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This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
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Author
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Topic: St. Croix Falls Theatre Owner Fails At Customer Service
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Mitchell Dvoskin
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1869
From: West Milford, NJ, USA
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 02-23-2010 04:33 PM
Apparently, a woman went to this theatre in Wisconsin, had a really negative experience, wrote to the company, and got an actual F*ck You back from some vice president. If true, not a smart thing to do in this internet age.
wcco.com
quote: WCCO TV Web Site
Woman Gets Profane E-Mail From Theater Co.'s VP
Reporting
Reg Chapman
ST. CROIX FALLS, Wis. (WCCO) ―
St. Croix Falls Cinema in St. Croix Falls, Wis. The theater is owned by Evergreen Entertainment.
When a Minnesota woman complained about her experience at a movie theater in St. Croix Falls, Wis., the response she got stunned her.
An e-mail from the vice president of the company that owns the theater started with an expletive and didn't let up.
Sarah Kohl-Leif and her husband had problems from the start of their night. The theater only accepts cash or checks, no debit or credit cards, and the ATM in the lobby was out of cash.
Her friend Kathy Garrison and her husband lent them the money to get in.
"Five minutes into it, a staff member came in and announced that there were eight people that were not supposed to be in that movie," said Kohl-Leif.
Kohl Leif says for close to 20 minutes, theater staff used flashlights to check ticket stubs.
She was so upset she wrote an e-mail to the company that owns the theater, Evergreen Entertainment.
"Explaining the situation with the ATM not working, not accepting check cards," said Kohl-Leif. "I also mentioned the interruptions in the movie."
She ended the e-mail saying she planned to take her business elsewhere, to a theater in White Bear Lake. Thirty minutes later, she got a response from the company's vice president, Steven Payne.
"Sarah, drive to White Bear Lake and also go *&*% yourself," Kohl-Leif read from the e-mail.
"This e-mail is an absolute joke. We don't care to have a customer like you," she continued.
Eighteen hours later, another response from Payne.
Payne wrote "I sincerely apologize for my inappropriate response to your e-mail yesterday. As vice president I should never have reacted that way, no matter how I felt about your e-mail."
"I think it's not sincere. I think his first response shows more of his personality than his PR response," said Kohl-Leif.
Kohl Leif said she wants Payne fired.
Payne didn't want to talk to WCCO Reporter Reg Chapman Monday. When Chapman went to the theater, the manager asked him to leave.
The actual complaint and response can be read at this site.
quote: Consumerist.com
My husband and I just went to your theater to see Shutter Island. First off, the year is 2010 and your establishment does not accept cash cards or credit cards. We did not have enough cash on us and neither did your ATM. If you run out of cash by Saturday evening you should have a higher allotment of cash. Since most people expect to use their cash card, the ATM, I'm sure, is utilized frequently. Frankly, get with the time. I know you are charged for transactions on a card machine but frankly your customers would be better served. How many customers do you lose because they don't have cash or check (since 90% of establishments don't accept checks anymore).Thankfully, we had friends who had 1 check on them. We would have had to go to the bank to get cash to see a movie. Should we charge you for time and gas? Secondly, after the first 10 minutes a staff member came in and announced that there were 8 people who should not be in that movie. She proceded to check tickets of paying customers trying to enjoy a movie. She also brought in the ticket clerk to see if she would recognize the 4 remaining people who did not leave after the announcement. This ruined the first 30 minutes of the movie. Frankly, we lost the first part of the plot and new characters. I did not pay 18.00 to have a distracted experience. Are 8 people worth a theater full of refunds? Why not wait until the movie is over and check people leaving? Why not pause the movie? I expect a refund, but only by check card. Oh wait, sorry, we are all out of check cards. Get the point yet? I would rather drive to White Bear Lake, where they obviously know how to run a theater than have this experience again.
Sarah
Taylors Falls
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The theater company's vice president sent Sarah a response. It
was not what she had expected.
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Sarah,
Drive to White Bear Lake and also go fuck yourself. If you dont have money for entertainment, get a better job, and don't pay for everything on your credit or check card. You can also shove your time and gas up your fucking ass. Also, find better things to do with your time. This email is an absolute joke. We don't care to have you as a customer. Let me know if you need directions to white bear lake.
Steven
Steven J. Payne - Vice President
Evergreen Entertainment
929 Old Highway 8 NW
Suite 200
New Brighton, MN 55112
Apparently, this person thought better and sent an apology and a more polite email after the one above, but the damage had been done.
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 02-23-2010 08:38 PM
I tend to agree, the lady comes off as snotty, but it's definitely true that the theatre deserves a FAIL for running out of cash in their ATM. Now that being said, it's possible that the ATM is not owned by the theatre but by some third party, who failed to restock it. In that case it would not be the theatre's fault.
However, if I had been that ticket seller, I would have said: "Wow, I can't believe our ATM is out of cash...tell you what, don't worry about it, come on in and enjoy the show on us."
Those patrons would have been raving about the wonderfulness of that place to all their friends for days afterwards.
