Dealing with movie theater bureaucracy.

[tdn]

@Njoy

Here is where the drama picked up (if you can call it drama.) I had devised the perfect plan, I would simply tell her the ticket was lost, and if she persisted, I would, with a sad face, tell her I was robbed.

That was your perfect plan? You must really think that movie theatre people are idiots. Trust me, they’ve seen it all (even the fat ones and the black ones), and the only reason they let you get away with it is because they figured that punks like you were hardly worth the trouble.

BTW, the rule for getting minors into an R rated movie is if they are accompanied by a parent or adult legal guardian. Note that “older buddy” is not part of the MPAA warning. And NC-17 means no one under 17, no matter who they’re with. And yes, some theatres do enforce this. When I was a theatre manager, I did.

Of course, once in a while I’d let some people slide. If they acted maturely and didn’t try to cause trouble, I wouldn’t hassle them. If they tried to get over on me and give me some lame ass story about being robbed, I’d boot them out on their asses.

[Zebra]

@Dogzilla

I just bought movie tickets about five minutes ago, sitting right here at my desk at work, from my computer. Every time I go to the movies, I turn to my friends and say, “Who in the hell waits in line for the teller anymore?”

Then I was going to flame the hell out of the OP for a) not using movietickets.com to buy tickets or b) using one of those little kiosks in front of the theater to buy their tickets.

Then I remembered that many kids under 18, and many under 21 do not possess credit cards, which you need to do either.

You may now resume trashing your local movie theater. Or defending it, depending on what you were doing before I butted in with this pointless post.

You could use an ATM/Debit card for those transactions if it has a credit card logo. Of course you need a bank account for that, but not impossible for an 18 year-old.

Oh and they let you get away with it as they can’t just drag you off to one of those exit ways and kick your teeth in.

Which I’d bet money they wanted to do.

[Gamaliel]

Congratulations on pulling one over on the “nerdy fat teller”. You should be proud. :rolleyes:

[tdn]

@Zebra

Oh and they let you get away with it as they can’t just drag you off to one of those exit ways and kick your teeth in.

Which I’d bet money they wanted to do.

Oh yeah. Guaranteed.

You wouldn’t believe some of the shit some people would try to get away with. And they all thought they were very clever.

One kid wanted a refund on a special kind of ticket that he “bought at school.” I asked him how much he paid for it. He said “Oh, maybe like… ten bucks?” The thing had “$3.50” printed right on it in big bold letters. (Yes, this was long ago in a galaxy far away.)

Or the two kids who were obviously the same age, but one claimed to be 10 and the other 17. This was so they could see an R movie on a kid’s ticket. Idiots.

[Delly]

I was wondering, Njoy are you looking for sympathy because your scheme didnt work, or are you just posting the story to get a reaction from people?

And whats with the ‘dont give a crap’ attitude about how maybe the teller might have to pay a fine if she was found out? Granted other Dopers have come into the thread after you and said that these fines dont exist, but you didnt know this and you still didnt care? Whats up with that? I mean the girl is working at a local cinema, how much can she possibly be earning? Do you think she can afford to pay a fine because you decide you want to see some film? I cant get over how wrong that is, and how you make it out shes the one with the problem and not you.

And dont even get me started on how you would’nt back down to the seller when you tried to get the extra tickets :mad:

[Lynn_Bodoni]

@Coldfire

Off to the Pit, I suppose.

So can a movie theater owner actually get in trouble for letting people into movies when they’re younger than the rating states?

Over here, the movie ratings are indicative. Sure, if you run a porn cinema and routinely let in 12 year olds, you’ll be in trouble soon enough. But a 16 year old can easily purchase a ticket for an 18+ movie. It’s ultimately your own responsibility.

Most movie theaters in the US are owned by huge corporations. These companies have pretty strict rules about EVERYTHING. About 15 years ago I worked in a theater, and any box office cashier who sold a ticket for an R rated movie to a minor would get written up, at least. If she did it too many times, she’d be fired. So, though I’m not aware of any LEGAL repercussions of selling R rated tickets to minors, I can tell you that there were certainly consequences.

Every now and then, we’d have mystery shoppers from the company who would come around, act like a normal customer, and just see what we were up to.

