In Canada, our rating system is a law, not something voluntary, so when someone jumps theatres into an age-restricted movie they are technically breaking the law. In today's society there are few consequences for kids who get into trouble. Not only are they not disciplined, quite often parents blame us for throwing their kids out rather than recognizing their child was causing a problem. In my opinion, the least we can do is refuse them a refund and hope that if they lose enough money they might think twice about it next time.

Also, if you go to a sporting event, a concert, a club, an amusement park, or anywhere else and get thrown out for bad behavior you are not issued a refund on your ticket price, gate admission, etc. Why should we issue refunds when we throw someone out?

For those of you who do not give refunds, what sort of signage to that effect do you have in place?

My policy is, if we get a complaint or I hear excessive noise, you get one or two warnings depending on how obnoxious you are. After that, you are out.

If you are caught throwing anything at all, either at another patron or at the screen, (ESPECIALLY at the screen!) you are out.

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"Original Sin" opens and we are short-staffed, so I am assisting in box office this Friday Night. I am of course dressed in my Management attire, so I look different than the other cashiers. A young couple come up looking for tickets. He had an ID, she didn't, so I refused the sale. I watched them then go down to a cashier two box offices away, so I got on the walkie talkie and warned her that they were going to try to pull something. When they tried to get tickets and again were refused, they managed to get someone else to buy tickets for them. It was about this time that I had to stretch my legs, so I pointed the couple out to the podium usher and the GM. They, in turn, denied them admittance and the GM escorted them back to the box office to get their money back. As they approached the cashier next to me, the guy said to him "I need a refund because this fat ass won't let me in." I hit the ceiling! My boss literally had to hold me in my chair. We proceeded to get security involoved, told them there would be NO REFUND and they should consider themselves lucky that I didn't want to pursue a slander charge (my boss think's that is a big deal, although I don't think it is slander or that there is anything I could do about it aside from kicking his teeth down his throat). Is this story over?? HELL NO!! A week later, we get a letter from a sleazy attorney this pinhead has contacted who proceeds to tell us that under no circumstances were we permitted to keep his money and it is to be returned immediately to prevent further legal wrangling. Of course te attorney didn't care to hear about his precious client's (I assume friend) foul mouth. We contacted our region leader and guess what, we sent the guy his money back. Don't you just sometimes love our business!

Technically, you can't keep money for a service or product that was never provided. Next time the couple show up you could give them a no-trespass warning, especially in front of a security or police officer. If the DM had been thinking on his feet, he would have made a no-trespass statement in his response to the attorney. Hmmmm, how would that go? Here is a sample boilerplate for such situations...

Dear Mr. Attorney:

In response to your letter of XX/X/XX, I regret that your client felt that his being refused a ticket refund by our manager was unfair or somehow illegal. According to witnesses, your client repeatedly attempted to purchase two tickets to the movie XX from our cashiers without success. The issue preventing the sale was that he wanted to view an R rated movie without providing an ID for his friend who appeared underage.

Again according to witnesses, he then coerced another customer into purchasing tickets for his personal use and attempted to enter the auditorium with the minor. At that time he was properly denied entrance by our employees.

While being escorted out, it has been reported to me that he made rude and disparaging comments about members of the staff, prompting the manager to deny his request for a refund.

Our manager was absolutely correct in not providing a refund to your client, since our company never sold tickets to him, and the tickets in hand were obtained through an unknown third party. We do not allow brokering of tickets, nor do we honor brokered tickets. Your letter should have been directed to whomever sold your client the tickets in question.

(Playing hardass, the letter could end there. I chose to continue and drill at the infected tooth without much novocaine.)

Had the customer who purchased tickets come forward and requested a refund, it might have been accomodated by the manager, along with a stern warning of the possible legal consequences of contributing to the delinquency of minors, and a reminder of the recent directives to the industry by members of Congress to keep minors out of R rated films. As an officer of the court acting in the best interest of your client, I hope you will have that conversation with the young man you represent.

