Did Alamo Drafthouse get sued or did they just change policy?

[William Kucharski]

I haven't been able to find anything via a Google search, but it's quite telling that pre-COVID, Alamo Drafthouse's pre-show trailers used to emphasize the fact that if you talked or texted, you would be ejected from the theater without a refund.

Now their trailers just state you will be ejected - but there's no mention of no refund.

Policy change or were they forced via a lawsuit or other legal methods to issue a refund upon ejection?

[Jim Cassedy]

I cannot speak in any official capacity for for Alamo, but I do know that earlier this year, they
produced and began using a 'slightly less confrontational' version of their zero-tolerance no
talking/texting policy trailer. However the last time I looked, the no refund policy was still
spelled out online. A lot of their policy clips are played on a rotational basis, and I know
the original "no refund' one still occasionally shows up on screen.

A quick online search through a couple of legal-related websites reveals that, like any
large corporation, ALAMO has been on the receiving end of many lawsuits, although I
could not find any that were related to their 'no refund' talking/texting policies.

Alamoe is also quite strict about people arriving late to see a movie and will refuse admission
past a certain point. I believe late customers are either given a refund, or offered the opportunity
to see a different movie that hasn't started yet, or to attend a later screening, if there are
seats available. There's no separate policy snipe for this, since, if you're you're the type of
person whose going to arrive late, you're obviously not going to see the policy trailer, right???

[William Kucharski]

Thanks for that.

Alamo's confrontational no talking or you're out without a refund policy always seemed a point of pride for them, so that's why I was curious.

Usually companies only back down on things like that when forced.

[Randy Stankey]

Usually companies only back down on things like that when forced.

With the economic and social state this country is in, people just aren't going to movie theaters, as it is. With the COVID pandemic, the problem is even worse.

Standing on your principles is fine but if customers don't go to your theater because they think you're being too much of a hard ass you won't have very many customers.

Sometimes, you've got to back off if you want to stay in business. If that means you were "forced" then so be it.

[William Kucharski]

I get that, but then you also risk losing customers like me who go there precisely because of their zero tolerance policy.

Ah well.

[Leo Enticknap]

Standing on your principles is fine but if customers don't go to your theater because they think you're being too much of a hard ass you won't have very many customers.

Sometimes, you've got to back off if you want to stay in business. If that means you were "forced" then so be it.

Amen, Brother. If people are paying money to let their hair down for a few hours, the last thing they want is to be bombarded with aggressive messaging warning them that they'll be punished if they misbehave. Such messaging punishes the innocent along with the guilty. Reminds me of when I once had the misfortune of having to take a flight out of Vegas early evening on a Sunday. I was probably the only person in the terminal who was not working there and even halfway sober. There were repeated announcements in the terminal and on the plane itself that abusive and disruptive passengers would be arrested and the book thrown at them. As someone who was causing no trouble and doing everything the airline staff asked of me, I was more than a little pissed off at being treated like a potential criminal. I can understand why they felt the need to do that, and have the greatest of respect for the sheer stress that the flight attendants and gate agents were under, having to work in a situation like that. But treating everyone like potentially violent thugs is not the way to win the empathy and loyalty of your respectful and law-abiding customers.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Amen, Brother. If people are paying money to let their hair down for a few hours, the last thing they want is to be bombarded with aggressive messaging warning them that they'll be punished if they misbehave. Such messaging punishes the innocent along with the guilty. Reminds me of when I once had the misfortune of having to take a flight out of Vegas early evening on a Sunday. I was probably the only person in the terminal who was not working there and even halfway sober. There were repeated announcements in the terminal and on the plane itself that abusive and disruptive passengers would be arrested and the book thrown at them. As someone who was causing no trouble and doing everything the airline staff asked of me, I was more than a little pissed off at being treated like a potential criminal. I can understand why they felt the need to do that, and have the greatest of respect for the sheer stress that the flight attendants and gate agents were under, having to work in a situation like that. But treating everyone like potentially violent thugs is not the way to win the empathy and loyalty of your respectful and law-abiding customers.

Exactly. On my trip to Dublin and the Isle of Man this past summer, those signs were EVERYWHERE (pubs, shops, MY HOTEL, cinemas, etc.) I guess assholes are an epidemic everywhere.

I mentioned it to a bartender at my favorite pub in Dublin and told her that for a non-hooligan like me, it was very off-putting. The response was while a few found it that way, many actually sought out such places as an assurance of safety.

