AMC Bethlehem 12 — Local services in Winder

Everyone that works at this theater needs customer service training. But to be honest I think that's a waste of time with this group of employees. There are 5 people out smoking or hanging out near the back door that is all employees as I pull into the theater tonight while customers are waiting to get tickets and food. There are only two people taking food orders and tickets when I walk into the theater. You need to have a ticket booth and someone scanning tickets at the theater not getting tickets behind the concession stand. It doesn't matter if you purchase tickets before coming to the theater you still have to stand in line and wait to have your ticket scanned with all the customers purchasing tickets and ordering from the concession stand. The theater is gross its never clean it stinks and your employees are rude and unfriendly. Elena who usually works in the day is a pure B_tch. She gossips and complains about all the customers and she hates her job it's very obvious with her poor attitude. In fact, they all hate their job. There was a little red head girl with long hair who cleans theaters and she stands at the door before the movie is even finished waiting for you to get out. When you walk out she gives you this look of evil. They're all kids who just complain about everything. There is to many good people in this world that want and need jobs and work well with the public. They have all these employees working and there either hanging out the back door or in the manager's office doing nothing. There is a lot of play time for the employees and managers while customers are rushing to get into there movies. The movie theater is always freezing. When I was there some customers went out to get there blanket and coats because of the temperature in the theater and they got locked out. I walk out and there knocking at the door and Elena keeps saying we are closed. I walked up to get a refill on a drink and opened the door to see what they needed. I mean sometimes you leave something in the theater. We have lost a phone in the theater before and all we did was get the run around from management. So they showed me their tickets and stated they got blankets and coats and came back and got locked out. This was a family. I told them, Elenna, the employee up front would not let them in. What a B_tch. The family was very thankful. All movies had been playing they were on the last shows and there was maybe 30 to an hour left for the movies playing. I went and talked to a manager I told the manager what happened and all the past issues I've had with this theater and shes like the employees have to call us if someone needs in the door. Well, Elena didn't do s_it but stated to the customers were closed. When you spend the money that it cost to go to one of these movies as a family you hate to lose it trying to stay comfortable because your freezing in the theater. The Managers in the office always do nothing while lines are backed up. All other theaters in the area always have managers that help when it gets crowded. Most of them stay out front helping. The drink machines are always broken down. Tonight it was just gross. Out of lids and coke all over the place and no napkins. But yet the employees are out back socializing. The popcorn is always cold. They pre-pop to much popcorn before they need it and it gets cold. And they mix the old with the new. I was eating popcorn one night and each handful was different and then I bit into this gross handful of popcorn that tasted like there was some chemical in it. It was so nasty. I went to the concession stand to get a new bucket and guess what they were closed. All the employees are gone. There was not one employee in site and this was just after the last movie started. I have never found that at any other AMC theater. I park in the handicap near the back door. One night I came out of the movie and there was theater food on my car. I looked at my dash cam and it was employees from the theater throwing food on cars. A cop told me you should...

This is a great new theater that has some very, very odd and confusing characteristics that prevent it from being a 5-star cinema:

You have to wait in line for concessions to buy...tickets. Yes, even if you know you don't want to spend $10.00 on a small popcorn, or $8.00 on a drink, you still have to wait in line with people who DO want to buy concessions. While waiting to buy tickets, there are 2 lines--one for normal ticket purchases, and one for customers who have purchased Fandango/online tickets. No problem, I get that you pay a $2-3.00 convenience fee online, so you should get to skip ahead in the lines once you arrive. The problem is, a lot of people ignore the fact that the 2nd line is for Fandango tickets ONLY, and they get in that line to bypass the normal, longer line to essentially "cut" in line. You can imagine the type of people who do this, and the workers/managers there don't even care if you say something. This turns into 1-2 people cutting in line every ~5 minutes, so you can expect to wait a minimum of 10-15 minutes in line unless you go at some weird off-hour. There have been several occasions when the workers did not clean the theaters on time. I don't mean a few minutes behind, but so late on a few occasions that we weren't even allowed to go into the theater until after the previews had started! I personally don't care much for previews, but some people really do. And to be told to get up and get out so the workers can clean the theater--even though the movie was technically supposed to start 2-3 minutes ago--is obscene. Some nutty little overweight woman borderline yelled at us about a year ago for coming into the theater before it was cleaned--god forbid we assume the staff had already done their job and had the theater ready 3-5 minutes before the movie time. Some of the lower-tier movies that come out are available ONLY in 3D at this theater. Even if you don't want to see the movie in 3D, you're forced to on some occasions because they literally don't have standard/non-3D showings of it. This wouldn't be a big deal, except now you're paying $4-5.00 more per ticket because they charge a premium for 3D. The major movies always have several options, but if you want to see a less-popular movie, you may be stuck paying $14-16.00 per ticket. Movie times online are sometimes wrong. Yes, even in today's age of instant-information and the death of distance, somehow this theater sometimes displays the wrong showing times online than what the actual showing times are. I've only noticed them be off twice, but when you find out you've missed the previous showing by 25 minutes, and the next showing is 40 minutes later, it can be sort of disappointing and/or throw off your plans for anything after the movie.

Aside from these things, the theater itself is new and clean. No issues with the seating or quality of experience, etc. Just don't be surprised when you experience some weird stuff...

I am a bit of a movie buff, as anyone reading the reviews on Google probably is as well. I, however, have not devoted much time to writing reviews nor do I think I'll be that good at it...

The Bethlehem Carmike is a great movie theater to visit. It is modern and when you enter it is clear where the ticket line begins. The line moves rather quickly, even with a crowd; the management seems to know what they are doing, scheduling the right amount of workers, especially when a new movie comes out.

The staff are cordial and I've been greeted by any of them I make eye contact with (again that's a sign of good management). The ticket prices are about the same as any other theater, but they do have incentives depending on what day of the week, what time of the day, and also a rewards program. The food is your typical over priced theater food, what can you do? That's probably where theaters make most of their money, can you blame them?

The bathrooms are clean and I've never been in one that had any odors to it, to me that means that the staff take their jobs seriously, it's almost as if they are on that Chick-Fil-A level. The theaters are appropriately sized and the seats are comfortable, they are also cleaned well between movies and the staff members are polite if they need to work around you (if you are an early bird like myself).

Any problems I have had were corrected, even if that meant getting my money back. It is more technology than an individual, but they are understanding. I'm not sure what else to day other than, GO TO THIS MOVIE THEATER! They may not have the newest, in style seats, i.e.: Movie Tavern and the updated AMC in Lawrenceville, but this Bethlehem...