B&B Theatres Bloomington 13 @ Mall of America — Local services in Bloomington

Worst Cinema Experience and Place ever.

Date: Wed, November 1, Movie : After Death

We haven't been in here in 4 years in this Cinema, but that was before it became B&B. We used to enjoy our experience when it was under CMX. It was classier and well Manage. Never would have expected that this would be the worst, not bad, but worst experience cinema in our entire life.

Here's Why: When we saw B&B there was no front desk or anybody out in front, there was a sign saying to either go buy your ticket through the food stance or through kiosk. Kiosk was unplugged so we went inside. We ordered popcorn and my mom wanted onion rings, the guy said "Unfortunately our hot food section is closed" When we went inside to our theater. The Light was on, all the lights were literally on resulting me to double check if we were in the right cinema. I saw how dirty and dusty the black seats where so it was off-putting. My boyfriend went outside and asked someone about the lights and the response was " Oh sorry, everybody goes through it, it will just turn off when the actual movie starts" We waited and it was uncomfortable watching the movie with all the lights on. The movie starts and the light was still on so BF went outside and started asking for a manager. I went outside, and my head started to hurt because of how blinding the screen for watching it around 10-15mns with the lights on. Bf asked for a refund which they first refused to give and gave out many excuses " we have been giving so many refunds today so we can't give out any refunds anymore". He was giving out so many excuses on why he can't give us the refund. Bf asked for the Manager to come out meanwhile the manager was just hiding and communicating to her regular employee through the Crack of the door on what to do or what to say, never spoke to the customers or acknowledge the customers. They continue to argue and argue about why they can't give out refund and to make us accept that they just can't - that was for about 20mns. Until there was other people who was waiting in line to complain from another movie and wants a refund and another people then another people complaining about their food. It is Absolutely clear that he can't really do anything as he is a regular employee over there. He looks like he cares but he was just giving out way too much excuses. What Frustrates us, the employee giving out too many invalid B.S reasons, the Manager wasn't talking to us, nor transparent and was hiding like a Kitten. It would have probably been better if he told us he can't do anything and let the manager talk to us and tell us she needs us to wait 30mns to give us a refund because she needs to call this Person and lastly Why the Heck is it so Hard to Give out a refund ???!!! I don't know Why they would decide to run their Business today if they knew something was up since this morning. No one would watch the movie if they knew the light would be lit for the entire movie. This place is a Scam, apart from a lack of management and care. This place is Disgusting because they would charge $14 Adult, they were afraid to do a refund for whatever reason. The lack of listening skills was audacious. There were about 4 employees on that day and none of them seem to Really care that much, it is transparent that there is a LACK of training to their regular employees and LACK of training, leadership and Guidance towards the Managers and maybe a lack of training in Common Sense.

It took 30mns- 40mns for the entire process to be "solved" and for the Refund to actually happen. Have they initiated refund in the first there would have been not much of Fuss or problem with their "electrical" Problem. They let the people buy the tickets right through their face without letting people know, without fixing the problem by continuing to operate and they think people are just gonna accept it. From my memory there where about 11 people at the same time including us that where Unhappy. They must love chaos. This a truly Halloween experience. We will never step a foot into this...

I've been twice, this is the trashiest theater I've ever been to. The first time, it took about 10 minutes for the guy at the counter to help the three people in front of me, then when I went up, he ended up giving me a ticket to the wrong movie. The theater does not show you what movie is in each theater, so after I realized his mistake, I had to go find someone to tell me where my actual movie is. No apology for the mistake, and when I asked why there is no indication of which movie is where, the staff said "well, if we did that then we would have to change them all the time" like, what? After all that I did miss the first few minutes of the movie. Also I have the Mall of America app which gives you points for buying stuff at different stores, it's just a QR code and the staff had no idea what that was. Everyone working there seemed pissed I was interrupting their time staring at their phones, and the other patrons were letting their kids run and scream up and down the aisles during the whole movie, it was chaotic. Why pay $100 in movie tickets for your family to not even and ruin the experience for other people? It was almost absurd how many things were actively bad about this experience.

The second time I went (shame on me really, but I wanted to try out Screen X), I walked up to buy a ticket and the guy behind the counter did not look up from his phone as I stood there. No situational awareness or peripheral vision. I said "hi" and then he helped me. Concession staff again acted put out that I ordered concessions from them. And when they gave me an empty soda cup without saying a word, so I asked where to get soda, and they were again rude in saying "it's over there" but you can't really see the soda fountain from where you buy it so that wasn't very helpful. Once I got in the theater, DIRECTLY after the message saying "B&B has a strict no cell phone policy" the line of people directly in front of me took out their phones and started snapchatting and playing very bright and distracting games. I asked them to put their phones away and they looked at me like I was crazy and declined to do that. So, not really that strict of a policy it seems.

There are a lot of better theaters in the metro, go to...

I don't usually write reviews, but I'm not sure the current reviews capture the current experience, and of course most disappointments come from unmet expectations (including minor ones for us). So, what can you expect here? B&B recently took over the facility, and they're not up to speed yet. We went on a Saturday afternoon, ordered our tickets online. Once there, we still had to go to the box office to get paper tickets. Thankfully, not much of a line, but nonetheless it took longer than it should. (Please let us use our electronic ticket to bypass the box office! Or get the kiosks working so we can print them ourselves. Waiting while people hem and haw over choosing seats is not fun.) Website was fine, ticket prices very reasonable, and much cheaper than CMX was. The bar was closed, but we were told 'next week!' The food options were very basic, popcorn candy and pop, and a couple of fried things, a small refrigerated area with things like pickles and hummus. I had been hoping/planning for more, it being a 'date-night' for us. Again... we were probably lucky that it wasn't busy. No options of being served at your seat. Bathrooms and theaters seemed very clean. It has the big recliner seats. Presentation of the movie was fine.

In general, it seemed like they needed a bit more staff, but we all know what's happening on that front.

Obviously, things will change with time, but we had a good experience. If I had known about the food, we probably would have eaten before we got there.

However, I also don't think it would be the end of the world if it stayed the way it is. Except for the big seats, it's almost like a throwback to the way theaters used to be, with basic options at reasonable ticket prices, which seems to fit the mall experience better than the uber-expensive luxury experiences a lot of theaters are trying to push now. And yes, MOA, because I was already at the mall to see a movie, I also dropped some cash...