AMC DINE-IN Esplanade 14 — Attraction in Phoenix

AMC used to stand for something. At one time they were good. I live in Phoenix and first went to AMC theaters over forty years ago. The past several years I have been going to Harkins Theaters. This past Saturday my wife and I wanted to watch the latest Mission Impossible movie. I checked out movie times at Harkins Christown. My wife pulled out two AMC gift cards we received as a Christmas gift and said let's go there. We went to the AMC Espanade for the 12:40 show. I walked up where the ticket window used to be only to find it was no longer there. We went inside and spotted four employees chatting it up in the lobby. We told them we needed tickets and the pointed to a kiosk. That was the beginning of the horrible experience. It took several minutes and a pretty big learning curve to figure out how to sell myself tickets. Then the gift card would not work for payment. We asked an employee for help and she took the gift card, punched in several numbers and said it was no good. We asked her to try again. After several more minutes she said it worked and I got my tickets. We then headed off to the concessions stand. Much to our surprise there is not a stand, just another poorly designed kiosk. By now I am wondering why those four employees couldn't be selling tickets and popcorn. I am now an AMC employee. It took scrolling two pages down to find popcorn! After another learning curve on how to use it we it was time to pay. We went to redeem our second gift card only to have the monitor tell us it was invalid. It wasn't. Our movie time was approaching and we had been delayed twenty minutes on buying tickets and a bucket of popcorn, I pulled out my debit card and paid with it. I now had eight, yes eight thermal receipts in my hand from this process. We headed down the hallway and I was trying to figure out which of the eight slips had our theater number. We thought it was #4 so we went inside and tried to find our seats. After a minute we noticed both of our seats had guest in them and this was not our theater. We went back out to the hallway to try to locate our correct theater. Consistant with the total disfunction of the entire operation, AMC Esplanade does not put the name of the movie that is playing over the door of the theater. All the monitors were blank in the entire movie theater. At this time my wife and I had had it with attempting to be a guest and give AMC our business. They made it way too hard. Our movie had already started. We found the manager and asked for a refund. Her response was not aplogetic, we did get a refund for the food and another gift card for the one we used. ( which we will never redeem) When I questioned her about why they don't have the name of the movies over the doors she said " we took those down for covid and never put them back up" Apparantly names of movies on theaters can spread covid??? We got in our car, drove to Harkins Christown, bought two tickets from a smiling attendant, got a hot buttered popcorn and two cokes and were in our seats six minutes after we arrived. Harkins for life. AMC, that model will have you out of...

DO NOT BRING CHILDREN HERE — STAFF IGNORES SAFETY CONCERNS INVOLVING INTOXICATED PATRONS

I truly wish this experience had been better, but based on how the staff handled a serious situation, I feel obligated to warn other families: this AMC location is not a safe environment for children or young audiences.

My younger brother (a minor) and I came to see the re-release of Star Wars: Episode III. We had purchased our seats in advance and were already seated when, just as the lights dimmed, a staff member escorted an obviously intoxicated older man to sit directly next to my brother. The man reeked of alcohol, left his seat shortly after sitting down, and returned shortly thereafter, where he fell asleep and continued to give off a strong stench of alcohol and other unpleasant odors.

Concerned, I got up and alerted a staff member, who admitted they had already received multiple complaints about this same man and had already moved him once before. He said he would “see what he could do,” but no one returned. Later, my brother, who couldn’t tolerate the smell and was visibly uncomfortable, asked another staff member for help. She also promised to inform management. Still, nothing happened. The man remained seated next to my brother for the entire film.

After the movie, I approached the manager directly. I explained the situation again, including how the man smelled strongly of alcohol, had been the subject of multiple prior complaints, and was inappropriately seated next to a minor. The manager simply said there was “nothing they could do about someone who smells.” I explained this wasn’t a matter of body odor, it was about public intoxication and the incredibly poor judgment of their staff, who knowingly seated this man next to a child. The only response offered was a general apology and a few re-admit passes.

Let me be clear: allowing an obviously drunk man, who had already been the subject of multiple complaints, to remain in a theater and then be reseated by staff next to a minor child is completely unacceptable. The fact that staff took no meaningful action even after being alerted multiple times shows a shocking lack of care for guest safety and comfort.

This experience left both me and my younger brother feeling unsafe and unheard. If you are considering bringing children or teens to this theater, please be warned: the staff will not protect you from intoxicated or inappropriate individuals, even when alerted to the issue directly.

Absolutely appalling conduct by AMC staff...

Very disappointing experience yesterday. Spent a total of $70 to take my children (17 and 9) to see a movie, but the woman in front of us was on her phone throughout most of the movie. Phone on high brightness, scrolling through TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, messaging people. After a few instances that lasted a few minutes each, I flag down a food handler to see if he can ask her to put her phone away. Food handler says he will get a manager. I wait 15 odd minutes and she keeps doing it, for minutes at a time. I walk out, let an employee, Christol, know what was happening, and she let me know she would get a manager to go in. I wait another 15 odd minutes, in which another employee comes in and does headcount, and sees that the woman is sitting on her phone. The employee stops a minute and watches, and then walks about. About another 15 minutes goes by with the lady STILL on her phone and now her daughter, on the other side, starts using her phone. I walk out, and run into a manager. I let him know what was happening, that I have asked a total of now 3 times, for someone to please come in and have the lady get off of her phone. Manager walks back in with me, sees the lady on her phone, and talks to her. At the end of the movie, I walk out and the lady is talking to a (different) manager, saying no one warned her to not use her phone. Different manager comes to me and gets my version, where I stress, multiple times, that I had to seek out 3 different employees for help. Manager then cops an attitude with me and says that the woman and other people say different situations took place, implying that I had done something wrong, would not say what it was, and then told me that I should have gotten someone when it was happening. I told him, again, that I reached out to 3 different employees. In the end, very disappointing 1, not being assisted after multiple attempts, and 2, being accused of something I did not do after there were several employee witnesses. I was able to get my tickets partially refunded but I don’t want to go back. Edit as of a week later: Reached out to AMC on the website as was asked to, and they were very attentive and apologetic. I will most likely just drive a few more miles out to a different AMC to avoid issues in the future. I appreciate the corporate office's quick response and willing...