|
|
This topic comprises 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Academy 6 in Pasadena SUCKS!!! (and how to manage customer complaints)
|
Aaron Mehocic
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 804
From: New Castle, PA, USA
Registered: Jun 99
|
posted 09-04-2004 11:00 PM
I hereby challenge you to give me a defensible position as to why the theatre or distributor is entitled to hold onto that person's cash.
Nobody said they were "entitled" to hold onto the cash. What was said is our policy is passes first and a REFUND second.
quote:
Business is business, You can't deliver the product? Give the money back. Why keep it?
Very true Manny and I agree, yet being a businessperson requires a certain finesse in which the customer's desires are met, yet the base profit doesn't necessarily have to be given back. For example, a candy company delivers a large order to a theater, but the Gummy Bears aren't there. Does the manager call up and bitch that he wants a refund on the entire order? No he wants a CREDIT on the gummy bears. Thats what a pass is --- credit. My comment about the seniors was a joke in that they get shit all the time in which they consider "free", but its poor bastards like you and I that pay for it everyday.
quote:
Its asinine for me to stand up for my rights as a consumer?
No, but consumer protection is no different then the right of a business to show a profit. Your party was given an alternative in the form of a pass. As far as the law is concerned your rights were not violated. (Though it is a bunch of shit the pass couldn't be used on Saturday).
quote: Brad Miller
Now I am fine if passes are offered first and then cash refunds are CHEERFULLY given if a customer requests it.
And that is EXACTLY how we handle these situations. Nobody is stealing, nobody is fucking somebody over just for kicks, and nobody is being a dick. As many of us who work with the public knows ... its often them who behave in this way. What I meant by the "Belligerent" comment was that we've all seen asshole customers come out of auditoriums, talk so everyone in lobby can hear him, and exclaim: I'm Joe My-Shit-Don't-Stink and I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!!! There are more tactfull ways of addressing a problem, and then there are these malcontents.
| IP: Logged
|
|
Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
|
posted 09-04-2004 11:47 PM
I think *most* customers will come out and explain their displeasure with maturity and a reasonable level of patience (obviously given the severity of the problem) AT FIRST. However, if you (not speaking to anyone inparticular here) as a manager are the second, or third, or fourth person employed by the theater that the dissatisfied customer talks to, and especially if you took your sweet ass time getting TO the customer to resolve their complaint, by the time you get there it is almost guaranteed that the customers will become irate and "irrational".
Face up to it. You or your staff/equipment fucked up. It's your job to kiss their ass to whatever degree it takes by doing anything it takes to make them satisfied. If that means refunds AND a pass to make them happy, you should do it.
A perfect example of this has surely been had by everyone where you call into a company to report a problem, and you have to wade through a bazillion extensions and overly friendly (and overly slow) greetings on each voice menu just to get to where you need to get, only to have the phone system glitch and hang up on you...or the person answering the phone can't help you, or you ask to speak to a supervisor, but they take 15 minutes to answer your call (probably because they are too busy talking to their employee trying to prepare themselves for the confrontation). Every minute that passes by when something you/your staff/your equipment screwed up is just that much more angry they will be. Speed is crucial here, and the first thing that should be said to help have a smoother manager / customer discussion is an apology for "taking so long to get downstairs, etc" (whether you took a long time or not). It shows right up front that you care about them (again, whether you really do or not). Customers tend to relax a bit and tone their complaint down somewhat when they see how attentive you are to them and your obvious willingness to make whatever the situation is right.
Remember also that just giving a pass or a refund isn't really solving the problem. There is the amount of time you have wasted of your customers. For example, let's say you have a brain wrap 2/3 of the way into a 2 hour movie. We have...
- *Patron effort to leave the house and drive to your theater.
*Patron money spent at your establishment (which you return in the form of a pass or refund).
*90 minutes watching PART of a movie they never get to finish.
*The aggravation of not being ABLE to finish watching the movie.
*(In Manny's case) the insult of being offered a pass on a Saturday that is not valid on Saturdays!
*Patron effort to drive back home.
In reality, you owe them far more than a simple pass or refund. This is why at theaters I managed, it was my policy to refund their money whether they asked for it or not AND give them a pass. Special situations would warrant 2 passes, at my judgment. That in my opinion is taking care of your customers. You do want them to return, right?
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"
Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
|
posted 09-05-2004 12:29 AM
quote: Aaron Mehocic
Very true Manny and I agree, yet being a businessperson requires a certain finesse in which the customer's desires are met, yet the base profit doesn't necessarily have to be given back.
Forgetting for the time-being that, in this case, the customer's desire was to get a cash refund...
Are you seriously saying that it's all right to report that 3 people attended a screening of that HAROLD AND HIS CASTLE movie when, in fact, those 3 people never even heard of it...and did *not* attend that screening?
It's okay to add one more to the count of your 12:30 matinee in the middle of the night?
It shouldn't even be permissable for a theatre to operate with a box office system that would honor that transaction in the first place. What other controls are absent from that system? All of this raises very serious questions about the accuracy of their accounting.
As for your Gummi Bear analogy. It doesn't work. We bought concessions and never once did we entertain the notion that those items should be refunded. We only wanted a refund for the product we did not receive.
Furthermore, implicit in your scenario is an ongoing credit relationship. Our (begrudged) visit to this movie theatre is entirely different. This was not going to be an ongoing relationship. I made that clear when I stated that we didn't really want to go to The Academy in the first place, and we certainly had no intentions of ever going back after this episode.
One more thing: Those Gummi Bears were probably not paid for. They would most likely have been invoiced and so a credit would be appropriate. Our case is entirely different: We bought our tickets with cash. The refund should match the original form of payment.
quote: Aaron Mehocic
Thats what a pass is --- credit. My comment about the seniors was a joke in that they get shit all the time in which they consider "free", but its poor bastards like you and I that pay for it everyday.
These passes might fly as "credit" if they were considered same-as-cash. Alas, they are not valid on Saturday and they expire in a mere 30 days. Furthermore, I explained to that woman that we had no intentions of ever coming back.
The only reason I did not pursue the matter any further is that my uncle did not want to create "a scene" and it was *his* money on the line. If I had been the one who paid, I guarantee we would have left with a cash refund.
I am tempted to write a letter to Buena Vista. Trouble is, I have doubts as to whether they would even care.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Brandon Willis
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 216
From: Richmond, VA, USA
Registered: Apr 2004
|
posted 09-05-2004 10:37 AM
Some theatres will have only one employee on duty for the matinees during the school year. They will put a box office terminal at the concession and that one employee will sell the tickets, tear them, and sell the snacks. When the employee has to take their break, between sets of starts, the manager will step in and cover their position. The showtimes are set up so that the first set lets out as the night shift, which will be a full staff (box office, concession, doorman, and usher) is arriving so that they can clean up.
With regards to refunds, I offer passes first, but I've always given a cash refund to anyone who presents a ticket and asks for it. No questions asked. You can't just screw up someone's night at the movies and then tell them they're out $30. They'll never come back and you'll probably get a comment card or letter from them. However, if they don't have a ticket, then they're SOL.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
See...?
Printer-friendly view of this topic