… Or is the movie screening business doing so well that customer service isn’t required?
Judging by the number of people at the cinema today, I think they’ve decided good customer service is no longer required. They’re making profits, people are still coming, why invest in customer service.
I took Boo to see Alice in Wonderland today. We both enjoyed the movie immensely (despite my earlier concerns at taking a 4 year old – it was fine). What neither of us really enjoyed was our cinematic experience.
My grievance might not have gone any further than the usher, and a quick Tweet but this is the third time in a week, I have been miffed by the lack of customer service at my local Event Cinema.
Last week I phoned the cinema regarding a promotion. The person on the other end of the phone denied all knowledge of this promotion (though there are promotional posters on every single wall in the complex). Off he went to enquire, and eventually came back and rudely told me that the promotion is still on, you can’t buy tickets online before ending the call with an audible sigh!
I popped into the cinema on Thursday to buy the tickets, and avoid the inevitable line. The bored and uninterested girl at the box office wasn’t very friendly, or particularly helpful. I think I interrupted her gossip session with her buddy.
And did you know they make you pay for 3D glasses, whether you want them or not (we already had some)? So kindy dress up box will have another couple of pairs of glasses, because you are kidding me if you think I am going to stick them in the recycling box for the cinema to sell them to the next person!
So we had our reserved seats, and arrived with plenty of time to spare. There were two middle aged women in our seats. They refused to budge despite admitting that they weren’t in the correct seats.
The trailers were ending. The cinema was full. There were a few single seats dotted around but I could not see two seats together in the semi darkness. These ‘cougars’ (because that’s what they looked like) were still in our seats and because my 4 year old was about to lose the plot, I stepped away.
I planted Boo on the top step as the movie was beginning, in search of some assistance. I had to walk the 50 odd metres back to the entrance and the poor girl collecting tickets was frantically collecting tickets but she more or less straight away radioed for someone to assist.
By the time the usher arrived we were about 5 minutes into the movie. He wasn’t keen to move people from in the middle of the row, in the middle of the cinema. I sort of don’t blame him. So he moved some people along in the next row to make two seats together for us.
At the end of the movie, I went to speak to the manager to whinge offer my suggestions. I wanted to know why the cinema sold reserved seating tickets if they don’t regulate it, and why when a movie is practically sold out and seating issues are a possibility isn’t an usher available to help prior to commencement of the movie?
The manager, Cody was about 18 and looked as though I’d interrupted him from doing something important, like styling his hair? If he’d run his hand through his highlighted, long, blonde fringe one more time, I may have had to slap him!
Cody, gave me a half-hearted, insincere apology (running his fingers through his fringe), and looked completely disinterested and blamed the poor usher for not doing his job, rather than address the issues/suggestions I had made. I saw it was fruitless whining, and left so poor Cody could get back to his mirror.
And because Cody, didn’t satisfactorily placate me, I came home and wrote a formal complaint to the cinema. Tweeted @eVent_cinemas that their customer service sucks, and blogged my whining, and maybe, just maybe, they will do something to improve the customer’s experience.
Event Cinemas probably should count themselves lucky I wasn’t premenstrual, and that I diverted my child’s tantrum about people sitting in her seat!
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22 Responses to Does Event Cinemas Need Good Customer Service?
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That sucks! Good luck with the formal complaint!
And what kind of people were those to not go away?!
Gives the name “Event” a new meaning…
Good for you! I have to be honest though, and tell you – I hate that cinemas give allocated seating. Hate it.
I hope you get some response from your letter. I hate that when there is no response and you are left with that bitter taste of unfinished business.
Also: I fully believe that nobody believes in customer service any more.
I had a very expensive tshirt fall apart. It was new – a Run Scotty Run shirt. One of Noah’s faves and the print melted off it on the second wash.
I contacted the place who sold it to me, who told me it wasn’t their problem
so then I contacted Run Scotty Run.
I got a response straight away, saying they had had alot of complaints about that particular shirt.
