Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Crazy Customer Comments...

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Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 09-07-2001, 08:33 AM:

We had a guy come out of Jurassic Park 3 the other day complaining that it wasn't big enough on screen (It's flat, not scope for those who don't know)...

He accused us of 'running the movie that was meant for the small cinemas in the big one'.

Posted by Thomas Hauerslev (Member # 566) on 09-07-2001, 08:50 AM:

I just posted another message about our beloved audience under "Whats the crazietst (see can't even spell any longer!) thing a manger said to you".

Maybe Brad can move to this post instead.

Cheers Thomas

Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 09-07-2001, 10:31 AM:

Back in the days of Mono trailers, customers would come out and "inform" us that the "THX is not on" These complaints even came out of houses that didn't even have THX

Posted by Dennis Atkinson (Member # 345) on 09-07-2001, 11:18 AM:

The screen / picture is too big. I could spot the sfx and computer generated people just before the boat sank.
It wasn't like that at the mall.

Dennis

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 09-07-2001, 02:39 PM:

"I bought a combo which entitles me too free refills, so I want someone to go in the theatre and bring my my refills!!!!!!!!!!!"

------------------
--Sean McKinnon
Manager
Loews Cineplex Entertainment
Liberty Tree Mall 20
Danvers, Mass
www.enjoytheshow.com

Posted by Dwayne Caldwell (Member # 417) on 09-07-2001, 03:16 PM:

When I was learning to use the Cable Access equipment in Mesquite, the head facilitator (a self proclaimed title) saw The First Wives Club at the theatre he knew I was working as a projectionist for. When I told him I was indeed the man responsible for the presentation the night he saw it, he told me the editing was all wrong and that I should have done a better job putting the movie together. That guy's been working around video far too long.

------------------
The man with the magic hands.

Posted by Brian Hogan (Member # 940) on 09-08-2001, 10:27 PM:

i just love it when they demand that we rewind the movie... it never gets old

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-09-2001, 01:33 AM:

Wow let's see.

-There was an incident when a patron told me my convergeance was off when I was showing a print of "Gone with da Wind". He was right, as it was a horrible dye transfer job and the reds leaked over the edges like a bad TV set. Problem was this guy thought I could fix it just like a TV set. He figured the problem was the projector itself.

-There have been customers who have bitched that a film was not in digital when in fact it was. I guess the surrounds must be pumping out sound 100% of the time, otherwise it's not in digital.

I'm sure there's more, I just can't remember right now. Amazingly, no one EVER complained about the first two reels of that awful movie The Horse Whisperer being vertically letterboxed.

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 09-09-2001, 01:55 AM:

I once heard of a complaint that DESPERADO was too violent.

Also some old guy came out of LORD OF ILLUSIONS which had a red band SHOWGIRLS trailer on it: "I didnt bring my wife here to see no titties up on no screen!" he said.

Posted by Alan Plester (Member # 852) on 09-09-2001, 08:21 AM:

Re, the Horse Whisperer.
Yes, I stood it for a while when curiosity got the better of me, & I just had to go and ask someone WHY? was this being shown in wide, when the masking was at scope, it did my head in. Crazy way of starting a film.

Posted by William T. Parr (Member # 677) on 09-09-2001, 09:26 AM:

Craziest, more like Stupidest thing I ever heard a customer say was at a friends theatre in Rockport, Texas. It was shortly after the Cinema 4 opened and Titanic was playing. An elderly gentleman came out after the movie was over and was waiting on his wife who had stopped to refresh herself. The Manager asked the guy if he enjoyed the show and this guy proceeded to say "It just ticks me to no end to think how many times the Director made those poor people jump into that Freezing Water, and bounced them off the back end off that boat to get that scene right."

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-09-2001, 11:04 AM:

Just yesterday, someone complained that "Rock Star" was being played too loudly. I was running it at '5.' (I mean, really, if you go to see a film called "Rock Star," do you really expect that the mix is going to be subtle?)

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 09-09-2001, 09:47 PM:

>>It just ticks me to no end to think how many times the Director made those poor people jump into that Freezing Water, and bounced them off the back end off that boat to get that scene right<<

That's a pretty good one.

Posted by Ethan Harper (Member # 472) on 09-09-2001, 10:25 PM:

True radio conversation while working in the booth.

Usher:"Projectionist I am getting a customer complaint that the tracking is off in #*"
Projectionist:"OK..OK..hold on. Let me find the remote for it."

Floor Manager:"Can you check on the sound in #11."
Projectionist:"what is it doing"
Floor Manager:"It is making this wierd hum , like you know the sound it makes when the speakers are drying up and going out of tune."

Manager:"Projectionist,...you might want to check your exciter bulb,.. it is not reading the lights up cue"

Little did he know we had Reverse scan LED's. Besides since when does the reader for analog sound have anything to do with light cue's?

------------------
--"That's my story and i'm sticking to it!"--

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-09-2001, 10:37 PM:

I remember back at Greenwood when we had exciter bulbs, cues would be missed all the time! We'd put in a new bulb abnd the cues would start taking again, but only for a month or two. Then we switched to RED L.E.D.'s and the cues stopped missing. It also helped the slide projectors last longer without breaking down, not to mention helped keep the booth nice and cool.

Posted by Kristin Wahlund (Member # 922) on 09-25-2001, 07:21 AM:

A customer once asked a co-worker in box which movie had the most and the hottest girls in it, and that was the one they wanted to see.

One Customer came and told my friends in concessions that we need to adjust our aspect ratio in theatre number 8. Is there really such a thing, right now its a running joke at our theatre with my friends.

Posted by Kristin Wahlund (Member # 922) on 09-25-2001, 07:37 AM:

Customers frequently ask me if we have Icees, when I tell them no, they say "well you used to" which I know is untrue because our theatre has not been open more than three years and there are still employees who work there since "the begining"!

------------------
Kristin Wahlund
Regal Cinemas
Eagan 16, MN

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-25-2001, 09:22 AM:

Kristin said: "One Customer came and told my friends in concessions that we need to adjust our aspect ratio in theatre number 8. Is there really such a thing, right now its a running joke at our theatre with my friends."

That customer may have had a legitimate complaint. Perhaps the wrong aperture or lens was used, or the screen masking was set to the wrong format? Could have had a misframed picture, which they would interpret as the wrong aspect ratio. Perhaps they knew the film was shot in a certain aspect ratio (e.g., 1.66:1 or 1.37:1) and objected to the cropping from the commonly used 1.85:1 aspect ratio used in most US theatres.

Here is a link to my Kodak Cinema Notes article "Caring About Composition":

Caring About Composition

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Posted by Bob Healey (Member # 1003) on 09-25-2001, 10:06 PM:

The weirdest complaint I've ever gotten was that we did NOT have any trailers running with the film. He wanted some random trailers, withs thrown on the print so we could play the coming attraction snips.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-25-2001, 10:13 PM:

Evans, were you in Rosemount Minnesota watching movies lately?

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 09-26-2001, 11:06 AM:

quote:

Evans, were you in Rosemount Minnesota watching movies lately?

Nope. Sadly, I seem to be the only theatre-goer in my area that cares about the aspect ratio being correct. Note that I've been very quiet about it during the past few months. I have been sending some messages to movie studios about the aspect ratio problem in the local theatres and if just one would put their foot down and not allow their scope movies to be shown at 1.85:1, I believe that would be the push that Regal needs to fix the problem at Hollywood 18 and Madison Square 12 in two-thirds of the auditoriums. Of course, the movie studios themselves may not care that their scope movies are often being shown at 1.85:1. If the movie studios don't care, and the customers don't care, then should I care? I'll put a "news item" on my site occasionally telling people they should write Regal headquarters and complain about the practice, but I'll bet nobody does, because they either don't understand the problem, or understand it and just don't care.

Occasionally, my site gets hit by major companies in the movie industry. Yesterday, I got a hit from disney.com, but of course, that could be anyone from within the company. carmike.com hits the site occasionally, but regalcinemas.com never has.

August 31 was the last time I went to any movie theatre, which is quite odd for me. If nothing I want to see comes out this Friday, it will be more than a month between visits, which may not ever have happened before. (I'll have to write a routine in the software to sort all the visits chronologically, regardless of theatre. Analysing that trend for different times of the year would be interesting.

As for "crazy customer comments", oen manager and I had a good time last month talking about some of the strage and unusual comments he had received. Many had nothing to do with the movie presentation, but had to do with exit signs, concession items, etc. That particular theatre has nice EXIT signs that aren't bright enough to throw light onto the screens, and do not require electricity. Some customers say that the signs aren't working. When the auditoriums are dark, the signs are easily visible. One customer said she didn't like the roller coaster policy trailer because it made her dizzy.

------------------
Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Information Site

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 09-26-2001, 06:47 PM:

Bob H: No trailers with a feature is a mortal sin!

In May 2000 the Regal Commerce Center (North Brunswick NJ) ran East is East with no trailers -- just the "rollercoaster" policy and the feature. No rolling stock advertising even! I sent in a comment card about the lack of trailers but Knoxville didn't seem to care.

That particular Regal had just started renting out screens for Bollywood product and thought East is East was a Bollywood picture. (It's actually a comedy/drama about a Pakistani family in England. Miramax released it in the US.)

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 09-26-2001, 09:38 PM:

Evans,

Do you work at a Regal? I work at a really old one. It's a 10-plex, and 6 of our screens do not have moveable masking. I can't stad it!!! Every movie in those houses is shown on a flat screen. Uggghhhh!!!!

As far as dumb comments, you're gonna laugh your ass off. One customer thought the Pepsi Girl policy was satanic!!!! I just about fell on the floor when I read that comment card. (Worse yet, it was spelled "satonic.") I hated that trailer. Never did I think I would be so glad to see the roller coaster again. The new one is pretty sweet.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 09-27-2001, 10:36 AM:

quote:

Do you work at a Regal? I work at a really old one. It's a 10-plex, and 6 of our screens do not have movable masking. I can't stand it!!! Every movie in those houses is shown on a flat screen. Uggghhhh!!!!

No, I don't work for Regal. Was this Regal you work for a Cobb theatre originally?

As far as the comment about the Pepsi Girl policy trailer being satanic, that's funny, but I admit that I put in my share of comment cards expressing my opinion about it, although I never went as far as to call it "satanic".

Theatre companies will never be able to please everyone with their policy trailer. I like the roller coaster trailer because it serves a useful purpose, namely being able to see if the image is framed correctly. Also, it's funny to see the age 12-16 group hold their arms up and act like they're riding on a roller coaster. However, I'll bet that Regal has gotten complaints about going back to the roller coaster instead of making a new one (but not from me).

People will complain about anything, and it seems that the lower the IQ of the person complaining, the funnier the complaints will be. Listening to a someone try to explain a problem not knowing a thing about movie projection can be a blast.

"The top is at the bottom and the bottom is at the top". (misframed two perfs)

"They need to adjust their tracking" (scope film misframed slightly with a strip of the adjacent frame showing).

"I loved Pepsi Girl. She was so cute." (this person would have to be either satanic, or an old lady ).

"There is this constant noise in the auditorium during many scenes in the movie." (it was submarine ambient noises coming through the surrounds in "Hunt for Red October" -- remember, old people typically don't like surround).

"The movie was too loud" and "The movie was not loud enough" from members of the same audience.

"The movie was played in DTS when it was supposed to be in THX."

"They need to do a better job cleaning up between shows. There are cups and popcorn everywhere" (from someone who left his cup in the cup-holder for the usher to clean up).

"They haven't been getting any good movies lately." (thinking that the local theatres actually have much control over this.)

"Their video games suck." (Generally, I go to a theatre to see movies, not to play video games).

------------------
Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Information Site

Posted by Bob Healey (Member # 1003) on 09-27-2001, 11:33 AM:

quote:
Bob H: No trailers with a feature is a mortal sin!

What can I say? I work at a second run place at a college and we had no trailers for anything that would be playing within the next month.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 09-27-2001, 12:52 PM:

Bob H: My apologies.

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 09-27-2001, 08:12 PM:

Evans,

Yes, my theatre used to be Cobb. Have you found the same problem with masking at similar theatres? The newer Cobb theatres I've been to all have moveable masking. I even used to work at one.

I got real tired of the roller coaster real quickly because I used to work at a theatre wiht a lobby trailer screen (classic Regal design - I like it ) and would see it 20 times a night. I said for a long time that we needed a new policy, but the minute I saw the Pepsi Girls, you have no idea how badly I wanted my roller coaster back! And I put my hands up.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 09-28-2001, 09:45 AM:

quote:
Yes, my theatre used to be Cobb. Have you found the same problem with masking at similar theatres? The newer Cobb theatres I've been to all have moveable masking. I even used to work at one.

By "newer", you must mean after 1994 and before mid 1997 when Regal bought them out. I say that because our Hollywood 18 (originally Cobb Hollywood 16) was built in 1994 and only had 4 screens with adjustable masking, with all others 1.85:1-only. I consider that to be a fairly new theatre.

I'd love it if customers would start complaining about that and writing letters to Regal and the movie studios about it. If I only had the names and addresses of the people that would care about this problem at, say, Fox, Universal, etc., the studios themselves might require that movies only be shown on appropriately-sized screens. I got a hit from disney.com the other day, and at that time, a snippet urging people to write letters to Regal about the problem was near the top. Maybe I should make note of every scope movie that is being shown in the smaller auditoriums each time I go to those and list them, along with the releasing studio, on my page somewhere. Having specific examples of which movies from which studios are being cropped might make whoever reads my letters at the studios read the letter a bit more carefully before throwing it away.

Back to the "crazy comments" topic:
Here is one comment I provided to the staff at one theatre before a movie: "The sound system in there sounds like a car ran over it." The music coming from it was so distorted that it hurt to listen to it. A guy came in and listened, ran upstairs, and did something and it improved drastically. (This was an aduitorium in which the auditorium lights used to blink every time a slide changed in the slide projector!)

------------------
Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Information Site

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-28-2001, 12:45 PM:

Here is a link to Film Journal's Exhibition Guide, which lists the contacts for each major theatre circuit:
FJ Exhibition Guide

Here is a link to Film Journal's International Distribution Guide, which lists the contacts at each major distributor:
FJ International Distribution Guide

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 11-09-2001, 02:36 AM:

Last night the guy working guest services tells me that this lady comes out of 13 GHOSTS wanting her money back because "ghosts dont look like that...they look like real people."

This lady appearently has seen real ghosts of people who died at another theatre she used to work at.
This theatre was being biult onto a mall and one day part of the biulding collapsed while it was under construction and killed some joggers who were jogging around the mall (how they were able to get near the construction is beyond me).

She apparently would see these ghosts when she was doing usher duties around the theatre.
She said that only certain people can see them, and if you want the m to leave you alone, you have to ask them how you can help them.
I kid you not.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 11-09-2001, 08:52 AM:

Is her name Cole Sear?

"I can see dead people."

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 11-09-2001, 12:25 PM:

Maybe I'm having a blond moment, but who's that?

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 11-09-2001, 12:46 PM:

Well, for a slight change of pace, how about dumb comments made by theatre personnel to complaining customers?

