So...I get O2 Priority Moments with my mobile contract, and saw that there was a special offer: 45% off a large nachos/drink combo at Odeon. As it happens, I wanted to see a new film, Pacific Rim, so that sealed the deal: I save that offer, book tickets through Odeon's mobile app, and off I head to my client's local Odeon.
At the cinema, and off to the food section. Now, let's be honest. Cinema snacks are grossly overpriced: they exploit a captive market, and encourage customers to spend almost as much on noisy grazing as they do on the tickets. A tray of nachos, with a squirt of cheese sauce and a bucket of drink, normally costs £7.50. Even with the discount, at £4.13 it's not cheap, but at least I'm not going to taste tooth grindings along with the corn. So I order it, and, whilst it's being dispensed, pull down the offer on the phone.
Fail. Repeatedly. I keep getting, "The server isn't responding. Try again." Now this isn't entirely true: the server has been very helpful; she's already delivered my nachos and drink, but I think they meant the one on the network. I show the lady that I've got the offer, it's there on the phone, but something's gone wrong where they dispense the magic offer codes. She can't enter a code that I can't give her, and doesn't have an override on the till, so calls a supervisor.
I show him the same thing, and he says, "Sorry, the problem's at O2's end. I can't give you the discount."
I explain that I've clearly got the offer, it's there, it's saved, all it needs is a till override, and we can go ahead. "Sorry, the problem's at O2's end. I can't give you the discount."
"But it's an Odeon offer, O2's just providing the access." "Sorry, the problem's at O2's end. I can't give you the discount."
We go round this loop several times. It's like talking to Robocop.
Eventually, I point out, "Look, the food's been opened and served. There's a slush drink melting. I wouldn't have ordered this lot at £7.50, I'm certainly not paying £7.50 for it, and it's going to go to waste if you don't sell it, so let's use a bit of discretion and get this paid for."
You guessed it. "Sorry, the problem's at O2's end. I can't give you the discount."
Inevitable, wasn't it? I look him in the eye, say, "What a damned waste of food," and walk off.
It's not like I'm unknown at that cinema. I go there probably at least once a week. I'm a regular. The supervisor could have said, "Look, I can't put this through the till, but I've seen you here before - as a goodwill gesture, why don't you just take the food on the house this time? Sorry the system didn't work, but hopefully it'll be fixed for next time. Enjoy the film!" I would have walked away a happy customer, they wouldn't have lost any more (let's face it, the food was headed for the dumpster anyway), and honour would have been satisfied.
Instead, I felt like I was dealing with the worst kind of traffic warden, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth, and I'm not inclined go back to the Guildford Odeon for the rest of my contract's length. It's a shame. I know the manageress - she's really nice, and she deserves better of her staff, but I just don't want to deal with Robocop again.
Would you treat your customers this way?
Oh, and the film? Great. Go see it.
But if you do that at an Odeon, just don't order any discounted food that you wouldn't be prepared to pay full price for.
Hello, just wondering- have you ever accessed the free wifi at that cinema? If you phone automatically tried to connect to the hotspot, the app is more than likely not working because of the wifi. Ideally, you should log in or turn off wifi
ReplyDeleteHi Laura - thanks for reading, and for taking the time to comment.
ReplyDeleteI'd tried it several ways: using O2's network (with wi-fi disabled), using the free wi-fi, and even using a Mi-Fi type network hotspot on a different cell network - with no expectation of success in the latter two cases, but it's always worth a try. And, just to be completist, I'd terminated the Priority Moments app between each test, so that it couldn't hold outdated network settings. In all three cases, the Priority Moments app couldn't contact the token server, and in all three cases I had no problems navigating to web sites using the browser, so I'm quite satisfied the problem was at the other end!
(And, no, I'm not OCD! I'm an alpha techie who's done customer support at various times, so I automatically do everything I'd expect a support tech to suggest before I ever call. *grin*)
It was certainly a failure within either O2's or Odeon's back office - I don't know which one actually issues the tokens; I suspect Odeon - but that in itself wouldn't have been a problem if the supervisor had been in legal possession of a clue about customer relations. I don't believe I've been back to that cinema since, so I reckon they've already lost about £50 of revenues from me, in given my rapacious movie-going habit. Talk about spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar!
Well, after four renewals in total, that contract finished in mid-October, after I'd done everything that was left to do. So Odeon lost five months of my visits. Probably around 25 of them, all in all.
ReplyDeleteAt conservatively £9 per ticket, and maybe an average of £5 food/drink/ice cream spend per visit, that's about £350 takings lost, because one hard-boiled twit with an invisible peaked cap spoiled it for Odeon and the other hard-working decent people at that cinema.