My friend went to watch yesterday “The Impossible” at Grand Cinemas in ABC Achrafieh and I was truly surprised to hear what happened during the session. I’ve always had good experiences at Grand Cinemas and never had anything to complain about, except the annoying people talking during the movie but I can’t really blame them for that.
Here’s a brief summary of what my friend texted me after he left:
” In the middle of the movie, the screen just went black but the sound kept going for like 3-4 minutes. People started clapping and shouting and some walked out. After they fixed the picture, the movie was rewinded some 15 minutes ago but once they realized the mistake they fast-forwarded it a little. Then the screen would just freeze every few minutes and people would start yelling and cursing until it works again. This happened at least 8 times and the picture would come and go at critical scenes which pissed off the spectators even further. It was really frustrating and chaotic and ruined the movie for us. At the end when we left, I wanted to talk to someone or expected some apologies but there was no one to talk to”.
I am surprised no one went after the guy showing the movie lol!
On a serious note, knowing Grand Cinemas and out of personal experience, I believe it’s a one-time thing but it wouldn’t hurt to investigate it and know what really caused all this mess.
It’s a one time thing, sort of technical problem. Space shuttles fails sometimes. not a big deal, honestly I don’t find it worth to blog about buddy ;)..
agree with you Dany, technical problems can occur anywhere!
there are more important things in life to worry about!
no offense Najib 🙂
I beg to disagree with both of you. The technical problem could occur indeed and like I said I am sure it’s a one time thing but there should be someone there to apologize to the crowd and refund the tickets or something.
i would have to agree with Najib, although its not a big deal (hopefully a one time incident) but the management should have done something about it!
Yes Technical problems occur, but the fact that they treated it with such a casual and not caring matter kinda sucked… i was there.. and it was a shame, people shouting, yelling and nobody cared to intervene… A simple we are sorry for inconvenience during the debacle or upon exit would have been enough to make us feel human 🙂
they must have been screening from a crappy torrent 😛
There was once a blackout for almost 15 minutes where the screen was turned off and the lights back on for the whole time .. I think it was in the Rise of the Plaent of the Apes … It sucked at the time but it never kept me from enjoying the venue everytime over and over
Whenever something like this happens, you’d expect the cinema to offer every customer (having paid a full-price ticket) a full refund AND a complimentary pass for a movie of their choice (that’s the least they can do). Obviously, a lot of companies in Lebanon have never heard of such standards (I am not targeting Grand Cinemas in particular, whom I’ve been visiting regularly for the past few years), but obviously this is a case where just posting a ‘We are sorry for the inconvenience and will look further into the matter’ on some Facebook page is not enough. I’ve read this more than once on their Facebook page. My take on the whole thing: I’ve paid for a certain service (in this case movie) and I expect to get my money’s worth. If you’ve failed to provide the advertised service, well a simple ‘sorry’ is not enough. Technical problems can and will occur, you should have an effective policy in place to make up for such unfortunate events. Wow, that’s some hidden angst. Off to take my pills.