I have a long background working in theatres. I started working in theatres in 2000, and worked off and on for four different chains in five different theatres amassing about 10 years of experience.
Last night, I checked the movie times for today and planned on seeing a 10:00AM show of How To Train Your Dragon 2, because 10AM shows are typically too early for most families. I prefer seeing my movies without hordes of screaming children, even though I adore kids… just not screaming through movies. I checked again this morning, and the 10AM show was still listed.
I arrived at the theater at about 9:40AM, and the theater was closed. Gates down. No box office cashiers. Uh oh. However, I wasn’t alone. Other parents with their kids were standing in front of the box office, perplexed. We waited, and after about five minutes of my being there, a large group of kids (some kind of day care program) walked up to the theater and were let in a side door by a manager. I confronted the manager and explained the situation to him, that the large group of parents and kids (and myself) had arrived for an advertised 10AM show. One parent even claimed it was on the marquee outside. He said there was no 10AM show, it was private, and the first show was at 11:15. I said he should do something to apologize to us for the error, like popcorn and drinks while we wait another hour for our show. He said he would see what he could do.
I went back to the line, and updated the other people waiting (about 20 of us total). The manager came into the box office (to separate himself from his guests by glass I suppose with another manager). He spoke to me, and only me, and said there would be no compensation. He told me there was no 10AM show, and there was nothing he was going to do for any of us. I asked him if he truly believed I found 20 random families and stood them outside this theatre, because that’s what he’s implying by saying there was no 10AM show. I told him this was unacceptable, and I wanted the phone number for his boss. He gave me a card with a phone number, and then walked away.
I called the phone number, and it was an automated service. If I was angry…I COULD LEAVE A MESSAGE! Because that always makes people happy. I shared the number with the other angry patrons, who still were angry because he wasn’t addressing the situation and kept leaving. Finally, sometime after 10AM, he came back and talked to a few of the remaining patrons, again not compensating them, and just listening to them tell him how they were unhappy.
I then talked to him a final time, and found out he was the General Manager. I hadn’t just talked to the top manager on duty, I talked to the top boss of the whole theater. I told him that my fundamental problem with him was that he handled the situation poorly, and never addressed the whole group with any kind of apology. He only spoke to me. Its not my job to be his mouthpiece. He needed to come out of his hiding spot and talk to everyone, address the problem, and propose a solution.
I told him that in all my years of theater management, I’ve never seen a manager whose complete disregard for the phrase “the customer is always right” is evident. He alluded to the fact that he might have been wrong, because he had to create the show for the private screening, but when he looked online he didn’t see the showtime (of course, because he had already fixed the problem after 10AM). Luckily, one of the other parents had shown it to him, but this was later.
I told him he missed his opportunity to apologize to the patrons waiting, because many of them left and gave up. It’s hard to stand in line with little kids for an hour. You have to find something to occupy their time. I said it wasn’t about the popcorn or the drink, it was about acknowledging that we weren’t crazy. We didn’t make up the 10AM showtime, and it was your fault, not ours.
Still, a half-hearted apology. He asked if I would be seeing a movie that day, and I said Premiere hadn’t earned my patronage. Not today, and I realized later, not ever.
You see, he had told me the reason that we were left to our own thoughts was that it was more important to seat the kids and get their show going. That’s not true. All patrons are equal. There were two managers, and at least 10 staff members. Had I been in that situation, I would have at bare minimum sent my best staff person outside to talk to the line and apologize for the situation until I could be there personally to figure something out.
Secondly, not once did he ever “come out”. The first time I spoke to him was through glass, the second time through a gate. How incredibly impersonal, and certainly not a set up for an apology. He did nothing except inconvenience a bunch of parents and families (and myself). We walked away with nothing that day, except a longer wait to see the movie.
Premiere Cinemas has lost my business, because their General Manager did not feel empowered enough to fix the situation. I left their theater and went to a Regal. I ran the scenario by one of their managers, who immediately had a handful of solutions he would have done. All of the involved apologizing, and some even involved compensation. One even involved syncing the show into a second theater so that the people who arrived for a 10AM show would have seen their show. A perfectly fine solution, though I doubt Premiere has the ability to sync prints.
I’ve never met a General Manager so OK with his terrible customer service, and unapologetic about it. I called Premiere back (a 2nd and 3rd time, my message was so long). I realized I didn’t want a call back, because I didn’t care what they had to say. Because even if they apologize to me, or compensate me, they can’t compensate all the other people in line who never got to speak to a Premiere Cinemas manager that day. Because he didn’t feel like they were “important” enough. That’s a fundamental decency, and that kind of error I cannot overlook. No free passes or free popcorn will make me give my money to a company that treats its customers like they are disposable.
I will spend my money elsewhere. In a time when theatres are trying to find ways to combat declining attendance, and attracting new moviegoers, I would say the simplest thing is to start with customer service. People like to go to places where they feel wanted, and nobody felt wanted today.
This editorial is in specific response to the Premiere Cinema 14 At Fashion Square Mall in Orlando, FL.