As a frequent moviegoer, I have some beauts:

watching a scope movie with a flat lens. having to complain three times over a twenty minute period, the "projectionist"(usher) would poke his head in the auditorium and couldnt tell what was wrong. Finally the manager arrived at the scene and the snack bar girl stated the obvious, "he may not know what he's doing" (about the usher). The manager then took care of the problem after I explained the difference in lenses.

Bad focus and off-frame: I complained to an usher who was doing nothing but holding up the wall in the back of the auditorium. When I pointed out to him the situation, his response was "It dont matter...it's just the previews." 10 minutes later, he was STILL standing at the back of the auditorium, and I told him again, ands he said "I told you already, it don't matter." The film was FINALLY focused at the start of the feature, which makes me wonder if the chain (UA, dare I say) had a policy to show previews out of focus.

At another screening, I had to alert the staff they were showing a scope movie with the wrong lens...after a few minutes they changed the lens. I then had to go back out and ask them to open the masking to go with the changed format.

Another scope story: A re-release of Jungle Book was being shown through a scope lens (a programking mistake, as the previews had been flat). The closest employee I could find responded to me by saying that I didnt know what I was talking about, that there was of course only one lens.

When AMC was running "windowboxed" WB Looney Tunes, the framing was off at the bottom, when I showed that to the usher (why do so many ushers hang out in the auditoriums if they are not going to BOTHER to notice anything wrong) he INSISTED that it was SUPPOSED to be that way because it was the cartoon that was specially prepared, even though I pointed out that I knew that, and was referring to the matte on the BOTTOM, not the sides of the screen), so the main feature (as well as all the previews) was well-off center. He even HID in the back when he saw me turn around when the main feature started.

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 4594) on 11-09-2001, 01:01 PM:

Cole is the kid in 6th Sense.

Posted by Daniel Boisson (Member # 1027) on 11-09-2001, 09:33 PM:

i had someone tell me the picture wasn't lined up with the screen, before the movie even started.

people come out and say i need to turn up the surround sound because they can't hear it in every scene.

being asked to rewind the movie with 30 people in the theatre because they came late is always funny.

another good one was when i was asked to play the movie in a different theatre because the person wanted a bigger theatre.

------------------
...My brain's always wrapped...

Posted by Neil Hunter (Member # 1005) on 11-09-2001, 10:32 PM:

When the lead operator at my theater was training me he said that when I get complaints about voices not being heard through the surround speakers to laugh and say you aren't supposed to hear dialogue through the surrounds. I thought that was excellent advice

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 11-10-2001, 01:55 AM:

<<i had someone tell me the picture wasn't lined up with the screen, before the movie even started.>>

were you running slides?

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 11-10-2001, 01:59 AM:

Speaking of stupid things employees say to customers....

When I first started, a customer was complaining and asking why we charged so much for concessions, and he told her "I dont know why our prices are so fucking high."
He didnt last long.

Last year, someone asked one of our concessionists what we put in our kids packs.
"cocaine and marijuana" he said.

Posted by Joshua Voorhies (Member # 824) on 11-10-2001, 03:38 AM:

Am I the only one that wishes cancer on bitchy customers?

I figure it's better than blurting out: "Bad customer! No rain-checkies for you!"

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 11-10-2001, 12:25 PM:

Paul L: For really dumb comments by theater staff read my post under "Attention Managers and Owners...."

James R: That concession worker reminds me of the scene in Ghost World where Enid gets a job in a multiplex.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 11-10-2001, 02:08 PM:

It's kind of sad when customers bother to complain about problems with the slides, but they rarely bother to complain about the slides being there!!

Posted by Kara J. McVay (Member # 1285) on 03-20-2003, 08:50 AM:

This falls into stupid customer emails. Keep in mind when you read this, that I have 3 screens not just one as the email seems to read.
_____________________________________email quote
What is with the showing of younger kids movies?? I understand that the Strand is a community theater as well as being associated with the University, but with movies such as Agent Cody Banks, Treasure Planet, and soon Piglets Big movie, that leaves little choice in movies for the college students who do not have cars and cannot travel the distance to the other theaters "near-by" I think it is easier for parents to drive their children to see these G, PG rated movies to other theaters, than it is for car-less stranded college students. I understand the need for varied selection for the community, but make it a selection we can all stomach.
_____________________________________

Sounds like this kid has Piglet issues. Also, the three kids movies mentioned are the only kids movies I have had since Aug. 02.

Posted by Nicholas Roznovsky (Member # 861) on 03-20-2003, 09:09 AM:

My two favorite e-mails I've received from customers over the years:

quote:
May grandchild is 16 I'm 89 I had her go get the ticket. They would not sell them to her. I know about the APP or somthing like that but I can't talk that good because of my speech. The man how was handing out ticket was very short.

It was the first place I went to all year and proble the last. And it was not very enjoyible.

God Bless!

and

quote:
i thank you should the move times on the net!

All punctuation and spelling left as is. You can't mess with masterpieces.

Posted by Geoffrey Weiss (Member # 882) on 03-20-2003, 10:14 AM:

I loved explaining the Center for Science in the Public Interest to customers who would ask (years ago now) whether we popped with canola or coconut oil. If you see it on TV, it must be true! And when CSPI "reported" the coconut oil scandal we got lots of comments.

I explained that:
1. popping in canola oil made our popcorn taste like styrofoam packing peanuts (we had a reputation as having the best popcorn in the city.).
2. Our manager had lost 40 pounds without cutting down on popcorn at all.

When we ran "Priest," Mother Angelica on the Faith Channel told all good Catholics to call their local theatres and protest. As the only Catholic on the staff, I often took those calls. One person told me that I wasn't really Catholic because my church wasn't conservative enough. I almost had another person convinced to come see the movie before she condemned it. I told her if she didn't like it I'd refund her money out of my own pocket. But she didn't show.

And, of course, there were always the stoners coming in for the midnight movie and carrying the dope-smell with them. They'd order, "Let's see ... a large popcorn with extra butter. Uh ... milk duds, and some sour patch kids, too. Uh ... dude, you got mountain dew? NO? Oh, bummer, man." People are funny!

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 03-20-2003, 11:00 AM:

quote:
And, of course, there were always the stoners coming in for the midnight movie and carrying the dope-smell with them.

We've found that when dealing with these people at the concession stand, always offer "a couple of" something or "a few", not just one:

"Ummm... yeah, uh a large popcorn...and a coke..."
"you want a couple of hot dogs with that?"
"((grins)) YEAH!"
"Okay, you want a few boxes of candy?"
"Umm... sure... snowcaps, Reeses, and... DUDE! CHECK IT OUT! They have SOUR PATCH!"

[evil]

=TMP=

Posted by Don Bruechert (Member # 1538) on 03-20-2003, 11:17 AM:

Hey Kara, I work at the Strand too.... Funny... I've never seen you there! [evil]

Posted by Richard Miller (Member # 1405) on 03-20-2003, 01:57 PM:

We run free kids shows in the fall and the spring. Last fall we had some lady come in and say "Can I get tickets for tomorrow's free show." Our box office person told her no and informed her we stopped doing that because people didn't always show up. She started yelling at him so I went over to see what was wrong. By the time I got there she was stomping out saying, "Fuck you. You are a bunch of bastards." After that she got in her car honked her horn and flipped us off. I just waved and told her to have a wonderful day. Sometimes stupid people amuse me way too much. [Smile]

Posted by Patrick McDonough (Member # 1363) on 03-20-2003, 03:23 PM:

I had a customer ask me if I could rewind the film, because they went to the bathroom. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 03-21-2003, 04:05 AM:

Hello all. This is a true story:

Sometimes you know a customer is going to be a problem before they even enter the theatre. Anyhow, this lady comes in with her child and they were making a complete scene in the lobby already. Oh great, I say to myself, hoping she is fine for the movie. She proceeds down to Episode II and everything is fine. A little over 2 hours later, she comes running out and says, "My baby is stuck in the seat!" Ok, that's cool: I have a child stuck in a seat. So I walk down to the theatre with her, and there in the seat I see not a child, but just his head between the back and the cushion. To make a long story short, I get my manager, we stop Episode II right after Yoda kicks some butt, and bail out that poor child. All the awhile, a nearly sold out crowd is watching. Of course, we offer rainchecks to people after if they want them. Get this though, the lady comes out of the theatre after the film and says jovially: "Hey, he's givin away free stuff because of me." Thus, the masses flock to get their rainchecks. To quote C-3PO, "Sometimes I just don't understand human behavior." Cheers!

AJ Garman

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-21-2003, 10:19 AM:

That may have been one of the few screenings where watching Episode II was at least some fun. Pity that it is not on the DVD.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-21-2003, 12:52 PM:

We have one free matinee of a major kids show (usually Disney's holiday movie) every Christmas where a local club pays for the tickets. We just give everyone a ticket, and the club pays the total bill. Of course this show is always a sellout and we frequently have to turn a few people away. We always advertise "come early to make sure you get a seat."

We had a lady call last Christmas complaining that her kids did not get in. She said "this is the third year in a row it's happened." She said "I think if you're going to have a free show, you should have enough shows where everyone could get in that wanted to." I explained that this was paid for by a local organization, and they only budget enough money for one show, and it costs them up to $1000 to do this, and if it's happened three times, maybe her kids should arrive earlier. She said she was going to write a letter to the paper about it.

Of course, the letter never appeared! [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Jean-Michel Grin (Member # 1360) on 03-21-2003, 04:54 PM:

One customer said: "I hear nothing on the surround channels ! On the screen in the middle of the picture one man close a door; I should hearing the sound on the surroud channels ! "
The projectionist told him that in a movie theater the sound is a little bit different than the TV.
But the customer said: I got a home cinema system in my home and I hear all dialogues and noises of the movie on the surrounds channels. I will that should be the same on the theater ! [Eek!]

To satify the customer, the projectionist just raised up the surround level on the main amplifiers... [Big Grin]

Another crazy comment:

One time in a old theater in Geneva (closed now) A womend was angry because it was not coverage alvaible for his cellular phone inside the theater ! (but it was true on this time the coverage on this part of the city was not perfect) The usher told to the lady that the use of cellulars phones not was allowed during the show, and made phone calls during the projection of the movie is not a correct behaviour, regardless to the anothers customers.
The women went to screami'n and say to the usher: "I'ts not your business a***le !!! I do what I want, I paid my place, and the customer got all the rights ! In anothers theaters never a staff member told me thing like this !" [thumbsdown]

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 03-23-2003, 10:13 AM:

This falls under "Stupid Usher Remarks".

The Princeton Garden Theatre never provided its show schedule for this week to Moviefone or Hollywood.com. I had to use my phone to find out what was playing -- Spider (local exclusive) and Chicago. When I went to the 5 PM show of Spider yesterday I asked the box office clerk why the showtimes were not on Moviefone and Hollywood.com. He told me, "We don't like to be associated with them." [Confused]

This is the 2nd time in 4 months that the Princeton Garden didn't get its schedule online. The other time was when the Princeton Garden had Bowling for Columbine (which I saw at the Loews E-Walk in NYC instead).

This screwup affected all the daily newspaper listings -- in New Jersey newspapers purchase their listings from Hollywood.com instead of having theaters run ads. Also, the Princeton Garden is run by Destinta Theatres yet is not included on the Destinta website.

Posted by Brent Mahaney (Member # 1090) on 03-23-2003, 11:47 PM:

One of my favorites was a woman coming toward me screaming, "I need a plunger NOW!" Why did she need a plunger, you might be asking yourself? Because she flushed her keys down the toilet. Not just the keys but the remote, too. I explained that the toilets are not like the ones in your house. The pipes are larger and everything goes directly to the sewer. "Well I think you should have to go and buy me a plunger NOW!" She was irate. It's situations like this that make you scratch your head and wonder...

But my absolute FAVORITE...nobody will believe this...I'm not even sure I believe it and I HEARD it: "There is something dripping from the ceiling onto my children's arms and it's burning them and we have to leave!" She didn't want a refund, she just wanted to get out of there. She wouldn't even talk to me. We checked the theater after the show. No leaks. Nothing. It's actually sort of sad in a way because I think she was probably mentally ill. I feel sorry for her kids.

Posted by William Leland III (Member # 1400) on 03-24-2003, 11:30 AM:

This is not really a customer comment but what happend is crazy.

A brother and sister were standing in the middle of the hall and the girl was crying and screaming. I thought it was a fight and went to see what was going on.

It turned out the girl was chewing on her hair, while watching the movie and somehow it got tied around a taste bud on then tongue. Her hair was literaly tied to her tongue. [Big Grin]

I gave her some ice and they left to go to the hospital. Never found out out what happened.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 03-24-2003, 06:35 PM:

Scissors anyone?

Posted by Ray Bernardi (Member # 1615) on 03-25-2003, 03:00 PM:

I've had a few over the years, but the one that came to mind right away was when we were shooting Gladiator. I had a lady come in and approach the ticket counter and ask "Is there any violence in this film? I don't like violence." I just stared at her for a second and said "The title of the film is Gladiator Ma'am, what do you think?" She didn't attend.

Posted by Paul Trimboli (Member # 1509) on 03-26-2003, 07:27 AM:

I just had to post this, it happened the other week. I was going down in the lift to get lunch and a lady came into the lift wanting cinema 3 and said she was coming to see Green Mile, I said do you mean 8 Mile, she goes oh thats right. After the movie she comes and see me at the door and asks what film was did I just see, I told her it was 8 Mile. She then asked what film did she ask for, I told her 8 Mile and she responds EXACTLY! She was telling me some crap about having a premintion to see that movie (she bought the ticket, how could you not know what movie you were going to watch?) and how she was going to go and visit all the actors in that movie and come back and visit us with more information. She then went on to say she was the next Mother Tereasa-God knows what this lady was on about, was laughing for hours!

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 03-26-2003, 09:48 AM:

Some of these stories makes me want to rethink the whole genetic screening thing. Maybe some people shouldn't have the right to be born.

Posted by Nicholas Roznovsky (Member # 861) on 03-26-2003, 10:47 AM:

One of my managers told me about a comment one of her customers made yesterday afternoon:

"I need my money back. That movie is horrible. I knew Chicago was a musical, but I didn't expect it to have that much singing."

[Roll Eyes]

Posted by Philip Duquette (Member # 1591) on 03-27-2003, 02:06 AM:

Customer: "I know that you don't take credit cards here, but if I give you cash will you give me change back?" She was dead serious. I wanted to say no.

Staff: "Sir, you can't bring that pizza in here."
Customer: "What pizza?"
Staff: "The one under your shirt."

A customer came out after their movie had ended on a slow evening, and wanted to complain about a cup holder that had scratched both him an his wife on their arms. I ask them to show me where they were seated in the theater. They brought me to the broken cup holder and sure enough it was broken. The seat was the second row from the screen, six seats in. (not a favorable spot to watch the movie) When I asked them why they didn't locate a seat in a different spot after they realized the cup holder was broken, They said they didn't want to disturb anybody else. They were the only ones in the theater.

Customer brought in a General Cinemas pass and argued with me about our ability to accept it cause our theater is a general cinema. This went on even after explaining that General Cinemas was the name of their company, and not ours.

Customer: "Since I'm late, can I get a discount?"
Staff: "Yeah, but that idiot tax will bring the price right back up there."

Customer: "I'll give you five dollars to see that movie"
Staff: "Sorry the price is $6.00"
Customer: "$5 take it or leave it, the seat is just going to remain empty."
Staff: "Sir, I don't have a button on my computer that says discount cause you're special."
He left.

