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Topic: rant on stupid customers

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-10-2003 09:08 PM

Richard -- that happens here, too.

We also have people walk out of the 7:00 show in the middle of the summer saying (with surprise) "Hey, it's still light out."

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Carl Martin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1424
From: Oakland, CA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 10-16-2003 08:03 AM

i didn't witness the incident itself, only the "after-party", but i'm pretty sure about what happened.

during mystic river, a customer fielded 2 calls on his cell phone, and carried on conversations of a couple minutes' duration in the back of the auditorium, generally pissing off about 70 people, despite being asked not to. after the second time, a ballsy lady demanded he give her his cellphone, which he did. when the credits rolled, he came to get his phone back and bitched the lady out for her intolerance. the lady's companion took offense at this, and in anger threw the phone (three cheers!), which fell apart, but didn't really break.

the cellphone user then brought the companion's behavior to the attention of management, and demanded she call 911 (!), which she rightly refused to do. it was amazing. the companion acknowledged he overreacted and offered to pay for the phone, but nothing would please the guy. we pointed out the incredible rudeness of talking on the phone in the theater. we offered to call the non-emergency police number to have them sort it out, ridiculous as the situation was. but for a good half hour he stood his ground until finally he just went to a corner pay phone and called 911 himself. of course the cops nicely informed him he was an idiot. when the cops finally left he came back and got the manager's information so he could sue her for not calling 911. it was a collossal waste of everybody's time, but rather amusing.

carl

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Charles Everett
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1470
From: New Jersey
Registered: May 2001

posted 10-16-2003 11:24 AM

That was a good example of cell phone rage!

Here's another one from yesterday's Boston Herald:

quote:
Scream flick viewers witnessed some real-life violence Sunday when a Dorchester man stabbed a father whose sneakers were resting on the back of his seat - retribution for ignoring pleas to turn off his cell phone, police said.

"I guess you could call this phone rage," Randolph police Lt. Richard Crowley said. "You have to obey movie house etiquette: Turn off your phone and don't put your feet up."

It all began about 7 p.m. in the Showcase Cinemas on Mazzeo Drive when a Randolph girl put her feet up on the back of a movie theater chair, police said. A group of about five sitting in front asked her to take them down. She did.

They all settled in to watch "House of the Dead" when Jose Pujols' cell phone started to ring, police said.

"The girl's father asked him to put his phone away and he wouldn't and they got into an argument. (The father) put his feet on the back of (Jose's) chair," Crowley said.

"Jose pulled out a knife, turned around and stabbed him in the foot."

The 37-year-old man's sneaker got the brunt of the "large" knife, later recovered in the 27-year-old Dorchester man's truck, police said. The victim said he'd seek medical attention on his own.

Pujols was hauled out of the movie theater lobby and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and marijuana possession.

This story was so good, it made The Obscure Store and the Progressive Review!

Carl: Where was that Mystic River incident? Mystic River went wide only yesterday -- your post hints that the incident happened last weekend in San Fran.

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Darryl Spicer
Film God

Posts: 3250
From: Lexington, KY, USA
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 10-16-2003 11:38 AM

If someone want's you to call 911 and it is not an emergency just dial the non-emergency number anyway. How are they going to know that you didn't dial 911. In somw cases it can take just as long to get there no matter what number you dial.

As far as sueing someone for not calling 911 in a non emergency situation. Can anyone say thrown out of court. What got hurt here the cell phone.

quote:
Carl: Where was that Mystic River incident? Mystic River went wide only yesterday -- your post hints that the incident happened last weekend in San Fran.

Mystic River came out limited on October 8TH.

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 10-16-2003 12:55 PM

My managers & staff are not required to give their names to anyone in cases like this, and are allowed to inform the antagonist as much. If someone is that intent on identifying someone to sue, they can take the time to track me down & then see what they can make of it.

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David L Parlier
Film Handler

Posts: 23
From: Franklin, NC, U.S.A.
Registered: Oct 2003

posted 10-16-2003 02:38 PM

I would have to agree that sueing someone for not calling 911 for a non-emergency is not going to make it far in the court system.

Just wondering for my own personal information and not saying anything against this particular situation...is it your theaters policy to not call 911 for a non-emergency when a patron is requesting you to do so? I personally have always told my employees to call 911 anytime a patron has requested them to do so for a couple of reasons.

1) I have found that when patrons get into arguements that it is always better to have the police on the way. A non-emergency can quickly become an emergency.

2) This is similar to the first but sometimes all the information is not being made known to the employee and there is an emergency.

3) If it is a current known non-emergency then the employee just needs inform 911 that they are calling because a patron has requested them to do so. I find that this takes the theater out of the situation all together. The theater has done everything they can to calm the situation and legally have have covered are bases. If 911 or emergency services finds the call to be a waste of time law enforcement will have to take it up with the patron that requested 911 and not the theater.

