Regal Longston Place — Local services in South Hill

Sat March 5th, 2022 at 8pm Theatre # 1 I was going to leave a negative Google Review about my experience, but figured I’d send them a msg first with a goal to rectify this, and improve future experiences.

UPDATE- Regal couldn’t even be bothered to reach out to me. So here is my review! 🤷🏾‍♂️

I arrived at the Regal Longston Place cinema in Puyallup WA, at 7:10pm with a goal to watch The Batman at 7:30pm. Being only the 2nd day it was playing, I figured it would be busy. There was maybe 4 staff working concession with maybe 12 people in front of me. 7:20, 7:30, 7:40 and 7:50pm went by and I was still in line. Luckily I could barely make the 8pm show. How it takes over 45 mins is beyond me. The server was nice though.

At 8pm I’m ready for the show to start. Then 8:10 (more ads), 8:15 (more ads), 8:20 (more ads), 8:25 (more ads). 8:30 and the 8pm movie starts. Or is it??? Every light is on on the theatre for nearly 10 mins. The audience literally thought this was a joke. At 8:40 an audience member runs out to tell someone and in a flash it’s black. Literally like I shut off my living room light at home. The sound was brutal but got better throughout the movie. I couldn’t tell if this was intentional??

Worst of all, people changed seats randomly. Then as I try to get into the movie (which cost me $30 for ticket, popcorn and drink), the people beside me are talking like they were at a dinner party. They constantly began texting (bright screens flashed in the dark with every outgoing and incoming text). This wasn’t limited to the jerks beside me, but multiple people in the theatre. After at least 25 mins of this I spoke up to them about their complete and utter disrespect for those of us wishing to actually watch the movie. Let’s just say, I overheard multiple other moviegoers discuss my tirade after the movie. It would seem it had been long overdue and was a relief for many others trying to watch in peace.

Not once during the movie was our theatre checked on by any employee, as surely they would have seen the brightest cell screen flashes and heard the chatter.

The extended advertisements, and ridiculous concession wait aside, the chatter and screen flashes could be limited and/or avoided by a simple message (THE LAST MESSAGE) on screen as the lights dim. It should read, please be courteous to your fellow viewers, turn your phone to mute and avoid texting.

Furthermore, for the first 10 mins of the actual movie, an employee should stand at the back of the theatre and subtly warn audience members when they see white screen flashes (trust me, it’s obvious and is a distraction to everyone).

In closing, I want to say that I REALLY try to support local businesses, and I enjoy movies. Your prices are certainly at the upper limit for the experience the customer gets in your older theatres, however I still feel strongly about supporting smaller businesses and I do my best where possible.

I believe my concern/review is warranted and reflective of others in attendance. You can do better!

The movie was very good, but unfortunately was clouded by the other experiences. You really should not advertise an 8pm movie when you show ads for a half an hour. Most people can cope with 15 mins max, but this was ridiculous. I literally COULD have watched the 7:30pm movie!

To be honest, I’m not sure I’d return to Regal. Perhaps the entire Regal franchise is the same?...

This is my first time feeling the need to leave a negative review on something. TYPICALLY I’VE HAD A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE HERE, I REALLY HAVE! Which is why I at least gave it a second star but I was very disappointed by how I was treated tonight.

Came in to see a rated R movie for 2, with tickets purchased on Fandango tonight. My boyfriend being the gentleman he is told me not to bring my purse because I wouldn’t need to pay for anything and thinking it was sweet, I complied. After purchasing $30 worth of food on top of our tickets, we went to get our ticket scanned and were told by the kind gentleman there that I too would need a form of ID. That makes perfect sense and I felt silly not bringing one. So I asked if we could send a photo and I was told that they would generally need a physical form of one but I was welcome to speak with a manager to see if they’d accommodate me. I had a photo of my ID sent just in case. I then waited for the manager to walk over and an officer was standing nearby and began to casually chat with me so I told him my predicament. He was kind enough to look up other movie times, helped us figure out how much of the movie we would miss if we left to get my ID, (about 30 minutes of it) etc. He did what I assumed a decent manager would do. However when I finally met with her and showed her the photo of my ID, she very expressionlessly and carelessly just told me “nope. Can’t take a picture it has to be a physical form.” And that was the end of our conversation. She was done with her exchange of information. I understand and I admire your persistence in honoring your policy for only accepting physical ID’s but as an individual that also works in customer service, I also know the importance of being incredibly friendly and accommodating in your deliverance. We spent $60 at your establishment today already just to see this movie. I think the least you could have done is offered us options like the kind officer that happened to be standing nearby. I do not appreciate the customer service skills of said manager and will be rethinking my next theater choice. Following policy is more than understandable, but treating a paying customer that just wasted their money so dismissively? Nope. I’ve been standing here waiting for my boyfriend to come back with my ID and she walked over and asked if we just ended up switching our movie choice. No? I’ve been waiting and watching our food for a half hour waiting. You didn’t tell us we could?You’re the manager. You did nothing to accommodate us. Very frustrating. However, for anyone wondering, the Nun is still pretty good even if you’ve missed a...

Beware of making plans to attend movies at this theater if you actually expect to be able to watch what's posted on the Regal/Fandango website and listed on their automated phone messaging system. The stars finally aligned for my wife and I to watch Interstellar, last night. This film has been in the theaters for a while, now, so Regal - Longston Place is the nearest location to our home in Olympia where it was listed as playing. The play time posted on Fandango was 5:10 PM. We went to the trouble of hiring a babysitter and made the 30+ mile drive, excited to finally have found the time to watch this film together. However, we arrived at the movie theater at 4:50 only to be told that the decision had been made a few hours previously to replace Interstellar with another movie, presumably because they thought the other movie would attract a larger audience. I spoke to two of the managers about the issue, told them how we had gone out of our way to attend Interstellar at their theater at the time posted on their website, and didn't receive so much as an apology for the inconvenience this last-minute change had caused us. They implied that the website had been adjusted at the time the decision was made to cancel Interstellar and I simply should have rechecked the site later in the day (I had checked it at 1:00 PM). I didn't confirm that the time on the website had been updated, but I did call the theater's phone line at 5:07 - three minutes before when the movie had been supposed to play - only to find that it was still reporting that Interstellar had a 5:10 showing.

The one thing I will say in favor of the managers who I spoke to - and in spite of their mostly uncaring attitude about the inconvenience the cancellation of Interstellar put us through - was that they did offer to let us see a different movie free of charge. We did not want to see a different movie, though, so we declined the offer. I have no idea whether Regal Cinemas as a whole habitually cancels posted showings in order to capitalize on the popularity of other movies or if this is only a practice of this particular Regal location. Regardless, last minute changes like this can be very disappointing to the customer, and they exhibit a lack of respect that drives...