From Sinemia/MoviePass to Eternity (Part 4 of ?)

Well, thanks to this fairly objective, concise article, I learned Sinemia pulled the plug on their magnificent $20/month unlimited plan and changed it to an eight-movie-per-month plan for the same price.

Oh well. It was a promotional offer. Props to the folks who were able to take advantage of it.

PLOT TWIST!

It looks like this isn't actually happening everywhere. Just checked on my phone and it still says the unlimited plan is available.

DOUBLE PLOT TWIST!

(Update, right as I'm about to publish this blog!) I just checked it on my computer and both the unlimited and eight-movie-per-month plan are gone.

Gotta be quick or be dead with these offers!

On the plus side, the "Classic" three-movie-per-month plan I'm on is now $7.99/month, a dollar cheaper than when I got it.

On the minus side, physical cards now cost $10 more than when I got mine.

So doing the math in my head...uh...carry the two...and...the current plan is a dollar cheaper per month, and the current card is 83 cents more expensive per month. So you still come out 17 cents ahead if you sign up now and get the same plan I got.

Make like the best film in the Rocky franchise and GO FOR IT!

*

My experiences with Sinemia Customer Support have been hilarious. In that I have none. No experiences. They never respond. That's funny.

HOWEVER, just two days ago, they finally responded by email to my inquiry about where on the website I might find the link to purchase a physical card.

I sent them that inquiry almost three months ago.

Better late than never!

No word back on the other three emails I sent them a couple months back. I assume I'll get a response around Thanksgiving.

In more recent times, I have actually gotten a couple brief responses from them, usually a week or two later, by direct-messaging them on Twitter. Rumors persist that they respond on Facebook, as well, but I cannot confirm.

I understand the way to get them to respond most promptly is to publicly tweet your problem and include @SinemiaApp or @SinemiaSupport in your tweet. Sucks that they make you be THAT person who complains on social media.

But, as Sinemia has repeatedly proven, they respond best to public shaming.

And that's better than not responding at all.

*

MoviePass customer service is no picnic, either, but they at least get a human to answer you when you use the chat function on the app.

And a real human on chat is who you'll need to talk to if you want to cancel your account. And I just found the information you need to give them to actually make your cancellation stick.

Long story short: people have been having a very hard time canceling their MoviePass accounts. They either get app error screens or it says their account is canceled and then keeps charging them every month.

Someone finally found the magic bullet.

You have to get an EMAIL CONFIRMATION that your account is canceled, otherwise your cancellation is not official and they will keep charging you. Oh, and they do not send emails confirming your account was canceled. You have to demand the email.

This means grabbing a screenshot from the terms of service and presenting it in a chat and repeatedly demanding they send you an email confirmation that your account is canceled.

This walks you through the process.

That's how it's done, if you want MoviePass out of your life.

You're welcome!

*

In other awesome MoviePass news, they fired their business development team.

Because, you know, you don't want your business to develop TOO much.

Let's be reasonable here.

Instead, they should just hire me and put me in charge of MoviePass.

My first act as Supreme Dictator of MoviePass? Making the app display all movies and showtimes for me. And making my plan unlimited, including multiple movie screenings per day.

The rest of you will keep getting "No Screenings." Bwahahaha!

*

Oh, and regarding the ongoing dumpster fire of MoviePass lawsuits by users and shareholders?

It burns on.

This week's highlight was the company's clever defense regarding its disastrous business model: "Hey, we told our investors we might lose all their money."

This checks out. No further questions, your Honor.

*

Oh, and remember how I wrote all those books bragging about how many MoviePass movies I saw? I thought I was pretty cool, seeing a total of 150 movies during my unlimited era.

Well, this guy puts me to shame.

He saw 181 movies during his MoviePass binge.

Now granted, he admits he had an abundance of free time to pull this off. He has three fewer kids than me.

But pulling off 181 movies? I SALUTE HIM ALL THE SAME!

A real hero. A real human being.

*

Some Internet sleuth finally found a zip code where MoviePass' lowest tier plan is actually offered at their "starting at" price of $9.95. (Everywhere else it's $12.95 or $14.95.)

