CONVENIENCE FEES HAHAHAHA
God what a scam that shit is
“Hey, we saved money by computerization, so we’re gonna pass that cost onto you!”
“Don’t you mean ‘pass the savings onto us?’”
:D “Nope!”
Honestly they probably spend so much on devs to maintain their website that they don’t break even lmao
The amount you’d save not hiring physical ticket sales workers would absolutely dwarf any amount of possible dev salaries for one website.
Lol in my local cinema I have to use a computer next to the ticket taker to print my ticket I bought online and then they physically look at it to tell me which theatre I should walk to, it’s like Idiocracy’s costco
It’s a convenient way for them to rip you off
Don’t forget about the service fees, the inconvenience fees, then more convenience feed to undo those and another round of inconvenience fees and then more convenience fees to undo those
What you don’t find paying extra money convenient?
Question from an European: What is that convenience fee? Which costs does it cover?
Nothing for the customer. It’s just convenient for the theater to charge more for the ticket.
Nothing, it’s just an extra charge so that the company can make more money.
Answer from another: nothing. We also have them in various places, like parking, or highway vignettes - you are not using their facilities, you save them money, so they charge you some extra
In the early days of the internet in the US the convenience fee was what the 3rd part sales software charged for online transactions but I think now with the it mostly being first party sales or integrated to the vendors POS it’s just a way to charge more money without advertising it on the sticker price.
I think the “convenience” is referring to using a credit card. They charge businesses any time their card is used. This is the business passing that cost on to the consumer.
We go to AMC quite a bit and I think it’s actually the fee for buying tickets online or through the app. So probably even worse than passing CC fees on to customers lol. Always buy our tickets in person for that reason (and matinees).
Adding to this for more context, in America, credit card fees on merchants are like 3-5% of the transaction. That’s why some places have started to pass them to consumers, especially in low-margin businesses like restaurants and movie theaters. If your margins are around 5% and Visa is taking 3.95%, that’s not super sustainable. Card network fees tend to be much lower in Europe. I’m not sure about elsewhere.
Thing is…usually the “convenience fee” isn’t there if you pay in person. It’s usually done in online sales. It actually costs less for you to use their online portal because they don’t have to staff more employees in house. But for some reason companies like to charge you extra for buying online and put it as a “convenience fee” instead of going inside to pay. You could theorize that it has something to do with credit cards, but then why don’t they charge you for paying by a credit card in store?
And you have to create an account (with 2FA) to buy the tickets. In specifically inconvenient.
And the fee stacks too which is insane.
See, if you didn’t pay that fee, then buying the tickets would be “inconvenient.”
Jokes aside, it’s really just a way to pad profits. It should be called the “We want more of your money” fee.
I’m paying added convenience fees left and right, but I’m not feeling the added convenience. Please send help.
… and on top of that you have to watch like ten minutes’ worth of ads at the beginning. Ugh.
I quit going to movies when they started blaring loud obnoxious commercials under the guise of “entertainment” prior to the movies supposed start time. Going to a movie used to be a social thing you did with friends, but now with them blasting that shit at you at a volume that makes talking impossible what the fuck is even the point? The fact that ticket prices are climbing to this level with this kind of jack assery is ludicrous. And don’t get me started on the 20-30 minutes of previews they show after a movies supposed start time. Just fuck this shit.
So you haven’t been to a movie theater in, like, 20 years? Because none of that is new.
Ads are fairly new, like the car commercial kind of ads. Before you’d show up early to watch the trailers. No one would show up early to watch ads.
First time I remember going to see a movie was about 20 years ago. There might’ve been a movie preview or two; I don’t remember ads. Both “trailers” and ads have gotten progressively worse over the years - almost to the point that you’d think they alone fund the movie and the theatre - but you still pay a ridiculous ticket price.
Adverts have been on at the cinema for as long as I remember although they might have been for products sold at the cinema.
This is the oldest advert that I remember and it’s from 1986. https://youtu.be/rlyrlsf3EfA
Edit: although your point of both previews and ads getting progressively worse is still very correct.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
lol what? you go to the movies to watch the movie… if you want to talk you can do it afterwards. also, it’s not like the ads take time off the actual movie
You’re paying $20 to watch a series of giant, unmutable, unskippable and loud ads. It’s like going to a restaurant and the waiter reminds you to stop by the car dealership on the way home to experience the thrill of the new Chevy Equinox. Get ready for a journey that combines style, performance, and endless possibilities.
it’s not that serious, get there a couple minutes late and that’s it
That’s the thing that bugs me so much. Most movies have around 10 minutes of ads. That is ample time to promote some of the lesser known movies that company has made but instead we get ads for insurance companies pretending that they are green, banks gaslighting you into thinking they care about you, McDonalds trying to trick you into their food I synonymous with a happy family and Matt Damon pushing cryto currency on you. I would rather watch an ad for a good movie.
i don’t mind true previews, but seeing standard TV ad garbage in a theatre that loud legitimately pissed me off last few times I went. swear they got louder. i also age incrementally, unceasingly, which doesn’t help
deleted by creator
More like 20 to 30 minutes 🙄
deleted by creator
Convenience fee is the best name they can apply to soften a fee, which is really just a way for them to charge more than the list price.
