(no subject)

[geekchick]

Today is Sweetmorn, day 57 in the season of Bureaucracy, 3271.

I hadn't been to the E St. Cinema before yesterday, it seems pretty nice. (Do you hear the "but" there? Because there certainly is one.)

Here's what I don't like about it: I bought tickets online to "MirrorMask" on Saturday for yesterday's show. Since apparently "matinee" at this theater on the weekends is "the first show of the day", two tickets for the afternoon showing were a bit over $20 when you add in the online service charge. Okay, I can deal with that, no big deal. Thanks to some confusion at the Grosvenor metro over parking, we got there at 4:51 for the 4:50 showing, which should put us in at about the first preview. (When we eventually got into the theater at 4:57, the opening credits were just starting) I went to claim my pre-paid tickets from the kiosk, which told me "This showing has expired, your tickets cannot be claimed." @#$%. I went to the ticket counter and woke up the extremely bored-looking guy sitting behind the desk and explained that I'd bought tickets already but couldn't claim them from the kiosk. After looking put out by having to actually, y'know, do something, he swiped my credit card and parroted back at me exactly what the kiosk had said. The response to "But I already paid for these tickets, how am I supposed to get them?" was "I don't know, do you want to buy another set of tickets here?" No, I don't want to buy a second set of tickets, but since I trekked in from VA on the Metro to get here and people are theoretically meeting us here, I guess I will. I am perfectly willing to accept buying two tickets to "Serenity" on Friday night, because we wouldn't have gotten there anytime close to the 8:40 start time, but in this case we were off by about a minute or two, and they were still selling tickets to the show. Why the hell can you not claim your pre-paid tickets that you bought online if you're still perfectly capable of buying tickets at the box office?? Other than "so we can double-charge you", of course.

Let's just say that this, combined with not really having eaten much before dinner, left me in a less-than-stellar mood for most of the rest of the evening. vvalkyri, I apologize for probably being not terribly pleasant company after the movie.

Comments

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

*boggle* You had to pay twice because you were a few minutes late? That's screwed up.

[geminigirl]

It is...and certainly worthy of discussing it with your credit card company.

[geekchick]

Good idea. These both were put on my debit card, but it can't hurt to have a little chat with my bank. I don't care about the $20 one way or the other, but I resent having to pay twice for tickets in this particular case.

[geekchick]

If there was a way to get those tickets pried out of the system, and I'm sure there must be, the guy behind the counter seemed highly disinclined to look for it.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

That's stupid programming (of the entire system, not just the kiosk).

Yes, I can see them not letting one have tickets to a later show, but if you want to go in late (say the first half hour) that's a decision for grown-ups to make.

If you go to the counter, well that ought to be a no brainer. You paid money, you either get it back (all of it, to include the transaction fee), or you get in to see the show.

For the ticket guy to now be able to do more than just parrot the, "you're late, tough noogies" is stupid.

I'd complain to the company that sells the tickets; telling them flat out that you aren't going to continue using the service until this is changed, and will tell your friends not to use it either.

TK

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Also complain to E st. Since you were able to show that you /had/ bought tickets they should have been willing to give you some.

I'd chalked your mood up to the lack of food - you became a lot more talkative once we got served at dinner.

It was nice to have a chance to get to know you a bit better!

[geekchick]

For the ticket guy to now be able to do more than just parrot the, "you're late, tough noogies" is stupid.

I feel reasonably confident that there was probably a way to get my tickets issued, as this can't be the only time something like this has ever happened. What I think is more likely is that doing so would involve a lot more work than the guy at the box office was interested in doing. I could be wrong about all that, of course.

[nminusone.livejournal.com]

> That's stupid programming (of the entire system, not just the kiosk).

Yeah, let's not even think what happens if the clocks were unsync'ed by a little bit. At least we wouldn't get arrested as a result of that, which has happend to other people in at least one case. It's lousy system engineering.

For me the most annoying aspect was the fact that they want you to pay again if you're one minute late. Considering we were 5ish minutes late and did not miss even 1 second of the movie, that seems obnoxious. Or maybe their revenue model is based around making us watch the ads. (Actually, now that I think of it, it is. Ads and concessions. The exhibitors make little to nothing off of the gate in most cases.)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I'd call the credit card company and dispute the charge.

They failed to provide the service, you don't owe them the money.

You bought tickets, the vendor refused to deliver them.

Contract broken, payment not required.

TK

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

That's seriously fscked. *hugs*

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

Now I feel less bad for blowing off the Mirrormaze outing in favour of dropping off a microscope for a friend. Not sure when I'll go see it, tho. Erf. Miss you.