Customers in the lobby, interior lights are on, parking lot is filling up, first round of shows are ready to start:
Customer: "Are you open?"
They were in the lobby when they asked. I wanted to give them a suprised look and say "how'd you get in here?" but I figured they were confused enough.

Posted by Kristin Wahlund (Member # 922) on 03-27-2003, 12:54 PM:

I was working in the box office on a pretty busy saturday when two guys about 24-25 come running in. they ask me, "hey did two guys come in here and buy tickets" I told them that about 1500 had already been here and there are three cashiers so i really couldnt tell you. some people.

Our policy as well as MOST other theatres, is every patron must be 17 or with a parent to see a rated R film.

Customers, a mother, three thirteen year old boys:
Customer: is there some kind of card i can get so i dont have to come in?
Cashier: ummm.. no.
Customer: I want 3 tickets to Cradle 2 the Grave.
As we all know, this movie is rated R, and she was buyng for three 13 year old boys.
Cashier: Will you be watching the movie with them?
Customer: no.
Cashier: actually, they can't see the movie unless you go with them.
Customer: ACTUALLY they CAN , I said so.
Cashier: Well our policy says you must be witih them since they arent 17.
Customer: I want to talk to a manager.
she left with her kids

Customers, two young looking boys:
First boy: Can I have a ticket to dreamcatcher?
Cashier: sure, can I see a photo ID?
hands over the ID, and he's about 6 months short of being 17
Cashier: did you know you're not 17?
Second boy: oh well, I am 17 and he's going with me so its ok.
Cashier: Not really
The other Cashiers response to this was, "Thats like me going to the bar and saying: well i know im only 19, but Shana (the manager in box office) is 28 so its ok."

Posted by Mark Maxwell (Member # 1355) on 03-28-2003, 12:26 AM:

Wev'e all had people assume we had vcr's. We got a speacial print o Road to Perdition that was for the hearing impaired that had subtitles. I was open to anyone who wanted to watch it, and like I predicted, on the first showing we had a couple of people come out wanting us to turn off the subtitles like it was a DVD. I also once had a customer complain about a movie on opening night saying it was repeating itself. I asked if he meant the sound and he said it was the actuall picture. He acted like I was stupid when I said that was impossible. I turned out that we were sent a bad DTS disk.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-28-2003, 12:30 AM:

quote:
I asked if he meant the sound and he said it was the actuall picture. He acted like I was stupid when I said that was impossible. I turned out that we were sent a bad DTS disk.p

But it IS possible. I've seen many prints where there was duplicate film.

Posted by Mark Maxwell (Member # 1355) on 03-28-2003, 01:34 AM:

I watched the print the night before on the platter I built it up on wich was not DTS. That's why I asked if it was the sound, because it was a different auditorium. I knew the film was good and that there was no way it ran itself back through the projector a few times. As far as viewing it in the auditorium it's supposed to be viewed in, I won't if I have to move it there myself. I don't want to risk spilling it on the floor, because no matter problem might exist at the time with the film, ou just added a few more.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 03-28-2003, 08:23 AM:

Getting a print with a section of the film duplicated twice may have been due to an error in positive assembly, or in the management of "short-end" use on bi-directional printers. Usually a splice will be somewhere in the roll.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 03-28-2003, 11:01 AM:

Well actually it is usually because the person building it up either put the same trailers on it twice or accidently put on a trailer that was the same as the attached trailer.

Posted by Tom Doyle (Member # 1474) on 03-28-2003, 11:47 AM:

At my theater, sometimes people ask the manager what he does with the posters when he is done with them. The manager usually saves them, but I guess everyone wants free movie posters. I once suggested he tell them that he throws them in the dumpster out back. (I'd be curious to see if any *really* wanted them.)

One weird comment I recall is from a customer talking about ET (20th anniversary). She was talking to the manager about it before it came out and she was wondering why it would only be in theaters for one day. The manager later asked me if I knew anything about it. I realized she had probably seen one of the many commercials that said "Only in theaters March 22nd".

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 03-28-2003, 01:06 PM:

Not really crazy but I have had a couple of people come out of Dreamcatcher wondering if we started the wrong movie (Ani-Matrix).

Posted by Jacob Huber (Member # 1138) on 03-28-2003, 09:47 PM:

We've had a LOT of people come out confused because of the Animatrix, mostly because it starts out just like a feature would start out.

Posted by Aldo Baez (Member # 790) on 03-29-2003, 01:54 AM:

I was in the theatre watching animatrix and this girl walks out and comes back in and see me standing there and asks if this is Dreamcatcher.. I gave her this really wierd look and said "excuse me? dreamcatcher doesn't come out until next week." She had the most confused look on her face haha but then I told her just kidding she was kind of upset but then chuckled about it.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 03-29-2003, 11:57 AM:

quote:
I once suggested he tell them that he throws them in the dumpster out back. (I'd be curious to see if any *really* wanted them.)

I found a Titanic teaser poster in the dumpster. This was before I worked at a theater and decided to scope out the local multiplex's trash after a feature. I am now the proud owner of a near mint condition "TITANIC: Collide With Destiny this summer" poster! [thumbsup]

=TMP=

Posted by John Carpenter (Member # 1488) on 03-29-2003, 08:04 PM:

Some people can just be so bizarre... here is one of my favorites. The front of our theatre is set up with the doors in the middle and a box office set up on each side of the doors. On each side past the box offices are poster cases with our current films. There are 8 on each side (we have 16 screens). Customers ask us at one box office if they can purchase tickets for the films that do not have the posters on that side or if they have to go to the other side for those films. Unbelievable that they survive in society!

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-29-2003, 10:22 PM:

That's not so unbelieveable. We are a single screen, and there are two hallways (one on each side of the concession stand) leading to the auditorium, plus a stairway to the balcony. We frequently get out-of-towners who have walked under our marquee which advertises ONE title, bought a ticket to the show without having to specify which show, and then come inside and ask the staff which doorway leads to their movie. (and the screen is clearly visible at the from the head of each hallway.)

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-29-2003, 10:29 PM:

Cinemark has a regular first-run 17-plex and a 12-screen bargain house located on opposite sides of the same mall here. I once saw a woman arguing with the cashier at the bargain house that she didn't care about the stadium seating at the 17 plex, and insisted that she should be able to see the same first-run movies for $1.50 at the 12-plex. (This is just a guess but I bet she had soda pop and snacks hidden in her purse.) "Come back in about 2 months and your wish will probably be granted."

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 05-10-2004, 01:22 AM:

It has been 407 days since the last post.

Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 05-10-2004, 01:22 AM:

I always love it when people complain about something being wrong with the camera in their auditorium.

"The camera angle is off in auditorium 5."
"The camera just stopped in the Kill Bill theatre."
"The camera's really blurry in Passion."

My friend saw someone talking on a cell phone one night while the 2wenty was playing so he turned the volume all the way up, then turned it back down when she hung up.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 05-10-2004, 07:39 AM:

Hmmmm. Sounds like you have a lot of problems at your theater, despite the customers referring to the projectors as cameras. And turning the volume all the way up probably thrilled the other customers and was great for your speakers. And is using a cellphone during commercials really that bad?

What chain do you work for again? Oh right. 2wenty. Regal. [Smile]

=TMP=

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 05-10-2004, 10:21 AM:

quote: Brandon Willis
My friend saw someone talking on a cell phone one night while the 2wenty was playing so he turned the volume all the way up, then turned it back down when she hung up.

Definitely NOT the correct way to handle the situation. [thumbsdown]

Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 05-10-2004, 11:58 AM:

We have small storage closets next to the entrance doors to the auditoriums in the older section of the building. Auds. 2-5 and 15-20 have them. A customer called the box office one time and told the cashier, "I watched a movie in auditorium 15 and I saw that little room that said 'Private 15' on it and I was wondering if that's some kind of private movie room and can I rent it out for a party?" The cashier replied "Yes maam, you can rent our broom closet for a party. Will you be paying cash or credit?"

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-10-2004, 01:00 PM:

quote: Brandon Willis
The cashier replied "Yes maam, you can rent our broom closet for a party. Will you be paying cash or credit?"

While it's a funny situation, I don't think it's smart to fire back a comment at a customer that will make them feel like an idiot. A better response would have been, "Well, you wouldn't be able to see very well from in there...it's a broom closet!" And then join the customer in a hearty laugh.

And, the sign on the door should say "Employees Only" or "Utility 14," then there would be no confusion.

Posted by Sam Johnson II (Member # 2157) on 05-10-2004, 01:08 PM:

Once me and a co-worker had arrived at work early, before we opened, and a manager had not yet showed up, so we had to wait outside. A customer came up and asked in a confused tone, "Why are your lights off?" We arrived early like this pretty often, and all the time customers would come up asking what time we opened, even though the sign on the box office clearly said 6:30.

Customer: "What movie would you recommend we see?"
Me: "Hmm, The Rundown."
Customer: "Hmm, okay. We'll take two for Secondhand Lions."
[Confused]

On the day The Missing and Haunted Mansion opened last year, the matinee shows were VERY slow. For the moment, one guy was working both box office and concession (which were part of the way across the lobby from each other). My coworker told me that this lady had bought a ticket, and then went to concession. He moved to concession to take her order, and she asked, "Oh, did they hire you guys together?" "Huh?" "Well, your twin just sold me a ticket." "Oh! Um, yeah, they hired us together. It works out really well because we can ride to work together."

Customer: "How long is X movie?"
Coworker: "About an hour and 40 minutes"
Customer: "And what time does it end?"
Coworker: "An hour and 40 minutes after it begins, it'll end."
And apparently she understood him clearly, because she cheerfully replied, "Oh, okay. Thanks!"
(That was the same coworker from the last story, FYI.)

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-10-2004, 07:14 PM:

See??? There, again! Smartass comments. "What time does it end" is a perfectly legitimate question. You are in a SERVICE business, and one part of customer SERVICE is to answer questions politely, quickly and accurately. Not make your customer feel like a dork. No wonder so many people prefer to stay home.

Posted by Chris Medley (Member # 2145) on 05-10-2004, 09:49 PM:

It seems like the box kids always get sarcastic...maybe they feel that it's ok becasue of the glass that seperates them from the customer. No....wait...sorry...i forgot....they are just punk kids.

As many times as I have wanted to there has never been a reason to embarass a customer like that.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 05-10-2004, 10:13 PM:

Like most people, I keep my smart-ass thoughts to myself.

Anyways..

Imagine going into a store that sells whatch-a-ma-jiggers. You do not know a damn thing about 'em, but you know you got to buy one. The guy behind the counter has sold a 'million of them to a million different people. So when you start asking the dumb questions...will you get offended if he makes a smart-ass comment to you (because you don't know a damn thing about the thing he sells)?

Of course you will, and you will go buy the whatch-a-ma-jigger somewhere else...............

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-10-2004, 10:16 PM:

quote: Sam Johnson II

Customer: "How long is X movie?"

Wise-Ass answer: "Oh, about 15,000 ft. Give or take a couple hundred."

[Big Grin]

Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 05-11-2004, 12:59 PM:

This past Christmas, a couple approached our box office and asked what would be a good, wholesome Christmas movie for the family. I don't know if the cashier was trying to be a smart ass or if he had not seen any of the movies and was just taking a random guess, but he reccommended that they go see "Bad Santa." The ensuing melee was quite humorous, as the couple stood outside the box office, the wife yelling at the cashier while the husband stood there repeating over and over "I thought it was going to be like Home Alone."

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 05-11-2004, 03:25 PM:

I'm sure a lot of the smart-ass comments just aren't playing well in written form. I said a lot of smart-ass things to my customers that made them laugh... but if I wrote them down my with and charm would be lost.

Some of you guys are taking witty customer banter too seriously. Lighten up a bit.

Posted by Rob Butler (Member # 2274) on 05-11-2004, 03:38 PM:

I heard a story from a co-worker once about a guy that was saying that our fire alarm system is messed up, the guy said "when I came into the theater through that door that says EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY, ALARM WILL SOUND that the alarm didn't go off and I didn't feel safe in the theater".

As far as cellphone usage in the theater, turning the sound all the way up is definitely not the way to go, I suggest the night vision scope and BB gun approach.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 05-12-2004, 11:04 AM:

Some people deserve smartass comments.

Person comes up to box office, reading the titles and times for quite a while, then asks: "Are those the real times?"
Possible Answers:
-"No Ma'am. We routinely post incorrect information to confuse people like you."
-"No. Those are the times for the films showing in the parallel universe."
-"All our films play in real-time."
-"They're just approximations. The movie will start within 15 minutes before or after the posted time."
-"Those times are for the early morning. We close at 9am."

Maybe that's why I don't work box, hehe. [Big Grin]

I understand some people aren't familiar with the operations of a business, but some people aren't familiar with the operations of the rest of the world, either. [Roll Eyes]

I'd better stop before Steve Kraus attacks my satirical customer service comments. [Razz]

=TMP=

Posted by Jeremy Fuentes (Member # 2135) on 05-12-2004, 12:00 PM:

All of our customers laugh at the comments I give them too. Like one time a teenage girl came to the box office and was knocking on the glass and telling me to hurry up and acting stupid. She asked me "What's Big Fish About?" I said "Its the sequel to Finding Nemo." She said "Oh really!?!" I said "No" She started laughing and walked away with her friends. Then the other day, a customer came in and started taking off her rain coat. I told her that she might want to leave it on because the theater has a lot of leaks in it. You should have seen her face!! I told her I was just kidding, and she just laughed.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-12-2004, 03:47 PM:

When a customer spills some popcorn on the floor while fishing tickets out of a pocket, in line at the podium:

Customer: Oops! I'm sorry!

Usher: Oh, don't worry. The cat will get it! [Wink]

Customer: What?! You have a CAT in here!?

Usher: Well, yes, but we have to lock it in the broom closet at night. The guard dogs ate the last one!

Customer: <Confused & shocked> Walks away...

[Big Grin]

Posted by James Pope (Member # 1189) on 05-16-2004, 01:29 AM:

The ones I get latly are
C:"your bathrooms are locked"
M:"I dont think so see they dont have locks I will walk down and check"
as Manager opens door
C "ohh they must have come out"
(theres like 15 stalls)
once it starting happing alot I figured out that its because our doors only open if you push the handle down if you pull up it will not work. The wierd thing is thats only the female gender comes and complains and the doors are the same.

and the other one was actually a couple of people have complained about this one the first time I didnt know what was going on.
C: "I think there is a cat in your drain"
M: "Why do you say that?"
C: "When the toliet flushed it sounded like a cat meowing"
after later investigation it turns out that our automated toliets you know the self flushers. when you move a way from it it make a sound that in a drunkin moment you could mistake for a cat really funny though now when customers tell us.

Posted by Rob Butler (Member # 2274) on 05-27-2004, 04:26 PM:

I've seen that kind of thing happen, we have a janitor's closet next to the entrances for each of the bathrooms. The bathrooms have no doors, just a hallway with 2 90 degree turns from the lobby to the bathroom with a sign on the wall between the bathroom entrances and the closet doors. It's funny to see how many people try to open the closet door and then say the bathrooms are locked, it's also funny to see the usher's face when he/she says there's no doors to lock!