The location?

Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Zip code 74464.

So there you go. You lucky Tahlequah folks, you!

I got curious and Googled this city. It's at the foothills of the Ozark mountains, in Cherokee County.

Cool enough.

But also, check this out: It lists the home of the horse who played Mr. Ed as one of its top ten tourist attractions. Specifically, it's the house Mr. Ed lived in late in life right before he died.

THE MR. ED DEATH HOUSE!? MUST-SEE!!!

Between that and being able to get MoviePass for only $9.95/month there, I might have to move to Tahlequah ASAP.



-B.P. Kasik/Phony McFakename

My "legitimate" books are on Amazon here and my Phony McFakename books are on Amazon here. I exist on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram but I only really post regularly on Instagram.

From Sinemia/MoviePass to Eternity (Part 3 of ?)

Not the best week for Sinemia.

They're engaging in some fishy behavior that is either nefarious and existentially evil (if they're secretly identity-thieving)...or clumsy and poorly-executed (if they are, in fact, trying to reduce fraud).

The FIRST STRIKE? Misuse fees. I'll explain how those happen.

After you use the Sinemia app to load your card with funds and then purchase your ticket (or after you arrive at the theater with your advance ticket), you are required to check in on the app. It's pretty easy, just tap the green "Check-In" button on the home screen. And then it looks like this:

And you're all good. Unless you forget to check in or the app is down for maintenance.

If you forget? That's on you. Tough luck.

But the app is down for maintenance at random, unpredictable times. And when it's down, you can't check in.

This actually happened to me at one of my first movies seen with Sinemia, but luckily they have a two-hour window before and after the movie showtime for checking in, so I lucked out and found the app was back up by the time my shorter-than-two-hour movie ended and I was able to check in then.

But if you're not as lucky as I was, this is where misuse fees happen. They apparently allow ONE missed check-in without any penalty fees. But if it happens twice, you're toast. Sinemia charges you the price of the ticket(s) you purchased along with a "misuse fee" of $10-$30 that you have to pay before you can use your Sinemia account again. Essentially holding your account hostage for ransom.

Now they claim to be doing this as a "fraud prevention measure." They want to make sure you're actually physically going to the movies to see the movie you bought a ticket for and not just racking up rewards points or sending your friend in with your ticket.

Fair enough. But they're not showing any mercy for the people that arrived and tried to check in but were unable due to the app being down. This is not okay.

Sinemia has been responsive to fixing their messed-up processes in the past once they are publicly shamed for it. Hopefully they will fix this one.

*

And if you thought that was bad, check out STRIKE TWO: ID verification.

I mentioned this last week, but it was only an abstraction then.

This week, it actually happened to ME.

Basically, ID verification means you have to upload a photo of your driver's license and your face holding your driver's license next to it.

And they ambush you with this request when you're trying to use the app to buy a ticket at the theater, or trying to check in for your movie at the theater. Not cool.

I thought fast and took both photos and then carefully blacked-out my driver's license number on both photos using my phone's image manipulation tools. I advise you to do the same. Even if this IS another innocent "fraud prevention measure," you don't want a Turkish company with Turkish laws and Turkish servers accessible to Turkish hackers to have an unaltered scan of your driver's license with your number visible. ID theft is a thing and you need to be vigilant.

I was able to get my ticket and check in as soon as I submitted the photos at sinemia.com/member.

And two days later, they sent me an email saying my documents were approved. So, confirmed: it's okay to black-out your driver's license number. All they really need is your name, birth date, and photo. You could probably black out even more info, if you want to be extra-safe.

Best to take the pics NOW if you're a member so you don't feel that scatterbrained last-minute pressure to do so at the theater. Go ahead and upload them at the site two paragraphs back, as well. You'll thank me later.

But this allegedly-fraud-preventing measure was a terrible idea and is creating massive radioactive PR fallout.

Sinemia: one more strike and YOU OUT!

*

Back to good ol' MoviePass.