Fees should be universally folded into the list price by default.
deleted by creator
You might be seeing fees I’m not, but some cell service are actually mandatory in the US. Usually a few dollars a month, they go to various state and federal agencies.
deleted by creator
I feel you. Weird that they don’t label it, maybe you get a summarized bill or something.
Essentially automated greed. They make more money by automating their employees and they charge you even more because of how convenient it was for them to do so.
I visited Marrakesh back in 2018 and went to a coffee shop where you can see the main city square from above. When I asked for the bill, the employee said the price plus a “serving” fee. This “convenience” fee has the same bullshit energy as that fake fee in Morocco.
For the convenience of getting screwed over…
I visited Marrakesh back in 2018 and went to a famous coffee shop where you can see the main city square from above. When I asked for the bill, the employee said the price plus a “serving” fee. This “convenience” fee has the same bullshit energy as the fee in the coffee shop in Morocco.
Tickets at my local theater is still lik $8. Wtf do you live?
I saw Indiana Jones today it had 25 minutes of trailers, an admonishment to not ruin the movie, Nicole Kidman telling me how great going to the movies is, and a commercial for the projector. So a movie listed to start at 11 started at 11:28. it’s fucking ridiculous.
I find that pretty consistent for AMC. What ever the listed time is the film will play after 30min of trailers/promos. Its annoying but easy to plan around.
I watched the new spiderverse. I liked the Dolby Atmos/HDR demo as I hadn’t seen them before, but they’ll need to shorten them a little bit going forward
The first Dolby movie I saw Thor Ragnarok, and they ran that same damn ad for the projector then, so that’s like 5 and half years. But I do prefer the Dolby to imax, or at least the bullshit imax they run in amc theaters.
I pretty much only go on Discount Tuesdays now. One of my local theaters also waves the “convenience” fee if you join their free rewards program. Helps me save a lot that way.
What’s the deal with one word of your comment being replaced with ‘removed’ in italics?
Don’t see that here. What is the context of the removed word?
I’m on the app connect and the comment looks like this:
I pretty much only go on removed Tuesdays now. One of my local theaters also waves the “convenience” fee if you join their free rewards program. Helps me save a lot that way.
Perhaps some filtering on my app or home instance? Strange. Maybe just a glitch
The word is “Discount” - D i s c o u n t.
I won’t pay that. Simple as that. That’s a crazy total.
Holy shit that’s outrageous. Me, 2 other adults and 1 kid all saw Spider-Verse 2 at the fanciest theater I know the other week. It was like $7 a ticket. You’re being robbed.
Across the Spiderverse for $7 is money well, well spent.
It was! Absolutely phenomenal movie. Shame to hear the rumors about the animators being under horrific crunch though.
If you live in a city, movies are needlessly expensive. AMC does half price tickets on Tuesdays, so if you can schedule around that you can go see a movie for what people used to be able to pay. A group of us try to see IMAX movies on Tuesdays for ‘only’ $12 a ticket.
Am I wrong about the city thing? Anyone in the burbs/more rural areas seeing prices like OP’s?
The fuck is a convenience fee?
Like the name, they just charge whatever they feel convenient lol.
Why did you go there after all this bullshit?
I didn’t, I’m not the OP.
Oh heck, sorry
I, uh, heard that the theatres are doing good numbers this summer, actually. I wouldn’t know, though. The last movie I went to was a Sunday matinee for a movie that every had seen already, so it was pratcually a private showing.
20$ a ticket whew plus the feel, this is almost as bad as doordash, like dang
ItS ThE ExpERiEncE
How is it legal to make up a fee then offer a paid membership to avoid the fee you just made up? How is that different from the mob guys that would collect your “insurance” membership so that you didn’t incur a “business burned down” fee?
All of that kind of stuff is illegal and/or regulated in Europe. It’s not perfect mind you, but it’s trying to be better. Another good example are car rentals, they can offer you non-required add-ons but other than that, the price you see on the first screen is gonna be your final price.
Biden is trying to implement that in the US, guess who’s trying to block it?
“Free market” is neither free not cheap.
Because our governments don’t care about us because 40% of the country hates themselves.
