Went to see the 8:50pm performance of Jack Reacher: Never Look Back at Cineworld, Enfield on Tuesday 8th November. After buying the ticket, I find the following notice (see picture below) on the door of the auditorium. I was disappointed as the same thing happened several months ago.
Anyway, my friend and I went in to see the film anyway. It wasn’t warm in there at all, and after about 20 minutes of trailers, I needed to put my coat on, as did my friend too. Half way through the film, it got quite cold indeed.
After the film, I asked to speak to the Duty Manager, and a member of staff phoned through a message and told me he’d be down soon. A couple of minutes later, a supervisor asked if she could help me, and I said that I was very disappointed about the lack of heating, no advanced notice having been given prior to me buying the ticket, and I wish to address this with the Duty Manager as it’s the second time we’ve experienced this. She said that there should have been someone on the door advising everyone that they could get a refund, but only if they did not stay for the duration of the whole film. When the DM arrived, I expressed the same sentiments to him. He apologized, saying that they had on-going problem with their heating and air conditioning and it’s something they are dealing with. After making him aware that this is the second time we’ve had this problem in his cinema, and we didn’t complain about it previously, I was most unhappy with it. He again apologized and said he would give us complimentary tickets to make up for this. I asked “How many?” to which he answered “Two”. I reminded him that this was the second time we had suffered this, and tonight was very cold, and he still said that he would only offer us two tickets. I said that is not acceptable, and I would like the name and contact details for the Area Manager, which he refused to give me. He said he would not give me the area manager’s name, but would give me the telephone number for customer services. I game him my business card, suggested he reconsider his offer and contact me by the end of the next working day, and if I haven’t heard from him, I be raising a formal complaint with his head office.
Customer service in this country I find to rarely be excellent, sometime good, but most commonly mediocre at best. Having just come back from Canada, our cousins over that side of the pond really know how to encourage customers to return. The U.S. is the same, or better. If I ran my business in a shoddy manner, I’d be broke. Yet I charge more for martial arts lessons than most other clubs in my areas (Edmonton and Wood Green) and my students/clients, are happy to pay it as I provide a far better level of customer service than most, if not all, of the other local clubs. Plus I get my students to black belt standard fast. I don’t mind paying top dollar for a product or service, but that service or product needs to be of value to that cost.
Paying £10.60 for a seat in a cinema is not good value any more. Being uncomfortably cold in a cinema only exacerbates such circumstances.
I’m not happy. Now I need to watch something funny on tv before I go to sleep.