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Jim Leko
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: Redondo Beach, CA, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 10-16-2003 03:08 PM

quote:
Twice today out of only like 20 people I've had customers ask which size the middle popcorn is on our display. There's 3 different sized tubs next to each other each progressively bigger and there are 3 popcorn sizes, small, medium, large. How tough can it be to figure it out. This happens way too much for me to understand. Alright, I feel better now that I've complained. Anybody else have this happen? Or any other just idiotic comments. I know everybody does.

phil

Maybe it comes from places like McDonalds. They have 3 sizes of fries. Medium, Large, and Supersize. Notice how Medium is not in the middle (by definition, it should be). Now, in your case, you had them labeled, and they should have seen that. I still remember customers (when I worked the drive-thru at Boston Market), who would ask for "The Meal", and then get pissed when I had to ask them which meal they wanted.

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Dave Macaulay
Film God

Posts: 2321
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 10-16-2003 07:13 PM

Hmm. McDonalds in Canada has small, medium, and large fries: paper pocket for small and cardboard sleeves for the others. I've never super-sized an order so I don't know if those fries are a special size not on the menu boards.
The drinks come as small, "regular", and large.

I can't imagine how anyone can drink one of the giant 7-11 drinks, it looks like a gallon pail.

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Ron Lacheur
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 650
From: British Columbia, Canada
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 10-17-2003 02:14 AM

McDonalds " large " fry is the same size as the supersized one.

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Carl Martin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1424
From: Oakland, CA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 10-17-2003 03:04 AM

agreed, the lawsuit is going nowhere. hell, the guy probably will come to his senses before filling out the paperwork.

911 wasn't called because common sense dictated it should not be. the cops agreed. it didn't appear that the altercation would turn violent. obviously, there are many cases where we'd take someone's word about calling 911, like if they feel ill.

well, looking on the bright side, the more ridiculous the threats of lawsuits become, the swifter will be the inevitable backlash against this runaway litigiousness. maybe.

carl

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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 10-20-2003 02:30 PM

quote:
McDonalds " large " fry is the same size as the supersized one.

The difference is small, but according to McD's web site, the "Large" is 6.2 oz. while the "SuperSize" is 7.0 oz (~13% more).

Something to think about is that some people use these seemingly stupid questions to delay making their order while they decide what they want. There are usually 3 sizes of soda, 3 sizes of popcorn, and then 3-5 combo deals to choose from. It usually takes a few moments to sift through the options.

I'll bet that much of this could be removed if you put "Best Value" above the choice that offered the best product/price ratio. That answers their question almost immediately, and you'll probably sell more of the larger sizes (just don't make it the super-tub and gallon of soda!)

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Charles Everett
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1470
From: New Jersey
Registered: May 2001

posted 11-09-2003 11:35 AM

Getting this back on topic . . .

I was at the AMC Clifton Commons yesterday and had to put up with plenty of stupid customers:

Pre-teen girls hanging around in the foyer. I had no way of knowing where the box office line began! Had a fire broken out a lot of people would have been killed.
Adults who didn't know how to use the Swift Ticket machine. That made it much harder for me to buy my own ticket. Worse, these people had their little children tagging along.
A little girl wanted to peep inside a hall playing The Matrix Revolutions. I chased her away by telling her "How old are you? You're not allowed to see that movie!"
Another little boy blocked the door to the hall showing In the Cut. I had to shoo him away.
Single mom brought her children with her into In the Cut. Worse, those kids wouldn't shut up even when I reminded them. This family left after 15 minutes -- they thought In the Cut was a slasher flick (which it's not).

Theater staff were of little help -- they weren't expecting such a heavy turnout. The police weren't around in the afternoon (when my show began) but were around at night.

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Scott D. Neff
Theatre Dork

Posts: 919
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 11-09-2003 12:19 PM

Aside from the family in "In The Cut" those seem to be pretty minor incidents that take place all the time at theatres everywhere. I could make lists like that miles long for nearly every movie I ever see on a busy afternoon/night of business.

It's just a sign that general movie goers think their $8-$10 ticket buys them the right to run around the theatre like it's the Discovery Fun Zone or whatever "Kids crawl through tubes and slide down slides into a pool of plastic balls" joint exists now.

I do agree though that if the theatre had been more prepared, they could've handled crowd control a bit better. But really, does a busy theatre really need to prepare for crowd control? All they have to do is the same thing they did last weekend.

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Roger Katz
Film Handler

Posts: 61
From: Thomaston, CT, USA
Registered: Feb 2003

posted 11-09-2003 02:47 PM

I went to see Finding Nemo last week on election Day. Admittedly it is a children's movie, but the vast majority of children in the audience were very well-behaved. However, the theatre owner's six grandchildren who were tagging along with him for the day since schools are closed on Election Day were monsters. They were running in the aisles, behind the screen, and up and down the balcony staircase while shouting and bouncing on seats the entire time, since they had probably seen these movie numerous times as it has been playing there for a few weeks now. I couldn't believe the theatre owner permitted his grand kids to act this way in his theatre during a movie. For the $3 admission I'm willing to put up with the holes in the screen, the broken seats, and the 5-minute between reel delays that inevitably happen, but there was no excuse for this.

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Mark Huff
Film Handler

Posts: 69
From: Springfield, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 11-09-2003 04:23 PM

Why would you put up with 5 minute reel changes? Thats a very poorly run theatre. I coudn't watch a movie if I had to wait 5 minutes between reels.

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