Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How hard is it to reprint a ticket?

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Posted by Thomas Pitt (Member # 4322) on 02-14-2009, 05:57 PM:

I guess this could go under the 'stupid floor staff' or 'stupid customers' topics, but it's kinda unique.

I went to see The Secret of Moonacre a few days ago, and went to buy my ticket at one of the ATMs. It took my card, and went through all the motions of printing out - except no ticket came out!

So I had to go and queue to complain about this. The ticket seller manually entered my card number, and to my surprise, only one booking for a film I'd never seen (Bride Wars) came up, back in January! She then told me I should go and buy another ticket because it hadn't come through on the system.

Now, having had exactly this problem on a previous occasion (at the same theater), and knowing that my card had indeed been charged on that occasion, I insisted they recheck. She re-entered my card number, and this time a list of movies that I HAD seen came up - guess she must have typoed it on the first try. Even though she saw the booking had been made and the charge had gone through, she still refused to reprint my ticket. Instead, she allowed me past the ticket collector and into the auditorium.

I happened to look back at the machines as I was going in, and saw a technician opening it up. Inside were several printed tickets, all crinkled up behind the printer slot.

Surely it should be simpler than that! Have the attendant swipe the card, check the booking and reprint a ticket - should only take a few seconds. What's your theater's policy on malfunctioning ticket machines/printers?

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-14-2009, 06:21 PM:

Why do you use a ATM to purchase a movie ticket in advance? I feel it is much easier to just walk up to the boxoffice a few minutes before the movie I want to see starts and buy my ticket with cash or a credit card. I do not understand the need to purchase a ticket in advance like one would do when buying one for a live play or concert. The only time it made sense buying tickets in advance for a movie was for road show movies like BEN-HUR, SOUND OF MUSIC or THE TEN COMMANDMENTS that was common up until the seventies. In actuality it was just like buying tickets for a live theatrical show because a seat is reserved for you on the day and time you had selected.

-Claude

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 02-14-2009, 06:30 PM:

On our POS machines, if someone had previously purchased tickets and you swipe their card it immediately prints them out.

And even if you enter tickets for them to purchase (since they hadn't realized they'd been charged when the ATM goes down), the software will tell you (once you swipe their card) that there are tickets to pick up on that card number and asks if you are actually supposed to add the new purchase or just print the old one.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 02-14-2009, 06:41 PM:

Sounds like the desk clerk wasn't trained, or didn't know on how to reprint tix if that kiosk had a printer problem..

Did you check your transactions with your bank to see if it did clear?

Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 02-14-2009, 06:47 PM:

I am always amazed at how many people use ATM's that charge an extra fee or are willing to pay a buck extra to use their debt card to purchase a ticket. Worse than this are the people that actually pay interest on a movie, a concession purchase or a hamburger at McDonald's.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 02-14-2009, 06:52 PM:

Called, an 'impatient, supply and demand' world that things are getting into...a form of GREED.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-14-2009, 08:56 PM:

quote: Ron Funderburg
Worse than this are the people that actually pay interest on a movie, a concession purchase or a hamburger at McDonald's.

Ron, Monte: Lots of people use their credit cards for day-to-day purchases and pay the whole bill every month. That's cheaper than writing checks and costs no interest. Also, lots of cards offer "points" that can be redeemed. We use a card like this and I've been able to fly to Florida on my wife's business trips for free several times, thanks to the points.

Or, maybe they are using a debit card.

Or maybe they are just uneasy about carrying the amount of cash necessary for an evening out, which can be pretty expensive.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 02-15-2009, 12:12 AM:

Thomas, I can answer this for you in detail, as you very likely went to a vue, but not too sure if I am allowed to on the internet. A simple answer is any reprint, refund or swap of a ticket after a show has started needs a manager. This is for security reasons.

Claude, we don't open our box offices unless the demand allows for it, so depending on the site usually only busy weekends and Wednesdays (as there is a national 2 for 1 offer across UK cinemas that boosts admissions on that day). So Thomas would have had the choice of buying tickets at the ATMs or the concessions stand.

