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Does anyone have a problem with customers who are constantly rude? Being in the service business, I expect to have some rude customers once in awhile. However, we seem to deal with rude customers on a daily basis at our 4-screen. Sometimes people will complain about prices being expensive (when they aren't).

However, I guess Sunday was a real bad day at the theater. I talked to our manager and she said that several people were yelling at her. On woman came at 4:30 to see a show that started at 3:15. The manager tried explaining to her that her show had already started. She insisted that the machine said her show was at 4:30. The manager played the message for her and showed her the newspaper ad, both of which were correct. The manager tried to be sympathetic towards the woman and told her that sometimes she can get confused by the the showtimes and the woman said THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN TO ME! Then the woman demanded that she start the movie for her at 4:30. The manager told her that she couldn't because it would run into the next showing at 5:15. Another person came in at 7:00 to watch a movie that started at 7:45. The woman demanded that the movie got started for her at 7:00. Again, the manager told her that she couldn't because it would run into the next showing. Aparently at least 3 people did the same thing on Sunday and all of them said "THIS IS BULL SH*T!".

Was her name Alysa?

That’s not very nice.

I never said anything personally derogatory or demeaning towards anyone on this group. I don’t think I deserved that.

We get that sometimes, too. In our case, it's mainly because of other theatres in our county that run the same shows. People mix up the theatres... and probably get mad at all of us.

I post a copy of our newspaper ad for people to compare with our poster cases. If they bring up the recording, I'll invite them to call it, but I don't let them hold up the line to do it from our phones.

We still get the "bs" comment though... it must make them feel better in the face of being idiots.

Alysa
Im sorry someone insulted ou.It was not deserved.I read everything here,and your comments are always on target.

Yes, we live in the same environment. Rude people do get me down and I am striving to grow a thick skin. It does help to know that others are also dealing with the same stuff because the customers would like to convince you that YOU are the problem, not them. Unfortunately, there are a lot of these people who have a sense that they want it their way or else they are going to force you to give it to them their way anyway. I could also probably give hundreds of examples: I'm having trouble figuring out why a guy with a ticket for the 9:20 show of a movie would lie to the cashier about just using the bathroom at 8:00, bring in his Wendy's frosty, leave the bathroom and head for the 7:00 show with frosty in hand. When the usher tried to stop him from taking the frosty into the theater he said it was for his ulcer. We still refused to let him take it into a show he didn't have a ticket for. He got mad and left with his ticket refunded. End of story. Most people caught sneaking into shows that they don't have a ticket for get all bent out of shape and try to blame us for catching them. I've found that few people have ethics - if they can get away with it is is OK. If they get caught it is our fault not theirs. Hey, I have a family trying to get blood out of us because we couldn't find them in a dark theater when the grandmother locked herself out of the house with the baby. Nevermind that she said it was not an emergency or that they called back in 10 minutes saying that they had found the spare key. No, they wanted us to walk the aisles shining lights in people's faces until we found the people with a red shirt and 2 kids or stop the movie. We had to say sorry, we do try but we do not guarantee to find someone in a theater unless they have told us in advance where they are sitting. Then we are more than happy to go get them to deal with a family problem. If we make a practice of going into theaters and disturbing the audience while we are trying to find someone we are not providing the service that the audience is paying for. The theater is by history and practice an anonymous place to get lost in. If you want to be found, you need to discuss that with someone ahead of time. And yes, we've been yelled at because someone got the times wrong and demanded that we start the show at the time that they wanted it to be rather than the advertised time. We've held our ground and started it when it was scheduled. We've been yelled at for not starting a move 1/2 an hour late when no one showed up. And yes, we've heard the the B word alot from anyone who is unhappy, but mostly they just say that they are not coming back here. I've learned that is the standard punishment answer. It doesn't mean that they will punish themselves and not come back here when they decide that the prices are more reasonable here than the other alternatives. They just want to hurt the person they are talking to the most that they can. I am learning not to take it too seriously.

e mail jokes and postings are often not read as intended. careful what you write and read as both can easily be misunderstood. If you truly have something mean to say and you mean to say it meanly then please do so privately.

Rude customers are a dime a dozen. We are in the hospitality business and we are supposed to be the professionals. Treat them well, don't get involved in arguements, and move on. "How can I make this right for you?" Always helps. A free popcorn or a pass makes the meanest melt and end on a positive note.

You can't always defuse a bad situation but you can more often than not.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

Thanks Mike –

Perhaps I misread the intention of the post (a “smiley-face” at the end would have helped). I know you guys deal with some of the best, and the worst, in patrons in the course of theater business. I try never to be one of the latter.

Let’s close this issue, OK?

Respectfully,
Alysa

We have received a little more information about our Sunday night. We had a woman call the theater on Monday saying she had a bad experience at our theater on Sunday. She said she dropped off some kids at the theater at 7:00 for the 7:15 show of Yu-Gi-Oh! and that she came back with other people at 7:30 to watch The Village at 7:45. She said when they got to the theater at 7:30, our manager took the 45 off the 7:45 so that it would read 7:00 and told her the movie started at 7:00. I guess the woman said the manager wouldn't sell her a ticket and said it ruined her and everyone's evening. She also said that she had a room full of people who could varify the situation. We told the woman we would call the manager to ask for her side of the story and she said the manager is a liar and we should do something about her. We told her that our manager is one of the best employees we have working for us and that didn't make the woman happy. The woman pretty much said they were not coming back to our theater.

We called our manager and asked her her side of the story. First off, she said she could account for everyone watching the 7:15 Yu-Gi-Oh show. Most of the kids in there were with a parent. Only one kid was by himself and his mother that dropped him off didn't come back to try to watch the Village. The only people that came to try to watch the Village was a group of kids, a couple of which were banned from the theater for constantly causing problems. The manager told them they couldn't watch the movie because they were banned and that was about it. She said the situation that the woman described didn't take place. We also called an employee that was working that night and he pretty much varified what our manager said.

I guess the conclusion we came up with is that the woman that called was the parent of one of the kids that was banned from the theater. She probably wanted us to fire our manager because her kid was banned from the theater. It seems rather sad that the parent of a troublesome kid would make up excuses for their kids as oppose to disciplining their child.

You always have the right to refuse service. The more you use it, the less you have to use it—word gets out you take no crap and the better customers appreciate it. Legitimate complaints and should be dealt with professionally and the customer should leave happy. Those problem customers who do not have a leg to stand on, or just don’t get it really are not worth your time. When I sense an interaction is going nowhere, I say, “This is going no where. This conversation is over.” If they keep going, I call the police right in front of them. I’ve yet to have one wait until the cops arrived. Many people just want to be listened to and there is no harm in giving someone a few minutes. Many times they will even decline the free pass because they feel better. Never get emotional. If you feel you’re about to lose it, get the cops or security involved. Never, under any circumstances, touch an agitated customer. If they grab you arm for emphasis, ask them to let go. Do not swat them away. I’m a big guy and can be pretty scary. The last thing I wanna do is try to explain to a judge why I thought it was necessary to wrestle someone smaller who got hurt—whether they really got hurt or not, or even if I was just removing their hand from my shirt.

Old thread, but I found this amusing: Aintitcoolnews has a story about "Vacancy" and the reviewer had a bad experience with people in the audience. Now many readers are posting their own theatre-going horror stories. An interesting read, but be warned that the language in there is pretty coarse and crude at times.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32353