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 05-27-2004, 04:55 PM:

Sometimes people come in and buy a ticket from one of our cashiers, then walk through the door and run into her twin sister who is there to tear the tickets, and they usually say something like "Wow, you're fast!"

Posted by Julie Havlin (Member # 2465) on 06-13-2004, 12:39 PM:

My theatre is currently playing "The Saddest Music in the World" a very strange film set in the Great Depression about a beer baroness amputee...and her prosthetic limbs are filled with beer. It's extremely strange and bizarre, but it got 3 1/2 stars in the paper, and our customers only follow the stars. The refunds for this film were so high we had to put up a sign quoting a reviewer "If you're not open to something different this film is not for you..." Then it stated our refund policy of 20 minutes into the show. We make sure everyone reads the sign before buying a ticket.
An elderly woman came out 50 minutes into the film wanting a refund, and I politely explained everything to her.

"It's not a movie" she said.
I'm not sure what you mean.
"It's awful. It doesn't go anywhere, it's not a movie."
I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. It is a very different film.
"So you're not going to give me my money back?"
No
"Well, this place is a hold-up"
I'm sorry?
"You might as well have put a gun to my head and taken $6 from me!"

She starts to walk away at this point, and I am so baffled and almost laughing, but manage to say "No one made you see this film, ma'am."
She turned around and said "Yes you did!"

Unbelieveable. That's the best customer encounter I've ever had. The very next day another customer gave me a (weak) shove because I wouldn't give him his money back for the same film.

Posted by Jesse August (Member # 1798) on 06-13-2004, 06:22 PM:

Julie, that movie was directed by Winnipeger (my home town) Guy Maddin. If you think that movie is twisted (Saddest Music In The World) you should see some of his other movies. "Careful" and "Tales From The Gimili Hospital" are two that come to mind.

Posted by Rob Butler (Member # 2274) on 06-14-2004, 02:31 PM:

An usher once told me that the big speaker in the bottom center of the screen was blown out, all it was putting out was this low rumbling noise, I said "do you mean the subwoofer?" the usher said "I don't care what it's called, I just think you should fix it, I was standing right next to it and it sounds like crap" I told him I'd get right on it.

Posted by Jim Alexander (Member # 226) on 06-14-2004, 07:17 PM:

We take great pride in some of the $#@& comments we get over the phone, like one customer who called:

Manager: Thank you for calling the Zedex Theatre, how may I help you?
Customer: Yes, can you tell me the phone number to your theatre?
Manager: Ummmm, its the same as the number you must dialed...
Customer: Yes, but I'm not sure if it's 8848, or 8488.
Manager: Groan!!!

The other emmy award went to:

Manager: Thank you for calling the Zedex Theatre, how may I help you?
Customer: Is this the answering machine?
Manager: Yes, I am the new Intuitive Answering Service, I operated on an advanced aritificial intellegence program that allows me to answer callers questions. How may I help you?
Customer: Can you tell me how to reach the theatre staff?
Manager: <what do you say??>

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 06-15-2004, 12:46 AM:

The best one I ever had went as follows...

Customer "How many screens do you have?"
Me "4"

Customer "So how many movie can you show at one time?"
Me "4"

Customer "Are these the movies you are showing, the ones listed on your marquee?"
Me "yes"

Customer "Do you have any other screens showing movies, other than the ones you have listed?"
Me "no"

Customer "Do you have the sequel to that star wars movie?"
(note: this was just a week after the PHANTOM MENACE opened)
Me "You mean Phantom Menace?"

Customer "Yeah, do you have the sequel to that, cuz I don't see it up here on your marquee"
Me "You want the sequel to The PHANTOM MENACE?"

Customer "yeah, do you have that yet?"
Me "It hasn't even been made yet"

Customer "are you sure, cuz I read in the paper that it was out"
Me "You probably are talking about PHantom Menace, it is the prequel to the star wars movies"

Customer "whats a prequel"
Me "it takes place before a story, instead of a sequel that takes place after a seqeul"

Customer "yeah, thats the one, I want the sequel to phantom menace"
Me "I am pretty sure it hasn't even been made yet"

Customer "I think youre wrong, cuz I saw it when I was a kid, the one where that little kid grows up and gets mean"
Me "do you mean Star Wars?"

Customer "I don't remember what its called, but that sounds right. Do you have it?"
Me "YOu can buy it at media play or rent it from blockbuster"

Customer "YOu mean its already on video?'
Me "Last I checked, yes. In fact I have a copy of it at home."

Custmoer "Can you go get it and put it in? I love movies on the big screen."
Me "actually we use film, not video projectors"

Customer "you still use film, I thought everything went to video"
Me "that was just porn movies, regular ones still use film"

Customer "well I guess if you can't show it to me, I guess I will try somewhere eles. Can you tell me a theater that might have it?"
Me "Try Cinemark next door, they have more screens than us, so maybe they can try it"

Customer "thank you, you were very helpful"
Me "well, I do try".

Ok, she did try next door and the cinemark and they were a little more short with her. After that, I don't know if she ever got to see her movie or not.

Ciao

Dave

Posted by Rob Butler (Member # 2274) on 06-15-2004, 08:52 AM:

I once had someone stop me in the hall and say something like "I was looking in that window in the back of the theater and I could see something that kinda looked like film going over a roller over the projector, what was that? I said, "most likely what you saw was film" He said "but I thought all theaters were digital?" I said "No, just the audio is digital" the guy then said "well, I guess I'm not comming back here any time soon, let me know when you guys stop being so cheap and buy a real projector" and he left.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 06-15-2004, 08:56 AM:

Yesterday -

caller "can I have the number for your recording, I'd rather speak to a machine than a real person."

me "ok, here's the number...."

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 06-15-2004, 02:18 PM:

I may have posted this before (possibly several years ago), but I can't find it:

me = me
FDG = Film Delivery Guy

FDG (walking into lobby with film): Here's your film. Please sign here. [hands me shipping receipt]
me: um-hmm [takes pad and signs it]
FDG: do you guys show movies here?
me: yup (I wanted to say something like "no, we just rent them and send them back" or "no, this building was designed to look like a theatre just to confuse people like you").

Posted by Wolff King Morrow (Member # 2226) on 06-16-2004, 07:11 PM:

I had to laugh about one a manager I work with told me of:

A complaint came in from a customer that the sound was "crackling" in #3. When they investigated the problem, the "crackling" turned out to be other customers eating popcorn. I guess surround-sound eating noises don't add a positive impact to a movie. [Wink]

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 06-22-2004, 01:08 PM:

At the drive-in... so far I've heard

"I work at KFC at night, can I get an application for a job on the DAY SHIFT?"

Your movies are advertised at starting at dusk...What time is DUSK?

Best typographical mistake award goes to DREAMWORKS. I recieved a letter the other day from someone at Dreamworks the other day regarding a print of Shrek2 we sent back. The letter stated.." If you have any questions, please contact Technicolor @ 1-800-933-4567". When I called that number... it's a Phone sex line!! The real Technicolor number is 1-800-993-4567.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-22-2004, 01:16 PM:

quote: Barry Floyd
"I work at KFC at night, can I get an application for a job on the DAY SHIFT?"

Not really a "crazy" request.

Some drive-ins do have cleaning crews during daylight hours. Likewise, some drive-ins have daytime activities like "flea-markets" or "farmers markets" on their lots.

Posted by Penny Parker (Member # 2177) on 06-29-2004, 12:17 PM:

I have 2 personal favorites:
a phone call about 3 years ago: "Um..what time does the 9 o'clock movie start?"

And when we had the Robin Williams movie One Hour Photo a couple years ago, a man saw it on our 78 year old theater movie marquee....and brought in his camera and some rolls of film to be developed!

Posted by Ethan Harper (Member # 472) on 07-08-2004, 04:38 AM:

One time I had a customer buy a lot of stuff at the conession stand and asked if he could,...ok ok you ready for this, I hope your sitting down for this one because the pure hilarity and originality of it keeps me rolling on the floor laughing still to this DAY!!! He goes to me and says, "could, I put this on Lay-A-WAY!!!" HA HA HAHA Ha ha HA HAHAHAH HA HA! I mean it is soooo funny becuase I have never heard that one before. You could almost use that same line anywhere and probably even more than once! I have tried it! At the gas station and Taco Bell and believe me it is a hoot wherever you go.

Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 07-08-2004, 04:46 AM:

Yes, a perfect marketing strategy. Start a concession payment plan!

"Can I put this popcorn and soda on lay-away?"

"Yes, sir, you can. Give us a down payment of a quarter now. Then come back tomorrow to watch another movie, paying FULL ADMISSION, of course, and then be sure to visit concession to put down another quarter. In a few short weeks, you will finally receive your popcorn and soda, which we have kept here behind the counter ... and the best part is, NO INTEREST! AND you get to see several movies in the deal. Have a nice day."

Posted by Emma Tomiak (Member # 1862) on 07-08-2004, 11:46 PM:

A few days ago the concession cashiers told me this:

A girl comes in from outside with a bucket. It seems to be a popcorn bucket; she comes up to the counter and asks a cashier "My aunt wants to get a popcorn refill on this".
Thing is, the tub wasn't a popcorn tub; it was a fried chicken tub with "KFC" written all over it. It even had chicken crumblies in the bottom of it.

Ewww.

Needless to say, she didn't get a refill.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-09-2004, 11:06 AM:

Comment I heard shouted across the lot, when I was running a scratched print of "W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings", as a 3rd feature, at a drive-in in the 70s:

"Get rid of the damned LINES!"

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 07-09-2004, 01:46 PM:

One of the ushers at my old theater walked in on a couple having [sex]

when the movie was over. So she cleaned around them but when they requested for 5 more minutes to finish up... I guess the usher got pissed that she didn't get any [sex]

that day she went off and told a manager and the couple got kicked out.

Posted by Sam Johnson II (Member # 2157) on 07-12-2004, 01:10 PM:

We have two Spider-Man 2 posters outside, neither of which actually says Spider-Man 2, but with one saying Choice and the other saying Destiny. Last night a guy came in wondering which Spider-Man movie was better, "Choice" or "Destiny". [Confused]

And apparently, this has happened before. Has anyone else have this happened, or is this phenomenon limited to Danville, KY?

When telling this to a fellow coworker, he told me a similar story from before the movie opened yet. A customer was looking at our Spider-Man 2 display with the three different pictures, each either saying "Choice", "Destiny", or another one (I can't remember what). The customer was looking at one side and said, "'Choice.' What a dumb name for a movie!"

Apparently the picture of Spider-Man on the display wasn't a dead give-a-way that it's a Spider-Man movie [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 07-12-2004, 04:08 PM:

This happened to us back at my first theatre. I was in the box office and this guy came up with a thick accent (which didn't help matters) asking for a ticket to Slommyville. Nobody could help him, because no one could understand, and "Slommyville" didn't sound ANYTHING like any movie we had. And he insisted we had it. He was turned away.

Later that day, I believe the manager was outside the building and put two and two together. Remember that movie The Phantom with Billy Zane and Kristy Swanson? The poster's only actual words were "Slam Evil!" How was he to know?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-12-2004, 06:54 PM:

Some years ago we had some kid's movie with no major stars playing, so I put the kid's movie title on the top line of the marquee, and FAMILY FUN! on the 2nd line, and we had a guy come in and ask what the "Family Fun!" movie was about.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 07-13-2004, 10:52 AM:

I tell the managers time and time again that our customers are too simple for them to put "Now Hiring" on the marquee.

Lo and behold, people come up asking for tickets to "Now Hiring" [Roll Eyes]

=TMP=

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-13-2004, 05:29 PM:

There must be a staggering number of people who make their movie watching decisions based on weather or not a movie sounds good by looking at the name...This frightens me as my screening process (no pun intended) usually consists of seeing trailers, seeing it on tv, seeing the posters, etc. and reading on imdb.
Of course, I usually watch all the stupid movies anyway because I'm the booth manager, and we screen our prints...However, the ones I don't see, there's still a tough decision making process...Oh well...

Here's one recently...After coming into Spider-Man 2 and noticing this girls kids (I say girl because she couldn't be older than 23) were chatting it up about the movie and the other guests around them were visibly annoyed. I walked over to that side of the theater and stood near their row looking around the audience for a moment. More often than not presence is all it takes to quiet someone down.
Anyhow, as soon as I get up there, she says, very loudly "Do we have a problem?" I came over so that I wouldn't be hollering across rows of people and explained there was no problem but the kids conversation was a bit loud for the theater. She cut me off mid sentance and told me this..."Yeah, well you know what? My kids are excited about the movie and I can't control them. So if someone wants to bitch about it they can kiss my ass."
I reassured her that there was no problem...yet...and if they could just keep it down it would be just fine.
She yells at me "Whatever."
They were quiet through the rest of the show.
I feel bad when I have to kick someone out because their kids aren't behaving, it's happened before.
But it's so much easier when the parent(s) can't behave themselves.

Posted by Mike Pennell (Member # 1692) on 07-13-2004, 05:45 PM:

The first things out of your lips when she said "Do we have a problem?" should have been "Now we do!". When and why did all these people get so damned rude? It was never like this 10 years ago. I'm so sick of the customer being right rule. Its time we started making examples of people in public. Last night i had to kick some punk off the property in front of our box office. He drove by at first with his friends and made "gang" signs at me and an employee. Then got out of his car with beer in hand to check the times and flirt with the girls in line. In front of everyone i told him to lose the beer and get the hell out of here. He promptly did. 1) The problem with him was solved. 2)Any other knuckle-head that saw it knew that kind of crap was not tolerated at our establishment.

Posted by Andy Aggieri (Member # 2398) on 07-13-2004, 07:16 PM:

At my theater we offer free refills on our large popcorn, and every once in a while we get a customer who threw their bag away and is demanding their free refill. The customers who do this never accept that it is a free "refill" not free "replace". Several have caused scenes saying they paid 5.50 for 20 cents worth of popcorn and want their free refill NOW!

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 07-13-2004, 07:35 PM:

{never mind, I posted the same thing several months ago. [sleep]

}

Posted by Ron Yost (Member # 1850) on 07-13-2004, 08:57 PM:

Sounds like some of you folks need a small sign that used to appear in almost every 'service' establishment out here:

"We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone."

Probably violates some 'PC' law nowadays, tho. [thumbsdown]

Ron Yost

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 07-14-2004, 01:02 AM:

LOL, Dave. [Wink]

I was working on the floor a few nights ago. A customer came up to me. He started something like this: "I missed a dinner engagement. I'm going to tell you why I missed it....." Turns out, he was bitching about the fact that the actual movie did not start at the advertised 4:10, but at 4:30 because there were 20 minutes of previews. I have three things to say to this. First, it's more like 10 to 12 minutes. Fifteen, tops. Second, all you have to do when you purchase your ticket is ask the box cashier what time the movie is over. The time in the computer accounts for 15 minutes of previews. Third, IT'S BEEN LIKE THAT SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME! I explained to him that it has always been like that. He claimed that it wasn't. Maybe he's one of those people that cannot differentiate between different theater chains, and maybe some other theater actually starts the feature at the advertised start time. But I explained to him that it has always been like this at our company. "Well, you're gonna loose a lot of business because of that." Yeah, buddy. That's why we're only the number one circuit in the world.

