the bean and i met some of her friends for a movie date this morning. bought our tickets, found seats, purchased snacks.
about ten minutes before the movie was to start, the sound went out on the previews they were showing. a couple of minutes later, a manager showed up and announced that the projector was broken and that particular theater was now out of order. the next showing of the movie wasn't for another two hours on another screen. so he handed out vouchers and directed us to the counter to get refunds (which was totally nice, right?). then someone piped up with "what about all this food we just bought?" he announces that they'd refund that as well, which made everyone happy.
after receiving my refund for the tickets, i joined the refund line at the concessions stand. in front of me i noticed people handing over the uneaten portions of the food they'd bought. okay, i guess i get it - they were giving the money back after all, even if the food had already been consumed. so they checked receipts, took the food back, and issued refunds - and then promptly tossed the food in the trash right in front of us. the bean looks at me and goes "mommy, are they THROWING THE FOOD AWAY? that's so WASTEFUL!"
no, i know they couldn't have done anything else with it...but you would think they would just tell us to keep the food. or, had i known that's what they'd do, i wouldn't have taken the refund. my kid was just so aghast at the wastefulness of it all.
Well, but it's not like they could reuse it. I'm not sure what else they should have done, if people didn't want to eat it. Eta: I see this has been addressed. Sorry.
I hope your next showing goes better! Maybe your daughter won't be upset if she hears that restaurants (lol) have different rules about food than the rest of us?
wait, they made you give back half eaten food and then threw it away??? that's terrible.
They didn't MAKE them give back the food -- I'm sure they could have finished it if they wanted to, but then they wouldn't have gotten a refund.
I don't know. I think it is nice enough for them to refund people for the food (it isn't like you couldn't take popcorn or M&Ms to go) that I can't judge them taking for taking the food in exchange for the refund. And if they take it back, they have to throw it away.
ETA: Also, it wasn't "totally nice" for them to give you refunds for the tickets. You paid to watch a movie and their equipment broke. You might not have two hours to stick around waiting for the next showing. They absolutely owed you a refund for that.
They should have issued refunds and allowed people to keep what they'd bought.
This happens when they give me the wrong bag at a drivethru. They always tell me to keep it. Once it's been in my car they can't give it to someone else.
Then it's up to the customer whether or not to toss it.
Post by MixedBerryJam on Nov 28, 2014 17:17:22 GMT -5
I bought a takeout clam chowder once that had no clams, so I brought it back and asked for a refund. They took my bowl of clam chowder (that I had purchased to go, and then returned from my office to the restaurant with it) and poured it back into the vat of clam chowder. I'm all for not wasting food but man, I never ate at that restaurant again!
I bought a takeout clam chowder once that had no clams, so I brought it back and asked for a refund. They took my bowl of clam chowder (that I had purchased to go, and then returned from my office to the restaurant with it) and poured it back into the vat of clam chowder. I'm all for not wasting food but man, I never ate at that restaurant again!
Vomit. Omg.
I think AMC was right to refund the ticket cost but I think returning the food was strange.
What else would they do? It's not like they can combine 2 half eaten boxes of mike and ike and sell it. If you wanted to keep the food then you shouldn't have asked for a refund. This is what happens when people return food to the grocery store, it immediately goes in the trash because there are health codes.
I hear you that they could have reimbursed and let you keep the food, but they had no obligation to do that. My guess is they were annoyed that people wanted to get reimbursed for food since they can't resell it and they were like "fuck no, they are not getting the food and the cash!"
Post by RoxMonster on Nov 28, 2014 18:57:31 GMT -5
I would have just kept my food and taken it with me. Unless it was something messy like nachos, most of the other stuff (candy, soda, even a bag of popcorn) could still be consumed even if you aren't at the movie.
However, since they said they'd refund food, there isn't much else they could do it with it but throw it out. I do wonder if someone handed them back a completely unopened bag of candy if they could resell it, but I am just not sure. Maybe someone else in the food industry would know.
I dunno, I guess I just thought that if they were going to offer a refund, why bother to take back half eaten food and throw it away...but you guys are right, they weren't obligated to do any of it. After all, we ended up ahead anyway considering we got vouchers for movie on another day PLUS a refund on the tickets.
Post by VeryViolet on Nov 28, 2014 19:13:18 GMT -5
I see where wannabe is coming from. Sure you can take your food with you. However, absent of seeing a movie I really have no desire to pay $8 for popcorn I can make at home for a lot less. I also don't really want to eat popcorn, candy and a soda bigger than my head in the comfort of my car. I get that it was within the theaters rights to take the food back but if they are going to offer a refund on concessions (which is nice) it wouldn't have hurt to let the people keep the food they couldn't resell. At the very least they shouldn't have waited for everyone to leave before dumping it. LOL
I agree it was wasteful, but it's also strange to expect money back AND keep the food. You'd think they'd have coupons or vouchers for a return visit. If they had a 50% off or even $3 off your next purchase. AMC still makes a profit and customers still feel like they got something out of it.