In the interest of resolving the matter quickly, I am including a check for the tickets in question, even though we are not legally bound provide such a refund.

Since it appears your client has had such an unsatisfactory experience, and our staff, management, and I have become involved in response to his actions, please instruct your client not to trespass upon theatre property in the future. Should he do so, I have instructed the manager to have him immediately removed by the police or arrested as the situation demands.

Should your client ever desire to see a movie at our theatre, he may do so upon personally and directly apologizing to the manager and staff members for his actions and rude personal comments.

Sincerely,

cc. manager, etc.

There are important legal points in such a letter. The primary one is not admitting responsibility and setting precedent. A DM who simply sends a check and apology is actually doing more damage by opening up a trail of accepting responsibility for the actions of people outside of the company. A more serious case later on, say of the parents of a (minor) girl suing because she was exposed to nudity in violation of state law, could dredge up previous apology letters and show a pattern of acceptance. Those mamby-pamby apologies could end up costing big bucks.

If it had been me as the DM, there would have been no check and the third paragraph from the end would be missing. I've given similar responses before.

BTW, I'm sure you've heard it by now, but personal attacks by customers are purposely designed to goad and get under the skin. You have to build a defensive barrier and have a few standard responses handy that won't get you in trouble. Put a big smile on, and say something like "Thank you for the compliment" or "Thank you for that unsolicited comment about my efficiency at doing my job" or "Have a real nice evening." Reacting like this can be confusing and irritating to the a**hole brigade. If you are careful what you say, they can't use what was said as a lever against you when they try to complain to the DM or corporate office. Sometimes during an encounter like that you just hold your tongue and later go quietly punch a hole in a wall.

"Dear theater manager,

I came to your theater to see Runaway Bride last week and was scared to walk into it. The theater was so messy and dirty I was ashamed to be there. I know that you are a discount theater, but you still need to clean your theaters, your seats and your floors.

My parents say that we cannot come to your theater any more because of your trashy theater. We all used to love coming there, but now have to go to your competitor."

It was signed but not ending salutation was included...

HERE IS WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

Our booker in his infinate wisdom booked pokemon the movie in the same auditorium with Runaway bride. This was at the end of the run of Bride as it was just about to hit video.

OUR BOOKER LAME ASS gave us the wrong running time on pokemon. Now we all know what a mess kids shows are.... so just guess what it looked like. WE HAD JUST SEVEN MINUTES FROM THE TIME THE ENDING CREDITS HIT UNTIL THE START OF THE BRIDE SHOW. We explained this to the customers so they understood what they were up against. It was cleaned up as best as we could do with limited time. People were very understanding... EXCEPT FOR ONE LITTLE ELEVEN YEAR OLD GIRL AND HER FRIENDS whom I nearly had to throw out of my theater. They would just not shut up about the conditions, so I had to go in there, publicly berate them back and ask them if they want to volunteer thier time to help us our, or just accept that kids are messy as they used to be too.

I dont defend the messy conditions that week, I do defend all my efforts and I abhor customers that cannot be satisfied.

I keep that letter with me in my business dealings, reminding me that people just cannot be satisfied, and to just relax, go about my day, and smile dammit.... smile..

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Here in the US everyone is freaking out over the possibility that an underage kid might see an R rated movie and that will turn him/her into a raging criminal. Of course these kids can see ANYTHING they damn well want once it hits pay-per-view, video, cable, etc without being carded, and often with extra footage that would not make the MPAA theatrical cut, but it's this general attitude in the US that Hollywood is the cause for all of life's problems. Christopher was only doing his job, and I can assure you that if he is caught NOT enforcing these policies over here that he would probably lose his job. Of course the corporate personnel will do as much ass kissing as they have to, for heaven forbid they lose that one pain-in-the-ass customer, but a manager had damn well not let an underage kid in! It's an absurd double standard. Trust me on this one. It's not Christopher or any one person, so don't go attacking him for doing what he is told to do.

Please read the last paragraph in the FAQ before you continue reading through the forums. Please consider this the first and last warning on personal attacks.

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