When I was working at the theater, everyone who wasn’t in management got minimum wage. I think that some of the people got the lower minimum wage that was just for teenagers. NOBODY got raises. Anyone who asked for a raise mysteriously got fired soon afterwards, unless they were on management track.

I worked there because it was the first place that hired me, and because when I was working in the box office (my usual station), I was allowed to read between selling tickets. When the new manager told me that he didn’t want me reading, yet he allowed other people to do their homework in the box office, I quit. To me, being able to read in the slack time was an important benefit, equivalent to quite a bit of money in my paycheck.

[Njoy]

@Delly

I was wondering, Njoy are you looking for sympathy because your scheme didnt work, or are you just posting the story to get a reaction from people?

And whats with the ‘dont give a crap’ attitude about how maybe the teller might have to pay a fine if she was found out? Granted other Dopers have come into the thread after you and said that these fines dont exist, but you didnt know this and you still didnt care? Whats up with that? I mean the girl is working at a local cinema, how much can she possibly be earning? Do you think she can afford to pay a fine because you decide you want to see some film? I cant get over how wrong that is, and how you make it out shes the one with the problem and not you.

And dont even get me started on how you would’nt back down to the seller when you tried to get the extra tickets :mad:

I work in a liquor store, so I know the teller’s situation more than you think.

The thing that upset me about the teller is that I gave her a full proof story, which she would not get in trouble for, and she would not take it. Then to top it off the last thing she said was something like “I know you are lying but I don’t care.” Then the security guard checks our tickets, figures out two of us are underage, but still lets us in. So they did not do their job.

I wrote the story because I like writing about things that agitate me. It calms me down.

I’m not racist. I called the guy black so you would get an idea of how he would act since he closely resembled black stereotypes. Honey, thanks for telling me the rules. I am new so I don’t know what people tolerate here.

[Sarcasm] And I do not like fat people, so I guess I had built in prejudice for the teller [/sarcasm]

[Astroboy14]

@Njoy

…I gave her a full proof story…

Um… dude…

Nah, to hell with it!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[KGS]

@Njoy

I’m not racist. I called the guy black so you would get an idea of how he would act since he closely resembled black stereotypes.

Well that comment will surely win you a lot of friends around here. :rolleyes:

To stay on topic…I never got “carded” for an R-rated movie until after I turned 17, and that one time was because me & my friends were acting like immature jerkoffs. And I’m sure that “guardian” can mean older brother or other relative, and how are they going to tell if you’re not?

And yes, working at a movie theater sucks. The free movies are cool, but not remotely worth it.

[Hamlet]

@Njoy

I work in a liquor store, so I know the teller’s situation more than you think.

You work in a liquor store and you thought the “I lost the tickets…No wait they were stolen” was a “full proof story”? Damn. I wish I coulda bought from your store when I was 16.

"Ummmm, I left my ID at work, dude, but I’m 21. Really. I swear, dude. "

[Delly]

Njoy…

Your story may have been fool proof to you and therefore you reckon she wont get in any trouble. Ok its fine you lost your two tickets we can deal with that… but what if someone did come along and decide to check the tickets, oh look, we have two kids in here who are underaged. Who sold these tickets to you, everyone looks at teller, teller gets in trouble. End of story.

No matter how fool proof your story is to you, theres bound to be a hole in it somewhere.

---

I think the underage things just bothers me in general, purely because over here now, I can be fined up to €1900 ($2258) for selling alchol to a minor. And lets face it, some of those minors look a lot older then they actually are… not easy to tell just by looking at them

[Coulbean]

Wow, coincidentally, I too had trouble getting into see Kill Bill 2 just a few days ago. Unfortunately, our local theater is way behind the times and doesn’t yet have those nifty self-service kiosks, so I did have to wait in line to buy my tickets.

I just turned 21, and I had my younger brother with me who is 17. I’m often told that I look much younger (about 16 or younger), and my brother looks older. But I was still surprised when I was carded for the movie. My first thought was that he wanted my student ID (since I was buying student tickets), but no, he wanted my real ID. Carded for cigarettes, I can understand. I don’t even ask for them without having my ID out. (Which leads to another thing that annoys me, when clerks ask for my ID as I’m pulling it out of my wallet.) But being carded for a movie annoyed the hell out of me.