On top of that, he asked my why we had the same trailer, Bourne Supremacy showing twice. I said I did not know, but that I would look into it. I watched the trailer pack the next show. WTF was he talking about? There was no duplicate trailer. [Mad]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-14-2004, 01:39 AM:

Maybe the pre-show slides/video had a slide for Bourne Supremacy???? (Just a guess. People are stupid.)

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 07-14-2004, 01:52 AM:

Actually, the 2wenty is running a "featurette" for Borne Supremacy right now.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 07-14-2004, 11:04 AM:

I would have explained to the customer that there are 10-12 minutes of previews, but also 10-12 minutes of credits. If his dinner engagement was that important, he would have left before the credits and the running time would be exact. People always gotta start with a story...

"Dramatic" customers are the worst. They're also the most fun to rationally talk down to. Like the ones that start with the ambiguous question, "EXCUSE ME? What kind of place are you running here?" Reply: "A theater!" [Smile]

My absolute favorite are the customers that present a problem that's not really a problem and then ask, "How am I supposed to _____ ?" It's fun to start "collaborating" with the customer. [Wink]

"But I threw away my bag! How am I supposed to get a refill?"
"Hmmm. Do you know which trash can you put it in?"
"That's gross! I'm not going to get it out!"
"Okay. Hmmm. What about.... I can give you this courtesy cup, (5oz) and you can come back and fill it up as much as you want."
"Don't be rediculous!!"
"I'm only trying to help, ma'am." [Big Grin]

=TMP=

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 07-14-2004, 11:37 AM:

I think you're right about the preshow running a Bourne feature. Still, that's not a trailer, it's a behind-the-scenes thing. This guy was really an idiot. Apparently he couldn't differentiate the preshow from the trailers. He was also pissed that the screen said your feature presentation will begin momentarily, yet there were more trailers. Well, the policy trailer does clearly say, "Your feature presentation will begin after the following previews." I didn't see him walking out with a h/i device, so he must not be deaf, just stupid. [Big Grin]

Posted by Emma Tomiak (Member # 1862) on 07-14-2004, 11:34 PM:

One time a lady came up to me at door and I just knew she was going to complain about something.

Lady: "Are you a manager?"
Me: "Yes ma'am, I'm an assistant manager, how can I help you?"
Lady: "Feel my nose!!"
Me: "Um, I beg your pardon?"
Lady: "Feel my nose! It's frozen! It was f**king freezing in that theatre the whole movie....bitch bitch bitch...."

I hate dramatic customers, too. I wish people would just state thier problem and stop wasting my time by causing a big production and having me guess as to why they're yelling at me.

[Mad]

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 07-15-2004, 12:56 AM:

quote: Ken Lackner
I think you're right about the preshow running a Bourne feature. Still, that's not a trailer, it's a behind-the-scenes thing. This

So it's being perceived & reacted to as two "ads" running twice. In this case, you wouldn't neccessarily need to get a direct report of the perception & response, it's sort of obvious upon examination.

It's the sort of programming which would previously be avoided, except now when the decisions are made by folks not concerned with the response of the audience, but just assembling content by sales & availability.

Audiences come to be engaged by novelty, & when the novelty stops & some other agenda becomes apparent, they have a response of feeling that their time's being wasted, therefore to whoever's putting this in front of them their time & response is unimportant or only to be exploited, & they get resentful.

"First, our short featurette on 'Bourne Supremacy'! followed by a trailer for 'Bourne Supremacy'! Then, an ad for 'Bourne Supremacy's video release date! No, it's not all the same thing, what's wrong with you? Stick the 'Bourne Supremacy' where? I don't think this hostility is called for!"

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 07-15-2004, 10:49 PM:

William, I'm not sure if that was English, but I honestly didn't understand a word of what you were trying to say.

Posted by Christian Volpi (Member # 2370) on 07-16-2004, 11:56 AM:

I love it when customers point to the scrolling LED sign in front of the auditorium and ask "Is this the one I'm supposed to go into?" I don't know, does it say the title of the movie that you came to see?

Posted by Ethan Harper (Member # 472) on 07-18-2004, 04:50 PM:

I once knew someone who had a customer come up to him and wipe his dripping wet hands all over his shirt and said that the men's bathroom is out of paper towels.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 07-19-2004, 11:43 AM:

I would have called the police and have that guy arrested for assault. And press charges.

Just because I like to be a bigger smartass. [Smile]

=TMP=

Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 07-19-2004, 03:01 PM:

This goes back to customers thinking they're entitled to everything just because they bought a ticket. The theatre is just playing host. Imagine if you went to someone's house for dinner, someone you don't know well, and they were your host. Sure, you'd expect simple things like them offering and bringing you a drink ... but think about how much it would just be inappropriate to ask for, expect, and complain about.

If there were no more paper towels (or toilet paper, perhaps), you don't just walk up to your host and use his clothing to wipe! Do you? I must have missed that day in school.

Posted by Steven Jantzen (Member # 2575) on 08-08-2004, 04:59 PM:

I love it when your tearing tickets, and a customer comes up to you with their hands just full of popcorn, nachos, and drinks, and expect you to pull the tickets out of the back pockets of their jeans. The first one to do that to me was this 62 year old woman. It scared the **** outta me. Out of the courtesy for the elderly, i did get the tickets, but with everyone seeing me do that for the elder woman, they all thought I would do it for them. I pulled tickets out every (almost every at any rate) customers butt for an hour. Even the guys wanted me to get the tickets. My GM witnessed this and she just laughed

[puke]

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 08-08-2004, 11:37 PM:

Better taken outta their ass pocket than their MOUTH. I politely tell them that they can tear it and drop 1/2 in the hopper for me.

I compare it to your server bringing your soup to you with their finger in it...

Posted by Emma Tomiak (Member # 1862) on 08-09-2004, 02:17 AM:

But what do you do when a lady pulls money/tickets out of her bra? I've had women come up and pull sweaty, wadded up bills out of their bras to pay for tickets. Eww.

Posted by Gordon Hedges III (Member # 863) on 08-09-2004, 03:11 AM:

Sweaty money from a bra? How can I beat that? How about pulling money from their sweaty smelly socks? I hate that.

I work in a mall and I have customers who see me in the lobby ask me, "Is this the movie theatre?" At times I just want to say that we were another store and that the theatre is at the other end of the mall. We don't sell movies, just popcorn and drinks for your standing in the lobby pleasure.

Posted by Jason Miller (Member # 2341) on 08-09-2004, 05:24 PM:

This goes back to when the Twenty was in its infantile stages...

The sound source for the Twenty was causing some horrible buzzing in the auditorium (ground loop). I got a call over the radio that the speakers in Aud #3 were "humming".

I responded with: "Well maybe they forgot the words?"

Posted by Christian Volpi (Member # 2370) on 08-09-2004, 05:33 PM:

I had a lady yell, literally, yell at me yesterday because we don't serve iced-tea. I explained that we used to sell it in bottles but nobody bought them and they would eventually expire and have to be thrown away. She then said that if we brewed our own that customers would buy it because tea drinkers prefer home made rather than botled. I told her that we used to do that before we even sold it in the bottles and we ended up tossing away many batches and we started to lose money. Then she said, and get this, that "Us people on the Atkins diet need something other then pop to drink! You people need to start carrying more Atkins friendly food items." Who the hell goes to the movies looking for health food? That reminds me of someone else that told us that our nacho cheese is too cheesey. IT'S CHEESE!!

Posted by Jason Miller (Member # 2341) on 08-09-2004, 05:39 PM:

quote:
someone else that told us that our nacho cheese is too cheesey. IT'S CHEESE!!

That is a debate in itself...

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 08-09-2004, 07:58 PM:

Sure it's not condensed cheese? Add some water.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 08-09-2004, 10:31 PM:

quote:
"Us people on the Atkins diet need something other then pop to drink!"

Surely they have heard of DIET SODAS?!?!?

sheez

-Aaron

Posted by Jason M Miller (Member # 2597) on 08-09-2004, 11:40 PM:

We had to cancel one of our shows because the Xeon Bulb would not light so as I was going into the theater to make the announcement a lady was walking down the aisle towrds me saying all she wanted was free popcorn, she did not even what the free movie which we were going to offer everyone. I was telling her that is not for me to decide and she would have to speak with the manager about that, she then tried to block the aisle so I could not get into the theater. As I got into the theater to make the anouncment she started to yell at the other customers saying All we want is free popcorn, trying to get the other customers behind her. [Mad]

Well she was the only one really trying to get anything extra.

Posted by Christian Volpi (Member # 2370) on 08-10-2004, 08:01 PM:

Wow! Two crazy comments in the same week. Let me start by explaining how things are set up at the theater that I am temporarily working. The box office and concessions are in the same location. We are a small 3-plex that doesn't get much business so it is set up this way so that the person working box may also serve concessions and only have to walk 2 feet. The box office computer is sitting RIGHT next to our pop fountain and the popcorn machine is next to the fountain. If someone really wanted to they can sell tickets with one hand and serve concessions with the other.(multi-tasking!) Anyways, I had a gentleman in here today that bought a ticket to Collateral and after I handed him his ticket he said with a straight face "Hey, where do I buy concessions?"

Posted by Gordon Hedges III (Member # 863) on 08-13-2004, 12:17 AM:

After finally seating for the Princess Diaries 2 crowd, I tried to sweep the lobby of spilled popcorn. As I was sweeping a customer approached me and complained that kids "deliberately" threw popcorn all over the theatre and made a mess. She just got out of Thunderbirds, which only had maybe a handful of people. Her suggestion was for us not to sell popcorn. I stood dumbfounded by her suggestion and she tried to walk away. She turned back around and asked to speak to a manager. I looked at my name tag (which read "MANAGER MR. HEDGES") and said that I AM the manager. When she brought up the no selling popcorn idea again, I tried to explain to her that popcorn is a staple of the business and I've never heard of a theatre that didn't sell any. Her argument was that popcorn should not be sold to kids, because they would make a mess. Finally she walked away and I still stood there confused. I wanted to tell her that adults make more of a mess than kids. What next? "I think you shouldn't play any movies here. Maybe you should just show slides all day." It's customers like these that I just want to say, "Blockbuster. Down the street."

Posted by Steven Jantzen (Member # 2575) on 08-15-2004, 03:32 PM:

just today, we were having problems with the sound processor in Princess Diaries 2, and a lady was able to make her way up to the booth. I was at the sound rack, trying to get the sound fixed, when she came around the corner, and yelled at me to "rewind the movie" because she had missed the first 5 to 10 minutes. I peeked around the sound rack, and asked her to come here, I showed her the platter system, and asked her how she would rewind it. She just looked at me and walked away [Smile]

Posted by Emma Tomiak (Member # 1862) on 08-16-2004, 01:50 AM:

How did she get into booth?

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 08-16-2004, 08:10 AM:

If your sound problem involved lost dialog then she is right though, even if there was no practical way to accomodate her once you've gone beyond the point of a safe center drop. The request wasn't crazy from her POV.

Posted by Barbara Toriel (Member # 2616) on 08-17-2004, 10:08 AM:

Hee hee an older couple approached me in concession one afternoon, placed an order and then attempted to pay in the Euro (Note US Theatre). I stood there about a minute and tried to point out I only accept payment in US currency or credit. I could even pull some strings and take a traveler's cheque. The woman became upset and said that the Euro was accepted everywhere. I replied that the Euro is accepted everywhere in EUROPE, thus Euro. She then pulled a twenty (US currency) from her wallet and rolled her eyes.

Posted by Bill Langfield (Member # 818) on 08-17-2004, 01:02 PM:

Yeah, Steven I wanted to know how the woman got into the projection room, just like Emma asked.

But I have to admit, A few years back at a location that had a BAR on the first level, and the projection room backed onto the Bar. Often I would leave the projection room door open just so people having a drink could have a sneak peak (if they so felt compelled - though the entry was marked staff only) at EXACTLY how their film was getting to screen. I wanted people to see the projectors and platters, as I was sick of people thinking we just use DVD's or video tape.

So what happens, one saturday night I hear a couple hot babes peaking in saying, 'WHOA look at the size of that video tape' !!
I was thinking of showing them something BIGGER, but just continued lacing up with a smile.

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 08-17-2004, 05:31 PM:

I would have taken the Euro at a 1 to 1 exchange rate and then pocketed the difference. [Big Grin]

Posted by Mark L Morgan (Member # 2567) on 08-19-2004, 01:09 AM:

had someone ask me what kind of idiots do you have working for you? I said the finest in tell city...............

Posted by Steven Jantzen (Member # 2575) on 08-19-2004, 10:29 PM:

Emma and Bill,

Our building branches off of a mall and so the owners have to pay "rent" (i guess that's what it would be called on this scale) to a couple of rich farmers that live about 50 miles away. Because these Farmers are popular in their town, all the people from that town think they own the movie theatre, and they act as such. This lady in particular was a good freind to the owners of the building and knew where the booth was.

Steve, you are absolutly right,and as compensation, i personally made sure she received free passes for her and her entire family. I guess what really amazed me is that even with a "staff only" sign on the door leading to the booth, she still had the audacity to just walk up here and think she could tell me what to do. I hate it when people, especially people who don't know how things work, and I'm serving them, think they can tell me what to do.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 08-20-2004, 02:19 PM:

Easy solution - LOCK the door to the booth.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-20-2004, 03:01 PM:

In Massachusetts, it would be illegal to lock the booth door(s) when the building is occupied by the general public.

(Which is not to say that no one actually locks booth doors in practice, but that doesn't make it legal.)

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 08-20-2004, 05:18 PM:

why would it be illegal? If the door was locked for entrance to the booth, but was open for exiting? Every booth I've ever worked has been through a locked entrance door.

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 08-22-2004, 10:35 AM:

It's "illegal" because 520 Code of Massachusetts Regulations 3 says it is. Much of it is nitrate-era rules. I always assume that new construction gets a variance, because there's lots of other stuff in there that is simply impractical in a multiplex.

--jhawk

Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 08-22-2004, 11:58 AM:

I hate it when I'm walking through the lobby and people try to get my attention with hand signals. Like when they look at me and give me the "come here" motion. I just keep on walking and pretend I didn't see them.
One night, I was walking through the lobby and some guy came up behind me wanting to bitch about something and, to get my attention, grabbed my arm so hard he could have cut off the circulation if he had held on longer. My first instinct was to holler for the police and tell them he assaulted me.

Posted by Matt Close (Member # 996) on 08-22-2004, 09:34 PM:

I once had a circuit breaker go in the middle of a show, which I quickly found the cause of, reset, and restarted the show....... I'm at the projector when next thing I know there's this hulking big bloke standing behind me... yelling at me to rewind the film because he'd missed several minutes of it. When I told him that simply was not possible, he replied by telling me he'd just seen the film at another cinema last week and that I didn't know what I was talking about. Anyhow, seeing as he was at least 2 to 3 times my size, I kindly asked him to leave my booth and observe the 'STAFF ONLY' signs next time...... Now, although this bloke was a little too big for me to take on [Wink]

, I was later glad that I hadn't given him a verbal serve........ Months later, he was in the news for having hijacked a 4WD of tourists at gun-point in the Northen Territory..... Shot-gun-point that is!!! ...... and also tied another female tourist and her daughter to a tree!!! I was then very glad I had held my tongue! [Razz]

The most common stupid comment I get though, is from people telling me the curtains didn't open like they are supposed to after the trailers...... when it's a FLAT FILM!!!! Have you ever tried to explain this to a customer???

