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Author
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Topic: A Christmas Eve Rant
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Martin McCaffery
Film God
![](/ubbmembers/37a.jpg)
Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 12-24-2015 03:07 PM
The movie going experience in Montgomery. (no yelling was involved).
Decided Christmas Eve is a good time to go see a matinee. Spent an hour or so at work and had nothing else to do and I wanted to see The Big Short.
So I go out to Carmike (the newer multiplex) for the 12:30 show. I get there about 12:32. I see a long line at the concessions stand to buy tickets because that is how it is set up. Go back out and try the ticket machine, but it says it is 12:50 and won’t sell tix for the 12:30 show. Go in and wait. Get my ticket and get in the theatre. There are two people going in right in front of me and that’s it in the theatre. How do I know? Because there is no show running and the house lights are all the way up. I say I’ll go tell them and run into about 5 other people coming in. I go tell the only authority figure I can see, the guy taking tickets. He says he will go tell someone. A few minutes later what must be an assistant manager comes and says she will start it. I ask if she can start it without the trailers, and she says yes. Back in to the theatre and there are a couple of more people. I announce that they said they will start it without the trailers. A few minutes later, the assistant manager comes in and says it will be about 3 more mins because the power failure they had awhile ago knocked everything out (of course, they should have noticed this at least 15mins ago, as I’m guessing they had no one for their 10am show.) 10mins later nothing. I go back out and talk to the ticket taker again. He goes and talks to what must be the manager who is in the glass room with all the servers punching some buttons. Ticket kid comes back and says it will be another 15mins. I give up. I go to the ticket sellers and ask for a refund. She apparently doesn’t have the authority, so has to find the assistant manager. She disappears, but the assistant manager shows up a few minutes later to conduct some business with another cashier. So I tell her I’m trying to get a refund and hand her my ticket. She says, ok, she’ll be right back and goes somewhere. I never see her again. By this time, all of the other people are out wanting refunds and the manager is out of the glass box. He starts giving the other people refunds and I tell him my ticket got taken by the other woman. After a brief discussion about “what other woman” he gives me a refund, and I leave. END PART ONE
So I look at the time (and the two flash flood notices) and decide I can make it to AMC to see their 1:10 showing of the same movie. I get there about 1:15 and go in, with time to go to the bathroom. The trailers are playing and the house lights are half up and throwing light on the screen. I notice the top half of the full screen scope picture and a bit of the right side are out of focus. Maybe it’s just the trailer. Nope. I sit through how many overly loud and uninteresting trailers they are throwing at us in the hope (it’s christmas eve, gotta have hope, right?) that the feature will be in flat and the lens will zoom in and maybe be in focus. Nope. As soon as the Paramount logo comes on in lovely out of focus I give up. I try to find someone to get a refund from. Nobody around but the ticket taker and she says I have to go to the box-office where they have one person and a line for the next round of shows. So I get in line and make my way to the front. I tell her I would like a refund and why and hand her my ticket. She asks if I would like to see if they can do anything to fix it and I tell them they can’t without putting up a test pattern (and, I sure, taking the lens out and reseating it). She then says she has to find the manager to approve a refund. So she, the only person in the box-office, leaves to go find the manager. I apologize to the people in back of me, who decide to go use the ticket machine. Ticket seller comes back and says the manager will be out in a few minutes, she is helping behind the concessions, which has a line of the people coming in for the next round of movies. I object, but don’t make a scene and let the people in back of me get their tickets. After waiting awhile and no manager, she gives me a refund on her own authority. And I go home with nothing to do for the rest of the day and evening. Ironically, they gave me another of those customer survey cards, but since they didn’t give me my ticket stub back, I can’t use it.[edit: turns out I can use it and did]
I don’t think I’m going to make it until we reopen.
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