The man I received an email from said he would replace the shirt
if I gave him my address, which I did.
Three months later and still no shirt.
I’m not sure I can be bothered complaining again.
It has left a terrible taste in my mouth though and I will never buy Run Scotty Run brand again.
Actually, it’s been five months! Five months!
I received a letter of apology from the local cinema, not the head office! It could have warranted a spell check before clicking send as there was about 6 errors in 4 paragraphs, and the grammar was shocking. The person also defended Cody’s fringe stroking!
Rhu – The seat allocation is a pain but more so if they have it and people don’t adhere to it!
That sounds incredibly annoying. I hate bad customer service. I think it can really ruin an experience. And good customer service can turn a mediocre service/product into something great.
Our movie theater has been fairly nice so far. No rudeness there. But I remember going to movie theaters and few years ago, and the people there were so unfriendly.
It’s exactly as you describe….they act like you’re interrupting something incredibly important.
I would have kicked those women out. I also don’t like the allocated seating and go to those cinemas as little as possible. Recently we went to see a movie there though and my boyfriend lost his phone. We rang, were on hold for ages, but eventually spoke to someone who rang me back a couple of hours later saying they’d found it. So small good things do happen occasionally.
Wow, thank you Missy Boo. I went through a very similar situation myself back December 2009 for a film festival that I attended. I booked my tickets pretty much when they were released to avoid disappointing seats. When the day came for the movie screening, I found a group seating where I was. So since there was only two of us, we sat at an empty chair.
The only problem was the cinema filled up and we were booted from our ‘seats.’ The usher who we called twice to come help us decided that it was easier to usher people into their seats rather than help us out and when we called for the third time, he ‘helped’ us out by putting us in two empty spots in the front row. I was absolutely frustrated that he took care of us as some small nuisance and when I made a complaint to him about it, he said that there wasn’t much he could do and to watch the remainder of the movie. We lost about a good 25 minutes of the movie and since it was a film festival, there was no additional screening for this.
The funny thing was the usher happened to be the ‘supervisor’ of the cinemas and was never apologetic. My written complaint took 8 weeks to respond to, especially when I kindly asked them to explain their actions in writing. They wrote back a very very generic letter stating that they were ‘sorry for the experience but we would like to offer you two complimentary tickets.’ Sorry to say, I’ve never visited them again and I don’t think I will for a bit.
~Sorry for the rant. Reading your blog just brought back very distasteful memories of my experience.
EVENT CINEMAS SUCK!!!
1. My gold class gift voucher expired by 3 months – they said too bad (basically) ~ whereas my Glue Store- Clothing voucher expired and they said no problem, you paid for the credit come on in you can still use.
2. They screened Paranormal Activity 2…S&^% movie! Event would not refund ticket or let me! wasted 2 hrs of my life..and$35 for 2 tickets!!
Next time you see a movie…DON’T GO TO EVENT CINEMAS!!! and dont even rent Paranormal Activity 2!
I’m so glad I’m no the only one who hates the allocated seating policy. im going to form a petition to strengthen my case.
Event cinema online booking is the worst! Booked for 2x gold class tickets…for 6pm session – 5 tickets available for that session – paid…and then print out the tickets to find they are for the 4pm session that starts in about 30 minutes! Was shocked to find that they could simply switch the session over like that – rang the cinema…sorry cant help…..so put a complaint in for a refund – two weeks later and 3 emails later – still no response. – BEWARE ONLINE BOOKINGS!
Wow, all your experiences sound like a truly horrible “event”. I’m going to admit now I’m actually an employee for event and have to stress not all sites are alike. However the people that each of you received some service by should not have a job, and yes I go to that extreme simply because I can imagine how frustrated you are.
Nice comment, I have a similar story, you don’t have the head office postal adress do you?
I really like your blog above. It reminds me of my recent experience where the staff were quite rude, let alone had any competence! I had a terrible movie experience with kids kicking the back of my chair and there was a pungent smell around the area I was sitting.I demanded a refund but as soon as I mentioned “refund” the Pretika from Parramatta Event Cinemas shut me down immediately. She didn’t even let me explain my grounds for refund!
