Refund or not? (Sept 16, 2009)
Posted by Reel Mountain Theater on Tuesday, October 27, 2009
What do you think?
Two days ago, 4 folks left the theater, where they had been watching Inglourious Basterds. Three of them quickly exited the far doors, but one lady approached the ticket counter and asked me if they could have a refund, since "there was too much violence", and "they had been mislead about this movie". On the spot, I checked my watch- they had been in almost an hour. I offered them admission to Julie & Julia, which had just started, or passes that would be good for a couple of weeks instead of a cash refund. She said they wouldn't be back in Estes Park for a while so they were going to pass, on the passes. I don't second guess many decisions, but I am this one.
Usually, you know if you don't like a movie pretty quickly. We don't think twice about a refund in the first 20-30 minutes. Once you start to approach the halfway mark, I suppose you're on your own if you decide to bail out. Is that reasonable from a customers perspective?
I figure there are so many resources for movie info, including our synopsis at the ticket counter, the poster and rating info, that it was rated R by Quentin Tarrantino would be enough information at the point of purchase to reasonably expect that it would be offensive in some way. Hence, my hesitation to hand over a $24 refund because 'they didn't like it'.
I'll publicly admit here that as hard as we try to treat everyone fairly & consistently- if this foursome had been one of the regular folks I recognized ... I would have gladly refunded the tickets, knowing that our relationship was different, and they would be back to try another movie, another time. I didn't have that feeling in this situation.
Am I way off on this? What would you have done? You can reply to this email, or send a fresh message to me, here.
Two days ago, 4 folks left the theater, where they had been watching Inglourious Basterds. Three of them quickly exited the far doors, but one lady approached the ticket counter and asked me if they could have a refund, since "there was too much violence", and "they had been mislead about this movie". On the spot, I checked my watch- they had been in almost an hour. I offered them admission to Julie & Julia, which had just started, or passes that would be good for a couple of weeks instead of a cash refund. She said they wouldn't be back in Estes Park for a while so they were going to pass, on the passes. I don't second guess many decisions, but I am this one.
Usually, you know if you don't like a movie pretty quickly. We don't think twice about a refund in the first 20-30 minutes. Once you start to approach the halfway mark, I suppose you're on your own if you decide to bail out. Is that reasonable from a customers perspective?
I figure there are so many resources for movie info, including our synopsis at the ticket counter, the poster and rating info, that it was rated R by Quentin Tarrantino would be enough information at the point of purchase to reasonably expect that it would be offensive in some way. Hence, my hesitation to hand over a $24 refund because 'they didn't like it'.
I'll publicly admit here that as hard as we try to treat everyone fairly & consistently- if this foursome had been one of the regular folks I recognized ... I would have gladly refunded the tickets, knowing that our relationship was different, and they would be back to try another movie, another time. I didn't have that feeling in this situation.
Am I way off on this? What would you have done? You can reply to this email, or send a fresh message to me, here.
