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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: Customer's Experience Rant
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Dave Macaulay
Film God
Posts: 2321
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 02-02-2007 08:42 PM
posted on Kuro5hin.com: (Not by me!)
Dear Cineplex mongoloids,
This past weekend my wife and I visited one of your cinemas with the intention of seeing Guillermo del Toro's dark fantasy picture, Pan's Labyrinth. As you may know, Pan's Labyrinth is a Spanish-language feature showing with English subtitles in North America.
During the quarter hour of commercials that began playing at showtime I was chagrined to note that the quality of the picture was very poor: fuzzy, mingled with bits of hair and dust, and sporadically losing registration. Never the less, we had paid over $20 between the two of us to see Pan's Labyrinth on the big screen so we hoped things would improve once the feature began.
Once it did begin, however, my wife and I and the audience of which we formed part were confused when it seemed that only every alternate of dialogue had been subtitled. Worse still, those incomplete subtitles were being projected on the floor below the screen.
As the film progressed two things became clear: 1) the projection was so badly misframed that the missing half of the subtitles couldn't even be seen splayed blurrily across the floor, but must have in fact been being displayed on the inside of the projection booth; and 2) nobody was interested in this situation other than those of us in the theatre -- the booth was unmanned, or manned by someone with severe mental and/or visual handicaps.
I left the theatre and asked the retarded girl by the velvet ropes how we might go about remedying the situation. This question (and simplified variants thereof) caused her bewilderment and fear despite the fact that I'm not a very intimidating guy. She said my wife and I would have to go the main box office to complain.
At the main box office we were obliged to stand in line behind a herd of patrons buying tickets for the next show. When we finally did arrive at the cashier the manager interrupted our complaint to assure us that the problem could easily be fixed. "So, are you going to start the movie over again?" I asked.
The manager looked as hurt and confused as the poor retarded girl had. "I'm sorry?" he said.
I repeated my question.
"Oh no," he said, "we can't do that."
"Well then, we'll have our money back please."
"I'll have somebody fix it in a jiff," insisted the manager.
"Yes, but we've already missed most of the first act, haven't we?" I pointed out. "We paid over ten dollars each to see this movie on the big screen, and you're telling me that you mangled the beginning but you have no intention whatsoever of making good on our moviegoing experience?"
"No, no," argued the manager. "You can have your money back."
I sighed, drawing my hand wearily down my face. "Fine. Thank you."
The manager rushed off to supervise of the correction of the movie's framing while the cashier attempted to give us our money back. I handed her our transaction receipt, which she looked at as if it were covered in alien glyphs. "Where are your tickets?" she asked.
"I guess they're in the theatre. There's my receipt."
"You'll have to go back to the theatre to get them."
"What? Why?"
"I can't process a refund without your tickets."
My wife groaned. "Surely the receipt proves we paid for the movie. I mean, that's what a receipt is for."
"Yeah, but it doesn't have the special bar code I need to scan or the computer won't let me do anything," explained the cashier.
"You expect us to fish around in a dark theatre to find two slips of paper under our seats?" I asked.
"Well," said the cashier, experiencing a brainwave, "or I could get my manager to issue you two free passes."
"Fine. I don't care. Do it."
The manager, of course, was busy supervising the reframing of the bungled movie. When he got back the entire situation was explained to him afresh, at which point he issued us two free passes to see another attempt at showing a movie at this or any other Cineplex location in Canada. "No, I want my money back," I pressed.
"The computer won't let me do that, sir," said the manager.
"Not a lot of dignity in your job, is there?" snapped my wife. "You're junior to a PC."
"I don't make the rules, ma'am," said the manager.
I snorted. "You guys really don't get it, do you?" I said, shaking my head.
"What?" said the manager, furrowing his brow.
"You expect us to pay $20 to see a movie once in the theatre instead of waiting a couple of months to pay $25 to own a copy on DVD. All we ask you to do is to show the movie big and clear, so it looks better than on our TV at home -- and you can't even do that right. The picture's fuzzy and you don't even care enough to have somebody check that it's projecting properly. And when it turns out that it isn't projecting properly all you're prepared to offer us is the opportunity to be similarly screwed by your incompetent operation again in the future. And you ninnies wonder why profits are down?"
"Like I said, sir, we're prepared to give you these passes --"
"I don't want passes," I reiterated. "Don't you get it? We're not coming back here again. We're going to go home, download a screener DVD of the movie over BitTorrent, and then watch it at home. For free. Where we can pause it any time we want to go the washroom or fix a snack. That's what you're competing against."
"Listen, if you want to engage in illegal activities that's not really my issue."
"Are you giving us our fucking money back or not?"
"Sir, there's no need to --"
"Are you giving us our fucking money back, or not?"
