And here's what I wrote in the (surprisingly ample) feedback section of the Greater Union customer survey after buying some online tickets:
"You cinemas need to start being up front about why allocated seating has been introduced. No contacts know. The staff shrug and smile and take your wad of cash. It inconveniences patrons and restricts the enjoyment of my movie-going experience to be sat next to a stranger and not be able to choose the location of my seat upon entering the cinema.
Sharing elbow room with someone I've never met was never on my list of Things To Do At The Movies.
Why the gritted-teeth is it on there now?
To phase out ticketing staff and ease us into online bookings and buy-your-ticket-here pillars? You're competing with 50" plasmas and surround-sound in people's homes! The only thing you've GOT over that is customer service. I've had friends who now avoid going to the cinemas now because of allocated seating. My mother gave up her 10-year membership to Palace Nova on the back of this short-sightedness. She wrote them a long letter to explain why. Customer service? She didn't even receive a reply. You try telling me that you're a different company who listens to the concerns of its patrons? Rubbish. To theatre-goers, you are now all one and the one same. Brand loyalty is dead dead dead.
Don't give me that bluster about Gold seating, either. $35 for the chance at a hot nachos in the second reel is NOT a fun family outing. OR a low-pressure date. The cinema used to be the place where teenagers could meet up and not have to make awkward conversation. Now you've priced them right out of the market. Wake up.
If you don't want customers, just shut down now with dignity and stop taking everyone's money and enjoyment with you."
You may thank me in the comments when allocated seating is abolished and a quiet young man with a side-part and a small torch is guiding you to your $5 seat.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
An explanation of The Joy Division Litmus Test
Although it may now be lost in the mysts of thyme, the poll below is still relevant to this blog. In the winter of 2008, Mele and I went to live in Queensland. In order to survive, I bluffed my way into a job at a Coffee Club.
It was quite a reasonable place to work: the hours were regular, the staff were quite nice, it wasn't particularly taxing on my brain.
There were a few downsides: In the six weeks or so that I worked there, there was about a 90% staff turnover (contributed to by my leaving). This wasn't seen as a result of the low pay, the laughability of staff prices or the practice of not distributing tips to staff, rather it was blamed on the lack of work ethic among Bribie Island's youth.
However, one of the stranger aspects of the cultural isolation that touched our lives during our time "up there" was the fact that nobody at my work had heard of the band Joy Division.
The full explanation is available here.
But please, interact a little further and vote in my ongoing poll. The results are slowly mounting up, proving one thing: people read this blog are more well-informed about Joy Division than anyone who works at the Coffee Club on Bribie Island.
It was quite a reasonable place to work: the hours were regular, the staff were quite nice, it wasn't particularly taxing on my brain.
There were a few downsides: In the six weeks or so that I worked there, there was about a 90% staff turnover (contributed to by my leaving). This wasn't seen as a result of the low pay, the laughability of staff prices or the practice of not distributing tips to staff, rather it was blamed on the lack of work ethic among Bribie Island's youth.
However, one of the stranger aspects of the cultural isolation that touched our lives during our time "up there" was the fact that nobody at my work had heard of the band Joy Division.
The full explanation is available here.
But please, interact a little further and vote in my ongoing poll. The results are slowly mounting up, proving one thing: people read this blog are more well-informed about Joy Division than anyone who works at the Coffee Club on Bribie Island.
And while you're at it bring back the drive in!
ReplyDeleteThank god September's over and we get a full-blown rant. But, but, I've never been to a cinema with allocated seating, at least not since the 1950s. Is it an Adelaide thing?
ReplyDeleteDan - The only recent development I approve of is drinking in the cinema. But what's this 4 beer limit?
ReplyDeleteJono - Sadly no.
Um sweetie, isn't this supposed to be a single sentence? Last day of the month and all that?
ReplyDeleteSingle Sentence September runs by Australian calendars, not American ones.
ReplyDeleteOr, for some reason Melbourne ones. What date is it over there?
Ah, I do agree with Kath. I'm disappointed not with this post, but I was waiting for an epic last sentence to finish up September. Because afterall, you did start on American 1st September, so I would have thought 30 posts should have been written.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, Franzy did happen to sneak in a second post on the 8th of September, thus proving that he gave up on trying to follow the American calender very quickly. Either that or he changed the time of the day that the blog occurred.
Yes it seems to have made a come back and a bad thing t is too. Excellent rant. Well done. I hope they pay attention.
ReplyDeleteShippy - Ah the pressure of epic, final hurrah. I must admit, last year's, while fun, took about 6 or 7 hours to put together. I'm not quite as flush with time this year ...
ReplyDeleteAnd according to my blogger history - I did 33 sentences this September. Single.3 Sentence September?
Ashleigh - If they don't pay attention to the hundreds of people bitching and fighting their staff for the last year, then my little rant may not tip the scales.
Or maybe ...
Ok, I only counted back to the 8th, you know my mathematical skills are outweighed by my ability for getting things to work nearly everytime.
ReplyDelete