AMC CLASSIC Mount Vernon 8 — Local services in Mount Vernon

One of the worst experiences I've ever had with a business, resulting in me issuing the first credit-card chargeback in my life (at age 32).

My wife and I went to see Captain Marvel. Before the movie, and all over the premises, they had ads for "AMC A-List", which gives you "three free tickets a week" for $20/mo. It also said "your current tickets can be applied to your subscription cost". We had just spent $20 on tickets, which led me to believe that, by signing up for AMC A-List, we could see The Avengers: Endgame the following week for free. Cool, count me in!

After the movie, we found an employee and asked them how to sign up for AMC A-List. She said the manager has to do it, so she called him out. I asked him, "So can we cancel this after a month?" and he said yes. I handed him my phone and our ticket-receipt (which should cover the costs of the subscription), but he said they need a credit-card for the subscription, and will refund the ticket prices separately afterwards. Alright, makes sense. I gave him my credit card, he punched some stuff into my phone, then he handed it back and asked me to type in my password. I did and handed it back, then after a few more minutes he gave it back and said we were all signed up.

I then handed him our ticket receipt, and it was only at this point that he told us that we needed to sign up separately - the "three tickets a week" must all be used by the same person. Uh, ok, that would have been nice to know beforehand. But it comes out to $40 either way, so sure, let's do it.

We had now paid $60, but were expecting a $20 refund from the tickets, as promised multiple times. We handed the manager our ticket-receipt, and he said "I need the actual tickets to issue a refund". Wait, what!? He never said anything about that the first time I handed him the receipt. I still had my ticket, but my wife had thrown hers away. We told him that, but he repeated the same response. I asked if he could look up the tickets in their system (which were both bought under my account, less than three hours ago). He said no. I asked, "So we're just supposed to go digging through the garbage for her ticket?" He shrugged. At this point I was fuming and it was after midnight, so sure, whatever.

Fast-forward a month. I go online to cancel our A-List subscription, and... there's no way to do it online. In fact, after searching the site for 15 minutes, I couldn't figure out how to do it at all. I had to search on google for instructions on how to cancel it, which required calling into their helpdesk or sending them an email. So, I called into their helpdesk, and spent 30 minutes on hold before hanging up and sending an email instead.

Fortunately their email service was fairly responsive. Unfortunately, they said they were GOING TO CHARGE ME AN ADDITIONAL $92 TO CANCEL because the minimum subscription time is 3 months. WHAT!? They claimed it was in the fine-print I signed, but

I specifically asked if we could cancel after a month, and the manager said "yes" (which is technically the truth, in a slimey, disingenuous, monkey's paw sort of way) I never signed anything, I just handed my phone to the manager and typed in my password I was never shown or given any "fine print"

I told them that I wanted my subscription cancelled one way or another, but I would not be paying another $92; if they attempt to charge me again, I would issue a chargeback. Which they did, and I did. (they sneakily did it in two separate $46 transactions, just below the bank's $50 chargeback minimum, but fortunately the bank was understanding and processed the chargeback anyways)

My wife and I see a lot of movies, but we will never be visiting another AMC theater again. I've also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. You people...

First, it's worth pointing out the reason behind high concession prices because some people don't know this: The majority of a ticket price goes to the studio, NOT the theater. During the first couple weeks of a film's release, when crowds are fullest, a theater will be lucky to get even 25 percent of the gross. After several weeks of release, when the crowds have died down and there's much less money to be made, the theater is typically allowed to keep more but even then it's rarely greater than 50 percent of the ticket. For the opening weekend of some of the bigger movies, some theaters don't even get to keep anything at all! That's just how it works, theaters are at the mercy of the studios and generally have to settle for whatever deal they can get. So when you head to the show and see the high price of concession snacks and sodas, try not to think that you're being ripped off. Instead, try to remember that by buying snacks you're supporting your theater because the imbalanced industry standards have forced it to make the majority of its money from something other than your ticket.

Now, having said that, I'll address AMC 8 specifically. I find this to be a really nice theater, with courteous staff and a clean aesthetic. As explained above the concessions are a bit pricey but no higher than your typical movie theater, and ticket prices are unusually cheap (typically around $4 to $6, maybe an extra buck for 3D, which is several dollars below the national average). There are also free refills on the large popcorns and sodas. Butter is in self-serve machines, and regular things such as napkins and salt are readily available to grab. The bathrooms tend to be clean and the lobby has a handful of arcade machines and plenty of space (a good hundred or so easily stood in line for The Force Awakens). The theater is a convenient turn right off of a major highway exit, and I've never gone there hoping to catch a 1st or 2nd - tier release and been disappointed. The seats are comfortable but not luxuriously plushy.

It's a solid theater and I have no complaints. In my experiences (about 6 visits a year) the atmosphere and food has always been fresh and clean, and the staff has never been rude. The only reason that I don't give it five stars is because there are luxury theaters out there with multiple floors, pianos in the lobby and stadium food that's hand-delivered to you while you sit in reserved numbered seats. This place is not a palace. It's a movie theater,...

Clean theater, decent ticket prices. The concession food is a NO, nasty and expensive. I ordered a pretzel with cheese took forever to make, cost an arm and a leg and half of the pretzel was so hard it was inedible, I told some of the girls behind counter including I believe a manager and they just said sorry, no refund or replacement. The popcorn is always cold. Also the website sometimes isn't accurate with showtimes, we drove an hour to watch a movie Max said it was showing only to arrive and find out it wasn't playing. Apparently it didn't do well so they got rid of it early and didn't update information on...