AMC North Dekalb 16 — Attraction in Scottdale

Worst experience I ever had at the movies and we go to AMC movies quite often... Let me say first that the movie was excellent! We saw Jumanji. It was so funny and well written! 😁

The problem I had was with the theater itself and the interactions the employees had with myself and other movie goers. I encountered 8 different workers and only 3 were helpful, knowledgeable, professional and/or pleasant. I wish the employees had name tags on because I would praise those 3 within this review... The African American young female employee cleaning up the concession area was wonderful and efficient in her job. She was thorough, accommodating and said "Excuse me" as she passed through movie goers to cleanup spills and messes. My cashier needed help ringing my order so she called over a supervisor (or who I thought was a supervisor, based on how she carried herself very professional) who was very pleasant, prompt in what she did and reassured I was happy. This was a breath of fresh air from dealing with the 2 Ticket takers/ gate keepers.. They both needed a class in First impressions and Customer Service. They were short, argumentative, rude, snippy, condescending. I felt bothered that these two are the first people We all interact with coming into this place of business and that's not good! One of the employees was taking paper tickets and One electronic ones, but there was No direction as to what line to get in so people were confused and then directed after the fact to the opposite line to wait again and with a snippy attitude at that. They/We were als told to increase their phones brightness for scanning in a rude tone without even a "Please" or "Thank you". There's alaways a better way to say everything.... The female employee taking electronic tickets told a couple that they weren't allowed in the theater at all because their tickets wouldn't scan and "to go figure it out", instead of directing them to the ticket counter or a Manager to resolve the problem. It was very upsetting to watch these two interact with customer after customer and get worst and worst with their remarks and attitude. Once we got into the theater it was a mad rush to find seats that were badly stained, armrests were all broken, floor was sticky and their was only one entrance and exit into the main movie house. A little scary in case of emergency.

I came back out to get napkins and a drink refill and witnessed yet again the concession cashiers rolling their eyes at people while attempting to take their orders, frustrated with the time they were taking to make a selection instead of possibly making a suggestion or helping them to decide. After the movie I went up to the concession stand again to inform My Cashier that they failed to scan my Premiere Members card for my food purchase (They didn't even ask if I was a member) and she rolled her eyes, moved your neck around and proceeded to in a rude tone to tell me to do it myself online, "What do you want me to do about it?" "You're gonna have to do that yourself online, cause that's not my problem!".... "Wow! Really?" Is all I can say because I've been a Manager/Supervisor for 20 years and my employees would never speak to a customer in that manner. That's when I asked for a Manager and a tall curly haired Man came over & I explained my frustration to him but after meeting him, seeing his lack of authority, his mannerisms towards the situation, & lack of emotions helped me conclude that NOTHING would be changing at this theater in respect to staff, training, customer service or interactions b/c He did not seem to care about me, my time or retaining me as a customer! He didn't ask any details, offer up an apology/ solution and He literally brushed me off before he even walked away from me. I never felt so disrespected by so many people in such a little time in my life. I was visiting my family and this is a tradition we do annually and I wish I had listened to the other reviews and went somewhere else! I do secret shops for other companies and this place would definitely fail based...

8/23/22 Update

A lot of changes going on not only with the mall but the theater as well. They are going to make another doorway from the outside, and they have closed off the mall, so it's just a big wall there. If you didn't know there was a mall attached you wouldn't know. Had an okay time. The concession stand workers were a little confused about my birthday coupon. The prices are so high that even getting a bottle of water is $5.

No fun this time. Went during a mommy n me day apparently. Everyone had a baby that wouldn't sleep or be quiet.😖

Went to see deadpool Christmas. Thought it was going to be a different movie, nope. Just Fred Savage was added.

12/17/18 The bathrooms were ALL nasty. Only 2 were clean. The ticket takers are friendly but the food prices are too high. What's the point of having the food so high and not being able to use points until you've reached 5000? If you paid money for a ticket with the rewards program, you should get a small popcorn free. They should also bring back the early opening days. Speaking of the food, if you're going to have pizza etc. You should consider remodeling this location to have tables or something. Who can hold all that in their lap? Pizza, popcorn, candy, nachos and a drink? In the non-stadium theaters the arm rests don't move. 12/18/18 Again, bathroom was dirty. Almost every toilet hasn't been flushed. There are several seats covered in plastic and water stains on ceiling tiles. The chairs are heavily stained. The air was on and the ceiling fans didn't work. You could hear the movie next door when the theater was quiet during the movie.

4/26/19 Endgame came out and it was crazy. AMC you need to upgrade this theater and hire more people. The stickers on the seats are hard to read in the dark and are tacky. They don't tell you to look on the floor for the letters so people were just guessing. Fights will break out over this new nonsense! Not enough people in concessions. Why have so many if you're only going to open 1? The prices are too much for the snacks as well. $8 for a kids snack popcorn, small drink and candy? $15 for a large popcorn and drink? Yes, I said $15! You've got to be kidding? No wonder people bring in food. It needs to get better. Its not worth the bonuses and extras if you're going to continually...

To get to this theatre, you legit have to walk through an unnervingly long and dingy hallway with a sketchy flickering light that casts creepy shadows on the cinder block walls.

At some point during that daunting journey, you must pass through some sort of portal that whisks you back to the 90s!

As soon as you step out of that janky hallway, you are instantly reminded of summer afternoons in 1994. I'm pretty sure the theatre hasn't been updated much, if at all, since then.

But, interestingly enough, that is part of it's charm! It makes going to the movies extra fun and a bit nostalgic for a couple of movie nerds like us!

Aside from that, the concession stand is decent. It covers the basics, plus it offers the updated soda machines.

Ticket prices are cheap, if you're buying individual tickets. For A-Listers like us, you'll definitely want to make sure you see lots of movies to help support this theatre as much as possible! For those who don't know... A-List is the monthly subscription program that allows you to see 3 movies a week per month for $19.95!

Now, there are some drawbacks to an old and not so updated theatre. That included less than comfortable seats in many theatre rooms, subpar equipment that sometimes breaks and/or is not operated correctly (audio issues most notably), and most recently some serious issues with lack of proper air conditioning which has led to some pretty uncomfortable movies and the accompanying smells of humans and humidity in an enclosed environment.

Those issues are intermittent, NOT regular. So, I only removed one star which I feel is fair!

Overall, I think this is a fun, quirky little theatre and the fact that it is right next to where they film a ton of film and TV both big and small (the mall has been turned into a de facto production facility), makes this the perfect theatre for film nerds...