I can't imagine being the one to ask about a refund for the food. I'm all about saving a buck, but I can still eat my popcorn if there isn't a movie playing.
We got a wrong pizza order, they sent a new one via delivery and took the old one. For a bunch of people pissed about a stolen pillow, I find it funny that it is expected to have a refund and also keep the food, regardless of whose fault the malfunction was.
Those pizzas do not get thrown away. They get put in an area for the employees to eat all night. At least that's what happened when I worked at Pizza Hut at 16. Though I did work with a bunch of stoners.
I agree it was wasteful, but it's also strange to expect money back AND keep the food. You'd think they'd have coupons or vouchers for a return visit. If they had a 50% off or even $3 off your next purchase. AMC still makes a profit and customers still feel like they got something out of it.
I can't imagine being the one to ask about a refund for the food. I'm all about saving a buck, but I can still eat my popcorn if there isn't a movie playing.
they did, for the movie. They were refunded the movie cost and received an additional voucher. Which makes complaining about not keeping refunded food REALLY weird.
Reading FAIL. I saw the refund for the movie, but missed the voucher for another movie. Knowing that, I agree it's REALLY weird to even ask about the food. If everyone else was standing in line to get a refund for snacks, I probably would have joined, too. I wouldn't have asked for it, but if they're offering to refund my $15, I'd take it.
I dunno, I guess I just thought that if they were going to offer a refund, why bother to take back half eaten food and throw it away...but you guys are right, they weren't obligated to do any of it. After all, we ended up ahead anyway considering we got vouchers for movie on another day PLUS a refund on the tickets.
The refund was good customer service. They only offered it after a complaint. The food was bought and began to be eaten. The transaction was over. To offer a refund was ONLY to correct a failure on their part about the movie experience and create good will. They want to bring you BACK as customers.
Taking and dumping the partial food was stupid. Of course the counter kid should have let customers keep their food. What? If you ate half did a/he only refund half?
Poorly executed good will. It would have cost them NOTHING and they gained nothing from trashing it.
I dunno, I guess I just thought that if they were going to offer a refund, why bother to take back half eaten food and throw it away...but you guys are right, they weren't obligated to do any of it. After all, we ended up ahead anyway considering we got vouchers for movie on another day PLUS a refund on the tickets.
The refund was good customer service. They only offered it after a complaint. The food was bought and began to be eaten. The transaction was over. To offer a refund was ONLY to correct a failure on their part about the movie experience and create good will. They want to bring you BACK as customers.
Taking and dumping the partial food was stupid. Of course the counter kid should have let customers keep their food. What? If you ate half did a/he only refund half?
Poorly executed good will. It would have cost them NOTHING and they gained nothing from trashing it.
The theatre actually may have gotten something by taking the food back. When I worked at a theatre in high school, we had to save and damage out any returned or refunded concessions. Like if we opened a sleeve of cups and one was broken, it went into the damaged bin. Same with things like candy that was opened or the boxes were broken. Something to do with the way the corporate chains do their inventory, everything has to be accounted for. So if they were issuing refunds, they might have needed the items. That's why theaters don't give you regular soda cups for tap water, and why employees don't get to drink soda from them either, or eat popcorn from a theatre popcorn bag/bucket, even though they typically get free soda and popcorn.
Post by polarbearfans on Nov 28, 2014 21:06:02 GMT -5
I would never ask for a refund on movie theatre food, but I have been angry about buying food and then not getting to see a movie. I wouldn't buy a $4 soda in normal life or an $8 bag of mediocre popcorn. If offered, I would take the refund. I would hold onto a box of candy, but other food/drink wouldn't keep.
They should have, as a gesture of good customer service, refunded the cost of the ticket and the cost of the food purchased (which wouldn't have been purchased but for the fact that you were going to sit in their theater munching on it for the next two or so hours.) They should have let you keep the food as a gesture of goodwill since you had anticipated sitting in a nice warm theater watching a movie and munching on said food instead of having to sit and wait for the next showing or leaving and having to come back later. There was no purpose to taking the food and throwing it away other than "well, you got your money back."
Honestly, I think it was nice of them to offer to refund for the food. Because it was unnecessary. And I can't imagine that they would let you keep and give refunds so what other choice do they have than toss it? eta: didn't realize this was an old post, nothing to see here!