Emagine Portage — Local services in Portage

Let me start by saying the place looks great! I haven't been here since it was upgraded to this new model, so it was cool to see the changes implemented. It was clean, it appeared to be organized in terms of the idea behind it & it was comfortable. The food was also tasty. There is nothing to write home about...perhaps if we had gotten it when we were supposed to, that may have made a difference... but I digress. I think they need a liaison to help people like me, who aren't fully aware of how things go, to, at the very least, ASK if we have ever been there.

😩🙄🤷🏾‍♀️I felt like I was in a teenage environment where no responsible adult is present to guide their employees.

My date and I went for a 10p movie. Ordered our tickets at the counter with a person. That cashier acted like he wasn't capable of speaking louder so we could hear him explain the seating arrangement. Fine. So I told him to speak up because, what!?🙄

We get to concessions and order our food. I'm asking for an order of chicken quesadillas. I wanted to know if it came with anything else. The cashier kept telling me the other ways it was made. I said TWICE that I wanted chicken only & did it come with anything else. 😩 I figured, for $12, I would get fries or a drink, too, right?

Cashier still insisted on telling me other ingredients I could add to my quesadilla (they were clear on the menu, so I didn't think I needed to be so specific in my request)😩🤷🏾‍♀️.

In order to get my question answered, I had to rephrase and say I ONLY want chicken and cheese, and then ASK does it come with fries or a drink😩🤷🏾‍♀️. It doesn't🙄.

When we were done, the cashier directed us to the "other end of the counter to pay and get drinks." 😬 Other end of what counter?

She kept pointing to the pop machines on the other end of the theater. Eventually, we walked far enough to the middle, on our way to get pop, to see people at a whole different counter, in the middle of the floor, paying😩.

Anyway... we pay, no one tells us when food will be ready, how we should expect to get food, if it needs to be picked up or if we will get a buzzer... something! So I asked the cashier who took our money if they would be bringing us our food. Cashier says yes. Okay, cool! We go get our drinks & head to the theater.

We arrived just in time for previews, but apparently they don't do those here, because after gping through the maze to get concessions, we get to our seats at 1019p....the movie was already 10 mins in. Whatever.

No food. As a matter of fact, only 2 people got food the entire time we sat. I found it strange, but I waited a little longer and eventually went to get our food. Guest services found it in their warmer like it was waiting for pickup🤔😩. Why is it here? Wasn't someone supposed to bring it to us? She goes "yes and I don't know what happened"...o...kay!?

We did end up getting a refund for the food, but come on! Why am I paying for an "experience" that's obviously not being properly represented at this place? If I had known we weren't going to get the service provided (dinner and a movie), then we either would've waited for the food or eaten elsewhere. Children doing the heavy lifting, nobody picking up on the fact that this was obviously new to us & perhaps utilizing their customer service skills to assist in some way. It was a mess & needless to say, I will likely not be going back. If I do, I definitely won't be ordering food. Popcorn and drinks that I can...

