Extra Night Charges

    I opened up my e-mail the same way I do every morning, after opening my web browser, FireFox being my preference, I navigated to GMail. One e-mail in particular caught my attention immediately. It was titled “Redbox receipt for Extra Night Charges.” Huh? I haven't rented a movie from Redbox in over a week and I definitely didn't return one today.

    Redbox is a fairly new DVD rental vending machine. They are usually found at the front of grocery stores or McDonalds and the rentals only cost $1 a night. Our family recently tried it and we were hooked. You can go on line and see what's available before you even go to the store and you can even reserve the movie you want so that it's guaranteed that it'll be there when you arrive.

    Just to demonstrate how awesome they are last month we were in Albany for my cousins wedding. We spent the night and we were over at my grandmothers house in the morning before we left to go home. My parents were also there. They offered to take the boys with them and drop them off at our house on their way home, since they have to drive past it anyways to get home. The benefit to the boys for going with my parents is that they could watch movies on the flip down 5 inch flat screen and DVD player that came with the Chevy Venture.

    My mom before officially offering to take them, expressed the desire for some DVD movies for the boys to watch in the van. I immediately asked, “Is there a Redbox around?” Because we can rent the DVD's in Albany drive to Rochester and take them back to any Redbox location. I had my laptop in the truck of the car, I went and grabbed it, hooked it up to the router in my cousins room and navigated to Redbox.com and did a search for the closest vending location. I found two within five miles and my wife and I were off to go rent them some movies, frankly, we weren't giving up a peaceful ride home for anything.

    I opened the e-mail and was taken aback at the cost. $24.00 plus the $1 on the initial night. I was being charged full price for a movie. But which one? And Why? I quickly scan the e-mail, “Letters From Iwo Jima,” but I haven't seen that movie in almost a month, July 2^nd to be exact. And I know it was returned. Then it hit me. That was the movie that we couldn't find the case for.

    We had rented about three movies that night, couple of the movies were for the boys. Unfortunately, Ralphie the youngest “misplaced” the case for “Letters from Iwo Jima.” Of course I was getting really irritated looking through the house for the case and coming up empty. I mean where could a case just disappear too anyways? Apparently, in the basement is the answer cause we wound up finding it a few days later.

    I hopped back on Redbox's website and went to the FAQ section and found their instructions on how to return a movie if you lost a case. Basically, you need to call Customer Service. I had my wife call, I hate talking to customer service, she does too, but at least she'll do it, I'll just procrastinate. They tell her that we need to send the DVD in a padded envelop to an address that they e-mailed and that they would refund our money based on the postdate on the envelop. No problem we went over to the post office and dropped it in the mail.

    So why the e-mail today? Again, I have my wife call customer service. They tell her that they never received the envelop and that's why we were charged full price. Ugh! So not only did we get charged full price but now we are out the postage fee and the DVD itself as now we “own” it.

    Luckily my wife insured the package with the post office for $25. I wonder what kind of hassle that's going to be to try and get that honored?

Update: I just received an e-mail from Redbox stating a refund of $25.93.  Either they just found the DVD or customer service didn't know where to look for the DVD.  Either way I am glad that this has been resolved on a positive note.

Uninstalling Cisco VPN client kills internet access

Symptoms

On starting the computer the computers internet access will work normally for a short period of time. Then access to normal websites will be down. Access to https sites, internet application such as instant messaging and e-mail are still accessible.

Cause

Uninstalling Cisco VPN 4.0 client doesn't fully uninstall hidden Zone Alarm Firewall which causes a block in port 80 on the computer.

Resolution

Cisco VPN client version 4.0 includes firewall functionality from Zone Labs Inc. It is possible that a failed Zone Labs uninstall left an incorrect value in the systems registry and must be changed. To resolve the problem follow these steps.

Caution This procedure contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs.

Step 1 Restart the computer and when your computer screen displays the startup message like "Starting Windows..." and a progress bar at the bottom of the screen, press the F8 key on the keyboard. This should display an advanced options screen.

Step 2 At the advanced options screen select "Safe Mode" as a startup method.

Step 3 If prompted, login to the PC once it is booted (you must have Administrator rights to login in Safe Mode).

Step 4 Click Start > Run and type "regedit" in the Open: box (without the quotes) and click OK. This launches the Windows registry editor.

Step 5 In the registry editor, browse to the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\vsdatant and select the Start parameter in the right pane.

Step 6 Right-click Start and select Modify. In the Value data: field enter the number 3.

Step 7 Click OK and exit the registry editor.

Step 8 Restart the computer and boot normally; the problem should be resolved.

Related Links

Release Notes for VPN Client, Release 4.0.1

Author notes

I spent a considerate amount of time looking for a resolution to this problem..I post it up here in hopes that it helps someone else a little easier.  If it helps you please post a comment to let me know.