I tried to repeat last month's stunt and get three tickets during my first three days of the month again.

No dice.

Even if you check the online schedule in advance at moviepass.com/movies to ensure they have a movie playing at a local theater AND you jump on the app at the crack of dawn before they get a chance to shut it down...

You STILL get hit with "No more screenings."

My early-bird workaround to outsmart the kamikaze MoviePass app? It no longer works.

I actually hit up customer service chat in the MoviePass app about this and they basically said, "Yeah. That's how it is now. Just because a movie's listed as available on the schedule don't mean nothing. Instead of shutting down the app early in the day, we now just sometimes never offer anything at any time of day. Deal with it."

I pointed out to the rep that Sinemia offers a better, cheaper deal on three movies per month with no restrictions on showtimes or theaters.

They kept insisting these glitches are temporary, same boilerplate line they've been feeding us customers for the past seven months.

News flash: NONE of the glitches are temporary.

But it's cute that the customer service rep still thinks anyone will believe that.

*

And writers are still writing super-generic anti-MoviePass articles.

Nothing new there. That could have been written in August 2018.

And the headline to this stinker of an article has a faulty premise:

"Theaters Won't Need MoviePass Much Longer."

This implies movie theaters ever DID need--or even volunteer to work with--MoviePass.

It's another article by someone who never used MoviePass and has no idea how it works.

Clickbait! All of it! Bah!

*

We haven't talked about Alamo in a while. Probably because I haven't gone there in a while.

But I must alert you, as something has changed since then...

For behold! Alamo has a new process!

Solid.

I always wait until the movie starts to sit down at the Alamo because it lowers the statistical likelihood of a server bothering me. But servers still bother me, talking over the movie with their spiel about how Alamo works even after I ask them to please stop and please leave. It's a major reason why I stopped going there with any regularity.

But now? I arrived right on time at the movie and then, five minutes in, saw a server approach from the left. I put up my dukes, ready to slug this sucka.

But instead of bothering me, he just dropped the card you see above and went on his merry way!

I loved it!

Now, Alamo: how about you utilize these cards instead of bothering people BEFORE the movie starts, as well?

*

Philosophical question posed by this article: Why is the movie theater dying?

Philosophical answer from me: Everything in that article is wrong.

You know why the movie theater is dying?

ASSIGNED SEATING!

I HATE IT!

Everyone with any sense of decency also hates it.

And I raging extra-hard about this because 2/3 of my local theaters have always had assigned seating and last week...

The last remaining free theater--the Regal--became a prisoner of assigned seating.

I take great pleasure in walking into a theater, getting a feel for the place, smelling the air, checking the wind-chill factor, and selecting just the right seat just the right distance away from annoying or chatty people. It’s a fine art. An art RUINED by assigned seating.

Bonus: These Regal geniuses made this change on Lego Movie 2's opening weekend and did it without any advance notice. I only knew because I check the Regal app with some regularity. I asked a couple employees there about it the day before the changeover and neither one of them knew it was coming.

I repeat: THE DAY BEFORE the switchover, TWO EMPLOYEES had NO IDEA this was happening!

I cannot possible throw enough ALL-CAPS shade at this!

Their box office staff was already plenty incompetent at their previous level of service, so adding the step of seat-selection to every transaction is easily going to double the time it takes for each transaction.

Now to their credit, they keep the screen behind a window and ask the patron to verbally select their seat, unlike the Alamo, which makes the (usually drunk, always disoriented) patron use the never-functional touchscreen to select their own seat. So it's not QUITE as bad as the Alamo box office experience, but it's doing its best to be bad.

Not to mention the box staff having to explain the concept of assigned seating to every single customer, regular and irregular, drunk and sober.

I normally get all my tickets at the automated kiosk, so you'd think this wouldn't chafe me. But it does. Because I accumulate mad rewards points at this place and in order to redeem those for tickets, you have to do so at the box office. If they'd just let you use rewards points to get tickets at the automated kiosks, I'd have no dog in this fight. I'd just let the people suffer and wail with the extra-long box office lines, looking down upon them as they cry up to me, saying, "Save me." And me responding with, "Nope." 

