DVDNOW DVD Vending Kiosks: Scam or No Scam?

136 thoughts on “DVDNOW DVD Vending Kiosks: Scam or No Scam?”

• This company is only looking to sell kiosks and could care less about the customer after buying them! They say that they will help you place their kiosks and make sure you get into a profitable location, but once you pay them their $20000+ for a machine they no longer return your phone calls. I have never worked with such a more worthless bunch of criminals in my life. Please do your self a favor and look into a legit company before wasting money with these numskulls! I even had a location set up to place the machine and they contacted this location and offered them a better deal so I had no place to put mine. There are plenty of other dvd kiosk companies that you can get involved with for less money and I would suggest you do just that! I mean they buy these machines for $6500 and sell them for $20000+ that right there should tell you something. They act like they are experts in the dvd kiosk business, but ask the sales person how many they personally own. NONE!! if was such a good money making opportunity why wouldn’t they own any?? Do your research and please don’t waste your money on these crooks!!!

• thanks for sumitting your comments,, i will staw away from this company

• Yeah. I won’t bother. Tx for posting!! Wonder how to become a kiosk seller lol

• I have had the exact opposite experience with DVDNOW. I started with a 2 machine purchase in April 2012. As of the date of this post I now own 9 DVDNoW machine and just had my first break even month 3 months into ownership.
  The hardest part is picking what movies to put in the machine. There are a lot of crap movies out there that dont even deserve the research it takes to look up info on them. But when you find your groove on picking the right movies for your clientele it takes off like a bullet.
  While it is true you can compete with RedBox, they are just too big. You can offer services rebbox cant, customer service, a human to talk to when problems arise, even while the customer is standing there at the machine you make CC charge adjustments or return movies for them on your smart phone.
  Location is everything with these machines. You can pay thousands of dollars by hiring someone to locate them for you. But I have done all my location finds on my own while working a full time job. Its not rocket science but it does take some research.
  My problems with tech support have been non existent. DVDNOW is a growing company experiencing growing pains. Hold times are between 5-10 minutes at certain times of the day but they are quick fixes for the most part and very knowledgeable technicians.
  All in all I would totally do it again. I am doing this to supplement my retirement income. Even with streaming, bit torrent, and PPV there will always be someone out there renting movies. Thats enough for me.
  Cheers,
  Michael

• I have seen a lot of people invest in DVD Kiosk regardless of the manufacture it is very hard to make money unless the machine gross more than 2K per month. Very few sites will gross these kind of numbers. Based upon the standard IRR returns one expects from a vending machine it doesn’t meet the criteria to justify the investment

• Thanks for the experienced comments…..was an interesting idea but can readily see more cons than pros….

• Thanks 4 the heads up changing my mind

• i was thinking about doing this too, until i did my hw.. and i will keep my money thanks! (BY THE WAY ANYONE CLAIMING THEY HAVE MADE MONEY WITH THIS I BELIEVE WORKS FOR THE COMPANY)… especially that “MIKE” guy.. guess i’ll keep dealing pot as its the best way to make money around here lol no seriously.

• its amazing at how stupid people are these days. People believe anything they read from anyone. Most of the time when someone isnt successful its because they didnt try, not because it just didnt work. I personally know people with many of these machines making anywhere from 1k-5k per month per machine. It does work. If a location sucks, move it. Its not rocket science.

• “Most of the time when someone isnt successful its because they didnt try, not because it just didnt work.”

  This is a ridiculous statement and not true. How many people do you know would invest their hard-earned savings and then NOT TRY? Vending opportunities are all scams and when you fail sales guys like “unknown” will tell the next suckers in line that your failure was your fault

  “its amazing at how stupid people are these days. People believe anything they read from anyone.”

  Not from you, they don’t.

  If these things made money the company would just place them themselves? Ask yourself why would a company turn over $1 – $5K per month per machine to you when they could rake in all that dough themselves? Would it really be that hard to pay someone minimum wage to stock and maintain it?

  My guess would be that the company makes their money on the upfront payments by franchisees. My guess would be these positive commenters are commissioned salespeople who get a cut of the plunder from the suckers they reel in.

  I agree you shouldn’t base your decision on blog comments alone, you should use your own common sense. Common sense tells me DVDNow is not on the up and up.

• I agree with the person above in all of their perspectives. Despite what others may be saying, he/she isn’t FOR this company, nor is he/she AGAINST it. But in the last sentence their opinion was clearly leaning toward the CON side. I too was leaning this way shortly before landing on this site. I did some homework, enough to make a final decision that DVDNOW is NOT for me. In my opinion, which may not matter anyway, I’d have to say if you have the money and time to commit to this opportunity, give it a go, BUT ONLY if your resources are expendable. But on the other hand if you’re like me, sitting on your last $15,000 searching for a way to blow it up, you may want to look elsewhere.

