SALA Event Center — Local services in Los Alamos

I had delayed attending this venue. Pure fear. I am a cinephile and had been sorely missing the big screen, but found it difficult to again make myself vulnerable to another soulless new enterprise in the increasingly make-believe town of Los Alamos. The new stuff springing up is somehow creepy. Not product nor service forward. Instead, a meager/scant serving of select goods, services, trinkets or foods that seem more like the display of some seller's personal predilections rather than an attractive and bountiful selection of items actually desired by consumers. I was afraid Sala would be this. Pining for a robust menu of decent quality entertainment for an educated and culture starved public, I feared the indicators in the marketing put forth. Theater cum community center where focused meeting of demand is sacrificed for an overly broad goal of being all things for all people - and overly curated by a long shot to satisfy some unseen agenda/checklist of good and healthy "cultural" exposure. Selectively sanitized for an obedient and programmable populace. What happened to us the other night is that we finally chose to go see a movie. Simple enough. Went online, saw that a showing was scheduled for an 8 pm time slot, and purchased 4 tickets. This was about 6:15 pm. My e-mail received no confirmation of the purchase, and I couldn't get anyone on the phone at the theater. Finally decided to again purchase, thinking, why not? Worst case an extra contribution to a local establishment. Bought two tickets the second time, as two had dropped out, and subsequently received e-mail notifications for all six tickets. Didn't really look at them before heading out. 8 pm and the theatre lobby is completely occupied by a dancing troupe, Aztec-like I believe, whose dancing we had to interrupt in our attempt to reach the ticket counter. The performance taking place, kind of a movie theater refreshment stand bit of cultural learning, was attended by 15 or 20 onlookers. I couldn't break the attendants' focus on the entertainment, so we proceeded to the theater. We immediately noticed that showing were the final scenes from the movie wrapping-up, albeit 10 minutes past the advertised 8 pm start. Went back to the dance, forced an interaction with an attendant, and was informed that there was no 8 pm show...that the website incorrectly showed an "8:00" showing, but that the 8 was not 8 pm, but 8 am. And since they don't show films at 8 am, c'est la vie. The attendant's attention returned to the dancing. I then opened my e-mail and looked at the tickets. They were issued for the 6 pm showing, issued at roughly 6:45, and were therefore historical artifacts before I even paid for them. The bizarre pm -vs- am explanation was enough for me to avoid any further attempts at logical communications, so we again pushed through the dancing troupe and departed. That's...

I love supporting local small businesses. So when Minecraft was playing at SALA, my family was excited. We had a child's birthday to celebrate and we bought tickets online to ensure seating.

The lobby was packed when we got there, but we weren't terribly worried: we had tickets already. When we got up to the ticket handler, she said the theater was already full and we would not be able to find seats before looking at us with an expectation in her eyes for us to just walk away.

When we didn't walk away, she continued to tell us that they had sold too many tickets and had to bring in couches already. After I had to ask for a refund bcuz it was clear that was not going to be offered, the owner was found and came to talk.

He said it seemed like some ppl snuck into the theater without tickets. He was very dismissive and arrogant in how he handled himself and the situation. When it was suggested that they make a policy regarding incidents like these, I don't think he even listened to it to be able to internalize it.

After being treated like a bothersome irritation than a desired patron or 5, we decided to take the party down to Espanola's Dreamcatcher theater where they had better concessions and valued a pre-sold ticket.

Needless to say, my family will not be going back to SALA.

I hope nobody ever experiences this side of the business and the owner again. Perhaps someone else can convince him to implement the suggestion to update and adapt...

I called to book tickets 3 weeks before a first-run movie. They told me I had to book online. I told the representative that the times on the main website didn’t match the times on the drop down menus (2 & 6 vs 5 & 8:45). They confirmed 5 & 8:45 were correct. I emailed and confirmed the same times in writing. Today I was supposed to see the movie but discovered it was at 2 & 6, and my 5pm tickets had been for the 2pm show (the 8:45 would’ve worked for the 6). The website, as I thought, had been wrong. I called and they confirmed it was completely the representative’s repeated mistake (on the website, over the phone, and in writing), but they could not fit my party into the movie. So despite planning 3 weeks in advance, I didn’t get to go to the show. Horrible website, and frustrating customer service, considering I knew there was an issue and was REPEATEDLY told everything was fine. My 5pm confirmation in writing from the representative...