Regal Westview — Local services in Ballenger Creek

Went in to see a 4DX movie, only to miss a quarter of the film. After entering, the doorman helpfully showed us where to scan in, but after the tickets had printed out, crumpled our tickets before handing them to us. I'm not entirely sure if this was part of the protocol or not, but it would've been nice to be able to keep the tickets. There was one employee, and one manager who was running the concessions stand, which didn't seem like much of a problem, as there was no line ahead of us. I approached the manager's till, to which she asked if we had a pickup order. After telling her we did not, she informed us that the other employee would help us out after he had finished his transaction with another customer. We had no problem with this, and were fine with waiting our turn, but this was a mistake. The employee had left the concessions stand without warning, and the manager had also seemingly disappeared. For about 5 minutes, the entire concessions stand had remained unmanned without an employee in sight to assist us. After the manager came back out, she went straight to her monitor, ignoring us despite the fact that we had still been waiting after she had brushed us off before. By the time the next employee had come up to open his own till, he had opened up another lane, to which a crowd of people suddenly swarmed to. After a long 15 minutes, we had finally reached our turn in the line, only for the manager who had ignored us originally to be the one assisting us. She did not show any signs of hospitality, and almost made me feel guilty for our $100+ order. We had a relatively large order as we were a group of 7, so I guess the 5 minutes it took to receive our popcorns and drinks could be negligible. By the time we had entered the theater, we were in the middle of a scene without any context, and had later learned we had missed many major details for the movie.

The 4DX theater itself was amazing. They do not lie when they tell you it's an immersive experience, and I truly do believe that if you can afford it, it is worth the money. The only problem I had with the theater was that the effects were delayed by about a second (which is a lot more noticeable when you're watching). About 10 minutes before the film had reached it's ending, a group of employees came in with some rolling trash bins, which I am all for, but they seemed not to care about the noise it caused during one of the more emotional moments of the film.

The parking was good, the signs guiding to the theater were very helpful, and in close proximity to the theater.

The rating would've been a 5, if not for the...

I used to love this theater and would go all the time. I first went the day they opened to see “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” opening day for my birthday. It’s been some great memories. As such, I was willing to overlook when I was at the Silver Spring Regal and after a fire alarm was pulled and the theaters evacuated midway through “Ant-Man,” no reparations were made. However, today I experienced such grossly negligent - really, nonexistent - “customer service” that I feel compelled to warn others. I experienced a loading error while purchasing tickets with a Regal gift card via the Regal website. I figured it was no big deal and tried to run through the process again, only to find that the first transaction had deducted the $25.22 from the gift card (Ironically, that included a $3 “convenience” fee). I spent a full half hour on the phone, following an infuriatingly layered phone tree, unable to reach a person, having my call repeatedly dropped when no one would pick up the phone. At one point I became hopeful when I briefly reached someone who promptly put me on hold, only to be left on the line without follow-up for 15 minutes. My phone died and I promptly attempted to recall, only to be further bounced around by the automated messaging and unable to reach any human. Despite being frustrated almost to tears at this point, I made a conscious decision to be courteous to any staff I would encounter when I decided it was time to have an in-person confrontation. I went to the Westview Regal from which I’d purchased the tickets and politely requested assistance with a payment issue. The manager met with me, and I calmly explained my bad luck and asked her if she had any advice how to claim my tickets. She attempted to look at the gift card history but found the system unable to assist. She asked to look at my phone history because she didn’t believe me that I didn’t receive a confirmation page of any kind. I felt very uncomfortable with this, but was so desperate I allowed it. She scrolled through my phone for about a minute and finally determined that she could not find evidence I wasn’t lying, so she was unwilling to help in any way. I was floored: this is a level of horrendous customer service I rarely actually encounter. I’m deeply offended, and will no longer be taking my business to Regal. Any tempted by the convenience of a Regal to use their services, beware: they will rob you of $25 without a...

The only movie-house in Frederick, so most of us are almost forced to come to this location, or take a lengthy drive out of town to find another location. What can I say? A movie experience transcends the staff of the facility, but it's hard to overlook the staff when they're just so pitiful! Almost every occasion I have dealt with superlatively slow service. Almost so slow that I was moments from audibly asking for things to be a bit more prompt. I had a very recent visit where one of the four box office booths was actually in service, and only ONE of the entire concession registers was in action. The service is just absolutely subpar. I get the "guilt" solicitation as I am being sold me ticket... (Really?! I am spending this much just to come see a flick and you're harassing me for an extra dollar) and then, with a voucher for a free soda and a $2.00 popcorn, it takes me all of about 10 minutes to accomplish a transaction that could take 30 seconds. The popcorn is prepopped and cold usually, already bagged and sitting in some heated plexiglass box. The soda is coming from a fountain and I think even the most basic lifeforms comprehend how that mechanism works. How a staff can be trained to not only be so grievously slow, AND THEN UPSELL YOU THE ENTIRE TIME, boggles my mind. I was upsold every single item I asked for. I was then offered items I didn't ask for. I am relatively deliberate in my decisions and the "upselling" methodology in business is so cliche and grotesque now. Get it together Westview. Your entire staff is a joke and most of the "managers?!" walking around in business attire are nothing more than observers of the chaos, likely equally inept at doing much else than upselling your already ridiculously overpriced fare. Is there really no competition anymore for big movie business like these? This...