I saw a couple movies there on the day of the switchover to test it out and observe customers and chat with the employees there. Full report: I absolutely hate it, but I ended up switching seats at both theaters and no one cared. They only care if it's like a crowded theater and you're sitting in a seat assigned to someone else. And the ushers at the theater said it was a miserable day, with more than half of customers complaining about the change.

It's all screaming into the void, though. Stupid corporate people make stupid corporate decisions and ours is not to reason why. Once a theater goes assigned-seating, it doesn't go back.

The world is now a worse place. Thanks, Regal.

*

But on the bright side, this terrible tragedy prompted me to take a quest: Cranking my wife's Alamo Victory Rewards account up to Top Brass.

Top Brass means 50 visits within a year. I already got my own Alamo account up to that and was well on my way to doing the same for hers when the unlimited MoviePass era ended.

Have only gone there a few times since, as Regal's rewards program is much better. But now Regal has assigned seating, so screw them.

I now have until May 22 to get 20 visits in. I believe I can do it.

Especially since I can now arrive late without being bothered.

Good improvement there, Alamo. Keep improving!



-B.P. Kasik/Phony McFakename

My "legitimate" books are on Amazon here and my Phony McFakename books are on Amazon here. I exist on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram but I only really post regularly on Instagram.

From Sinemia/MoviePass to Eternity (Part 2 of ?)

This has been one of those weeks.

You know, the type with seven days in it.

And all seven days have been super-duper-mega-chaos for a certain company named "MoviePass."

*

First, there was this sublimely ridiculous, ridiculously sublime Ringer article, a spectacular train-wreck of a visit to MoviePass headquarters.

The best laughs come from the constant stream of unintentionally self-damning commentary by MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe (A.K.A. The Mitchster), including this bit on when they dropped the price and were getting hundreds of thousands of account signups a day:

“I was talking to our CTO,” Lowe continues, “and he said, ‘By the way, you know we can only ship about 35,000 to 50,000 cards a week, right?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know that, but shouldn’t we be able to call MasterCard and increase that?’ The answer was no.”

They truly had no idea what they were doing.

*

Then this story came out about MoviePass' recently-hired Senior Executive stealing thousands of dollars from his previous employer in 2010.

My first thought on that was that this is no different from all us MoviePass users stealing from the company every time we used it in the unlimited era, plus MoviePass itself stealing from their investors during that same period. And MoviePass has been stealing from its customers by collecting monthly fees and providing garbage service for half a year now. So a thief should fit right in there!

Now that story is not specifically bad MoviePass behavior. It's just bad optics, as that new executive, Khalid Itum, was supposed to be the Turnaround Kid for the company. And dirt on him is not helpful.

Also, it's a bit more complicated than it sounds. Apparently the facts were in dispute about how much money was actually allegedly stolen, plus whether the money was used for legitimate business expenses. Itum claims his previous employer was retaliating against him with that lawsuit and threatening his immigration status for personal reasons. The previous employer didn't comment. So, we're left to wonder on that one.

*

Ready for another loop-de-loop on this cinematic rollercoaster? MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson just finally got delisted from the NASDAQ.

"What does that mean?" you're probably asking. It means their stock traded at under $1 for too long and they're no longer allowed to play in the big leagues of the stock market. And interestingly, the company isn't even appealing the decision. Probably a good move.

But despite this financial cataclysm, they say it will have "no effect on the day-to-day business operations."

Want proof? They're still hard at work on those three Bruce Willis movies they signed him for, in addition to this new one from out of nowhere, starring Al Pacino.  

Axis Sally. Weird title. Fitting, for a weird company.

The bumblebee flies on. Can't stop the rock.

*

Meanwhile, over in Sinemia land, they're having their own set of ups and downs.

Ups first!

They got this fairly positive write-up in Business Insider, a site that (like me) was highly skeptical of Sinemia in the past. It highlights the company's attempts to woo theater chains to use their app as a template for building their own ticket subscription services, a great way to make MoviePass extra-obsolete.