Other would-be patrons in line were staring. The manager turned pink, looked at his shoes, then went to the til and gave us our money back. "I'm sorry you had an unfortunate experience here today," he mumbled.
So we went home and started downloading a DVD screener of Pan's Labyrinth. The download was complete by the following evening, so we burned a DVD, curled up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, and enjoyed watching our movie with a crisp picture and subtitles visible from the start.
The movie was good, so I'll consider buying a licensed version of the DVD when it comes out in a couple of months in order to support Guillermo and the folks at Picturehouse. I will not, however, consider throwing my money away at Cineplex again.
You suck.
Sincerely,
Cheeseburger Brown
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 02-03-2007 11:59 AM
Not to be too much of a conspiracy theorist, I suspect some of those labs may be making bouncy images on purpose to push theaters into adopting digital cinema. After all, labs like Technicolor are also involved in distributing hard disc-based "virtual prints."
I think it's an amazing bit of contradiction in how presentation standards in lots of theaters has stooped down the level of "good enough to get by" or significantly well below that. At the same time, home theater is getting so much better in terms of technical quality. One would think it would be logical for most commercial theaters to do something to keep pace with that, or at least just show a movie free of technical problems.
Sure, the commercial movie theater offers that "group participatory experience" of an audience watching the show with you. But that advantage can get canceled out completely and then some when the movie presentation itself is negatively affected by all sorts of quality issues.
And that's not to mention audiences often do more to disrupt a movie than add a positive element to it. Crying babies, cellphones calls, the bright light from cellphone displays, feet kicking the back of my chair, people pouring soda all over the floor and more are factors that have me avoid the theater in peak times. For a long time I have preferred to watch movies during off peak hours when the audiences are much smaller. If I'm practically the only person in the theater, even better!
quote: down-loader pirates
So we went home and started downloading a DVD screener of Pan's Labyrinth. The download was complete by the following evening, so we burned a DVD, curled up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, and enjoyed watching our movie with a crisp picture and subtitles visible from the start.
And later that night while they slept...
...their computer, now infected with a Trojan via the movie they illegally downloaded, came to life as a zombie! It spent the rest of the night churning out millions of "pump and dump" stock market scam e-mails, lots of penis hardening pill spam and working in league with millions of other bot-net zombies on denial of service attacks against various websites and even military computer networks. Shadowy agents traced the zombie traffic back to the home of the movie down-loaders. The agents bombed the home in such a way the media reported it as an accidental gas-main explosion.
![[evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 02-03-2007 01:33 PM
I have to say that most of the times I've been to non-Carmike theatres (and even quite a few times I've been to the Carmikes around here), the presentation has been fine, or at least 99% fine. The occasional glitch or something like opaque tape splices can be forgiven. There are more problems with "other people in the audience" than there ever are with presentation.
If the situation was as bad everywhere, all the time, as this thread would have us believe, there would almost NEVER be a good movie experience to be had, and the chains would be forced to deal with the problem due to the sheer volume of complaints. As it is, the majority of moviegoers are happy. If the chains were to hire fulltime professional projectionists, ticket prices would go up and nobody wants that.
I do agree that problems such as the one that started this thread are unacceptable, but it should have taken ten seconds or less to deal with it. Theatres do need to do more to improve the experience. Digital cinema will go a long way to reduce these problems.
It's crazy to expect an absolutely perfect movie experience as the ONLY acceptable alternative to watching TV at home. I've eaten thousands of restaurant meals, and I'd say that the experience was absolutely perfect maybe 20% of the time (if that). My wife can lay out just as good a meal as any restaurant we've ever been in for much less money, but we still go out and enjoy it. The beer in my refrigerator is colder and cheaper and more convenient, and tastes just as good as the beer in the bar downtown, but I'd rather go out to the crowded, smoky, noisy bar and have fun with other people than sit around the house and drink a beer.
People don't ONLY go to the movies to see the movie...they go to get out of the house, have the popcorn made for them, and have somebody else put on the show, and be free of distractions for a couple of hours. It's an event. Replacing that with night after night after night after night within the same four walls staring at the TV sounds like a pretty boring lifestyle to me.
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Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 02-03-2007 02:49 PM
quote: Bobby Henderson
Not to be too much of a conspiracy theorist, I suspect some of those labs may be making bouncy images on purpose to push theaters into adopting digital cinema. After all, labs like Technicolor are also involved in distributing hard disc-based "virtual prints."
That doesn't add up since the Technicolor labs are the ones churning out the really nice prints. It's the other ones churning out bouncy slop with generally low contrast and bland colors. (Yet those same movies look great on EK prints, whereas the Technicolor prints look great on high speed prints and just flat out phenomenal on EK prints.)