• I was intrested in investing but after all the negative talking I’ve changed my mind.

• I wanted to get into vending machine business but what bothered me the most was to find the so called great locations. I mean, i don’t want to do the cold calling, negotiate contracts and all other crap folks mentioned above.

  However, I do want to point out one vending machine business that do not require you to do the cold calling and negotiate the contracts. It is called [redacted].

  This company places ATMs in big hotels around the country. Company does the marketing, finds the locations, negotiate the contract and provides technical and operation support.

  All i have to do is put cash in my machines.

  My point is that not all vending machine businesses are bad. You just have to find one where franchisor does the marketing for you and finds the location for you. (Not provide assistance in finding the location but actually FINDS the location – negotiate the contract and secure the contract)

• I have owned and operated 5 kiosks since 2006. A lot of the comments shared are true. You will definitely be shocked by the operating costs, RFID tags, replacement cases, tech support fees, replacement parts and the killer… Credit Card processing fees. Each month I give Six Card Solutions, the card processor and the card companies 26% of my profits. I then pay 15% commissions to the location owners. I purchase my DVD from Walmart every Thursday morning, this helps avoid the movie studio royalty discussion and the disks are usually cheaper than purchasing from VPD.

  I do make a small profit on paper. However if I tracked time, travel and customer service time, I would be losing hundreds each month. Every penny of profit goes to paying off the investment debt. I figure to pay off my loans within the next five years, not much sooner though.

  By the time I’m out of debt I will have completed a 12 year sentence and wasted thousands of hours. The only thing I’m getting out of this venture is heartburn, headaches and a lot of tough lessons.

  Oh and forget about making any money from advertising on the kiosk, that’s a filthy joke.

  Anyone interested in purchasing 5 kiosk for $25K contact me at [redacted]

• The previous listing mentions if someone wants to purchase a dvd Now Kiosk to contact (redacted) is there another real contact?

• I agree with many of the cons against this product but it would also be nice if this wasn’t another scam like anything else these

• Trying to buy those five kiosk !

• Interested in Kiosk Purchase can contact me at [redacted]

• Kiosk Operator…I am interested in one of those kiosks for $5,000…Billy, would you be fine with 4 for $20,000?

• DO NOT WASTE YOUR GOOD HARD EARNED MONEY! PLEASE!

  Think about this. First, this is not a new idea. It’s been done before and it failed. If this was such a profitable enterprise, then a company like the old “Blockbuster” or “Hollywood Video” would have have done this before and in a big way.

  Technology changes every 6 months on average. And the time period for these vending machines has come and gone. These machines are old news. If you own one, you are not profitable. After your initial investment and operating costs are calculated, you’re better off taking your money and buying a blue chip stock and doing something else with your time.

  Think about this: Have you ever seen a line of people waiting to rent a movie, standing in front of one of these machines. NO! So how the hell are you going to make any money if you don’t have people waiting to rent. It’s never going to happen.

  It was already said above. The cable & satellite companies are offering newly released movies. So why go out and rent one. It’s ancient and archaic at best. Renting a DVD? Why?

• Yes, HUGE investment, with not enough return to turn a profit. These machines, at best will not pay for themselves in 5 years.. that is IF you rent ALOT of movies. it is unlikely you will rent all 200 movies in a weekend, right? so, Think about this.. if you rented only 100 at $100 profit, that is $400 per month ($800 max if you are renting these for $2 ea). $400 x 12 months = $4,800 per year. So, for 5 years there is no profit AND in order to make profits, you have to rotate inventory… and keep adding new releases.

• I still have the five kiosks available. One quick concern with “Unhappy in South Dakota”, the math is a little off. The kiosks I own hold 110 disks. Yes, they are never empty, far from it, however what you must remember is that a disk is rented for only a night or two, returned and rented again.

  On average each of my kiosks get around 300-350 rentals per month. My pricing is $1.99 for the first night, $1.49 each additional night. I average $550-$650 per kiosk. It really depends on the location, weather and if class/school is in. You can make a little money, you just need to be able to adapt to the changing levels of traffic. You don’t have to put a copy of every single release. I usually only put two copies of each weekly release that had a box office greater than $50 million. If the title was less then $50M I don’t even look at it. I have been using this inventory model for the past 18 month and have seen a 16% increase in profit. Less total rentals but substantually less video purchase expense.