Must be a cultural thing....

As for the airports, I don't remember hearing such announcements in Dublin, but LAX and John Wayne ...well....

[Marcel Birgelen]

I remember when I was in Israel, at the Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, I was constantly reminded via the PA system that "Weapons and explosives are not allowed within the terminal hold. Thank You!"...

[Randy Stankey]

I get that, but then you also risk losing customers like me who go there precisely because of their zero tolerance policy.

Just because they aren't publicizing it as much as before doesn't mean that they are changing the policy. Maybe they're just being quieter about it.

Second, I'm sure that they've made a calculation of how many customers they stand to gain by backing off their policy vs. the number of customers they might lose if they don't.

If you stand to gain 20% more customers by changing policy but only 5% by keeping it, which is a business more likely to do?

Companies don't change policy only when they get sued. They make business decisions to create a policy and business decisions are usually the reason they change them, later on.

[Geoff Jones]

If you stand to gain 20% more customers by changing policy but only 5% by keeping it, which is a business more likely to do?

I think this is spot on.

The experience at most cinema chains is so astoundingly shitty that the vast majority of fans who care about presentation have all but given up on going to the movies.

It makes sense that they should make people who talk and use their cell phones feel welcome.

William, your best bet is to watch at home.

[Mike Blakesley]

Geoff, why are you even here any more? All you do lately is campaign for watching movies at home. Not every theater experience is shitty (although most in Colorado seem to be), and not everyone is as picky as you are. Should everything be perfectly amazing all the time? Of course, but in the real world (with real economics) it's not possible because people aren't willing to pay what that would cost. (Usher babysitting every auditorium, every screen 60 or more feet wide, etc.) You are always going to have good, bad, better, and best, just like there are good, bad, better, and best of virtually any other public establishment out there.

Back on topic - maybe Alamo simply decided not to state categorically that you would be ejected without a refund for texting. This gives a manager some latitude to decide in each case whether a refund is warranted or not.

[Matt Smith]

If I am ever thrown out of a cinema, a refund would be the last thing I would expect afterwards.

[Frank Cox]

Sometimes a refund (deserved or not) is the easiest way to get rid of a problem customer. How much carrying on and putting on a performance for the other customers is worth just saying, "Here's your refund, beat it" even though your official policy is no refunds.

[William Kucharski]

William, your best bet is to watch at home.

Yeah, let me know when I can fit a 60' or IMAX screen in my home and I'm with you.

[Randy Stankey]

Back on topic - maybe Alamo simply decided not to state categorically that you would be ejected without a refund for texting.

By now, most people probably know what the Alamo's policies are. They, probably, decided to just lay off the talk and just walk the walk.
Like you say, by doing so, they give the manager on duty some discretion. If a customer is acting up but they quiet down after being warned, it's a win-win for everybody.

If I am ever thrown out of a cinema, a refund would be the last thing I would expect afterwards.

Sometimes a refund (deserved or not) is the easiest way to get rid of a problem customer. How much carrying on and putting on a performance for the other customers is worth just saying, "Here's your refund, beat it" even though your official policy is no refunds.

Most of you remember me talking about going to the movies with my father, carrying a pocket load of beer cans.
There was one time when somebody complained because they didn't like the sound of beer cans popping open and rattling around. (A fair complaint.) An usher came and gave my father shit about it. He told the kid to fuck off. The usher called the manager, rightly so, who came in and tried to eject my father and me with him. Again, it was "Fuck off!" The guy threatened to call the cops. My father just said, "Go right ahead," and we kept right on watching the movie.

What the manager didn't know was that my father was buddies with most of the cops in town. He owned a bar and he let most of them drink for free.
The cop walks in, takes one look at me and my father and said, "Stankey! Don't make me do paperwork!"
In the end, I was the one (ten years old at the time) who ended up taking the rest of the beers back outside to put them in the car, save the already open can that he made me hide under my coat until the coast was clear.

Okay, my father was a malignant alcoholic. Given! The thing is that, if the manager had just asked for the beer to be taken back outside, the whole affair could have been avoided. (I know, hindsight is 20/20.) But, if the manager would have taken a moment to think, the whole situation would have been avoided and the entire theater wouldn't have to suffer a big disruption.

By standing down on policy, the Alamo is allowing their management and staff the room to think and, hopefully, reduce the number of potential disruptions.

That can only be good for business. Today, theaters need all the business they can get.