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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: The Credit Card/ Check slowdown
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Chad Souder
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 962
From: Waterloo, IA, USA
Registered: Feb 2000
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posted 10-07-2000 09:52 AM
Brad is right, but if you can't get an ATM machine (which a lot of banks are willing to let you have one for a trial period, and then see if it does enough business to keep), you HAVE to take checks. Reason being, people will leave if they don't have enough cash, and maybe not come back. In addition, letting them make it out for over almost guarantees more spent at the concession stand. It doesn't take that long to write a check, especially if you have more than one person selling tickets, its really a non-factor. Subscribing to a collection agency helps against bounced checks. Think of it like a casino. The more options you give people to have access to their money, the more money they are likely to spend.------------------
"Asleep at the switch? I wasn't asleep, I was drunk!" - Homer Simpson
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Taplie Coile
Film Handler
Posts: 5
From: Durham, NC, USA
Registered: May 2001
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posted 06-25-2001 01:41 PM
Just a few thoughts.... We got ATM and Debit card machines about a year ago (problem #1, because for some reason people think"ATM and Debit Cards" means their MasterCard/American Express/Discover card, too, but I digress). We're a 15-screen theater, and they give us 4 machines: 2 for the box office, and 2 for concessions. Box I can deal with, since the 4 ticket printers are right next to each other. We have 8 concession registers, 4 on each side of the lobby (plus 2 in the back where the auditoriums are, but I'm not counting them). 2 machines for 8 registers. Does anyone else see a problem here? And of course, despite the big "ATM and Debit Cards: This Line Only" signs where the machines are, EVERYBODY in EVERY line wants to use them. And then there was the machine company's line: "It only takes 5 seconds to process a transaction." I'm still wondering how I bought that one. It takes 5 seconds just to swipe the card, key in the amount, and ask the patron to enter their PIN number. That takes another 5 seconds. THEN, it might take 5 seconds for the machine to dial up, do whatever it does, approve and print out the receipt. I won't get into the $0.99 fee the company charges the patron on each transaction (they love that) and the fact that, somehow, two of the machines somehow got hooked up to our main phone number instead of the fax line they were supposed to.
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Jason Black
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1723
From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 07-02-2001 01:00 AM
Taplie,You obviously work for Carmike. I'm at the Broadway 16 in Myrtle Beach myself. I hear what you're saying about the ATM/Debit machines. They ARE a PITA from MY experiences, but I have personally seen our theatres do in excess of $4500.00 in ONE day from these machines! Multiply what Carmike gets from each transaction by the total number of times people use the card(s) and you'll see that it is a very viable source of (basically) unearned income for us. Not to mention the covenience issue for our patrons. We are, as some folks forget, there to actually 'serve' our patron base, are we not? My main gripe with the machines is soley the fact that *said company* GROSSLY OVER-RATED the transaction time associated with ticket purchases. I made it a point to let the DOO know this as he set up the machines in my building. If these are to work as they NEED to, *said company* should be required to pay for the DEDICATED line(s) for the machines that THEY own. Come to think of it, what do *I* know? I'm only a lowly peon...  Shoot me an email in private if you don't mine.. Jasonwan@sccoast.net
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The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!
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Steve Scott
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1300
From: Minneapolis, MN
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted 07-15-2001 11:04 PM
I guess that I might come around to a sat link hookup
for credit or debit transactions, seeing as we've had some incidents with our ATM (see theater robberies...:rolleyes I also like the idea of some surcharge profit. (Hey, I am IN this business, aren't I?!) I've also seen this new, computerized check cashing system, where it sends the account number straight to the customer's bank & cashes the check instantaneously (?). Has anybody seen/ used this system? ------------------
I hope that after I die, people will say of me: "That guy sure owed me a lot of money!"
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Bob Peticolas
Film Handler
Posts: 73
From: Mesilla, New Mexico
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 11-25-2001 11:48 AM
We accept cash and checks - no plastic. In the last five years or so that we have been managing the theater, we have recieved maybe one bad check. I think that being a small theater and non-profit film society, people just are not going to go out of their way to stiff us. It's not like writing a hot check to a grocery chain that turns millions of dollars a year and "can afford it".The regional chain theater up in the mall (twelve screen) has an ATM inside the lobby where you can get twenty dollars for a twenty-one dollar withdrawal. We have ATM's in the villiage around us, so people come to us with lots of twenty dollar bills. If we were to go plastic, it would have to be on a dedicated line (maybe DSL so we could still talk on the phone), swipe the card, print the reciept, enjoy the show. No signing or pin numbers, that would take way too long. AND, no service charges or rental charges to us. Make the card user pay for the convienence
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