  You just need to be willing to tweak things and find that sweet spot.

• Nate,

  I’d be interested in talking to you about your machines. How can I contact you directly?

• I invested in this company in 2008. I purchased two S-100 series machines. The kiosks worked great and my experience with customer service was good. I am in Washington, DC metro area. Which is an area that is flooded with Red Box. It was and has been challenging for me to make any money. It is really difficult to find a location that won’t want to take half of your profits and that does not already have a Red Box. After 2 years of not really making money, I gave up on it because it was costing me so much money out of pocket to try to keep up with new releases, commission to locations, website, and other fees. My kiosk are in storage now which is costing me more money out of pocket. I would love to sell my kiosk as I am preparing to have my first child in July and could use extra money from selling my kiosk and toss the storage facility cost. If you are interested in getting into the business at a low cost, I will sell you both of my S-100 kiosk. I would like $5,000 for both of them. However if you are serious as I am make me a serious offer and they’re yours. Both machines work great!

• I get that not everyone has a great experience with every business venture. Many aspects come into play: effort, knowledge, proper application of that knowledge, etc. The Internet is not exactly the voice of positive enlightenment. Google reviews of all the cell phone companies and read them. If u listened to every review, you would never own a cell phone in your life. But I bet every person reading this still owns a cell phone. Just sayin.

• But a cell phone is a necessity and doesn’t cost 20k and atleast you get 90% of what your promised. Probably lucky to get 50% back on your kiosk investment. Fail on your comparison..

• I’m looking to buy DVD kiosk’s, if you have some for sale or know some who does. Please call me at [redacted].

• My point was that people are negative and mostly only report negativity. I work in the service industry and most comments are negative and rarely positive. When if a company received only negative results they would not still be in business. If you’re looking for negativity, you will only find negativity; especially if u look on a website called “unhappy franchisees’ “

• For all of you out there that are looking for a business opportunity PLEASE DO NOT INVEST YOUR MONEY IN DVD NOW KIOSK MACHINES.

  I have a dvd kiosk model S250 machine. I have to say this is the worst decision I ever made. I regret it and I am writing here to inform others. First of all when you get this machine you need to set up an internet line that is going to cost you about $20.00 per month. You will have to negotiate a price with the location of where you will be setting up your machine(grocery store for example) meaning you have to pay them rent to use their space unless they are willing to have your machine there for free. You have to pay for credit card processing. when people rent a movie they will be using a credit card so you are paying for that service which is about $20.00 to $25.00 per month.

  These people suggest you buy your movies from a company called VPD and this company charges about $$20.00 per DVD. DVD NOW also charges for their art work on your machine. The artwork shows all the latest movies. You will want to get this artwork or your machine will look plain and not attractive to the customer. For this service it cost $9.99 per month.

  The other thing you will most definitely need that they provide is your own website where you can see everything that is going on like how much your selling. How many rentals you had per month, your reports and even if you wanted to move your dvd’s around. This service is a whopping $75.00 per month.

  Lastly you have to buy tags and stickers that go on each dvd before it can be inserted into the dvd machine. Without these special tags the dvd machine will not take the dvd. These tags cost about .50 cents and the stickers are about .10 each. I am not 100 percent sure on the cost of the tags and stickers since I have about a year I have not purchased any. With all these costs it’s really difficult to make money with these machines. And those places that they do recommend placing your machine in like walmart and those huge stores well guess what they are going to go with RED BOX not you!

  I don’t want to sound negative but I know what I am talking about. One final thing before I go. I am in the process of getting into a franchise business and I’m working with a franchise consultant. I told her my story and she called DVD NOW to see if they would buy back my machine and they have not gotten back to her. She has called several times and nothing.

  Good luck to you all and I hope you find something that works for you.

• I am selling 2 DVD kiosk machines, currently I don’t have the time to devote to this business please contact me if you are interested in buying. [redacted]

• Hmm…? I am assuming most people obtained personal loans for these machines. What if someone were to just purchase them cash? I am factoring in the already expenses that exist with owning a machine. Just an estimate, what would be the average ROI NOI for someone that did not have to get a loan?

• Three new MGT kiosk machines for sale. Priced to move..

• Jai did you sell your machines? I am looking at a few machines from china. email me if you still have them. [redacted]

• I hav nothing but good to say about DVDNow and the concept. You have to work it – if you are not willing to learn the area and market the service you will not make money. Of course I think that applies to nearly any business, from mowing lawns to building high rises. I am interested in any DVDNow S250s that are out there… five one five eight two two ten ten.

