Regal Gilbert — Local services in Gilbert

I purchased tickets online for my niece, 6 years old, and myself on a Monday afternoon. My niece wanted to see Transylvania over the weekend, but we ran out of time, so i promised to take her on Monday after work. Transilvania was not playing at a time we could go so I chose another movie, The Incredibles 2. I paid over $23.00 for tickets for the 6:15 PM Showing the same day. It began to look like I may have to work late and we may miss the movie, so i called the box office and asked about their refund policy at 4:00 PM. The young lady who answered the phone did not know how to answer my question. She said she "thought" i could get a refund if i came in to the theater with the unused tickets, but she said she was not sure. I asked her if i had to come in that same day before the movie started and she said "she thought so, yes". I asked her to please ask a manager what the policy was if she was not sure so that I would know if i needed to rush out and make it work or if i could wait until the next day to get the refund, if possible. She sounded extremely irritated with me and put me on hold for several minutes. Came back and said, "yeah, you gotta come today to get a refund or you don't get your money back." I thanked her and hung up. So i rushed to get my niece, we rushed to get her a change of clothes and made it to the theater by 6:05 PM. When we got there, we walked in to a young man and young lady at the concession counter. I asked the man twice, "where do we scan this QC Code for tickets?" and he stood there behind the counter staring at me. finally the third time, he rolled his eyes and pointed at the machine in front of him to the side of the register, but still said nothing. So, i scanned it and we ordered some popcorn and a hotdog from the young lady. She said it would be 20 - 25 minutes for the hot dog to be ready. What the heck? Mind you, I couldn't get my niece dinner because we were running late, it's bad enough she was going to have to eat a hot dog and popcorn, but i can't just feed her popcorn for dinner. I said "fine, can you make it and i'll come out of the theater and pick it up in 25 minutes?" She looked at the young man and he again rolled his eyes and shuffled off behind a closed door. You would have thought I asked them to slaughter the cow! The man came back out of the closed door with one hot dog and put it on the roller cooker machine. I said, "Can you just microwave it? She won't care, really. Why use all the electricity for 25 minutes". He was still clearly irritated, still didn't even make eye contact with me, then he removed it and put it in the microwave while i paid, full price for a large popcorn, that was old and very cold, and a rubber nuked hot dog. And the food was still WAY better than the service we received all day. I should have just taken the refund and gone home, it was a miserable waste of time, and I would have gone home if my niece hadn't been so excited to go to the movies. I have been to your theater several times in the past 10 or so years and I have never had such a bad experience. This is why I hesitated to write my review, but I was truly disappointed and you did ask me to explain, so here it is. I hope you can get your employees on the positive side of the scope,...

I'm so torn. The ability to reserve a seat, versus arriving 90 minutes early to buy tickets, wait in a line, get good seats, only to have some jerk come and ask you to "scoot" down so they can sit in your seat (ugh) - well, it's absolutely worth it. The fact that said seat is a nice leather recliner is even more fantastic. But sadly, that's where all the goodness ends. The bathrooms are soooooo gross... this theater is dirty. Really, really, truly DIRTY. Like, the area around the popcorn butter/salt, etc... just months and years of caked-on dust/dirt/grime. But the hardest thing to deal with is the "customer service". I have had their surly employees be everything from rude to utterly indifferent. Not to say that there have not been times when it's been fine; there have. But their customer service brand is best described as "millenial". Some examples: We had purchased tickets (ahead, online) and a family member got very, very ill. I called about six hours prior to the showing, trying to find out the process for returning those. At first, no one knew. In the end, after much holding and waiting and calling back, the answer from the last person I spoke with, was that I had to drive to the theater (40 minutes) and physically present my iPhone prior to the movie starting, in order to return tickets. Um... Come on, Regal... pull it together. I know we use Fandango for ticket purchases, but there simply has to be a better way. If you can buy online, you can return online- if only someone there had the will to make it better. Today, I decided I would like to cash in my 47,500 Regal Crown Club credits. I went on the app, and utilized it to shop the Rewards, and chose three of the "Free 2D Restricted Movie Tickets" and a Popcorn Upgrade. Each time you select one, it takes you to a screen with a QR code and a long, numeric redemption code. Great! The QR code is for scanning while you're in the theater, the long numeric redemption code should enable me to use that free ticket online. Right? No. No matter what I do, it will not let me. So I call the Regal and the requisite surly, harried teenager answers the phone. I ask my question. He says to go on the app and sign in. I explain, I have done that. I'm signed into Fandango, it shows my Regal Crown Club number on the screen, but it won't take the redemption code in the coupon or gift card sections, and no matter what it does not apply the credit. He says, "Hold on, I gotta get my manager." After some wait, he comes back and says, "We're busy." ....Okay...? I don't mind holding. "Well, we're just busy so call back later." ....wow. So now I'm scouring the regal website online and looking through FAQ's and trying to provide myself with some sort of customer service... because NO ONE at this theater -for...

I moved from Texas where there's only really 1 large chain of movie theaters that are super uncomfortable and overpriced, despite them being immaculate and having that "new car" smell. So when I moved here, I was SUPER impressed by Harkins and swore to never go to another movie theater...

Well, then we tried this place for whatever reason. We refuse to go anywhere else now.

Despite being relatively small to a Harkins, the large aisles and recliner chairs are amazing. Especially nice since my husband and I are super tall, so typically our chairs lean back (which leads to people kicking us) and our feet and legs are cramped so we don't kick those in front of us-- the room and typically quiet movie goers are amazing. We actually make friends and family come to our side of town to see movies here, haha.

Also, the system of choosing assigned seating when you buy your tickets is brilliant-- they do NOT charge an extra fee for the assigned seating like Harkins does. It greatly reduces the chances of getting separated from your party if you go during a nearly sold out show, and the anxiety of rushing to the theater ahead of time is now gone. The staff is always really friendly as well.

The only thing that would be nice to change is if there were a better rewards program, but that's easily forgiven due to the always enjoyable...