@Underpants Gnome:

Not sure why it matters though...either way she'll get there next month!

PS: I'm moving to Boise, so I can afford to take my fiance out to movies again.

I've screwed up my ticket purchases several times, and they've always exchanged them without asking any questions.

I've also got them to refund the tickets on many occasions when I felt that the movie theater was to overly packed, and I didn't want to sit in the front rows.

I really think there is a misconception about movie tickets, and that if you actually ask for them to change out the tickets, they will.

"Movie Theater Lets Customer Exchange Tickets"

How is this even remotely interesting.

Next thing you know, some guy at a wal-mart will misprice a sign!!!

Most people that work in theaters are underpaid high school kids who could give two shits.

I once saw 3 movies in one day ( back in high school) same attendant at the door all the doors oddly and didn't bat an eyelash, even though she knew there was no way we bought three tix.

Good on Regal, though. The one in my area never does anything right. Regal is the only theatre within 25 miles of us, but a lot of people in my town choose to drive even further to avoid them. Glad to see at least one Regal manages to do good by its customers.

This isn't amazing customer service, this is just what is supposed to happen. How sad we have become, eh?

The helpful lady who I handed the tickets to told me what I was being given in return were "Re-Admit Passes" which are good for any showing at any time -- including IMAX -- at ANY AMC Theater. So, theoretically, if I had a business trip to NYC planned, I could purchase AMCinema tickets locally for $5, exchange them for Re-Admit Passes, and use it on a $16 IMAX ticket in Manhattan.

Pretty spiffy!

My buddy bought tickets for the wrong theater (different chain), and the AMC manager took the tickets and gave us tickets to his theater. I'm an AMC fan for life now.

Did you enjoy the movie? I'm thinking of seeing it.

It's a good movie. Yes, go see it.

wow, nobody blaming the OP!

Just kidding. Kudos to Regal. They sold a ticket and he got to see the show. That's how it should be.

Did you enjoy the movie? I'm thinking of seeing it.

Having worked for Hoyts/Regal (Regal bought out Hoyts) for about 5
years it was common practice to have the customer always be right, as
long as they brought their complaint to management.

Policy there is have the customer yell and scream at a peon who has
been told they are to say no to a specific problem, but if they bring
the complaint to a manager they give in in 2 seconds. Makes the
general staff look like idiots, but they pretty much hope most
customers will feel it is too much of a bother to bring a complaint to
management that for the most part has no backbone, even if the
customer is truly being unreasonable.

I only had a manager back me up once when a customer was being very
very unreasonable, but that's because he wasn't a lifer and was just
working their to pay his way through college.

One more caveat, if it is a simple problem most employees will say no,
but be understanding if your complaint is reasonable (95% of them are
reasonable for the prices you pay), but at least give the employee a
chance to help you because if you go straight to management the
employee gets scolded (nothing serious but no one wants to be scolded
by their boss).

Additional: It would be nice if theatres would only tell customers when the *movie* starts, not the advertisements. That honesty is still missing from most/nearly all theatres.

@B: Movie Theaters don't make any money on tickets, espicially opening weekend, they'll send 70% of the ticket proceeds to the movie studio. They make all their money on concession sales, so it's in their best interest to get you into the theater and sell you popcorn.

True. But if two tickets weren't used on the day and that led to two empty seats, not two more sold, that's lost revenue for the theatre.

Even so, it's the right thing to do. It would be clear that the tickets weren't used, so why not impress a customer by honouring the tickets instead of gouging him?

In this case (and pretty much every case posted on Consumerist), it's not so much about doing the "right" thing, but simply having the head out of the sand.

synth7 is right, this is standard for Regal. I once worked at my local Regal and saw this happen all the time - person would get tickets for wrong showtime/day and an exchange or refund was never a problem.

(Do the kids still say 'chill pill'?)

My brother worked in an AMC movie theatre during high school. They're actually pretty lax with giving out vouchers for free movies, mostly because they want you to come back and buy more popcorn. So now, anytime anything is even slightly wrong (movie out of focus, lights come up, wrong lens on the projector), I go get a free pass for another movie.

One independent theater offered Fox 105% of the box office take in exchange for letting him have Phantom Menace, he makes all his money on the concession...its usually more like 90-95%% for the first weekend or two and then falls off after that.

@Underpants Gnome:

Train ticket Chicago -> Indianapolis: $10

Train ticket Indianapolis -> Chicago: $200

With an electronic ticket, it has a scanned bar code, so it is easy to confirm that the ticket wasn't used, yes?

And althought the house may have appeared sold-out due to ticket sales, if these tickets were never scanned, the theater knows it has two open seats left.

So yes, they did the right thing, but it was easy to do, not extraordinary.

As a result, I wait for the blu-ray even more and go to theaters even less. The fact that it's ridiculously hard to catch a captioned showing (being hard of hearing) because they've got ONE auditorium fitted with the system, and because they never seem to think people might want to see movies on opening weekend with captions, doesn't help their case any.

I guess they don't really want me buying popcorn there and prefer that I pop it in my own kitchen and prepare my own toppings.

That is really good going on Regals part. Well done.

@JustThatGuy3: Damn $13 for a ticket!! I just paid $4 for a matinée ticket to go see Iron Man in Suburban Chicago. I (heart) Nova Cinemas.

Reminds me of the old joke, A guy asked out a girl for a date. She agreed only if he took her to the most expensive resturant in town. So he took her to the lobby of the local cinema.

Guess which theater is now the one we choose to go to?

wish I'd thought to send it in. Goes to show you we think about posting bad customer service and not the good.

$15.50 for TWO tickets? Wow, I pay about $13 PER TICKET in NYC. Really gotta move.

Should I ever find myself in Boise, I know where to go. :)

Wow! Excellent customer service!