Posted by Steven Jantzen (Member # 2575) on 08-28-2004, 03:41 PM:

Brandon,

Kinda off subject, but then again, it's not. My last job I was a cart pusher for walmart in the same town as the theatre I'm working at now is. No one could call me by my name, even though I, like everyone else, wore a name tag. It was always "HEY!", or "You in the blue vest!". Normally it was HEY, and after about a year of this, I got fed up with it. I had been having a bad day anyway, and one fairly young guy tried to get my attention and he yelled hey at me. I ignored him, but he kept on doing it, so about the third time, i turned around and said "hay's for horses, cows eat grass, now get on you knees and kiss my ass" My manager was behind me when I said it, and he quickly apologized to the customer and then pulled me aside. He told me to not do that again, but he want's to on some days also.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 08-28-2004, 03:53 PM:

quote: John Hawkinson
It's "illegal" because 520 Code of Massachusetts Regulations 3 says it is.

That's what makes it illegal. It's not why it's illegal.

Posted by Bill Langfield (Member # 818) on 08-29-2004, 11:00 AM:

quote: Scott Norwood
In Massachusetts, it would be illegal to lock the booth door(s) when the building is occupied by the general public.

WHAT!? Do they think when the joint starts burning down, the 'general public' are going to start running UPSTAIRS to the booth looking for an emergency exit there?

Seems to me that this 'law' isnt being explained properly to us.

I understand that it would be illegal to dead lock the door, making an emergency exit very difficult.

But surely the door can be only entered via a key or code on the alarm panel.

To exit no key or code should be required and the handel should be the tilt-down type, not a circular knob.

If you can't lock the projection room in, Massachusetts, do they also not allow to lock the treasury when you/they/the manager are doing EON cash-up?

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 08-29-2004, 02:02 PM:

I'm not familiar with the law but as a guess a sturdy, locked door would make it very difficult for the fire department to get to the booth quickly.

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 08-29-2004, 08:13 PM:

So how easy would it be to steal equipment from boxes in Mass.?

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 08-29-2004, 10:03 PM:

Yeah, I don't know why it is illegal to lock the booth door in the projection booth in Massachusetts, but I do know it is the law.

I actually got that question on my test for my Motion Picture Operators License...

Here is Wisconsin we always kept the booth doors locked.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 08-29-2004, 10:06 PM:

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying its a GOOD law, just trying to figure out some reason why it was passed in the first place.

Wouldn't surprise me if back in nitrate days a fire started in some booth and because the fire department couldn't get to it the theatre burned down with loss of life. Just a guess.

Course an unlocked booth door isn't a big deal when the booth is for a single screen that's manned all the time.

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 08-30-2004, 07:49 AM:

Note that since it is a "regulation," it is not actually passed by a legislative body. Regulations are rules set by the administrative part of the government. In this case, the corresponding Law (143 MGL §96) allows the building code to include "specialized codes" such as "fire safety code [and] fire prevention regulations" (among others).

I think my earlier comment about nitrate-era was misleading as well, since the MGL does prohibit the exhibition of 35mm (or larger) nitrate film (143 MGL §89). I don't know if that predates the requirement for unlocked booth doors, though. The nitrate prohibition dates from 1955.

(143 MGL §96 appears to date from 1984; I'm sure prior to that there was some other legislative justification for such regulations... [sleep]

...)

--jhawk

Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 09-09-2004, 11:15 AM:

I once encountered a customer standing in our auxiliary concession stand eating from the popper. I told him to get out of there and he replied with "This is a public theatre so the public can come back here if they want." So I promptly called one of our security officers to clarify the matter for him. Funny thing is the teenaged concessionists were there operating the stand when he just walked right in and made no attempt to stop him.
I've also had customers wander upstairs into the booth when somone propped the door open to move prints downstairs. They've never been pissed off or looking to complain about a presentation problem, they've always been just looking for the restroom or "I just wanted to see where the movie comes from" or something boring like that.

Posted by Dan Suomi (Member # 2585) on 09-09-2004, 11:55 AM:

Some of our staff just finished putting togther the standee of King Arthur and were about to move it into place. A guest walked up to them and asked if it was for the film 'King Arthur' [Roll Eyes]

.

Someone also asked me the other day what time does the movie start, mind you we have 17 screens plus IMAX.

Posted by Jeff Stuckey (Member # 1718) on 09-09-2004, 12:08 PM:

"REWIND IT!" [Smile]

I am sure that's probably been mentioned a dozen times already in this topic, but one more can't hurt.

Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 09-16-2004, 11:19 AM:

How about when they arrived late for their movie so they want to watch the rest of it, and then go into a later show and watch the part they missed?

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-16-2004, 11:33 AM:

Why not? Provided you've got the seats to spare you might as well since it goes a long way in the customer satisfaction department.

No studio is going to complain about it (at least in my experience) when you tell them that you admitted two people for a half of two shows rather than turning them away.

Posted by Greg Davis (Member # 2687) on 09-16-2004, 06:49 PM:

In my theater we have to give "welcome" speeches, and when I personally have to do it and there are around 2 people... without fail... "can you fast forward through the previews?" NO PROBLEM! In fact, let me go rewind the tape, since I forgot to do that earlier! Be kind, rewind!

More narrow, when LoTR Return of the King came out, people came out disgusted that "horses were being killed by arrows!"

And last but not least... our air conditioner was broken a few months ago behind concessions, which is where the booth stairs is. the door remained propped open for ventalation during hot days. WHILE I WAS IN THE BOOTH PLAYING POKEMON ( [Frown]

) 2 marines came up and told me their movie stopped. i almost pooped my pants. and it didnt, it was Kill Bill vol. 2, and it was just dark. Since then the door remained locked.

Posted by Chris Brown (Member # 2800) on 11-08-2004, 02:26 AM:

quote:
i just love it when they demand that we rewind the movie... it never gets old

This is one of my favorites also!

quote:
Usher:"Projectionist I am getting a customer complaint that the tracking is off in #*"
Projectionist:"OK..OK..hold on. Let me find the remote for it."

Wow Ethan...this made me laugh for a good 5 minutes! The exciter bulb was good too. Employees (and sometimes other managers) do say some pretty funny things when it comes to projection.

quote: Ray Bernardi
I had a lady come in and approach the ticket counter and ask "Is there any violence in this film? I don't like violence." I just stared at her for a second and said "The title of the film is Gladiator Ma'am, what do you think?" She didn't attend.

I LOVE people like this...crack me up every time.

quote: Philip Duquette
Customer: "I know that you don't take credit cards here, but if I give you cash will you give me change back?" She was dead serious. I wanted to say no.

I would have wanted to say no, but probably couldn't have without bursting out laughing in their face. Phillip, all your other stories were hilarious as well, especially the discount ones!

quote: Thomas Procyk
Person comes up to box office, reading the titles and times for quite a while, then asks: "Are those the real times?"

I've had a customer look at our lobby clock and ask me that. I figured a smartass comment wouldnt go over so well (I was a lowly employee at the time) so I just said yes, then proceeded to laugh my ass off telling the other employees what just happened.

quote: Rob Butler
An usher once told me that the big speaker in the bottom center of the screen was blown out, all it was putting out was this low rumbling noise, I said "do you mean the subwoofer?" the usher said "I don't care what it's called, I just think you should fix it, I was standing right next to it and it sounds like crap" I told him I'd get right on it.

Classic.

Dave, your Star Wars story had me in stitches! I'm surprised you had enough patience to sit there with them and explain all that. I would have told them to phone George Lucas and tell him to get his ass in gear if they wanted the sequel so badly.

I have my own but this post is long enough already...

Posted by Barrett Jarabek (Member # 2727) on 11-08-2004, 11:40 PM:

Before I was a projectionist I worked at the box office. I had a guy come in one night, about 40-50 years old to get a ticket for Jackass The Movie, and asked me if it was any good. Then he goes on to gell me that his daughter had told him to go see it, he had never seen the TV show, no commercials, had NO clue what it was about. So I explained it a little bit. And he still wanted to see it....well needless to say, he came out wanting a refund about 3 minutes after the feature started.

The other night I wanted to reach out of the booth during The Grudge and grab someones arm during a scary part, think that would go good??? Is it just me or did the plot to that movie totally suck ass???

I was washing windows at the drive in once and a guy complained to me that he was blind and the cashier wouldnt give him a discount or a freebie...i could tell he was really blind (it was for a couple dumb kiddie movies, and he was with his wife and kids). I told him to find the manager and he wouldn't do it.

When I first started as a projectionist I accidentally inspected and played "Stuck on You" with reels 3 and 4 switched. It took 4 shows for someone to finally notice it and complain.

I had a guy that I knew and that I hate cuz he's a prick come in one night, got all the usuals at concessions. Then came back about 10 minutes later just fuming mad, yelling at me cuz the popcorn was terrible. so i asked him what was wrong with it he said it was the seasoning, so i asked him wich one he didnt like. and he said he put all of them on it--apple cinnemon, parmesan & garlic, white cheddar, and sour cream & onion....what an idiot.

I installed a surround system in my house, when i got home from work my wife told me it wasnt working....i was like ahhhh crap...somethings not hooked up right, so she turns it to the evening news and cranks up the system wondering why its not coming out of all the speakers.

I work at WalMart too...and every now and then we get people wondering if the 5 disk DVD players play all 5 movies at the same time, when I tell them NO, they ask me why. and I tell them to imagine watching 5 different movies on your TV screen at the same time....they usually walk away mumbling something like "thats a rip-off....."

[ 11-09-2004, 12:49 AM: Message edited by: Barrett Jarabek ]

Posted by David Yauch (Member # 2754) on 11-15-2004, 04:55 AM:

Every once in a while a concessionist will tell a customer while they are cleaning the stand after closing that they cannot give them their free refill on their drink because they no longer have cash in their drawers [Roll Eyes]

This is usually when the customer asks to speak to a manager, and I make a point of making some sort of smart-ass comment directed loudly at the employee on my way to instructing them to get the refill. Comments such as "in case you didn't get the memo, we no longer give out change for free refills, and as such you no longer need cash to give them out" or "you can just give them the free re-fill and pocket the cash, but only this time" work just fine and usually leave the customer satisfied and with a smile on their face. I would never do such a thing to an employee who i wasn't absolutely sure should've known better though.

I also had a customer call up once asking why we wouldn't let him see any movies with the pass he had(it was restricted on special engagements after 6:00). I explained to him that he could still see non special engagements, as well as any movie he wanted before 6. He said he didn't get off work until 5:30 and didn't have time to make a show before six. So I explained to him that it generally takes 10 days for a show to be taken off special engagement and then he could see it in the evening time. He responded to this angry because the person who got him the pass paid cash and he should be allowed to see any movie he wanted. At this point I was getting a bit annoyed so I told him that the reason he couldnt see any movie he wanted was because who ever bought him the pass had opted to purchase the cheaper type of pass to save themselves money. I asked him if he'd like the number to our corporate office to which he replied "i already have it" and hung up, but not before muttering some comment about me being a dumb ass kid.

I may be a dumb-ass kid, but you still aren't getting in you cheap bastard. [fu]

Another time I had a customer come up to complain that the door person wouldn't let her bring her drink in(we have a clearly stated policy of not allowing outside food or drinks). She said it was just water and she knows her rights and she's allowed to bring it in. I asked if I could have a peek inside it real quick because surely we'd let her in with just water. She wouldn't let me see it and suddenly it was just water, but there was a little bit of a diet supplement added in that turned it brown, and she needed it for her diet. A senior manager eventually wussed out and let her in, only to see her buy a tub of popcorn to supplement her diet drink. I probably would've let her in myself if she had been straight about it from the start, but if you're going to lie to me I'm not going to be lenient.

I also had a customer a few weeks ago that was waiting outside of a theatre which had a line in the lobby for it. Another manager walked up to her when she had just arrived and explained that there was a line in the lobby for it and she would need to wait in that line. The customer said "I know" and then proceeded to wait by the theatre. Well I figured she would probably be a problem so I had security come to the entry to the theatre to help check tickets when the line came in. So when the line was being brought over the first thing she does is to try to get in and is stopped by our security officer. She goes on and on with the other manager and the security officer about how she couldn't see the end of the line and if we wanted her to wait we should show her the end of the line. Someone said it was in the lobby and she said "where? where? I don't see it." A manager offered to take her to the lobby to see it but she said that she shouldn't have to and that we should be able to show it to her. Anyways she then claimed that no one talked to her, so I(being about 5 feet away) was called over at her request and she started yelling at me because i hadn't said anything to her. To this i replied that i had stood there while another manager talked to her several minutes ago. At this point she knew she was wrong so she stood there waiting and arguing off and on. The irony of this is that the whole time she was arguing the line was moving in to the theatre. She eventually got in after where she would've been had she just waited in the line, and we all went upstairs for a good laugh.

Other than that I cant think of many recent ones. I did have an employee ask over the radio where the restrooms were(meaning the restroom porters) and I told him they were on both sides of the lobby, no one seemed to get this.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-15-2004, 12:29 PM:

I'm gettin' sick and tired of people who shoot me dirty looks and/or smartass comments when I ask them to please get their feet off our new seats. As if since they paid to get in, they can do whatever they please including wrecking the place.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 11-15-2004, 12:54 PM:

Feet on the seats is a lost cause. I remember working at a newly-built plex and people would always do that. The first week we were open, the ushers would ask the people to put their feet down, but as soon as the usher left the auditoirum, back up they would go. These people were adults, mind you.

I'd see this happen from the booth window before the show and sometimes yell out the window, "Excuse me? Weren't you just talked to about that?" or something to that effect. But when I came back to start the show, up they'd be again. [Roll Eyes]

Just like the people who trash the bathroom or wipe stuff on the seats or dump a FULL soda on the floor... the joys of the general public!

=TMP=

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 11-15-2004, 04:36 PM:

to be fair, some theaters have so little legroom that lanky folk like me are sometimes obliged to stretch out into the seat in front. thankfully this isn't a problem at the theater i attend most often, where i can practically splay my legs full out before hitting seat back. but i've attended sell-outs at more cramped theaters where i've had trouble walking afterwards. sometimes it's enough to have cup-holders on the seat backs so i can elevate my legs and work the knee joints a bit.

at some theaters i do make for the ada seats with a crippled row in front. come to think of it, maybe i could claim "hypertrophy" in case anyone has a problem with it.

carl

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-15-2004, 06:16 PM:

That's what's irritating...we have about 50 inches between rows, so you basically have to slouch down to put your feet up, but people do it all the time anyway. Teenagers are the worst, by far.

Posted by Chase Hanson (Member # 2779) on 11-15-2004, 11:00 PM:

I personally get a huge kick out of customers who threaten to physically beat me if don't submit to their demands.

Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 11-15-2004, 11:03 PM:

Mike, you should try and license the scene from Stephen King's "Misery" where Kathy Bates breaks James Caan's ankles with a sledgehammer, run that as a pre-show ad with an introduction of what will be done with people who can't keep their feet on the floor. [Big Grin]

Even more effective if there is an usher standing at the bottom of the theater with a hammer, looking menacing. [evil]

Posted by Joseph Pandolfi (Member # 223) on 11-20-2004, 06:27 PM:

We sold out on Shrek 2 opening weekend last summer and we had some people ignore the 'private' and 'staff only' signs and came upstairs and knocked on my door to the booth. I asked them "Can I help you" with a puzzled expression, and they replied "Oh! We are trying to find the balcony". I'm sorry, this theatre never had a balcony.