Another MoviePass-destroying move? Sinemia continues to be the only company offering an unlimited ticket plan, and it's STILL only $20 a month.

I wish I'd waited to sign up until that option was available, as I've contacted Sinemia customer service via Twitter to see if  I could upgrade to it and they said no, alas.

Can't win 'em all.

Three movies a month for $8.99 is still great!

*

Ready for the bad Sinemia news?

They jacked the price for their physical card from $15 to $25. They really, really want you to just use the app to get your tickets so they can collect that sweet, sweet $1.80 "processing fee" on every transaction.

Cards were still just $15 when I got mine. I recommend you get yours soon before they jack the price up to $35.

*

And Sinemia got blitzed in the press and message boards for apparently locking down hundreds (thousands?) of user accounts and refusing to unlock them unless the user uploaded two forms of ID.

This is terrible on many levels.

The most disturbing is that Sinemia is a Turkish company, so the legality of everything they do is kinda up in the air. Who governs them? Who knows? But when a Turkish company demands a photo of your government-issued driver's license, that should send up all kinds of red flags.

They're allegedly doing this to verify user identification and prevent fraud (think of this as MoviePass' beloved "ticket verification" on heroin-flavored crack). So all they REALLY need is to see your face and name on your ID.

And thus, pro-tip: contrary to what Sinemia says on the subject, you absolutely can and should obscure your driver's license number if/when you upload a photo of your ID to them. Verification can take anywhere from 20 minutes to several days.

Think this is kinda lame? Well, you can apparently vent directly at the CEO of Sinemia! He's on Twitter, as the Internet recently learned!

Be firm but polite with him!

*

Back to the 'pass.

I hate articles on MoviePass like this. Right up front, they get the most basic facts wrong. The unlimited service was $9.95 a month, not $9.99.

That's a warning sign that you're about to read a garbled blah of secondhand quotes and hearsay. This is probably yet another one of the hundreds of articles about MoviePass written by someone who never actually used MoviePass.

Extra insulting is that it claims to be the "inside story." It is not. As expected, it mostly recycles quotes from recent and ancient articles about the company.

Boycott MoviePass articles that add no new insight!

Okay, in fairness, there was one funny new thing in there I hadn't heard...delisted parent company HMNY CEO Ted Farnsworth saying they want to cast MoviePass subscribers in the movies they produce.

"We cast (subscribers)...to be in our movies, have a talking part or speaking part or whatever it is...So I think it's more inclusive … where it's just not only subscription."

Casting MoviePass subscribers in their movies..."LOL," as the kids say.

Will these subscribers be able to resist holding up "NO MORE SCREENINGS ARE AVAILABLE AT THIS THEATER" signs?

*

Another lil' MoviePass LOL: this tone-deaf video.

Please note comments are disabled on this MoviePass ad.

Disabling comments is the smartest thing they've done in months.



-B.P. Kasik/Phony McFakename

My "legitimate" books are on Amazon here and my Phony McFakename books are on Amazon here. I exist on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram but I only really post regularly on Instagram.

From Sinemia/MoviePass to Eternity (Part 1 of ?)

I compiled my last 19 blog entries into Cinemadness 3: No More Screenings.

Thought that was that. Ready to move on with my life and write about other things.

Nope.

It's been a busy week-or-so since I finalized that book.

I fear I may never escape my calling to be The Official Chronicler of this insanity.

Could be worse. I could be a political writer.

*

The biggest announcement was MoviePass announcing they'd be bringing back their unlimited plan.

They said they were going to release it last week.

They did not release it last week.

*

Instead, they got sued in a class-action suit.

Now they're very rightly being accused of a "bait-and-switch scheme." In that they promise a service that lets you see movies and then provide a service where it is nearly impossible to see movies.

But...these lawsuit-filers signed up in March 2018 and claim to have only seen three movies in the past year.

I'm extremely skeptical of people who signed up in the halcyon unlimited time of early 2018--months before it went bad--and were only able to see three movies.

After July, 2018? Sure. Nearly impossible to see anything with MoviePass.

