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Topic: rant on stupid customers

Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 07-10-2016 10:06 PM

quote: John Roddy
but I also know those same places get surprise visits from the Secret Service because of it.

Umm,no. The Secret Service protects the President (and VP and candidates). They don't visit movie theaters who give refunds on the wrong credit card.

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Martin McCaffery
Film God

Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-10-2016 10:31 PM

Well, until 2003 they were part of the Treasury Dept. and they are in charge of investigations into major financial fraud, so, who knows?
I imagine a scam against a couple of little theaters is probably below their attention level, but it could be their jurisdiction.

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Justin Hamaker
Film God

Posts: 2253
From: Lakeport, CA USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 07-10-2016 10:47 PM

One of the issues with refunding movie tickets is you have to actually know it actually originated from a credit card transaction. Plus in the event of an evacuation or lost show, it may not be possible or practical to refund to a card. While it may technically be illegal, I seriously doubt a theatre is going to get in trouble for refunding a ticket in cash.

Plus, there is absolutely no way the card company would know this happened. About the only way it might get caught is if a law enforcement agency was conducting a sting on the theatre. And even in this case it probably would only matter if someone tried to get someone at the theatre to do a transaction on a card and then immediately void it for cash - perhaps for a kickback.

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Matt Smith
Film Handler

Posts: 19
From: Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, England
Registered: Apr 2016

posted 07-11-2016 01:28 PM

Had to lean forward to tell two elderly customers to be quite whilst watching The Legend of Tarzan today. Elderly customers can be just as rude as everyone else, I'm sure they didn't realise how loud their comments were to one another and I don't think they even heard me when I first told them to be quiet.

[Roll Eyes]

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Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-11-2016 01:51 PM

The Secret Service actually deals with currency counterfeiting also. I have actually had them come to two of my theatres when there were large counterfeiting rings in the areas where my theatres were (Miami, Florida and Ft. Myers, Florida). My employees in both cases accepted counterfeit $100 dollar bills.

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 07-11-2016 04:09 PM

It's never happened to me yet, but I can easily see how someone could give me a counterfeit bill and I would never notice. When it's reasonably busy I get people coming in the door more-or-less throwing money at me and if one of them was counterfeit, how would I know since I just pile everything into the cash drawer.

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David Buckley
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 525
From: Oxford, N. Canterbury, New Zealand
Registered: Aug 2004

posted 07-11-2016 05:06 PM

quote: John Roddy
Wait, isn't it illegal to refund a credit card purchase to anything but that same card?

I don't believe it is illegal, but it is against the terms of service you signed up to when you became a credit card merchant.

If you give someone a non-credit-card refund, and especially for cash, then that isn't (in the credit card companies eyes) a refund, it is a cash advance off a credit card, and thus the cardholder should not get the free interest period, but should be charged interest from day one as any other cash withdrawal off a credit card attracts. So from the credit card company's perspective, if you hand out a cash refund for a card transaction, you are ripping them off.

If you get caught doing it, you may have your ability to accept plastic revoked. Which may be a bigger deal than the Secret Service turning up [Smile]

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Dustin Mitchell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1865
From: Mondovi, WI, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 07-18-2016 09:06 AM

There are lots of things buried in those merchant agreements that a lot of merchants don't know about. For example, when I worked for Carmike, the company found out that it is against the merchant agreement to require someone to show photo ID to verify they are the actual card holder if the card is signed (if the card has 'ask for ID' or whatever written in the signature area, then it is fine to ask). Turns out a location had implemented the policy to always check ID's to verify credit cards and wouldn't accept a card from someone who couldn't show ID, despite the back of his/her card being signed. This person complained to the credit card company, who then contacted Carmike and informed them they were violating the agreement.

The thing is, I still occasionally get asked to show my ID when trying to use my credit card. I'm pretty sure it's still against the merchant agreements, it's just the card companies don't have any way of knowing someone is doing it until one of their members complains.

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

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

posted 07-18-2016 05:29 PM

quote: Justin Hamaker
One of the issues with refunding movie tickets is you have to actually know it actually originated from a credit card transaction. Plus in the event of an evacuation or lost show, it may not be possible or practical to refund to a card. While it may technically be illegal, I seriously doubt a theatre is going to get in trouble for refunding a ticket in cash.

We recently asked RTS to indicate on drive-in tickets whether the transaction was run on credit. That's made it easier to process the occasional refund. If we see the word "credit" after the ticket's serial numbers, we know a card was involved. We then make sure to get the patron's receipt and card. If all that matches up, everything's fine.

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Justin Hamaker
Film God

Posts: 2253
From: Lakeport, CA USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 07-18-2016 08:15 PM

quote: Dustin Mitchell
This person complained to the credit card company, who then contacted Carmike and informed them they were violating the agreement.

This person would probably raise the biggest stink if someone who wasn't them were allowed to use their card. It never fails to surprise me how upset some people will get when you are attempting to protect them.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

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

posted 07-18-2016 09:57 PM

Yeah....here, we don't allow kids into the balcony due to the fairly steep stairs, low railing, and small seating capacity up there. The kids always just take "No, sorry" in stride but some parents get all upset.

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Michael Gonzalez
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 790
From: Grand Island , NE USA
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 07-30-2016 04:24 AM

In general, customers who come and and let us know that they spilled their Large Drink or Large heavily buttered Popcorn, in the middle of an aisle of seats, in a sold out auditorium, after the lights have dimmed and the trailers are rolling and they of course expect us to do something about it. (run on sentence intentional)

Course that is not as bad as when they spill before anything has started and instead of telling us when there is time to do something about it, they instead change seats and let some other person have to sit in their mess (because once again, it is a sold out show).

And for god's sake, STOP giving your 3yr old a 44oz drink to carry around. It is not cute and it always seems to happen during the busiest part of the round.

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Buck Wilson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 894
From: St. Joseph MO, USA
Registered: Sep 2010

posted 07-30-2016 09:01 AM

quote: Michael Gonzalez
And for god's sake, STOP giving your 3yr old a 44oz drink to carry around. It is not cute and it always seems to happen during the busiest part of the round.

THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK YOU

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Michael Brown
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1522
From: Bradford, England
Registered: May 2001

posted 08-21-2016 04:28 PM

...and they always nominate the youngest child in the group to carry the tub of popcorn. We have a escalator from our retail counter up to our screens, guess how much popcorn is dropped on the escalator on a daily basis.

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Sean McKinnon
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1712
From: Peabody Massachusetts
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 08-22-2016 03:23 PM

The other problem with cash refunds for credit card sales is that the customer can pay with the card, take the cash refund, then dispute the charge with the credit card company causing the theatre to lose twice the amount.

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