15 January 2007

Dendy Cinemas verus the rest

| ihatestupidpeople
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[ED – IHSP’s views on customer service in Canberra should be taken into account when reading this]

I accept that some people have bad luck and experience bad service. However, I want to make my comments absolutely clear for the critics of Dendy Cinemas.

As an avid movie goer, I cannot begin to explain how happy I am at the quality of facilities, products and services that Dendy has managed to achieve in the little time they have been open. I understand they are still waiting on some builders etc. to finish everything off. I think this is why they don’t ‘officially’ open until February and have discounted some of their ticket and food prices.

I have seen several movies at Dendy (both the normal cinemas and premium cinemas) and cannot fault the quality of the projection and service.

I used to go to Dendy in Newtown and am surprised at the Canberra Centre location. Given that the level of quality is so much higher then the other Dendy’s around the country, I am loving the fact that it only costs $9.50 with a Dendy membership (which I was member of prior to Dendy arriving in Canberra).

The cheapest I ever managed to get at Hoyts was $12 with a Privileges card, but I would be happy to pay more for the quality.

Even though I have been a loyal supporter of Hoyts over the years I cannot imagine slumming it at a Hoyts or Greater Union ever again. If this means I have to completely convert to art house and independent flicks, so be it. And it is quite pleasant to see the box office make a return rather than be hounded to upsize my movie ticket with a $6 coke, $7 popcorn and a $15 choc-top at the candy bar.

However, I must say that the parking is an issue. Not the cost (it’s free on a Sunday and if you’re paying $9.50 for a ticket and $3 for parking you are still doing pretty well in comparison) but more the fact that the Canberra Centre can’t seem to manage the number of spaces it needs each day. I attended Dendy yesterday at noon and could not find a park on level 1, yet the Canberra Centre had Level 2 closed! As a result, I had to exit the car park and re-enter to get to the upper levels.

Anyway, I know I am in the majority of the population that seem to love the new competition in the market. All I can recommend is if you have a bad experience, make the management aware at the time so they can fix it for the next person. If you’re nice about the situation you are more likely to get what you want (e.g. recompense).

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It’s an asian thing – prefix your title (inclusively if necessary) with the initials of the country you come from

– Au Mæ7in4r

My name is just two words combined, hk0re which is a try-hard way of spelling hardcore and Duck which floats on water.

This whole club Dendy thing actually makes me forget any problems that I had with the time I went there. If I can see a movie for $9.50 at any time with every 5th movie free then I don’t really care if the staff are crap at their jobs or if they waste paper giving me fake coupons.

Also, I forgot to mention that I found the acoustics/stereo a lot better than at Hoyts. The only problem now is convincing my friends to go to civic on tuesdays as we are pretty much stuck in our ways.

Thanks for notifying me!

In the MMORPG world it would mean “Hong Kong Hardcore Duck” – but that’s on account of I meet a lot of chinese out there…

hk0reduck (what does that mean?), Dendy club is in fact “Club Dendy” and is like a loyalty / discount card. See more here. Costs $15/yr to join, so see 3 movies and you’re ahead on regular prices.

I’ll also chuck in – when I was growing up, I saw “Ginger Meggs the Movie” (a true piece of 80’s aussie crap if ever there was one) at Electric Shadows. And that never stopped them from also showing a shitload of interesting films.

Anyone judging a cinema because of one movie is, in truth, bringing a fair few other prejudices along for the ride, Bonfire.

Isn’t Happy Feet basically “An Inconvenient Truth” with less Al Gore and more tap dancing?

Nice to see a bit less whinging about this topic – IHSP’s point about it not being finished yet was evident to me the day it opened (unsurprisingly) and given it’s promise I’d say a bit of slack-cutting is in order.

Haven’t tried the Premium theatre but I’d say the same principal applies.

As to arthouse vs mainstream credentials (playing Happy Feet) – it seems like a hybrid, like Greater Union Manuka. You get a mixture of arthouse which is subsidised by the mainstream offerings which keeps the wheels turning.

OT, Happy Feet is a great film and if Stratton gave it five stars, I’m not going to argue.

The other thread reminded me of what I liked about Dendy. He was correct in saying that Dendy has a lot less ads prior to a movie then a Cinemaxx one at Hoyts, also there are more boobies in the trailers. For this I give it three thumbs up!

I go to the movies every tuesday so I consider myself to be quite The Voice when it comes to cinemas. While I found Dendy to be alright I didn’t like the size of the cinema and how the front seats are so close to the screen. I didn’t like the “special coupon” they printed out when I bought a ticket, as this “special coupon” was printed at the normal price for pop-corn and coke and the only people who are going to use the snack-bar are people who have already bought tickets. I don’t like how there is a drink holder only one every two seats, It feels like stupid cost-saving measure. I didn’t like the staff as they mostly seem bewildered (printed out the wrong tickets, didn’t understand my order of one water, one mineral water, let us in before the cinema was ready so everyone was standing at the actual door out of line). As for pricing, me and a group of friends head out to hoyts every tuesday and the tickets are currently $9.50. I’ve never heard of the Dendy club but how much does it cost?

I will not convert to Dendy Civic but I will consider it as a more plush version of Eletric Shadows.

Loved Happy Feet. Got sore feet from tapping along.

Well it did at least have an environmental message, even if it was delivered with a 40 pound sledge…

Then again, it also had Spanish penguins. Case closed.

as i have said – any cinema which screens fucking HAPPY FEET cannot claim to be arthouse or alternative.

THere’s a bunch of one-off screeings coming up in Feburary as part of the multicultural festival.

What arthouse? Where are the one-off, Friday and Saturday night sessions?

Went and saw “The Pursuit of Happyness” at the Dendy on Saturday night. It was busy, but hardly unmanageable. Mrs Snarky is a Dendy Club member and got the tickets for $9.50 each.

We were in the regular section – seats are very comfortable and the theatre’s larger than I expected too. Is is bigger than electric shadows or just a different shape? Sound was fine, temperature was fine and Will Smith was excellent in a serious dramatic role.

We parked on Mort St (free of course) and had a cheap and bloody good dinner at Sammy’s Kitchen afterwards.

We quite enjoyed the night and will happily go back again.

I’d agree with your Dendy experience Michael and also about the whinging not seeing the big picture. Regardless of what’s said here, I’ve already made up my mind. Dendy is cool.

ihatestupidpeople2:11 pm 15 Jan 07

Thanks.

Given my name is Michael and I am an accountant, I am sure I am not aligned to Dendy.

It was just a comment explaining my experience.

Give the guy a medal for sheer brazeness.

Good grief. Perhaps, Mr Shill, you should read the post 2 threads down about Dendy ‘Astroturfing’. You’ve already been caught out. This makes the whole debacle look all the more stupid.

Tekken Dendy VS Street Fighter RiotACT

FIGHT!!

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