But before July 2018?

That's poor planning and scheduling on the plaintiffs' part.

I call shenanigans on their lawsuit.

*

But let's circle back to MoviePass failing to announce their new unlimited plan.

Do you think they didn't do it because the lawsuit knocked them off-course?

Naw. The business week was already over by the time the lawsuit was announced.

There's something else at work here.

It starts with an "S" and ends in "inemia."

It's Sinemia. Sinemia scared them off.

Sinemia announced that their $30/month unlimited plan is now $20/month and they'll allow one ticket rollover on the limited plans for every monthly period.

I would bet dollars to donuts that this baller move shamed MoviePass out of announcing their unlimited plan. I bet MoviePass was planning to charge $40 or $50 bucks for their unlimited plan and they realized their competition was charging half that.

As it stands now, you can see three movies a month whenever you want with MoviePass for $18-20, depending on your zip code.

Or you can see 30 movies a month whenever you want with Sinemia for $20, regardless of your zip code.

Any questions?

(Me! I have a question! This one: MoviePass, care to release the amount you were planning to charge for your unlimited plan?)

*

I am currently a happy camper seeing three movies a month with Sinemia.

But not everyone is so happy with them due to their numerous changes to their terms of service, hidden fees, and app glitches.

This user, for instance, got their account canceled for seeing the same movie four times. They learned something that's apparently in the terms of service but that no one seemed to know about: you can only see the same movie up to three times.

The rule is a fraud prevention measure, because if your account is seeing the same movie four times, chances are you're not the only person using it and other folks in your house are using it to see that same movie.

Still, it's a pretty annoying gotcha, as no reasonable person reads every word of the terms of service. There should be a warning shot for something like that, not outright cancellation.

A helpful tool is available here, if you need it. Some kind citizen archived all the changes to Sinemia's terms of service with links to the way the terms stood at various times over the past couple years.

But despite their shortcomings and user annoyances, Sinemia's star is on the rise. Along with MoviePass, they were previously rated "F" by the Better Business Bureau. Now they're up to a "C"!

Yay! A passing grade!

*

In other little cinematic news tidbits, there's no longer that "buy four tickets, get one free" incentive on Atom Tickets. You can still get your convenience fee waived there if you check out through Facebook Movies, but unless you got your first ticket at Atom in 2018, you can no longer get the free ticket benefit.

Fandango apparently offers credit on your purchases there, though. Each ticket is 125 points and 500 points gets you five bucks. So buying four tickets gets you five bucks. That's basically a $1.25 discount per ticket. That's less than the convenience fee Fandango charges, which varies from $1.50 to $2. BUT apparently you can get your fee waived by checking out with Facebook Movies, same as with Atom.

And the NDA has mostly locked down chatter on the in-Beta Alamo Drafthouse unlimited plan, but some gossip is available here. Take it all with a grain of salt, but I believe $15 is their price point. Not too high, not too low. Time will tell what they make it for the public.

*

And let's take one last look at MoviePass' antics.

Just last week, they thought it would be a cool idea to burn heavy-duty cash on billboards in the middle of Manhattan.

Please note there is likely no way to actually use MoviePass at any theaters in the vicinity of those billboards. New York City was one of the first cities where MoviePass shut down access to theaters, even back in the glorious unlimited days.

Abandon all hope on seeing a movie with MoviePass in New York City.

Anywhere, really.

In fact, it's a NOTABLE EVENT when MoviePass makes showtimes available for the full day.

Starved users feast on the meager cinematic crumbs MoviePass throws them once in a while.

It's good to eat a movie now and then.

*

Oh, and COOL TITLE ON THIS ARTICLE.

I think this is the third article to take the title of my second Cinemadness book, The Rise and Fall of MoviePass.

It's fair.

I accept it as a compliment on my genius when I keep seeing my work hijacked by others.


-B.P. Kasik/Phony McFakename

My "legitimate" books are on Amazon here and my Phony McFakename books are on Amazon here. I exist on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram but I only really post regularly on Instagram.