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 11-23-2004, 06:15 PM:

I once looked up from breaking down a movie to see a patron standing just inside the auditorium #2 booth access door.
I asked him if I could help him, he had come to tell me the film was out of focus.
Of course the film was in perfect focus, it was just one of those movies with a soft scene.

And today after a school show of approx. 110 children and like 14 adults there was a 32oz. bud light can on the top of the heap of trash in the cans placed at the front of the auditorium when the movie let out...How about that.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-23-2004, 07:39 PM:

Saturday night of Nat'l Treasure, we were sold out (well about 10 seats left in the building.)

This family of 6 comes in, 20 minutes late [Roll Eyes]

and I say, "We are basically full but we probably have enough single seats for all of you, if you don't mind not sitting together."

After about 5 minutes of the parents trying to convince the kids to come back another time, of course the folks give in and buy the tickets.

Then they proceed to stand in the back of the auditorium peering over the crowd, looking for seats. I walked around and located enough seats for them, then went back and said, "Well you can sit here, and she can sit there, and there's two down in front for two of the kids, etc etc."

Whereupon the kids start whining about not wanting to sit by themselves, and who gets to sit with who, etc, finally I told them they'd have to either take their seats or go out to the lobby and talk, because the movie had started. So the dad gets PISSED AT ME and says "Well we'll just leave if that's the way it's going to be."

So they left. The good part: The whole crew just trooped out with a couple of the kids crying and Dad bringing up the rear, and I was ready and willing to give them a refund but they just walked by the boxoffice and out the door with their noses in the air. Sorry about that, dude, and good riddance.

Posted by Chase Hanson (Member # 2779) on 11-25-2004, 04:42 AM:

Comedy, pure comedy.

Great one for today, (supposedly) had a guest call me at Guest Services from Auditorium 4 to complain about being hosed out of a nickel at the concession stand. We price everything to the nearest quarter, this way we can get away with only keeping gajillions of quarters on hand (makes life easier for us idjuts). This guy bought $5.25 worth of concession items, gave the concessionist $5.30 and was miffed that he couldnt get exact change. [Eek!]

I told him that if he would come to Guest Services after his show, we would have his nickel for him...he never showed. [Confused]

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 11-25-2004, 05:43 AM:

always a good idea to have a few nickels handy.

we also price everything in $.25 increments. only we recently started selling dvds at the concession counter, priced at... $14.99. so unless they have exact change or a credit card, they're getting ripped off (even more). not that they get sold in any case.

carl

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-25-2004, 09:17 AM:

I would be angry about being cheated by a nickel as well, just on principle. You have an obligation to be able to make change within reason OR, assuming it was three dimes being tendered giving one back and YOU eat the five cent loss, not the customer. Intentionally not being able to give proper chain smacks strongly of running a scam. If it were me I would certainly be talking to the Dept. of Consumer Affairs if such a thing existed there or even the AG.

Posted by David Yauch (Member # 2754) on 11-27-2004, 04:12 AM:

Yeah we price in .25 increments also, but there's always a nickel available upstairs in the vault if they want to come and grab it afterwards, or wait for a few minutes for it. Usually a drawer up at guest services will have one or two from little kids that bring up 1 dime, 6 nickels, and 5 pennies for 2 quarters for a video game.

As far as crazy customer comments, I had 2 seperate customers today come up to guest services to tell me that they had come in previously and weren't charged enough and told me they wanted to pay the difference. Since it was so long ago, I told them their honesty was worth the difference, and just to make sure it doesn't happen in the future.

I also was asked by some little pre-teen if I could have him arrested(while trying to impress his friends). I told him loudly in front of his friends that I didn't think we could arrest him unless he was at least 4 feet tall and he turned a bit red and walked off. [Embarrassed]

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-27-2004, 11:54 PM:

That is still unreasonable, IMHO, to make the customer go to all that trouble just to get proper change. I would not do business a 2nd time with a place like that. Do you have signs up to warn people in advance that you can only give change in 25 cent increments? If someone previous pays with change that includes dimes, nickels, or pennies is your staff under orders not to use it to make change just to dick with your customers even when they have the correct change right in the drawer?

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 11-28-2004, 11:25 AM:

People! the solution is very obvious. Our prices are rounded to the nearest Quarter as well. If someone tries to pay for something with 3-dimes I just shove one of the dimes back to them and don't worry about it. Great cutomer service is sometimes letting the nickles slide, or sometimes letting the occasional quarter or fifty cents slide.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 11-28-2004, 08:15 PM:

I agree completely and totally with Ian's statement. Who cares about a nickel? If someone's going to eat the nickel, you should, not the paying customer.

Posted by Jeremy Fuentes (Member # 2135) on 11-28-2004, 08:19 PM:

One time I ate a quarter and crapped 2 dimes and a nickel.

Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 11-28-2004, 10:56 PM:

We actually have this setup as well, only 25 cent increments and not keeping change on hand other than quarters. For one thing it just makes counting out a lot faster. Now if we do get someone paying with 3 dimes or what-not we do offer to push back one of the dimes but a lot of the times the customer just offers it up to the concession as a tip. The concessionists will then try and give back the dimes, nickels, pennies, silver dollars, half dollars, etc. back as change to other customers so that we don't have to put any change in the deposit in the end of the night. Some of you may ask what we do when our concession deposit is a 25, 50, or 75 cent ending, we just put that odd amount into the change drawer for the next day. We don't get many people paying with any change anyways, and when we do they usually have correct, like my "sock lady" who comes in every week and pays everything with a sock full of quarters. Hope the sock gets washed now and then [puke]

Posted by David Yauch (Member # 2754) on 11-29-2004, 02:05 AM:

quote: Steve Kraus
That is still unreasonable, IMHO, to make the customer go to all that trouble just to get proper change. I would not do business a 2nd time with a place like that. Do you have signs up to warn people in advance that you can only give change in 25 cent increments? If someone previous pays with change that includes dimes, nickels, or pennies is your staff under orders not to use it to make change just to dick with your customers even when they have the correct change right in the drawer?

I don't think I was clear enough. We only go to the vault to get the money if it is NOWHERE to be found on the floor. Usually we are using 4-6 registers at any given time even on weekday mornings so a nickel isn't too hard to find. On a weekend with 30 registers running at once it's REALLY easy to find a nickel.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 04-06-2005, 01:00 AM:

Motion Picture News, 8/31/1929

Posted by Matthew Ballantine-Patton (Member # 3007) on 04-06-2005, 12:14 PM:

When running scope trailers for flat releases, I've been told the masking is out of place. One of my coworkers has recieved complaints about "the screen changing size" when the feature starts. Sadly, people can't tell the difference between the video pre-show and the 35mm feature. Why not just watch a DVD? The worst was a woman who panicked when the top masking came down. She was in the hall freaking out that the ceiling was coming down on her!

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 04-06-2005, 12:22 PM:

That's why you should keep the masking DOWN, and run whatever "pre-show" on the smaller screen- if it's big enough to show the movie, then it's big enough to show the pre-show crap. Unless you're running a double feature, the masking should never move when people are in the theater to see it.

Posted by Floyd Justin Newton (Member # 1316) on 04-06-2005, 07:36 PM:

That's what 'screen curtains' are for..... to hide the activity
of a format change!
[thumbsup]

Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 04-12-2005, 09:01 AM:

I had a customer specifically ask for the "Head Projectionist", so they called me down to talk with him about a sound question. He wanted to know if the show he had just saw was in 7.1 like his home processor. I explained that it was in 5.1 and he acted like I didn't know what I was talking about. He then told me that his home processor/amplifier in one could easily power our 500 seat theatre better than the CP500 and 10 amps we had...."Sony still makes the best", he said....

Posted by Dave Ganoe (Member # 53) on 04-12-2005, 11:21 AM:

When I was running a drive-in I had a customer come to me to inform me that the Moon was too bright, could I do anything about it!

Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 04-12-2005, 12:29 PM:

That is too funny. I have a feeling one of my DI customers will come up to me soon and say that.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-12-2005, 01:07 PM:

quote: Dean Kollet
He then told me that his home processor/amplifier in one could easily power our 500 seat theatre better than the CP500 and 10 amps we had...."Sony still makes the best", he said....

...LOL - Don't you hate "clowns" like that who think they know everything about home theatre, yet never set foot in a booth? And I bet he has regular rear projection TV with shoebox speakers hanging out everywhere-NOT properly angled and tuned to the room.

..tell him to take his "Pro-Logic" system and shove it where the sun don't shine.

-Monte

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 04-12-2005, 05:30 PM:

quote: Jesse Skeen
That's why you should keep the masking DOWN, and run whatever "pre-show" on the smaller screen- if it's big enough to show the movie, then it's big enough to show the pre-show crap.

Finally, I'm not the only one who believes this! Personally in top/bottom masking auditoriums I set up the automation so that it always reverts to the scope aspect ratio during intermission and center the video/slide image on that. Then if the movie happens to be flat, the masking will open up a bit when the movie starts. If not, it doesn't look like the audience is being cheated when the screen gets smaller for the part of the program that they paid to see.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 04-12-2005, 09:00 PM:

I always set my pre-show to the smallest possible screen size (whether it is flat or scope).

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-13-2005, 12:18 AM:

..but, doesn't some circuits want their pre-show presentations on the biggest screen possible to where the maskings are to be set in the flat mode when the last cue runs through to close down that last show? I've heard of this.

-Monte

Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 04-13-2005, 06:56 AM:

I suspect most constant width auditoria only have a two position lense turret. This would result in any 35mm based preshow such as adverts (in the UK these are always flat) would be larger that a scope main feature.

Of course when the all digital preshow comes into existance this will remove all the problems [Smile]

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 04-13-2005, 12:25 PM:

quote: Monte L Fullmer
..but, doesn't some circuits want their pre-show presentations on the biggest screen possible to where the maskings are to be set in the flat mode when the last cue runs through to close down that last show? I've heard of this.

Yep, that's why I left my last theater job. That stuff was more important to them than the actual movie, and now it is more than ever!

Posted by Kevin Orman (Member # 3076) on 04-14-2005, 09:20 AM:

This comment came via email from a customer.

"I got back from holiday only to find that you had shown the film I wanted to see - 'I'm Not Scared' while I was away! I TOLD you I was going away and wanted to see this film"

What the..?! Same customer asked if we would repeat the screening of this film and I said no as only about 40 people turned up anyway. She said something along the lines of:

"If you had screened it when I was here then all my friends would have come as well"

The idea that we should only screen a film when one of our customers was not on holiday I found so bizarre that I did not reply to her second email having been left completely speechless!

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 04-14-2005, 11:50 AM:

I'm Not Scared wasn't THAT good, anyway.

She wouldn't have liked it. It is ALL in Italian. They put WORDS on the bottom of the screen. You have to READ the whole movie.

Then, to make matters worse, you KNOW that she's going to be the one person in the theater who can understand Itallian. She's going to be the first one to run out to the lobby to tell you to turn off the words on the bottom of the screen! (You just KNOW it's going to happen!)

[Big Grin]

Posted by Matt Kerekes (Member # 2777) on 04-14-2005, 11:04 PM:

I had a customer come up to me the other day and say that we were showing trash in the theater. She continued to say that the "American Dad" preview on Fever Pitch was full of cussing and horrible things. I told her that it was an attached trailer and we were required to play it, and informed her that all trailers on the film are rated for all audiences. She said "That is not rated for a PG13 movie and I have a 10 year old and two 12 year olds in there seeing this filth" I told her I was sorry, but there was nothing I could do and that I could guarantee that Fever Pitch (PG13) would have cussing in it as well. She stormed away saying the preview needed to pulled. I was like.... ? [puke]

Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 04-15-2005, 12:59 AM:

We were required, by corporate, to pull the American Dad short from Fever Pitch before any public showings. The reason given was that Regal had not agreed to air it; basically, that it "wasn't part of the deal". I haven't seen it, but if it's just clips of stuff that would air on television before 10pm, then I would be pretty sure it would fall under PG-13 standards.

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 04-15-2005, 03:56 AM:

Matt, are you at the new Galaxy 10 in Tulare?

Posted by Jason Gazaille (Member # 2846) on 04-16-2005, 12:47 AM:

I would have to agree that the American Dad short is not appropriate for Fever Pitch audiences. While there is some "language" in Fever Pitch, it is not as vulgar. This "political propaganda" was not advertised as being shown in front of the film and since it's shown after the advertised showtime, patrons should know about it. Cheers to Regal for pulling it. I wish I could.

On another note, I had a woman tell me her teenage son shouldn't see the scantily clad women in the King's Ransom trailer on The Pacifier. She specifically said she had no problem with the dialogue. Funny, I thought the line "Just like sex with you after 2 minutes, this conversation is over" is more offensive than any dress in the trailer. But that's just me.

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 04-16-2005, 11:29 AM:

Actually, the American Dad short *was* in the display ads for Fever Pitch... Also, I don't think you can label it "propaganda" as it is a piece promoting a new TV show on Fox.. Although I don't like the idea of us promoting TV shows, I don't see what Fox did wrong here..

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 04-16-2005, 01:30 PM:

It was all over the radio spots here.

Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 04-16-2005, 09:02 PM:

If I'm not mistaking, isn't ALL marketing/advertising a form of propaganda? The PURPOSE is to attempt to bias you into a course of action, be it giving your money to the sponsor, or your support in "other" ways.

I have high hopes for American Dad. It may be a great show, for me. But I do agree that cross-promoting a television show on a theatrical release is akin to rolling-stock commercials. (Ick!) If I wanted to see TV ads, I'd ... um ... watch TV.

I don't think it would be COMPLETELY out of line for a customer to complain about the spot, but not for "oh, my kids are too young for that filth" reasons. That's just ridiculous, especially if the kids are under 13 in a PG-13 feature. What did you expect, lady? [Razz]

Posted by Charlie Frisby (Member # 2927) on 04-16-2005, 09:11 PM:

It was also posted that it would be on the movie on Adult Swim.

Her in the bible belt, it is kinda fun to watch all of the old (republican) people in the theatre turn to each other bitching. But at least I don't have to hear their actual complaints.

Frisby

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 04-16-2005, 09:31 PM:

I'm not old, but I am Republican and I thought it was funny as hell...

Posted by Charlie Frisby (Member # 2927) on 04-16-2005, 09:36 PM:

If you where old, and from here...you would hold back the laughter and be O-fended and say your gonna call the MPAA.

The parents are worst...they act like you put the DOOM 3 comercial on Heffulump.

We barley got Sin City!!!

Krazy Kustomers!!!

