is my original post on 4/17/09:

I have been seriously couponing for three years now and have crossed over into addiction for the last two of those three years. And although I have always used the Internet to find deals, it was mainly through membership in a couple of different on-line communities, never through reading personal blogs.

That being said, I never thought three years ago that I'd be "blogging" myself! And I must confess that I'm learning as I go.

In an on-line community, there will always be those that march to a different drummer or are guided by different motives. And you learn to overlook quite a bit and just rest in being true to your own conscience. But blogging is different. When you own a blog, everything published on said blog reflects who you are.

For those of you who are regular readers of Simple Saving Savvy, you know that my goal is to strive for integrity and to maintain an ethical approach at all times.

This brings me to the topic of publishing certain Red Box FREE movie codes on personal blogs.

When I first started Simple Saving Savvy, I found free Red Box codes published on a couple of other blogs and I published them on my blog without blinking an eye. This was before I registered, myself, on Red Box.com.

Once I registered, this is what I found. Once you create an account with Red Box, there are a couple of different options they give you.

1) Sign-up to receive regular emails and get a FREE movie rental code.
2) Sign-up to receive text messages and receive a FREE movie rental code every Monday.

So these free codes are meant to be a "reward" for signing up to receive text messages or emails. These codes are NOT meant to be published on every blog across the nation.

Now I am well aware that everyone is able to go sign up for themselves and receive the same codes. But here's a case scenario:

Say someone does not have unlimited text messaging on their phone. Let's say they do not sign up for text messages from Red Box but they do rent movies from Red Box. Then is it ok for them to use the "reward" code when they have done nothing to earn the reward?

Is it ok for bloggers and other websites to publish all of these codes?

To some this may seem like splitting hairs. To me, it is maintaining integrity and playing by the rules.

Those who abuse the rules will end up ruining it for us all. When it's all said and done, I don't want to be part of that group!

Solution? Sign up for regular emails and texting and you'll get the free codes sent to you PERSONALLY!