We went to see a movie tonight at the portage theater. We come quite often on Tuesday’s because of the discount. It’s something we can afford. My daughter is autistic. And has sensory perception disorder. Not always but sometimes she has a problem in theaters or other noisy places. We bring AirPods and she has an asmr app on her phone for emergencies. She started to have anxiety during the movie. She had her phone on silent and had her AirPods in. We dimmed her phone and she was calming herself. We had two couples on other side of us that didn’t even notice what was going on. About 5 minutes passed and a police officer came up smacked the back of my underaged daughters chair , grabbed her shoulder and yelled loudly at us asking if we wanted to leave and get a refund on our movie. We were startled and confused. The couple on each side of us also jumped up and were startled. We were confused and asked him why and said no we didn’t want to leave. No where in the theaters is it posted that a cell phone can not be operated within the theater. It only asks that you silence your phones. He continued to yell at us and say she didn’t seem like she liked the movie and did she want to leave. She welled up with tears and said she didn’t want to leave. I said out loud “dude. What’s the problem. What’s going on?” And he walked away from us. The couple next to us asked if we were okay and said what is his problem? I said he was angry that her phone was out? They were confused. I apologized and they said “we didnt notice. No need to apologize. “. We were allowed to stay for the rest of the movie. Which was the sound of freedom. At the end of the movie they actually ask you to take out your phones. Scan a QR code and share the film on social media. I went to management after the movie. She said cell phones aren’t allowed to be used In The theater. That it’s a policy they have and she would be happy to show us “the manual” . And said if we needed accommodations we need to come on a special day only. And they already had a day for this movie and we should have came then. So which is it. No cell phones. Or only when they ask you to use them. And she said the police are there to help them keep guests in line. And they have no control over them. So nothing can be done. No apologies from her whatsoever. She was young, blonde and had a cold sore on her lip. I believe her name take said shift leader and the name was Ashley? The actual policed offer who had harassed us was actually standing behind her laughing at us and saying yea it was me. He then proceeded to Jump up onto the counter and sit on it behind the girl we were speaking to at the customer service station. It was all highly unprofessional and rude. My child was not being rude. Or disruptive. And this whole darned review feed is filled with people with photos of the insides of the theaters and even pictures while the movies were playing. Why were they not threatened to be removed? The first young man we tried to talk to who was not a manager was very apologetic. He was a younger black man with facial hair and very very kind. . I’m torn. And confused. And very disappointed how we were treated. I will be trying to reach out to corporate.

Do better. Be better. This is supposed to be for families. We were not rude. Or disrupting anyone’s evening or movie experience. In fact. The only one who interrupted anyone’s experience was the rude police officer with the god complex picking...

It’s not the movie theater… it’s a manager issue. My family has nothing but great experience and family memories with the transition to Emagine franchise.

However, last night during Black Panther opening weekend we had several issues that made the experience extreamly unpleasant.

Instead of going straight to leave a negative comment about a place when I have a problem I first talk to the management. To let them know of the issues and my concerns.

Theater 16 as people would come and go during the movie. The door would slam loudly, annoying the majority of us. And then with the refills of popcorn, there was no seasoning or salt on it.

I realize this may not seem like big issues but once you have to get up to get refills, you rush because you don’t wanna miss anything in the movie. So with three large popcorn refills, to come back with no seasoning and you don’t even eat. It is just sad.

And then having a door that slams, not closes a little loud, but SLAMS as everybody is coming in and going out through the movie was so disrupting and annoying.

I went the supervisors that were sitting behind the counter, there was a man there that was nodding in agreement with the things I was saying, but not speaking up, and the girl with the long hair and a cream color suits was obviously annoyed by my presence alone.

Explaining to her first that I wanted NOTHING for free and that we’ve always had a positive experience. But with this family outing and spending almost $65 I felt I should voice my frustrations.

The female supervisor that I was talking to was literally staring at me with a blank face, as if I was interfering with her conversation that she was having with someone else. And her reply was yes, we know, there’s a lot of construction going on. Mt thought was…. I’m there’s no construction on the side of the theater where the movies are playing so that point did not even make any sense. And then the situation with the popcorn I explained and her comment was to justify it. Oh well, our team is making lots of popcorn so quickly.

And I say again I wanted nothing for free, but it would’ve been nice if she would’ve said…. oh let me refill your popcorn now and you can take it home….. as we were holding our buckets of nasty popcorn.

And ant least act as if the slamming door situation that interfered with my family’s enjoyment of the movie was a concern and would be looked into. I felt completely unheard, as if my opinion of my family’s experience did not matter, and we were an annoyance to her.

Emagine movie theater of Portage has been an 10 out of 10 experience until yesterday. I live in Crown Point and drive all the way to portage just to go to this movie theater because it has always been pleasant experience, the staff behind the counter is wonderful, its super clean, they offer subtitles for people with hearing issues, and I’ve created a lot of memories with my kids, laughing and joking as we watch movies. I really hope that they talk to the manager or supervisor and address the issue because that’s not somebody that you want dealing with the public when...