Posted by Jason Gazaille (Member # 2846) on 04-16-2005, 11:14 PM:

Well, I guess I missed the advertising for this. Our GM hadn't even heard about it. Basically it seems Fox is using some sort of strategy to get theatres that don't run rolling stock (like mine) to get people to watch this. The film was extremely poor quality and I thought the material was too. Parents sometimes will allow their children to hear foul language, but not see nudity or violence, or any combination of. If the poster doesn't list a ratings reason for a particular aspect they may find offensive, they have every right to complain, regardless of their kids' ages. Everyone has a different standard. Since I hear now that this was advertised, and in this case nothing was out of line per say with what the MPAA disclaimer says for the film, then I see nothing wrong with it other than FOX's sneaky way of running an advertisement. I still didn't like it (and it has nothing to do with my political affiliation), I just didn't find it funny. Just for the advertising aspect, I would rather not run it. Since I didn't see this advertised, I think I need to get out more... I definately do see this as political propaganda being forced on an audience. On TV, you can change it. But on a movie screen, you are almost forced to watch it (unless you don't come in until the film is actually running or you leave for 3 minutes or so.) I just don't think it had any place being attached to this feature.

Posted by Charlie Frisby (Member # 2927) on 04-16-2005, 11:53 PM:

quote: Jason Gazaille
But on a movie screen, you are almost forced to watch it (unless you don't come in until the film is actually running or you leave for 3 minutes or so.)

That is exactly how i felt when i screened ice princess.

Posted by Matt Kerekes (Member # 2777) on 04-17-2005, 02:20 AM:

Yes, Jim, I was the Lead Manager at the new Galaxy Tulare 10. As of yesterday I became Acting GM, and hope to keep the position permanently.

Posted by Kevin Wale (Member # 1851) on 04-20-2005, 10:43 PM:

From my discussions with managment, and from when I was GM, customer complaints about the trailers are very rare in Guymon. When the commercials started, that's when the customer complaints started. Other than that, the complaints are more commonly related to loud trailers, quiet trailers, and focus shifting through the trailers. I don't expect the average customer will ever really understand the inherent problems in those three areas so you just have to just say you'll fix it and run upstairs in a huff to appease them.

I also got a lot of complaints reguarding the desire for feature leval lighting during trailers... some people really get into the trailers. lol.

I don't agree with the "bible belt" and "republican" stereotyping. I've talked to a lot of people and it's not very often that they are surprised at the content, and when they are they don't blame the theatre, they blame Hollywood's often deceptive advertising. For a town of 10 thousand to flock to an 8 screen theatre in the numbers that theatres in Dodge City and Oklahoma City experience, Guymon has an extremely surprising movie savy population. At least in terms of realizing the the theatre it'self is at the mercy of the product that is distributed. I've learned to not be shocked when people here accurately peg that the movie has dropped out of DTS.

There is no question though.. the number one complaint is the volume. In the same showing of the same movie two people will say it's too loud and two others will say it's too quiet. lol. I think baffling would work wonders on that issue though... and getting that tile in front of the screen replaced with carpet would prolly clear up that dialog as well...

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 05-02-2005, 03:28 AM:

As for the American Dad short, I enjoyed it and so did our guests.
There's absolutely no language in the short that isn't allowed on daytime television.
Peronsally I like Seth Mcfarlanes Family Guy, and from what it looks I'd like American Dad.

Yeah, they want you to watch it, but it's not like they said "All new American Dad, Sunday night on Fox" or something.

The other day, this lady points to the Kung Fu Hustle poster and goes "Is the entire movie in subtitles?".
"yes"
"why would they make it all like that?"

gee, I don't know. Maybe because it's not an AMERICAN movie!?

Posted by Alan Dallas (Member # 2537) on 05-02-2005, 04:05 AM:

Thats pretty funny Dominic. We get that all the time when we get subtitled prints. I swear most the time I want to scream back at them "Get some culture you closed minded idiot!". That and I love love love Hong Kong films. Now only if I could learn cantonese. [thumbsup]

Now Kungfu Hustle, I don't care who you are, thats some funny shit right there. [Smile]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-06-2005, 05:10 PM:

We're playing Fever Pitch tonight.

Is that "American Dad" clip really an ad for a TV show? You'd think they'd put that on the film *somewhere,* rather than just having the 2 seconds of credits that tell nothing.

Some people think cussing has no place in animation, no matter what. It's too bad that they can't get rid of the notion that animation must always be for kids. Having said that, I thought the American Dad thing was completely stupid.

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 05-07-2005, 12:51 AM:

not really a comment, but...
I had a customer come up to the counter, order, then proceded to lay a couple of napkins out flat on the counter. While I was getting things together, he pulled out a hard boiled egg from his pocket, cracked it on the counter, and peeled it into the napkins. He salted the egg, ate it, paid for his concessions, and left. That was certainly a new one.

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 05-08-2005, 12:05 AM:

I just had a guy threaten to call the FCC to tell them that we violated the federal ratings law by allowing parents to take their kids to R rated films...

Posted by Jeremy Fuentes (Member # 2135) on 05-12-2005, 07:34 AM:

"Is House of Wax based on a true story??"

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 05-12-2005, 12:47 PM:

quote: Jim Ziegler
to call the FCC to tell them that we violated the federal ratings law

Some people are so full of horse [bs]

Posted by Chris Brown (Member # 2800) on 05-22-2005, 01:43 AM:

We got a comment card about a month or so ago where the customer was angry because our showtimes were no longer able to be found on his Yahoo home page, and he didnt feel that he should have to put in the effort to go to another site like Fandango to find our times...naturally because of this huge inconvenience, he will no longer be coming to our theatre.

His email address was on the comment card report and I really felt like sending him an email saying "how lazy ARE you?"

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 05-22-2005, 11:39 AM:

He's the one that probably screwed around and deleted the showtimes from his Yahoo page.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 05-22-2005, 11:49 AM:

Yahoo has a habit of getting our showtimes wrong, especially if there is a mid-week program change. The only place online we officially list our showtimes is our own website.

Posted by Jon Morgan (Member # 3059) on 05-22-2005, 01:52 PM:

I had a woman last week insisting that our policy was children 12 and under get in free. I probably should have slapped her, but instead I calmly explained to her that, unfortunately, her 10 year old daughter would have to buy a child's ticket. This seems like it would be simple enough, but she argued with me for 5-10 minutes.

Posted by Cam Jones (Member # 2684) on 05-22-2005, 07:12 PM:

The other day I had someone try to bring in a Venti Frapuccino from Starbucks and he said he would finish it before he went into the movie but then suddenly had a problem being able to finish it before the movie started when I told him he couldn't bring it past the podium. He then said "Look at this thing, how the **** am I going to finish this?"

The whole time I was thinking, well you should have thought of that before [Razz]

Posted by Alan Dallas (Member # 2537) on 05-23-2005, 11:50 PM:

We're running SW:Ep3 in SRD-EX right?

Opening day got "complaints" at least 6 times. "Your rear surrounds arn't working! They keep dropping out!! WAAAAA!" And to top it all off one of the complainers, I was informed buy another Manager on the floor who knows how EX works, came to Guest sevices after the presentation and demanded a refund. He stated he should be able to hear sound from the rear all the time since his Home Theatre system is a Dolby Digital/DTS DVD player setup. And insisted that he knows how its supposed to work.

The Manager that assisted him didn't even try to explain it to him, just simply told him "Sir I'm sorry you thought the audio was incorrect, our Projectionist did in fact check on the Audio when you made your complaint and found nothing wrong." The guy queried again about a refund. Manager replies "Well since you sat through the ENTIRE presentation I can not refund your money."

His parting words "I'm never comming back to this Theatre again!" [Big Grin]

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 05-24-2005, 01:11 AM:

quote: Alan Dallas
He stated he should be able to hear sound from the rear all the time since his Home Theatre system is a Dolby Digital/DTS DVD player setup.

I get this ALL THE TIME. Especially with Woody Allen films. [Roll Eyes]

-Aaron

Posted by Jason Whitlock (Member # 3077) on 05-24-2005, 02:44 AM:

too bad Dolby and other processor makers don't put a stupid customer complaint button on their equipment so when pressed, it'll pump crap out of all the speakers, mixing left and right channel stuff with surrounds, ignoring equilizer settings and making the surrounds just as loud as the center channel...

of course i'd probably never use the button unless the guy is the only person in the theatre

Then you get the complaints of.. "the sound in whatever theatre sounds awful..." ... "well sir.. you complained that sound wasn't coming out of surrounds all the time so we corrected that problem for you, and now you realize that it is not the norm to have sound out of all speakers all the time.."

Posted by Steven C Y Chan (Member # 2967) on 05-25-2005, 12:30 AM:

a man had use 'professional' terms complain our speaker '40Hz' too fat, playing the SW-EP3. Nobody here know how to 'loss some weight for his comments' [Confused]

we had check by a RTA that night and all curve still meets.

Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 05-25-2005, 06:49 AM:

quote: Jason Whitlock
too bad Dolby and other processor makers don't put a stupid customer complaint button on their equipment so when pressed, it'll pump crap out of all the speakers, mixing left and right channel stuff with surrounds, ignoring equilizer settings and making the surrounds just as loud as the center channel...

I thought that was what bypass mode did

Posted by Jason M Miller (Member # 2597) on 05-25-2005, 08:58 AM:

quote:
His parting words "I'm never comming back to this Theatre again!"

No worry he will probably be back the next week.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-25-2005, 12:31 PM:

I got chewed out by a guy on the phone wondering why we ran the midnight show of Star Wars III on a school night. His kids "just had to see the first show" and he was mad they would be tired the next day. I wanted to ask him, who runs your house -- you or the kids?

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 05-25-2005, 03:56 PM:

All bypass does is run the Lt/Rt tracks straight thru to the R and L speakers. No center, no surrounds.

-Aaron

Posted by Steve Anderson (Member # 364) on 05-25-2005, 08:09 PM:

We have free refills on our large drinks, so when a customer returns to the concession stand we ask them to remove the lid and straw so we don't have to touch them. Well I was working with this young kid at the counter and these two attractive ladies came back for a refill...well you guessed it the kid said "Ladies I need you to remove your tops before I will refill your drinks" I laughed my ass off!!!

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 05-30-2005, 02:46 PM:

Aaron said, "All bypass does is run the Lt/Rt tracks straight thru to the R and L speakers. No center, no surrounds."

Err, no. At least on the CP65, the optical preamp outputs for L and R (as well as mag) are summed, and fed to L,R,and C (and also hearing-impaired), with the surround grounded. See this handy excerpt from the CP65 signal chart:

--jhawk

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 05-30-2005, 03:17 PM:

fine. [Razz]

I was thinking CP50 anyways, they DO only go to L and R. I believe the same is true for the CP55 as well.

-Aaron

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 05-30-2005, 07:26 PM:

I've never had the "joy" of working on the CP55, but the docs say it does the same thing as the CP65.

On the CP50, well, it seems to depend on your Cat 113. The original Cat 113 seemed to take L/R in and send them straight out, and according to the block diagram it had an input for "bypass surround" but not for bypass center (?).

But the Cat 113C has the same adder-type functionality as the CP65 and CP50 (and CP45).

--jhawk

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 05-30-2005, 08:12 PM:

Bypass on a CP55 is summed to LCR.

Posted by Jon Morgan (Member # 3059) on 06-03-2005, 10:41 PM:

This whole fiasco (which occurred via email) was about the new Solondz film Palindromes. It's about an adolescent girl who wants to have a baby, and while there are two or three sex scenes involving underaged actors, there is no nudity and it is not intended to be arousing in any way. It's very awkward and offputting, as intended, and very brief as well. Here's the conversation:

---------
Dear General Manager,

I went to see the movie "Palindromes," which is at your theater at the present time in Cary, NC and usually go at least once every week. I thought I was watching child pornography. This type of movie is NOT considered art. If I EVER see a movie like this at your theater again, I will NEVER enter your doors. If I want to see a movie where 13-14 year olds are going at it every few minutes, I'll watch it on-line. I'm 40 something (in your target audience), and am studying to be a counselor for abused children, so I know extortion and abuse when I see it.

As you know, one e-mail represents MANY, so please take this to heart or you might find your profits decreasing.
-------------

First of all, I'm going to repeat this sentence because I find it HILARIOUS.

"If I want to see a movie where 13-14 year olds are going at it every few minutes, I'll watch it on-line."

Moving on.

Of course, I wanted to explain that she was thinking about "exploitation" and not "extortion", but, you know, customer service and whatnot.

My response:
-----------
We am very sorry that you were offended by the film. From time to time, we recieve films with sensetive subject matter that may offend some of our customers. If you are unsure about a film, we recommend asking the staff who can provide you with a film description. We also have literature in the lobby on most of our films.

I have left two complimentary passes in your name in our box office, so the next time you come the movie's on us. Once again, we apologize that you found the film offensive. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know. We appreciate your business.

Jon Morgan
General Manager
--------------

So I sent that a few days ago, and I guess I thought it was taken care of.

Alas! Today, I received this reply:
----------------
Dear Jon,

If what you are telling me is that you will continue to have subject matter that is offensive to MOST of American society, than NO THANKS. I'll find another independent theater in which to give my business.
-------

I don't see much point in replying again. I could point out that it's played at most of the other theaters in the area, or that it received a glowing review in the local paper, or that out of the mass of people who have seen it she is the sole complaintant. I dunno, though. I guess I'll just leave this one be.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 06-04-2005, 01:56 AM:

Jon -

You handled everything as best as you could ... my response to that email would have been very similar to yours. You can't please everyone, but at least you tried ...

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 06-04-2005, 11:47 AM:

Last night a little girl came out of Sisterhood/Traveling Pants and asked us to kick her older sister out.
After a couple more complaints we did a theater check to find the older sister gabbing away with her "friend" who had come over from Dogtown yet didn't have a ticket handy.
We kicked out the older sister, and her 2 friends (one of them seemed to be a crp dude anyway, he seemed a bit older).
The look she gave her little sister on the way out though suggest the little sister is going to get it...

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-04-2005, 12:25 PM:

Jon - she probably got pissed off that you spelled"receive" and "sensitive" wrong. [Wink]

Posted by Dieter Depypere (Member # 3184) on 06-04-2005, 01:10 PM:

Gee... I even didn't get that [Big Grin]

Posted by Jon Morgan (Member # 3059) on 06-04-2005, 03:50 PM:

I contend that all this "i before e except after c" stuff is crap, and, I mean, if the base word is "sense" I'm just gonna spell it like that.

Mmmyep. That's my story.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-04-2005, 04:14 PM:

Taxpayers in your area must be proud. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 06-04-2005, 06:25 PM:

I once had a phone call from a lady that read me the riot act because she had brought her 6 year old to see the Dennis Quad film the Rookie. She went on and on about how could we show a movie such as this and give it a G rating. We rate the film's don't ya know. I couldn't get out of her what she thought was so offensive about the film. I watched it later, and scratched my head for weeks wondering why she made such a fuss.

Posted by Dieter Depypere (Member # 3184) on 06-05-2005, 03:33 AM:

Never mind. Nobody can just plese everybody. That's what I say.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 06-06-2005, 12:37 AM:

I think Jon's response was exactly right.

quote: Jon Morgan
I'm 40 something (in your target audience), and am studying to be a counselor for abused children, so I know extortion and abuse when I see it.

Yeah, I think I recognize extortion here, too.

Posted by Dieter Depypere (Member # 3184) on 06-06-2005, 07:12 AM:

Someday a mother with 2 kids came up in the booth and she asked if I could show the kids a little bit how the technology of showing a film works. One kid ran to the projector #2 and said "Wow mom, look at that giant camera!"

simply had to laugh [eyes]