4 January 2011

Where the $#%@ is the captions?

| Jclarke
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Allow me to tell you a little about myself, I am pretty much still a newbie to the-riotact.com however I am deaf. Just wanted to share this frustration to you guys, this may help expand to other deaf and hard of hearing rioters out there, if any.

Earlier tonight, I attended a movie session of ‘Love and other Drugs’ which at the time was available with open captions – I have not been to the cinemas in ages and was looking forward to captioned movies at Dendy Cinemas in Canberra City. 5 minutes into the film, I was very disappointed that the captions didn’t show as they were supposed to be! I walked out of the cinemas and with a angry gesture to the staff and demanded why it wasn’t captioned, and I was taken to a supervisor, and they went to investigate why they didn’t show the captions, they simply forgot to turn it on, that was not enough excuse to explain. I demanded a refund and I left in huge frusration, they even said I was allowed back in (also ticket refunded) but I refused because I already lost 15 minutes of the film. They apologised but a apology and refund wasn’t good enough.

In the past, Hoyts Belconnen had captioned films available, but I was not impressed with their performance in the past, as they tend to break down all the damn time, and you know I am from the southside, most of the time, I felt it was a waste of time and money to go to a captioned movie in Belconnen, however I was pleased to see that Dendy’s was available, they performance was fantastic however in recent times, was disappointing. Not so great start into 2011.

No offense to the people who works for Dendy Cinemas, I appericate your service but Dendy Cinemas needs more improvements towards to the deaf and hard of hearing community.

I will be writing a formal complaint letter this week.

Thank you for reading.

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la mente torbida3:16 pm 06 Jan 11

We’re all special

JustThinking10:49 pm 05 Jan 11

Hi Jclarke,
My son is tone deaf so I have been through these issues heaps…not with cinemas etc but other places.
HARD for others to understand.
Once found his 4th grade teacher (hands on his desk) screaming in his face…When I asked what her problem was she said “he won’t listen to me” DUH!!! Wonder why??

I agree with you. May have been a mistake, they may have offered a refund etc,,,,so that just means you have to travel again to see a movie you may not want to see…not to mention the time/travel you had already lost. Not to mention a planned night out.

Stuff them,,,,

Sms system if they have it installed, and manned? Or email – and wait how many days for a response? Nothing spontaneous about that.

re:
21
watto23 (Rioter) 14:45, 04 Jan 11

I like everyone else understands the frustration, but it seems a genuine mistake. If something like that was important to you, maybe next time just confirm its captioned. Yes you shoulodn’t have to, but I know I confirm many things that are important to me before say booking a holiday or hotel and dining out I confirm things before ordering.

– How should a deaf person confirm something like this – by phone????

If it is any consolation, I have seen this movie and it was hugely disappointing. I can understand your frustration at what happened to you. Use your refund and hire it when it comes out on dvd!

In my experience I’ve actually found the staff at Dendy to be very helpful and considerate in regards to disabilities.

About a year or so ago – back when the latest round of 3D movies started being released, I made an offhand inquiry at the box office while purchasing tickets for a regular movie, about whether a 3D picture might still be watchable for a friend of mine who has an eye condition. The staff member wasn’t sure but called the manager on duty to ask her opinion.

The manager came over straight away and I mentioned my friend’s disability to her and asked her if she knew if the 3D session would still be watchable for my friend. She said that she wasn’t sure either but offered my friend a free ticket to check it out for herself and report back to the Dendy staff so they’d know the answer in case there were any other inquiries in the future. She gave me her name and phone number and said she’d be happy for my friend to call to organise a ticket for her to try out a 3D movie sometime. Unfortunately my friend was in the process of moving out of Canberra and wasn’t able to take her up on her offer before she left.

I thought that it was very considerate of the staff to acknowledge that while they didn’t know the answer to my question they were willing (without any prompting from me), to offer my friend a chance to see the movie for free so that they could have a better understanding about how a disability, like the one my friend had, would affect their customers and so they could advise future customers accordingly.

georgesgenitals1:05 pm 05 Jan 11

“I am a regular Dendy customer, I’d go back, however they need to realise they make a mistake that enrages the customer to walk away just like myself yesterday.”

Sounds almost like a Chuck Norris movie!

“I am a regular Dendy customer, I’d go back, however they need to realise they make a mistake that enrages the customer to walk away just like myself yesterday.”

*Enrages* the customer? Huh? I can understand you being cheesed off a bit by what happened, but being enraged in this situation sounds like a completely inappropriate reaction. I’d suggest saving your rage for situations where people people try to kill you, and similar circumstances.

You also wrote in the original post that you made an angry gesture to the staff. If that’s the case I reckon that you’re lucky to have received the apparently courteous response that you did.

Overall, I’m not feeling a huge tsunami of sympathy happening here.

Seems to me like Dendy did all they could do to rectify the situation, short of starting the movie again from the top. I think we’ve all experienced issues with a cinema at one point or another, deaf or not. These things happen.

“continue to be noisy about film captioning”

Heh heh heh

Whether or not the OP received a refund is really not the issue. It’s the woeful lack of community awareness and sensitivity to people with disability. And they are not a minority – the Productivity Commission estimated that in 2009, one-fifth of the population, over 4 million, had a disability of some kind. People without disability really don’t know what its like. I didn’t until my spouse acquired a brain injury resulting in mobility difficulties. So OP, continue to be noisy about film captioning, it might get through to Dendy and other cinemas eventually.

