Great Experience with Carmike Customer Service (1 Viewer)

[Joshua Clinard]

I sent an e-mail to Carmike Theaters a few days ago, based on several bad experiences at the local theater.



The point is, if you are unhappy with your theater-going experience, report the problem, and perhaps something will be done about it.

 

[Scott L]

Glad you got results! And they even want you to follow up. Nice to hear Carmike takes their presentations so seriously.

 

[Scotty_McW]

I had a similar instance with Return of the King. We drove about 30 minutes from home (passing several very nice theaters on the way) to see it at a Carmike theater with a Jumbo screen. When we got there, the showtime I had pre-paid for had been moved to a smaller theater and the only options given to us were to come back later for another showing or see it in the small theater. We chose to see it in the small theater.

The next day at work, I emailed Carmike and got a response by the end of the day. The district manager apologized for the unauthorized showtime change made by the manager. He sent me three passes each good for 2 admissions.

I agree that it goes to show if you voice your concerns, a good company will correct the error.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

I didn't get any vouchers. But All I really wanted was for the problem to be fixed. I'll have to see if they are the next time I go to the theater.

 

[DougFND]

I'm glad to hear you got some results by getting in touch with the higher-ups. I may have to give that a try. Going to our local Carmike multi-plex has become such a painful experience that we now tend to wait for movies to get to the discount theater. No DTS (our Carmike 12-plex only has two anyway), but the screen is big, service is excellent and presentation is always good.

 

[Grant H]

Wow.

Maybe I should email them about the one State College theater I frequent.

It's always like a sauna, even in winter. (I complained to an employee when I was there to see Fellowship of the Ring that the air wasn't working and it was really hot; he just said they don't run the air in the winter.) Well, it's hot in the summer there too. Also, in that same theater the screen seems to be about 2:1, and they competely fill it with 2.35:1 movies so the sides are always chopped off.

Time to visit the Carmike website.

Of course, the last time I complained about a Carmike theatre, it was a THX theater in Altoona, and the next time I went there they only had 1 THX screen instead of 2. Now they just have the DD instead of DTS.:frowning:
Went there to see Episode II, and the sound skipped at every reel changed.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Good to hear the good results. I used to work at one of the Carmike here in Wichita as a projectionist, and I was never that impressed with some of their policies. However, I always did my best to make sure the presentation was as good as it could be. The general manager there was (and still is) pretty nice and I had no problems with him, because I could tell he cared about doing a good job, too. However, some (not all) of the employees I worked with didn't really seem to care that much about what they were doing. and it always frustrated me, because I was trying to do a good job.

It's good to see Mrs. Triplitt is doing something about this (she's our district manager, too).

As a side note, now that I've worked as a projectionist, I can usually tell right away when something's not right. I had never realized how often it happens before. I can't tell you how many times I've been at another theater and told someone about a framing problem and even show them, and they just look at me like, "Uh...now what's wrong with it?"

Also, I heard about the little upgrade the Carmike in Abilene got last fall. Kinda makes me jealous Now that they're projecting things right, it should be a great place to go to the movies. Thanks for sharing your story.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

The only upgrade we got was the Stadium Seating. That's nice, but it doesn't amount to a hill of beans if they are using dirty prints, and if they aren't framing the films correctly. They probably are, now that she has sent new management to the theater, but I haven't been to see a show since then, so I can't verify it for myself. I will try to get out there this weekend, just because I told her I would. Don't want to keep her waiting.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I've complained to United Artists several times over a number of years about one theatre (Market Square) that's had incompetent personnel since the very day they opened. They sent me FOUR passes, so I went back there FOUR times, and the first three times something else went wrong, including one thing I had complained about before (turning the janitor lights on during the end credits!) I've seen a couple sneak previews there too that I got free passes for, and continue to be unimpressed with the management of this theatre, as well as its upkeep, and won't be spending money there any time soon (it opened in late 1992 and as far as I know has only installed digital sound in 2 of its theatres, and one of them is SDDS so they made a big mistake there!)
It sounds like the problem with this Carmike theatre is the people running it, not the equipment- Prints get scratched only if the projectionist misthreads the film. I've run some films for 3 months and had them looking as good on their last day as they did on their first, but have had other times when someone else trashed a print during its first week! One screw-up is all it takes though (and replacing prints should NEVER be an alternative to finding and keeping people who know what they're doing!)
Let us know if your theatre does show any improvement.

 

[Chris_Morris]

Wow, good response. I wrote to Carmike a couple of years ago about their policy of placing new "blockbuster" type movies in a theater that has very small screens, DTS in one screen, stereo in one, and mono in the other two, dirty screens, cramped seating. It is a mall theater that was opened in the early '80s and has not been upgraded, save the DTS, since it opened. They have a newer complex with more screens, DD, DTS, THX and spacious, cleaner seating. They place movies like Spider-man, LOTR, T3, etc. at the older facility to drive up ticket sales to justify it staying open.

Anyway, I received a very smart-alecky, sarcastic response from the district manager.

Against my better judgement, I went to see Finding Nemo (surprisingly at the newer complex) only to find a cut screen (very noticable), and muddy sound. My complaint got a less snotty response that they would check into the sound, and the screen could not have a tear in it as they just replaced them Whatever, I must have been seeing things.

From now on I will go to the Consolidated Theaters. Amazing sound, immaculately clean theaters, and stadium seating


Chris