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Author Topic: rant on stupid customers Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-02-2008 02:49 AM                     Starving is a bit of a strong word for a movie that is only an hour and a half long.  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 07-02-2008 03:55 AM                     Most customers get mad when you change the rules out from under them. This is not a surprise. Look at it from their perspective: they don't know you're doing this for the concession revenue, and they were told the movie was free and they believed it. Then they cemented their understanding by bringing food and were not told it was a problem (until you noticed them a few days later). Also, I think some daycare folks would not feel comfortable feeding kids popcorn and soda for lunch. Food for thought. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 07-02-2008 05:44 AM                        The deal from the kids show reminds me of a situation I had about two weeks ago. This summer school program from one of the local Indian reservations shows up unannounced for the first matinee of Kung Fu Panda on a Tuesday afternoon. I'm staffed to handle about 100 customers over an entire set of shows and they show up with 30-40 kids all at one time. Then they proceed to go to the concession stand and order fun packs with icee for each of the kids. While trying to deal with them, the line of our regular customers is growing continuously longer. In fact, it slowed things down to the point that I had to start Get Smart 10 minutes late because the customers were stuck in the line. The fact they showed up unannounced and then ordered 25-30 of one of the most time consuming items had me mad enough. But then when I tell him I really would have appreciated a call the day before, he gets indignant and starts acting like I was telling him not to come - in fact he actually said "are we not welcome here". He just couldn't get the fact that I just wasn't staffed to handle that extra load or that it severely impacted the service our other customers received. To make it even worse, they completely trashed the lobby. At least 2 of the kids dumped their fun pack spilling popcorn and Icee all over the floor. And there was stomped on popcorn spread over the entire lobby. I forgot to ask my staff what the auditorium looked like after they left, but I'm sure it was just as trashed.  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 07-02-2008 06:35 AM                     Don't blame the customers! An aggressive marketing person would have INVITED the day care and summer recreation groups to participate in the "free film" programs. By inviting the groups you can set out the rules for their attendance. Like: Call ahead the day before, come with money if the kids want food, perhaps even a special offer for small portions. Pitching this as a learning experience, the opportunity to help children know and understand the rules for attending a movie can be a reason for the leaders to bring the children in the first place. Some justification has to be given to the parents for the children to leave the controlled environment of the day care or summer camp. Most field trips require parent consent forms to be signed before the child can attend. Groups can be a great asset to the theater if you handle it in a positive and pro-active way. KEN  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 07-02-2008 11:58 AM                     quote: John Hawkinson Most customers get mad when you change the rules out from under them. This is not a surprise. Exactly. If the staff members on duty had bothered doing their job (enforcing the company's policy) this issue would've been solved the first day they came in. The person in question would've gone out to get food, brought it in, then get stopped at the doorstand. Then any subsequent day, the person would likely not even try it. Then again, some people don't take "no" for an answer like when I was box office, wouldn't sell a kid an R-rated ticket since he had no ID, then later came back and walked to the other cashier to get the same ticket. Somehow he thought I wouldn't recognize that the same guy was walking up mere minutes later, so I tell the other guy "Ask for his ID."  |  IP: Logged Jim Ziegler Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 753 From: West Hollywood, CA Registered: Jul 99 posted 07-04-2008 09:48 PM                     quote: Justin Hamaker he gets indignant and starts acting like I was telling him not to come My guess is that his attitude was a result of how he was approached. I would also guess that this group has not been back. Think of it this way - he brought in 40 kids to a matinee and bought them movie meals. At my complex a matinee ticket is $6 and a movie meal is $4 - for a total of $10 / kid. So, he gave you $400 in business and, in his mind, you got mad at him for it. The better solution, and one that has worked very well for me, would be to thank him for coming, hand him your card, and let him know that if he calls you a few days before he wants to come out you will be sure to have his items prepared for his group to make it all that much easier for their outing. It would also help to have gotten his card and then you could have called him to try and schedule his group for other kid appropriate films (Wall-E, Space Chimps, Star Wars, etc). With them dropping $400 each time they came that very quickly adds up to a sizable amount of money. Either way you handle it the problem of an unplanned group is solved, but one way allows you to keep the groups business, the other way costs you their business.  |  IP: Logged Andy Frodsham Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK Registered: Nov 2006 posted 07-07-2008 05:51 AM                     As a single screen art-house theatre, we tend to get a few people who are very 'anti-multiplex' and hate anything which 'hints' at modern technology. We have one middle-aged couple who frequently moan about the pre-show music (not the content, just the fact that we play anything), the screen spotlights and even 'these new films where the sound comes from all around'! Now, whenever I see them arrive, I'm tempted to kill all the presentation lights, switch-on the overhead utility fluorescents, switch-off the non-sync and play the soundtrack in mono! Trouble-is, I think they'd like it!! It is very difficult to keep one's mouth closed at times!  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 07-07-2008 01:18 PM                        Going back a few posts - about the helium balloon thing: Even if the theatre is not stadium - the ballons could be let loose and float up to the ceiling. Then the string hangs down and puts a big fat line down the middle of the picture. The only way to take care of that is too stop the movie and get the marquee changing pole out and put a pin on the end of it. This happened to me years and years ago - nobody gets past my doorpost with a ballon in their hand after that horrible experience.  |  IP: Logged Galen Murphy-Fahlgren Master Film Handler Posts: 405 From: Canton, MI, USA Registered: Oct 2007 posted 07-07-2008 10:36 PM                     Here's a nice one: when I started the last showing of Kit Kittredge, I made a mental note that there were no patrons in the theater, which is actually quite normal for the 8:40. Later, I radioed box office to see if we had sold for it so I could kill the xenon. She tells me that we did not, but, of course, before killing the lamp, I visually check the auditorium to make sure it's empty. Lo and behold, there is a guy sitting in there. I went down to box office to be absolutely sure, and the POS agrees, no tickets sold. So, I go into the theater and ask to see the guys ticket, and he says he must've misplaced it. I tell him that, according to our computer, no tickets were sold for that show, so he can see where my confusion comes from. At this point, he admits that he has no ticket, but says he isn't hurting anyone since the theater is otherwise empty. Appalled, I informed him that he still needed a ticket to see the movie. He dug around and pulled out the $4 for a senior ticket, and then asked me if I was really going to take the ticket to the box office, as though I were the one trying to steal, and he in fact was not. As insulting as this was, I simply said yes, and walked away. I understand the guy doesn't know about the cost of running a lamp or any of that, but how does he not think sneaking into a movie is stealing? I mean, this guy must have been in his mid-60's, and he's sneaking into theaters. Honestly, I can't trust teenagers, mothers, fathers, unmarried 30-somethings, preteens, the undead, small children, large children, and now, the last demographic that I profiled as decent people, seniors. Thanks old dude.  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Weigel Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1062 From: Edmond, OK, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 07-07-2008 11:06 PM                     I would've just shut the lamp off, brought the lights up, kicked on the non-sync and let him come out to complain that his movie just "stopped" for no apparent reason; exposing himself for the thief that he is.  |  IP: Logged Galen Murphy-Fahlgren Master Film Handler Posts: 405 From: Canton, MI, USA Registered: Oct 2007 posted 07-08-2008 12:21 AM                     Don't think that that didn't occur to me, and a single ticket sale doesn't even offset the cost of running the lamp, but the issue was resolved and my not inconsiderable cynicism added to, so all is well.  |  IP: Logged Robert Crabtree Film Handler Posts: 91 From: Largo, FL Registered: May 2008 posted 07-08-2008 01:35 PM                     Sometimes our box people accidentally hit the wrong button, ringing up a Shrek 3 instead of Spiderman 3, for instance. Also, sometimes people realize that the movie they are seeing is ass (The Love Guru, anyone?) and walk into something else they were considering. It was a good move to check if the guy had a ticket for SOMETHING playing during that set.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 07-08-2008 03:50 PM                     If they rang up the wrong ticket shouldn't you void out the wrong one and ring it up correctly? Even if it seems like a small thing, at least that way you have grosses going to the correct movie/studio.  |  IP: Logged Galen Murphy-Fahlgren Master Film Handler Posts: 405 From: Canton, MI, USA Registered: Oct 2007 posted 07-08-2008 06:40 PM                     Since I almost never deal with customers, I try to be as good as possible when I do since I get reviewed on it no matter what. If the one time in a review period I dealt with someone, I decked them, it would probably hurt my review scores.  |  IP: Logged Robert Crabtree Film Handler Posts: 91 From: Largo, FL Registered: May 2008 posted 07-09-2008 01:18 AM                     Definitely Chris, we'd void out and ring up the correct ticket- I brought those two examples up because BOTH have happened- can't remember the specifics, but those scenarios have led to people sitting in a theatre that, had we only gone by the computer, had nobody in them.  |  IP: Logged

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