• I googled dvdnow and this site came up, I see all the bitterness and frustration, I feel your pain. I am just looking to add another business and trying to find something that I can have one of my mangers handle, Ive always had the vending idea in the back of my mind but from what I can tell theres alot of overhead and headaches for such a minimal cash flow. Sounds like a job not an asset. Alot of newbies will get wiped out in this sorta thing..live and learn. I’ve paid my dues lol. Im sure theres some success stories out there, Ive seen a few dvdkiosks in my area with long lines on friday nights in supermarkets, but they dont seem to last long..usually dissapear quickly. If anyone’s thinking about jumping in, just do your homework and if your playing with very low disposable funds, Id say go with something else. On the plus side there will always be people renting dvds, yes theres torrents, and netflix etc, but People will always rent dvd’s. I dont see that as an issue, the issue is all the unforseen expenses and headaches that cost time and money, which in the end you end up buying a shit job and not an asset which is the whole point when aquiring assets. If you want to be a kiosk manager then go on craiglist and get yourself a 10 hour job and you’ll make the same.

• I’ve read every comment tonight and gained new insight, thank you for those that own and have shared their approach to be successful – Nate, I like the $50M line in the sand. I currently own NINE S250 Kiosks and have been operating for 3 years. I’m writing this because I wish someone would have when I was going through the purchase decision process. I believe that for most people this business is not the right business. If you are looking for something you can setup and then sit back and make money hand over fist with little to no effort on your part this is definitely not your cup of tea. If you are willing to put in the hours, suffer setbacks and make changes, learn from mistakes and seek out guidance from others that are successful then yes, this could be a good fit. I will say that I hold no love for DVDNOW as like everyone else I became very excited at the opportunity, did my homework, and was intitally disappointed. To be clear I invested so much time undertstanding my market, the industry, and the business that I wrote a 74 page business plan which landed me three bank interviews and eventually the financing needed to fund my initiative. I did the homework…

  So, here is what I would share with those that own and those that are considering. First, DVDNOW charges outrages prices for a new, out of the box kiosk. Do not buy your kiosks from them. They will give you online training regardless and you will receive intital manuals. Trust me, you aren’t missing much. I figured this out 2 kiosks into my venture. FInd guys that want to sell for $5K or so. Do that and you are starting off solid. I will say I love these machines. They are reliable, work hard, and rarely have problems. As all machines they will need a hard drive replaced now and then but on the whole they are execellent. Although I find Tech support to be rude and short they do know what they are doing so you aren’t totally on your own. I have found that they have solutions to any technical problems. If anyone gets Dale, just want to offer a shout out – excellent guy. There is Dale and then there is everyone else.
  So, overpriced – yes, reliable machines – yes, plenty of preowned on the market at severely low prices – YES! So buy your kiosk cheap! Now, that you have bought on the cheap, next thing to focus on is LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. I can’t say it enough and as in any business you need foot traffic. The more the better. Redbox won’t even touch a location with less than 12K through the door. Do what you can to find remote locations, be as far away from a Redbox as possible. I have found that a 15 or more minute drive is a sweet spot. I like those…. Once you find one of those now it’s time to talk to the store owner. Most Mom and Pop locations have already called Redbox.they won’t talk to them. Redbox wants big locations requiring the owner to purchase at least 10 machines at approxmiately $15K a pop… So, yes, there are sweet spots out there you just have to know what they look like which pretty much eliminates the inner city. You have to go into the burbs or hill country. Once you find an owner that understands the value of hosting a kiosk at no out of pocket expense not to mention providing a service their client’s ask for, and they do, now you are in business. Provide them the standard contract that DVDNOW will provide you or the previous owner can provide you and make sure you have 3 requirements in it… 1 – The lcoation will provide internet (I can not impress how important that is), 2 – They will provide electrical, and 3 – You will not pay a commission to the lcoation if they aren’t generating $1,500+ monthly gross sales. Now, you can set that line in the sand at the 6 month mark and offer 10% for the first 6 months regardless of what it generates but here is the thing. After 6 months they will love you, love your kiosk, and will be fine with foregoing the commission once the kiosk is in and they see the business it drives. They will be willing to do whatever you ask to keep it, within reason. If you are doing more that $1500 you are making good money, less than you aren’t paying commission and probably making good little money… Either way, you are good…. Everything after that falls on you.