Monte, most people in the UK wouldn't think twice about putting a purchase at the cinema on their card. You're looking at £25 for a pair of tickets and a combo at our site, which is more cash than I will ever take out. Obviously there are the people who are in debt on their credit cards, but nearly everywhere will take a card and paying by debit card is far easier for me than cash.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 02-15-2009, 12:33 AM:

The reason you can't just re-print tickets is because each printed ticket adds to the movie totals and the accountable cash. You can always go back and void the extra ticket, but most cashiers don't have this authority. Plus, excess voids can be a red flag for theft.

Taking it further, you don't want to have a feature to simply reprint a ticket without recording a sale because this opens the door for employees or managers to steal by reprinting a previous ticket rather than selling a new ticket.

I can also tell you that people can, and do, tell you a number of different things in an attempt to get a free ticket. And I'm sure this problem is especially common with self serve or kiosk machines.

What may seem like an inconvenience on an individual level has solid reasoning when you're looking at things from an operations or accounting standpoint.

Posted by Anslem Rayburn (Member # 1267) on 02-15-2009, 04:15 AM:

quote: Chris Slycord
On our POS machines, if someone had previously purchased tickets and you swipe their card it immediately prints them out.

Are you saying that if there are 2 people in my party, I should buy 1 ticket on my card, then ask you to swipe my card so it will print me a 2nd ticket for my friend?

For the record, I have never reprinted a ticket in my life (13+ years in cinema) and I don't even know if my current software can do that.

Posted by Poon Limpapun (Member # 4551) on 02-15-2009, 06:14 AM:

We just hit reprint on our software.
Our seating is allocated so we have no problems
with duplicate tickets and we also count the ticket
stubs and check them with the report 15 minutes
after the session starts

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 02-15-2009, 11:06 AM:

quote: Anslem Rayburn
Are you saying that if there are 2 people in my party, I should buy 1 ticket on my card, then ask you to swipe my card so it will print me a 2nd ticket for my friend?

No.

I said that I would SWIPE the card, not charge it.

If the guest had already purchased tickets on that card and I swipe it (without having entered in anything), it'll start printing them and if there was no purchase on that card it displays "There are no tickets to retrieve."

But what I was getting at as well is even if they don't tell you they tried with the ATM and you go ahead with entering in new tickets, when you swipe the card it'll ask you "Do you really want to do that? I already have tickets to retrieve."

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 02-15-2009, 06:31 PM:

Oh, sorry on jumping the gun for I also use debit card more than carry cash - so much easier to swipe than do the cash transaction.

True: PayPal offers cash back incentives if you have one of their accounts and use their debit card and get a percentage back towards your account.

-Monte

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 02-15-2009, 08:05 PM:

What Justin said nails it. These kind of restrictions are always going to apply in large companies.

Chris I'm almost certain our system won't let us know a customer is about to double-book for a show.

I had someone try and get past me today with a 'card declined' receipt from the ATM. If we have any suspicions about a ticket from the ATM we ask the customer to produce the card they paid with.

Posted by David Zylstra (Member # 4230) on 02-16-2009, 04:36 PM:

A certain software I worked with in the past works like this:
If a customer buys a ticket at the ATM and the ticket printer reports an error the ticket will remain in "will call" and any cashier can swipe the customer's card to retrieve (and the customer can also swipe their card at another ATM for the pickup). IF the ticket prints and gets bunched up inside the machine (like it sounds like may have happened here) the software will report the ticket as printed and there will be no way to reprint the ticket without doing a void on the original sale.

The software my current company uses has the ability to reprint tickets or entire transactions, BUT some research has to be done to find the transactions and/or ticket numbers in order to complete the reprint (and it requires a manager's login).

The choice here seems like make the customer wait for a manager to do all the required research, which could take several minutes; or simply confirm that the customer was charged and let him in immediately. Our policy would do the latter unless there were suspicious circumstances.