As for the ticket check during the show, that's just unbelievably stupid. If it absolutely had to be done, then stop the film between trailers and feature. But I would only consider doing even that if the problem involved, say, dozens of people. But eight? Big deal, eat the ticket loss and celebrate that those people might buy extra concessions.
A final thought, these days just about everyplace should be taking cards. We have a theatre just down the road from us that doesn't take cards OR checks -- cash only, and they don't even have an ATM. We've been taking cards here for about 2 years and I would guess at least 20 - 25% of our sales are through cards.
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Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 02-23-2010 10:28 PM
I have a hard time believing that story is real. It's just so far out in left field that it doesn't seem to be believable. I'm not saying it isn't real but nobody who is able to progress to VP of any size company should be capable of sending a message like that.
It doesn't mean the guy shouldn't get pissed off when he has to deal with a shitty customer but, at least, he should do his cussing in private. Right? That's what we always did. We said, "Yes, sir." to the customer's face then went to the employee break room for about five minutes of cussing and swearing. After that, everything would be normal again until the next asshole customer comes along.
The guy must have been liquored up or high on something. I don't know. Something just isn't adding up. Who knows? Maybe somebody hijacked his e-mail. That was my first thought when I read the message.
The whole thing that pisses me off is that people don't realize that service is the ONLY thing movie theaters have left.
Good movies that people want to see? No! Most movies are crap these says.
Quality presentation? No! Most projectors, digital or otherwise aren't properly set up or maintained.
Exclusivity? No! You can buy the DVD of any movie only a couple of months after the theater release. Sometimes it's only a few weeks. Sometimes even less.
Really, the only thing theaters have left to sell is the experience of going to the movies. That experience is all about service. And, by service, I don't mean "kissing the customer's ass." I mean getting things right even before the customer walks in the door.
Efficient box office clerks.
Clean lobbies and common areas.
Fast concession sellers.
Hot popcorn and cold soda. (Not the other way around!)
Courteous ushers who know how to handle the crowds.
Clean auditoriums with comfy seats and good climate control.
Movies that start on time, that look good and sound good.
People can stay at home and watch the same movie on their wide screen TV with Dolby 5.1 surround sound. They can pop popcorn in their microwave ovens. They can buy soda for 1/10 the price of a movie theater.
The selling point should be that people don't have to go rent a movie. They don't have to go to the store and buy popcorn and soda. They don't have to worry about turning on the home video system and making sure it works or taking the DVD back to the video store when it skips.
People should be able to just walk in, sit down, lean back and watch a movie while eating hot popcorn and drinking their soda. When it's all over they should be able to just get up, jump in their cars and drive home. They don't even have to clean up their popcorn and soda containers if they don't want to.
Then, there is this clown who, not only cusses at his customers in an e-mail, he makes going to the movies a "chore" for the customer.
They wait in line too long at the box office. They get hassled when they try to pay for their ticket. (In whatever form of payment.) I'm betting the lobby and concession areas were messy and the popcorn was cold. Then, the ushers come in and roust the customers in the middle of the movie!?
That's bullshit!
No wonder movie theaters are going out of business!
A few years ago, I had to send a "bitch letter" to F.A.O. Schwarz (toy store) in NYC. They fucked up my order pretty badly. I sent the letter to the GM, by name, via registered mail, return receipt, and signature requested.
About a week later, I received a package at the post office. It was an F.A.O. Schwarz Teddy Bear. In the box was a letter that contained three sentences:
"I am sorry for your problem. I apologize for the mistake. Please accept this Teddy Bear as a token of my apology."
Now, THAT'S the way to handle customer service! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
What the hell kind of clown would send an e-mail like that back to the customer? He fucked things up, not just for himself, but for the movie theater business in general!
No wonder so many movie theaters are going out of business!
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John Joseph Fink
Film Handler
Posts: 60
From: West Hartford, CT
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 02-23-2010 10:47 PM
She wrote a bitchy letter - absolutely. The least he could do is write back, after cooling off and say "hey, thanks for bringing this to my attention" and maybe even feed her a BS line like "we don't offer credit processing so we can pass on the savings to you" (although I'm not sure what the market adult price is there, $9 in NJ/NY is equivalent to a bargain show, in rural areas I assume that's the higher end of average)
I do agree with the women that ticket checks during the show are obnoxious - the theater missed the boat on this one, from a customer point of view, nobody likes to be treated like a criminal when they go have a night out, she has a bad experience and was distracted from enjoying the movie she paid to see. While her tone was sarcastic I don't blame her for being upset there. There are many high quality theaters that don't really take credit cards or have minimums in place (Film Forum in NYC comes to mind first), but I imagine a circuit of their size that isn't running discount product might want to look into how much business they could be losing by only taking cash (or check - which is kind of funny, I should go there and write them a check for Junior Mints).
On the contrary, I like perhaps half of working america are paid electronically via direct deposit, so it's easier to deal with credit/debit cards. If I were paid by check I wouldn't go cash it out. Sometimes you don't have time to swing by an ATM, perhaps Evergreen Entertainment caters to drug dealers and money launders.
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