  Now, cut operating costs! Inventory will represent 65% of your operating costs – good rule don’t order more than 3 copies of any title unless you have a monster kiosk doing 500-1000 rentals monthly. In that case, 4-6 copies. After 1 year call your credit card processor and negiotate a fee reduction, I did and they did it. Set your configuration to 7 attempts every 3 days in collecting rentals that decline, keeps credit card processing low. Accept you will pay DVDNOW a monthly fee to operate the kiosks, $75, but you can ask for a reduction once you reach 5 kiosks. Market your store, put up colorful window artwork, invest in USPS mailings to the zip code, and always shop the Net for better prices on supplies and artwork.

  Finally, deliver excellent service. Don’t argue over a dollar, if the clent is unhappy offer free rentals. Be ready to speak to crazy people, they will call. As long as you are responsive they will be happy and you will do well. FInally, be smart, don’t buy 5 kiosks at once unless you have been doing this for awhile… Do that and join the nay sayers…. Buy one, find the right place, the right owner, and make a profit. Build in that manner and you will join the club.

  My last piece of advise, be ready to work hard. I work a full time job, still do, and spend many hours a night on this business. I might be at a store trouble shooting internet problems (most owners are oblivious and you become their tech) or doing a run to load new releases and clean my machines, done weekly on Fridays. Just be prepared to be out every week investing time. If you work a 40 hour per week job I would say be prepared to work 60 hours per week for at best $500 profit per location, and that is if you are good at picking them…

  Well, best of luck to those that jump in and those that sale….

• When I pressed DVDNow for hard facts on Return on Investment, the company said “privacy laws prohibit release of financial info of their investors!” That was enough for me to see this company has deceptive practices from the get-go!!!!! They will not be getting any of my money!!!!!!

• Be very careful in choosing your location, as this will make or break your business. You have several pieces stacked against you right from the get-go that you will need to overcome to make any profit.
  1) The damn credit card companies: This is the biggest racket in the world, and there is not a damn thing you can do to cover yourself. When a customer swipes a card, you have no idea of what you will be charged for that transaction. Even after the fact, when the statement arrives, you have no way of knowing which credit card goes with which charge. And, if your averages are low (as should be for a daily rental), they will take up to 20% of your income due to the per-transaction charges.
  2) If a customer keeps a movie and does not have any funds to pay it, you have no recourse. You cannot find out who the customer is (other than a name, sometimes even partial), or address, phone number, nothing. You are stuck with the loss.
  3) The license to access the kiosk’s reports is $75/month.
  4) DVDNow’s customer service is about as lousy as you can get. Some of the guys are nice, but that is not the rule. The lead tech is as pleasant as Archie Bunker.
  5) If you ever sell your kiosk, your buyer will have to pay $1000 a pop to transfer ownership. And, the imbecile you’ll have to deal with, named Oz, is the most unpleasant useless piece of crap on the planet. I guess that’s why they put him that department, since he will not be responsible for customer retention.

  All in all, this could be a good business, if the cards were not stacked against you. As for the company, they seem to hire the worst they can find, even though sometimes miss the target and end up with a nice guy.

• For all the positive DVD Kiosk franchisees.
  We are selling 10 DVD Kiosks with current
  inventory (updated weekly).
  If interested call [redacted]

• For all the positive DVD Kiosk franchisees.
  We are selling 10 DVD Kiosks with current
  inventory (updated weekly).
  If interested call [redacted]
  (I apologize phone number in ad before is wrong.)

• Who wants to buy DVD Kiosks?
  We are selling 10 kiosks plus current inventory (updated weekly). $6500 each.

• I have 4 S250 DVD Now Kiosks for sale. The Kiosks are less than a year old. Two of the kiosks have 32 inch monitors attached. Willing to sell for $5500 each Contact me if you are interested at [redacted]

• Thank you every one for speaking your mind. All info have been helpful. Still pondering the idea of the business just finished one of the webinars. The area i am in is small. there is a redbox on the east end and west end and the city is only 7 minutes at the most from one end to the other. May not be a good idea to put a DVDnow here.lol

• Danny from August 06, 2012. I am interested in your machines in north Mississippi.

• If anyone out there can contact me about DVD Kiosk and their machines, I can be found at [redacted] and [redacted] .I am inquiring about purchases..

• Incidentally if anyone is intersted in selling their DVD Kiosk machines, please call me at [redacted] or email me at [redacted]

• James and danny, we would be interested in your kiosks, please email [redacted]

• I am looking to sell 5 S250 DVD Now kiosks for 25k. Located in the NY area. Please email me if you are interested.

• looking to buy and willing to work out some type of plan with someone if you are willing to do something along these lines let me know at
  [redacted]

• Interested in buying DVD kiosks. I am near the DC area with a truck and trailer. Let me know prices and location [redacted] Thanks, Chrssmth33