Universal Cinema AMC at CityWalk Hollywood — Local services in West Hollywood

We have been AMC Stubs members for over 5 years now and this location is our favorite and the only one we usually go to. We have never had any major issues and we are usually met with the utmost professionalism until today. We showed up to the Universal Studios parking stations - if you’re a regular you know it’s usually $30 for general parking and you’ll get $25 reimbursed by AMC - UNLESS you order your tickets ahead of time (which we always do because we are A-list members) of which you then get a Parking Pass barcode that allows you the only pay $5 upfront.

I’m unfortunately someone affected by the strikes and am not working right now, so as embarrassing as this is, we don’t have $30 to pay upfront then get reimbursed. We drove there with $17 to our name, just wanting to enjoy our movie and expected to pay our usual $5. However, when we got there, the lead attendant advised that oddly the parking pass was showing as “invalid” and that because they have had issues with people getting movies and then canceling them or sending the vouchers to others in their party, there was nothing to do besides charge the full $30 and have us get reimbursed. I showed that our tickets were very much so still active, the only two people on the order was myself and husband, we were already late for the movie so there was no way to cancel the order without going to the box office - yet they said there was no way for them to see why the parking pass was invalid and they advised that this is an AMC issue not theirs. I called AMC, asked to speak with a manger, at this point it’s been a full hour of trying to get this resolved and it’s now 5:30pm (our movie started at 4:20pm)- we clearly can’t see the movie now, all Universal could say was “sorry for the inconvenience” and the very rude manager (or the man who claimed to be - I wasn’t sure because when I asked to speak with a manager he just responded by saying “what do you expect me to do” so I took that as he was the manager) at AMC only said “we can’t force universal to do anything, so if their code is showing as invalid then you have to pay full price and get reimbursed, and I kindly told him that’s my point - I’m just calling to raise awareness that this is a flawed system for people under financial hardship. If there is a system error, you should be able to see what is causing the error specifically before having to turn a customer away if unable to pay $30 for parking when there was no reason to pay more than $5. At the end of the call the AMC “manager” condescendingly goes “okay ma’am we’ll let universal know that one guest complained and should look into this. You have a great day” and hung up. Not “I’m sorry, I see how that wasted your time and how this is an issue” nothing. I used to work in customer service and I’ve just been very surprised to see such terrible customer service etiquette recently. As if every person who asks to speak with a manager is just a Karen looking to start problems. Sometimes people are just looking for to speak with someone they know for a fact isn’t new that I will have the knowledge, kindness and professionalism to at least discuss the issue at hand and raise a concern with corporate if necessary- I wasn’t looking for a refund of any kind, just simple understanding and for the issues to be looked into since no one could explain why the Parking Pass was reflecting as invalid. I hope that AMC “manager” gets the proper coaching needed to take care of guests professionally without the ego. Taking all that time to be treated so rudely and to just have to drive back home...

I have been coming to amc for as long as I can remember and me and all of my friends recently joined a-list because we were coming to the movies atleast once a week. We go to the same theater at universal every time. Now I am considering canceling my a-list and having all of my friends cancel a-list because of my last experience. I am not a person to ever write a review for any business because I am a business owner my self and know how bad reviews like this hurt businesses, but an experience like this needs to be heard and person like this should not be employed by at reputable company like amc! Especially in a supposed “manager” position which I believe he was not a manager and just acting like he was.

So basically, I lost my drivers license about a month ago and my renewal is coming up next month and I just renewed in the mail and I am waiting for a new one. I have a clear picture of my drivers license in my phone and have showed my picture along with my debit and credit card I have in my pocket the last 3 times and walked in to my movie. This time around the employee at the door said sorry I can’t accept a photo of your license so I told him that I have gone in 3 times already no issues and if I can see a manager.

This supposed manager comes out by the name of Chris out by the counter and literally is extremely rude telling me that photo id is required and it’s on my terms and conditions. To start did not even look at my Id picture or listen to me and straight kept on rudely telling me that I cannot go in and that the policy. I tried explaining once more to him how I have gone in like that the last 3 times and he responded not this time.

Not only was he rude, but had a bad attitude issue. Being a business owner I absolutely cannot stand people like this that work a customer service job and act like customers owe them their life. This person doesn’t belong in his position whether he is a manager or even a regular customer service rep. He literally does not deserve working for any reputable company. He should go and work for himself and see how far his attitude will get him and how much damage he will cause for his own business and then maybe he would understand how he is damaging someone else’s business.

From how he was treating me what I understand from his behavior is that he was completely acting as if me asking for a manager was a complete inconvenience for him. That he had to take his precious time doing nothing on the clock to actually doing his job. He was very ignorant and did not listen to one word I said. Completely unacceptable and I literally do not want to return to amc theaters again if this is the type of employees that are going to be working there and servicing their loyal customers. And 6 of my friends also missed the movies today because of...

I was tempted to come here by reviewers that mentioned that this is a beautiful, clean movie theater in a fun location. And you know what, I’ve never been to this location, so I thought why not? It turned out that this cinema is exactly what they say it is, I suppose, but coming here was not worth the money and the drive for me personally. You can’t really comfortably walk there, you’re gonna have to drive or take the bus, unless you’re staying in a hotel in the area, or if you’re really really determined because it’s not pedestrian-friendly. The auditoriums at the cinema are small, but feel spacious because of limited seating, and they are very clean. I imagine they don’t get a lot of traffic, so it’s not that difficult to upkeep and it shows. There is a small bar upstairs with plenty of seating, and a concessions area downstairs, which had the least sensible layout I’ve ever seen. They were out of a lot of foods like nuggets (??? idk if this is sold in other cinemas, I honestly never noticed this before, but this location does it apparently) and popcorn flavors, but a lot of packaged candy and snacks were still in stock. A medium drink was almost $7. They also didn’t accept Apple Pay or any other wireless options, and they didn’t have any signage to indicate this. So I’ve waited almost 10 minutes in the line for the popcorn and 15 minutes in the line for the registry (yes, they are separate for whatever reason) to be told that no, they will accept cash or card only. Sorry not sorry. Next person in line! The escalators weren’t working and there was a line to the elevators for the second floor auditoriums right next to the gigantic staircase, which I thought was hilarious.

Parking is a pain at $30, $5 with validation from the cinema, and you can either buy your movie tickets online in advance and get a coupon to scan at the parking meter, or pay 30 upfront and get a refund at the cinema, basically. Still a pain.

I was thinking I’ll get a fun experience in a nice fancy-ish cinema, and it was not that for me. I definitely will not be returning just for the cinema specifically. Maybe if I’m at Universal studios and have money to spend and time to kill - but if I’m being honest, still...