After seeing my ID he asked for my brother’s. My brother didn’t have his on him.

I said to the guy, “He’s my brother. He’s 17. I’m 21.”

Guy: “Oh you are, let me see your ID again. Oh, you did have your birthday. Ok.” And he sold me the tickets.

IMHO, these rules are stupid. If parents cannot prevent their kids from doing things they don’t want them to do, they can’t expect the movie theater to do it for them. It really annoyed me that 4 years after these rules, theoretically, stopped affecting me, they almost prevented me from seeing a movie with my brother (who hardly gives me the time of day anymore).

So, although, I was perfectly of age and “legal” to see a rated-R movie, and my brother was too, I feel your pain, Njoy. These rules are a pain in the ass for theater employees (I would assume) as well as innocent movie-goers. But I have to tell you, if that guy hadn’t realized that I was 21, I wouldn’t have gotten the tickets. I don’t think that there’s a good way around the system, unless you find someone older to drag along with you. If this had happened 3 weeks ago, when I was still 20, I would have left the movie theater, ticketless, and sorely pissed.

Good luck next time. Maybe you can get your parents to buy the tickets for you online.

[Njoy]

If you buy tickets online you have to pick them up at the theater. You have to actually have someone that is over 21 accompany you to the theater in order for you to watch an R rated movie.

Most people’s defense for the teller was that she was doing her job. I’m telling you she was not since she let us in anyway. I admit my story was not full proof, but it should be enough for her to give us tickets if she wanted to. Not prance around for 5 minutes about how we are liars and then just let us in. If she had not let us in at all, I would not be upset as much.

[Ooner]

Not completely on-topic, but I really get annoyed at low-level customer service people who feel it’s their duty to strictly adhere to all the rules, as if they owned the company. I worked in a video store and it seemed like a lot of employees fell into one of two camps: either they gave or traded away employee discounts and free movies and voided late fees like it was going out of style… OR they were completely militant in their collections and arguments with customers, as if every late fee collected was going into their pockets.

For $5.25 an hour I guarantee I’m not going to pressure customers for late fees, or actively try to thwart their attempts to sneak into an R-rated movie. I’ll gladly play dumb if someone makes at least a little effort to work around the rules.

[Trigonal_Planar]

I must say, you have the underaged theatre hopping worked out to a tee! Most impressive.

[iampunha]

@Njoy

I’m not racist. I called the guy black so you would get an idea of how he would act since he closely resembled black stereotypes.

Nope, no cognitive dissonance here.

[Typo_Negative]

@Ooner

For $5.25 an hour I guarantee I’m not going to pressure customers for late fees, or actively try to thwart their attempts to sneak into an R-rated movie. I’ll gladly play dumb if someone makes at least a little effort to work around the rules.

For the $5.25 an hour, you are supposed to fufill the requirements of the job, as set down by your employer.

[Astroboy14]

@Njoy

I admit my story was not full proof

Heavy sigh

Dangit! It’s FOOLproof. As in “safe for even fools to practice” (though maybe not, in your case).

Here: cite.
[sup] Sorry… I’m cranky tonight…[/sup]

[Clothahump]

@Njoy

I never had to go through so much BS just to see one movie.

So me and my friends want to see Kill Bill 2. Two of us are underage, two are not.

Well, let’s stop right there. Why was it so important to see the movie that you were willing to break the rules? That does NOT speak highly of your character at all.

Believe it or not, there really are such things as honor, integrity and self control. Perhaps you and your friends should learn about them. Learn to look past the end of your own nose and not do things for your own self-gratification that could wind up getting other people fired from their jobs.

[Njoy]

If everyone played by the rules life would be boring wouldn’t it?

You people (not all of you) read my story, see that I am obviously breaking a rule an immediately jump to the conclusion that I am wrong no matter what situation I am complaining about. Things are not always that simple. You are right if you think I expected to get in the movie with no trouble if I had some kind of excuse. The best part was the teller’s diatribe while she was taking my money and selling me the ticket. All I’m saying is I can do without the rampage.

At my store my boss is nice enough to me so that I will not sell any minor any liquor. No exceptions.