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Topic: rant on stupid customers
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Martin McCaffery
Film God
Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 01-20-2012 01:37 PM
Because, I'm pretty sure, most people don't know what chain it is or where to look.
In Montgomery for instance, there is the Eastdale and the Rave. The Eastdale is the Carmike Eastdale 8, but no one refers to it that way. The Rave is the Rave Festival Plaza, but, again, no one refers to it that way and I'm willing to bet few of them (at least those calling for a showtime) could tell you what chain it belongs to (Rave, obviously).
To the average moviegoer, outside of the purists and those of us in the biz, the chain is meaningless.
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Glen Rich
Film Handler
Posts: 55
From: Nedlands, Western Australia
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 01-21-2012 08:12 AM
After 27 years doing the projection gig I thought I'd heard almost every complaint... wrong again. We had an elderly woman, (very well spoken English woman going by her accent), some months ago come out of Cinema 1 about 5 minutes into the feature and complain to the floor staff that she needed to talk to the projectionist, (she understood the concept of a projectionist, many people have no idea, which makes her complaint even odder). Absolutely insisted that she needed to talk to me; so the floor staff member rang the box and gave her the phone.
She told me off for turning all the lights off for the feature screening. I walked to one of the C1 portholes and checked to see that yes the aisle lights were still on. I told her that the aisle light were on, did they go off for a time? No!
It took me a while to click that she was complaining about fading off the downlights. I tried to explain to her that it was normal to turn off the lights when screening feature films, surely she had experienced it before. She wouldn't have a bar of it; so I pointed out that of 260 plus people in that screening, and of every screening I'd done for the last 27 years she was the very 1st to complain about the lights being turned down for the feature screening.
She still wasn't happy when she gave the phone back to the floor staff member, and toddled back into the session. Front of house just don't get the recognition they deserve having to deal with the odd and infirm customers...
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 01-26-2012 02:10 AM
quote: Edward Havens
Customers aren't getting stupider. They are getting more selfish and shallow. There is a distinct difference.
Absolutely right, Ed. But, I must say, you are a better man than I -- yes, I can keep an even voice, not raise it, not sound as annoyed as I really am; I can silently think, "Do say what you're thinking...don't say what you're thinking..." But, I AM Italian and there is a point were my blood pressure goes beyond a certain threshold and then smoke shoots out of my ears and fire out of my eyes.
After hearing this obnoxious woman berating my box office person with abusive language and insults because we wouldn't accept an expired discount coupon -- my top rule: my staff shouldn't have to put up with insults -- I stepped in and also wouldn't capitulate, ESPECIALLY given her nasty attitude and the fact that the expiration date was ONE FULL YEAR past when she was trying to redeem it -- and BTW, our expiration dates aren't some small 6pt font -- it's very prominant and easy to read.
I held my temper for a good 5 minutes, but unlike your nerves of steel, my voice finally did rise, sorry to say, and I told her, hissing thru my teeth, "Got out of my theatre, lady....and I mean NOW!. You are no longer welcomed here." Then I turned to the entire staff and yelled, "Everyone, your attention please -- see this patron? Remember her face. She is persona non grata here; NEVER sell her a ticket again." Then, while she stood there aghast, mouth open with no sound coming out, I turned back to her and said, "OK, do we understand each other -- leave the premises."
Now you know why they lock me in the booth or my office and don't let me in the lobby until we are locking up. heh heh.
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Simon Wyss
Film Handler
Posts: 80
From: Basel, BS, Switzerland
Registered: Apr 2011
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posted 01-26-2012 04:56 AM
It is psyche, soul. We all live in a cool time, cold, I want to say cold.
Personal exchange at a theatre warms people. Excuse me for the attack on architects and all the building people but the houses we have to accept to live in or to see movies in are in most cases ugly. One is discouraged. Sorry, stinking popcorn, polyester fibre everywhere, nothing elegant, nothing inviting.
So visitors try to find you, us, in that desert. They ask you, us, because they want to hear words from somebody, spoken language. They donʼt like to read in a crowd, that takes some concentration. Each one of us prefers to have verbal contact with a warm living body before cold letters. Itʼs a motion (picture) place, they move themselves here. We donʼt have the right to treat our visitors contumeliously. It is our business to serve everyone. For that they pay.
Of course, thereʼs a line. Like a taxi cab driver who needs not accept every insult we may withdraw behind the line. Still, it is best practice to say that one cannot do this and that. Itʼs not stupidity, itʼs the fright at being left lost in the cold universe which can catch each one of us. Be warm, be there for them, and, please-please, remove as much of letters and paper as possible from your cinema. There is nothing less attractive with a cinema than literature.
In a way life was better 50 years ago: much less paper and no computers. Remember the different ways of ruining oneʼs business. Gambling — fastest method. Women — nicest method. Computer — safest method.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 01-26-2012 11:33 AM
My theatre is not a cold, ugly place.
Like I said, I am Italian -- I am a warm person. I can tolerate insults pretty well, however, I will not tolerate insults to my staff -- they are good, loyal people and don't deserve such treatment from selfish, self-indulgent pig people.
Monte, I did ask this woman if she had an expired grocery coupon, did she think the supermarket check-out clerk or the manager would let her use it as a gestsure of "good will," which was what she was arguing? But it wasn't even the yes or no of her argument that got her baned, it was, if you must get metaphysical about it, Simon, it was the universe crying to me that she and her ugly sagging tits needed to get kicked out on her equally ugly fat ass forthwith. Sometimes poetry just demands its justice. ![[evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
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