Miss Attitude coming through

[White_Knight1989]

So last night, two friends and I decided to go see Knocked Up (I personally would recommend it, as long as you can stand lots of sick humor ). So I pick them both up and off we go to the movies.

We get there and observe the showtimes from the board behind the ticket distributors. Great...next showing is in half an hour. Plenty of time. We're good to go.

Then one of the friends realizes that she forgot to bring her ID

We think, okay, let's see Shrek 3 instead. Nope...the free movie pass that my two friends had didn't apply to certain movies, including Shrek 3. Crud!

So I get in line...buy my ticket without a problem, and the friend with ID does the same. Afterward, I go back in line and simply try to buy a second ticket for myself.

There were two ticket-sellers working at the time (Monday night = pretty slow), and I deal with the second lady the next time around.

Me: "Hi. One adult for Knocked Up at 9:35 please! "
Her: " NO!! YOU ALREADY BOUGHT A TICKET FROM HER! YOU CAN'T BUY ANOTHER ONE! "
Me: Wow...alrighty then.

I leave the line and join the other two. By now it's getting to be about 20 minutes until the movie starts...and the movie theater is a good 10 minutes or so from where we live with all the traffic lights and all. The next showtime wasn't for another hour and 45 minutes later...which would have been too late.

So we see a guy walking along and ask him if he can buy the ticket for us. He agrees, takes my friend's free movie pass and tries to get a ticket for the movie. He gets the opposite lady (not the maniac) but comes back to us with the pass, saying that he's seeing the same movie and they won't sell him a second ticket if he's not over 21.

Okay..plan B. Myself and the friend who already had her ticket go in, and observe what other movies are playing on the same side of the theater and around the same time. We figure it's Monday night...they only check the ticket when you first walk in anyway...a simple movie-hop during a slow night never hurt anybody.

So we go back outside and tell the other friend to get a ticket for The Invisible at 10:10. Great. She stands in line...and has the pleasure of dealing with the psycho lady.

She remembers her face, and sees me standing off to the side.

Lady: "I'm not selling you a ticket! I know you're going to see a rated R movie with this!"
Friend: "Umm...as far as you're concerned, I've decided to see a different movie. This doesn't require ID to get into. You cannot refuse me a ticket."
Lady: "Oh yes I can!"
Friend: "Well...the manager and I are going to have a little chat."

Manager walks out...

Friend: "I'm trying to buy a movie ticket and this lady is giving us nothing but hassle."
Lady: "She's trying to see a Rated R movie! She doesn't have ID."
Friend: "I'm buying a ticket for The Invisible. It's PG-13."

Manager was nice and apologetic, and told her to sell my friend a ticket. Through a major huff, she prints it out and throws it under the hole in the window.

We ended up walking into the theater at the same time as the manager.

Friend: "That lady is a whack! How do you put up with that?"
Manager: "She's been like that lately. I don't know what her problem is. Unfortunately, we're shortstaffed tonight, so I can't really replace her. Again, sorry for the inconvenience."
Friend: "Eh...it's cool."
Manager: "Honestly, though...are you planning on movie hopping? "
Friend: "I plead the fifth."
Manager: "Heh. Well, enjoy your movie." And off he goes toward the back.

We got in just as the previews were starting. Yay!

I am in no way suggesting that this employee was sucky by enforcing the rules, but her attitude in general just flat out sucked.

I hope she gets an attitude adjustment really soon. She's going to mess with the wrong crowd one day.

[Banrion]

We get there and observe the showtimes from the board behind the ticket distributors. Great...next showing is in half an hour. Plenty of time. We're good to go.

Then one of the friends realizes that she forgot to bring her ID

By now it's getting to be about 20 minutes until the movie starts...and the movie theater is a good 10 minutes or so from where we live with all the traffic lights and all.

So had you gone and gotten the ID as soon as it was realized that it was missing, you would not have had any problems. You still would have been on time for the PREVIEWS! I'm sorry, but having been in this industry, it's scams like you were trying to pull that would piss me off more than anything. Not only were you trying to break the rules, you thought the cashier was too stupid to figure out what you were trying to pull. Trust me, they see this at LEAST 15 times a day. FWIW theatre hopping is illegal. It is theft of services, and at my theatre, you got one warning before we pressed the charges.

Admittedly, the attitude at the beginning was uncalled for, the cashier could have politely explained that she is only allowed to sell you one ticket. But by the time scam #3 came around you deserved the attitude.

The manager that you are doting on here is the suckiest of all. He's not backing up the policies that he makes the employees enforce, and turning a blind eye to a criminal offense that could get his theatre fined $500.00.

[Becks]

I think the woman at the ticket window was sucky. She could've controlled her attitude.

[Broomjockey]

Attitude uncalled for, yes. But had you been at either of my theatres, and we caught you sneaking in to an R-rated movie, all THREE of you would have been tossed. And you might get refunds if you were lucky with the manager on duty.

I've had people try to pull just about every scam like this on me, and every single one of them ticks me off. ONE time I tried to be nice to a girl who's birthday it was, and I got in trouble. After that, I was the ultimate ID hardass. Next time, just go get the ID. You may say "It's just a movie." I say "It could cost me my job."

[blas]

Oh my god a movie theater that checks ID for R rated movies.

