But I feel a smidgen of schadenfreude when I hear that they're struggling so terribly and getting called out for their horseplay.
Apparently, the app was down over the entire opening weekend of Us. (MILD spoiler: My theory on Us is that it's actually a fantasy/art film/fairy tale masquerading as horror. It's a profoundly dark and sad story of a little girl lost and everything that happens is rooted in her suffering.)
This is the same thing MoviePass did the weekend of Mission Impossible 6 and they never recovered.
Sinemia blatantly throttled the app to avoid having to pay for tickets and replied to complaints with: “As stated in our Terms & Conditions, Sinemia is a non-refundable service...Could you please allow the automatic updates for the Sinemia app on your phone? We’re expecting the issue to be resolved very soon with a new update.”
That's what they always said when they throttled the app or screwed users in the past.
They're still canceling accounts like it's going out of style. Earning zero goodwill. And from that article, it looks like the media is finally catching on to the reason Sinemia is canceling the accounts. Because they don't want to spend a single dollar more than they make on each customer.
The mainstream media is slow to pick up on these things, but they get there eventually.
As noted philosopher Nelson Muntz said:
The only people that still like Sinemia are the ones who haven't been canceled. Yet.
Give them time.
*
Some choice quotes and interesting thoughts from Uncle Teddy in here. ("Uncle Teddy" is of course MoviePass CEO Ted Farnsworth)
He says with the new Uncapped plan, to confirm you're seeing the movie yourself, they'll only ping you 30 minutes after you arrive at the theater, not creepily track you the whole time. That's progress.
As far as what will send them red flags on an "abusive" user who will get their app throttled: "It could be different things. It could be multiple locations. It could be multiple cities. It could be all kinds of different things. So those are all the algorithms that we’ve been building along the way."
So don't use your MoviePass in different cities, kids.
When asked about how Moviefone will add any value, he responds: "We just brought on Matt [Atchity], who was the creator of Rotten Tomatoes … We’ll start doing more. We just engaged a very well-known person for Moviefone that will start doing all our red-carpet events."
Well, that answers that.
He also makes the interesting boast that you'll be able to choose any movie on the app: "You have full inventory like the old days of what you’re able to go to, whether it’s a Marvel movie or whatever it is. And that’s what the people want. They don’t want curated movies."
And sure enough, there are reports that all screenings are showing up in the MoviePass app for the new Uncapped plan.
Hmm. Maybe I'll try this craziness. But only on a monthly basis. No more annual madness for me.
Those days are over.
I only have to get screwed by each movie subscription service once to learn not to do annual.
-B.P. Kasik/Phony McFakename
No comments:
Post a Comment