I used to work for Event Cinemas in Innaloo, the cinema you are talking about.
Cody was one of the managers at the time.
This is not the first time I had heard a complaint like this. Not about Cody, but about seating.
Reserved seating works, MOST of the time. It does need to be patrolled more when the cinema is busy, I totally agree.
At one point whilst working a “floor” shift (usher) I had a complaint, similar to yours about someone sitting in their allocated seats. I walked in and asked the people to move to their correct seats, and they explained someone was in their seats. This turned into a domino effect, almost no-one was sat where they were supposed to be, so I radioed the projectionists and asked them to hold the film. I turned the lights on, got everyones attention, and moved EVERYONE to their correct seats.
The issue with this, is that I seemed to be the only one (from Event) who cared enough to do this.
They would drill in our heads about customer service, then never follow it up themselves. It would always end up being a joke in the managers office “Oh that lady has nothing better to do than complain” etc.
There is a reason I left this company. I care about customer service, whether I am giving the service, or recieving it, it matters to me, and to be honest, to that company, it doesn’t.
It’s such a shame for such a huge business
I found your experience interesting. Our local Events/Greater Union Cinema has been removed from advertising in our local paper and Sydney Morning Herald. I realised the theatre had not closed.
Had a dickens of a time getting phone number of “Head Office” and when I rang was told to go on to internet for session times. I explained that I find it more convenient to “read it in the paper” and I know many elderly people do not use computers (Im not elderly and DO use a computer by the way) again I was urged to go on line. They said people I should speak to were not available but message would be passed on and they would contact me. Huh….. a month ago and havent heard a thing. I also find it an insult to the intelligence of residents of our Shire to not be given opportunity to see some of the more unusual movies which seem to be screened at theatres in the northern suburbs of Sydney only. Alternately I travel to the independents (different company) at times.
Re Gold Class tickets. I won two passes recently (have 12 months to use) and was going to book on line – if they ever screen a gold class that appeals to me!! I will probably be better to go along in person and buy in advance after reading the comments on your blog about this.
Events have taken over two independents in my area and the service they give is far superior to the other theatres in the group. (unfortunately not in GoldClass category).
Just had a horrible experience at the Greater Union here in Manuka in the ACT.
Half way through the film, it started playing upside down and in reverse! After about two minutes of this, the film was shut off and we were stuck there for about 10 minutes while they ‘fixed’ it. When it started again, a whole 10 minutes was completely skipped with no explanation whatsoever, and we headed straight into the climax with no clue as to what was going on. The manager when sought afterwards was less than helpful, blaming it all on the ushers for not relaying the message that a portion of the film would be skipped. Pathetic.
Any chance of passing along that phone number for the Head Office, Janelle? Would certainly like to pass on some choice words without having to go through the cinema itself where the message would most certainly be ‘lost’.
I don’t like event cinemas costumer service because I went there once and the lady at the counter was so rude, seriously it ruined my whole evening. She wasn’t even looking at me as if I was from outer space. Seriously she ought to have manners. She acted if she was queen of the world. I would just say that you are right event cinemas don’t have good cutomer service. They hire people by looking at their skin colour not by their personalities. I mean who cares about how you look because it is all about how mannerful you are.
dont worry Ive wanting to see paranormal activty 3 at castle hill event cinemas but because i work six days a week i had to find a time that suited me, but low and behold every session on every day was either 4:50pm or 9:30pm, i work from 6:30 to 4:30 like normal people do. How the #### are people suppose to organise themselves around these ridiculous times. i either have to leave work early or stay at the cinemas till midnight. Wake up event cinemas. u have the poorest business ethics i have ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I tried to book Gold Class seats at Castle Hill by phone. I dialled the published number, pressed the button extension, listened to a minute of bad music, then received a message to tell me to ring the number I dialled in the first place. How hopeless is this!!!