I though those ceased to exist after I turned 17. Figures just as much, I couldn't see Jackass when I was 16 but a bunch of middle schoolers got into Grindhouse.

[Andara Bledin]

FWIW theatre hopping is illegal. It is theft of services, and at my theatre, you got one warning before we pressed the charges.

It's theft of services when you see a movie, then see another without paying for a ticket. I think it would be difficult to claim theft when a person buys a ticket for one movie, but sees another. It would be grounds for getting tossed out, but not much else on the part of the theater.

But, yeah, the theater could get in trouble for not enforcing the age rules.

^-.-^

[AFpheonix]

Soooo.....you try and get someone into a movie who can't prove they're of age to watch, and then complain that they catch you?
Sorry, I really have no sympathy.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I hope she gets an attitude adjustment really soon.

Right back atcha. You tried to buy a ticket for one movie and then sneak into another. I don't personally know how theaters handle stuff like this, but you have heard from people who do.

This is a SC story more than anything else. Next time just go get the ID instead of trying to cheat policy.

[White_Knight1989]

Soooo.....you try and get someone into a movie who can't prove they're of age to watch, and then complain that they catch you?

It's important to keep in mind that I posted due to the unnecessary attitude of the ticket seller. I never once "complained that I was caught."

And while I don't necessarily agree with Banrion's comment that I was "deserving of the attitude," I truthfully did not know that this was such a major pet peeve amongst theater workers, and how much trouble it could cause.

I will ensure my friends and I will not do this again. I surely would not want to aggravate employees as much as I now realize I could have.

Next time we will go get the ID, and if the next showtime is too late, we'll go get ice cream instead. And no...I won't vandalize the ice cream shop, for those assuming I'm a complete asshole.

Anywho..lesson learned. Theater workers...forgive me?

[tollbaby]

I think the cashier's attitude was perfectly justified. You tried to break the rules not once, not twice, but THREE times, and THEN got her into trouble with her boss ON TOP of it by playing the ultimate SC "Get me the manager" card. That's like me speeding and then bitching that the cop was condescending when he ticketed me. It may not seem like an important rule to you, but it is a rule, and not just some sort of guideline the staff can feel free to wink and ignore. She was doing her job, doing it well, and I think her manager should be proud of her. The suck was entirely on your side in this one.

[Daskinor]

In my state where it is illegal to sell R tickets without ID, cops will do checks and fine people just like for cigarettes and alcohol. At one point it got so bad at the theater I go to that they;

-Card you hard core, no hologram no ticket. If you have an optical strip on your card they can scan that to verify the ID.
-Don't sell more then one ticket to you unless you are 21.
-Check your ID when your ticket is taken, and if you are under 17 the ID of your chaperon.
-They then check the stub of your ticket when you enter the theater.
-At all times someone is looking down the halls seeing who goes where. If you are going from theater to theater they nab you.
-They have someone walk down the isles of all movies, Takes the same person about 25 minutes to do a circle.

After the problem was fixed, they still did it. Turns out it made people happy not having to deal with annoying people in the theaters. Exspecally un-suprovised children. Also just recently, they don't allow under 2 year olds in evening showings unless its rated G.

[cinema guy]

Here in the UK, we the cinema employees can be fined if we let anyone underage into an film.

IDs aren't common in the UK, so we check by asking their date of birth or what year they are in at school, which is an imperfect system. If they don't get ID'ed at the box office, they will get ID'ed before they get into a screen.

Quite often parents will buy tickets for kids who are too young to get into a film (either knowingly or unknowingly) and will kick up a stink because we won't let their kids in.

While we try to be as polite as possible, kids trying repeatedly and obviously to violate the law will piss us off.

[Kiwi]

While I dont think the employee was perfect, I think she was justified in her "sucky" attitude. She was enforcing the rules and it would make me cranky if someone blatantly tried to flout them in front of me. If she had posted on here that some sucky customers were trying the whole "rules dont apply to us" story most of us would agree that it would be a sucky thing to do. Attitude doesnt havent to be blatant to be sucky.

As with most situations there was suckiness on each side here

[Boozy]

Anywho..lesson learned. Theater workers...forgive me?

I'm not a theatre worker and never have been, but seeing as no one else has seen or acknowledged this yet, I'd like to say:

All's forgiven.

I've learned a lot here at CS, too. It's good to be able to see the point of view from both sides of the counter. Its makes us all better customers - and better employees too.

[rdp78]

Wow, I didn't know it was illegal to sell an R-rated movie ticket to someone who was under 17 or doesn't have proof they are over that age. I haven't been to a movie in awhile so I'm not sure if this is the law in my area and I'm thinking this could be state by state thing more of federal law. I did read on another thread that Canada (okay, maybe certein parts) is very strict on the IDing for R-rated movies and that some stores that sell DVDs/VHS are checking for IDs when selling R-rated movies or ask their birthdays.

Anyway about the OP I just think there was suck on both sides. I mean the cashier should have been a little bit more calmer and maybe even nicer but still she probably has seen this stuff every time she works so I see can why she would be really pissed off them. Okay, I think White_Knight has been scold enough so not going to do that but still it wasn't great idea and has learn his lesson. The manager on the other hand isn't doing his job if he is letting things like that happen.