BTW, I couldn't agree with you more regarding customer-related distractions. Crying babies are the worst offense ever created for a cinema experience. I have long felt that babies should flat out not be permitted into an auditorium...no ifs ands or butts. If they cannot speak good English and walk in on their own two feet without assistance, then no admittance! Sorry, see you in a couple of years.
quote: Mike Blakesley
People don't ONLY go to the movies to see the movie...they go to get out of the house, have the popcorn made for them, and have somebody else put on the show, and be free of distractions for a couple of hours. It's an event. Replacing that with night after night after night after night within the same four walls staring at the TV sounds like a pretty boring lifestyle to me.
Well said Mike. Unfortunately I think this theory is far more of the reason why theaters are still in business today. It's certainly not the quality of product almost every single theater I've been to puts out, whether it be presentation, or quality of concessions, or cleanliness or just good old fashioned customer service.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 02-03-2007 07:39 PM
quote: Mike Blakesley
If the situation was as bad everywhere, all the time, as this thread would have us believe, there would almost NEVER be a good movie experience to be had, and the chains would be forced to deal with the problem due to the sheer volume of complaints. As it is, the majority of moviegoers are happy.
The problem isn't that presentation quality is bad everywhere all the time. The problem is overall quality standards have dropped noticeably since hitting a peak in the early 1990s. And I believe those quality standards have been dropped lower deliberately by bean counters back at various corporate home offices who put pinching pennies ahead of selling a good quality product, or just doing a job correctly. A decade ago it seemed like a lot of theater chains were trying to one-up each other, with audiences benefitting as a result. I can't say the same is occuring today.
Today more movie theaters than ever before are equipped with digital surround sound. Contrary to that, not nearly as much is being done to keep those sound systems in tune and maintained as what was being done in the early to mid 1990s. Corners have definitely been cut in that regard. I can even walk into newly built theaters and often be disappointed by the sound quality.
Hollywood studios have made the matter worse by making movie trailers ever more loud. Audiences complain about the loudness. The manager turns down the fader and leaves it there. Then the feature plays at too low a volume level. Carmike's change to digital cinema has been a good thing in this regard in that audio settings are much more consistent between the trailers and the feature. But I figure it is only a matter of time before D-Cinema movie trailers get mixed way too hot.
I notice more in the way of scratched up movie trailers and policy snipes these days. I think projection bulbs are being used well past their recommended number of uses. It can take a long time for a blown subwoofer driver to get replaced. Lots of new auditorium designs are built with more compromises in the design that directly affect projection and audio quality in a negative manner. I also believe a lot of theaters are deliberately being under-staffed to save on labor costs and make lines at the box office and concessions counters longer as a result.
In the 1990s I used to keep track of new theater openings in this region and often drive hundreds of miles to visit those theaters. I haven't done that in a few years. Cinemark opened a new 14-plex in nearby Wichita Falls a little over a year ago. I've still never visited that theater, and I go to Wichita Falls on a somewhat frequent basis.
I'm still looking forward to Warren Theaters building the Warren 20 in Moore, OK (just south of Oklahoma City). It's taken what seems like forever for the construction project to begin, but now they're finally working on the foundation, running plumbing and doing other ground work. With some luck the theater might open before the end of this year.
As to moviegoer happiness, I don't think they're really happy. Many audience members are just lazy and overcome with apathy. If some serious technical issue occurs, most will just sit there out-waiting each other to make someone else get up and tell the manager or some other staffer about the problem.
I think it is indeed true many people go to the movie theater just to get out of the house. But how many compromises (disguised as penny saving gambles) can be made before those audiences are made unhappy with the product? I think a lot of audience members simply don't know any better or care very much at all about it right now. But I'm not sure how they'll feel in a couple years or so when a lot of new high end home entertainment technology is very affordable and mainstream then.
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Aaron Garman
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1470
From: Toledo, OH USA
Registered: Mar 2003
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posted 02-03-2007 08:23 PM
The writer of that letter had very legitimate complaints, and it is blatantly obvious that no one on staff knew how to proceed, including that manager. The patron, however, should not have reduced himself to cursing out the manager, as it just makes him lose any sort of credibility. Both parties, one way or the other, were at fault. I kept saying to myself though, "Just give him the money and get him out of there."
As for watching films at home, it CAN be a better experience but people do like to get out. Problem is we have a whole generation of people raised on watching movies at home, and thus behave the same way when they go out. Sue, common sense would say they should behave, but can you really blame all of them?
The theatre business is not going away, but it will probably become much smaller in the years to come with the advent of truly great home theatre. I think the industry is at a crucial point in its existence: put on a great show and lure people in or just keep things the way they are and die. Digital could help, but professional staff, management, and an exceptional presentation could help more than a glorified HD projector ever can.
Maybe the death of the average mulitplex is what we need. Bring back the big houses, 70mm, and a theatre run by nothing but the elite of Film-Tech. I've said it before: Brad, you should start your own chain of elitist theatres. At least it'd piss off some of the chains.
AJG
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