What an utter disgrace. I would have refused to leave until the employee responsible was sacked on the spot. Furthermore I would be inclined to litigate for the obvious emotional turmoil you were put through. After all, this is exactly the type of case our uncluttered legal system is crying out for. I thought I had problems in my life but thanks for putting things in perspective for me.

georgesgenitals3:03 pm 04 Jan 11

If I were in the OP’s position I’d be asking for a discount each time I went to the movies, given that I could only consume the visual portion of the entertainment and not the audio.

I think everyone understands the limited nature of captioned movies.
But we don’t understand what you wanted. They refunded your ticket and offered another. So it may be difficult for you to use that ticket, but maybwe you could give it to a friend?

I like everyone else understands the frustration, but it seems a genuine mistake. If something like that was important to you, maybe next time just confirm its captioned. Yes you shoulodn’t have to, but I know I confirm many things that are important to me before say booking a holiday or hotel and dining out I confirm things before ordering.

Perhaps you should demand that no-one is allowed to makes any mistakes ever again?

What carnardly said is what I was talking about. I am a regular Dendy customer, I’d go back, however they need to realise they make a mistake that enrages the customer to walk away just like myself yesterday.

Huh?

It seems like they acknowledged the mistake, were apologetic and wanted to make things right by you.

What, exactly, do you want from Dendy to make up for what was a simple case of human error?

colourful sydney racing identity1:47 pm 04 Jan 11

@17 – you have said an apology and a refund wasn’t good enough. What did you expect them to do for you? Give you back your 15 minutes? Start the movie again? Seriously, what would have made you happy.

Guys, I respect your opinions against my post, that is fine.
However, as a canberran, the deaf community is small and the captions happens three or four times a week, DEPENDING on the film available. Hoyts Belconnen shows very little with luck of working captions, most of the time, the machine just breaks down and they can’t do anything about it. Free tickets is worthless, IN my own humble opinon.

What carnardly said is what I was talking about. I am a regular Dendy customer, I’d go back, however they need to realise they make a mistake that enrages the customer to walk away just like myself yesterday.

What would you say, if the movie didn’t show, you paid for it, you came from southside becayse the time was suitable for you at Dendys and turns out the movie machine was broken? Do you want free tickets and refund and then it happens more than once?

I’ll leave this to you, rioters.

Thats what you get for going to the Pictures.

I dont even know why you tried for people sympathy on here.

Download torrents like everybody else, captions are available for most New Realeses.

colourful sydney racing identity12:20 pm 04 Jan 11

I hear that the new polytechnic (UC & CIT) is going to offer bridge building courses. You may want to enroll.

eyeLikeCarrots11:04 am 04 Jan 11

Actually, on second thought they could of atleast given him a free ticket for another session (ontop of a refund).

For the cinema, this is a chance for some big positive publicity – admit that they dropped the ball, invite the OP with guests to a personal screening in Gold class.

Sounds like they handled the situation quite well. I don’t really understand your anger.

Pommy bastard10:31 am 04 Jan 11

Have all your toys been put back in your pram now?

I get where JClarke is coming from. He’s driven across town to go to the movies on that particular night because it was advertised to be shown with captions. The Deaf community has little enough access to captioned movies anyway (ie often only once a month and only for the popular films). I’d be annoyed too. Whatever happens, even if he did go back in, he’s missed the setting of the whole scene for the movie.

Now, if he wants to see it with captions, he has to wait for another viewing with captions – I bet that won’t be this week.

I have learnt when management is apologetic, you should be willing to give the service/good another go. They normally bend over backwards, so to speak, to do their best not to repeat the same mistake because the last thing they want is bad publicity.

You should have taken advantage of the situation and stressed:

a) how much you were looking forward to the seeing the film;

b) that you are a regular customer of Dendy;

c) how disappointed (not in a angry manner) that Dendy made a mistake.

It has worked in the past for me with great success with businesses like Cadburys and Athlete’s Foot. I never got angry with them – I just explained my situation, got a refund or equivalent and as a result, continue to be a regular customer. With the two companies mentioned, I got an even better outcome – Cadburys sent me a carton of chocolates (10 times more than I had bought) and Athletes Foot gave me a new pair of shoes that were more expensive than my original pair. If you have played your cards right, you could have got a book of 10 tickets than just a refund!

They apologised and refunded your money. Sounds like you got a good outcome.

la mente torbida9:09 am 04 Jan 11

As previously posted, what more could Dendy have done to satisfy you?

troll-sniffer8:52 am 04 Jan 11

Perhaps JClarke is feeling a little miffed that not only has life deprived him/her of hearing (which some of my deaf friends swear can be a godsend sometimes) but also the ability to write grammatically correct headlines.

If JClarke thinks that being deaf is an excuse to be a self-obsessed whinger (as in cannot accept a sincere apology and needs to go for the kill), and that said attitude is acceptable, JClarke is, I suspect, one enormously unhappy soul whose life consists of a never-ending series of ‘feel sorry for me’ episodes.

Quite right, JC. On learning of the mistake, their actions of apologising, refunding your ticket and letting you back in were entirely inadequate. At a minimum the manager should have undertaken some self-flagellation using their cat o’ nine tails, several customers should have been branded with a hot iron and at least one of the younger staff ought to have been sacrificed on a pire; isn’t that what that decaying timber deck outside the cinema is for?

Anything else you would like them to do to appease your wrath, JC?

eyeLikeCarrots8:14 am 04 Jan 11

“They apologised but a apology and refund wasn’t good enough.”

So you’re deaf. Life without a major sense like hearing mustbe difficult and I imagine frustrating.

However, the fact that, Tinkerbell the magical fairly with her amazing wand of miracles, is not on staff at Dendy is no reason for you to get pissy. They said sorry (I can only imagine they were mortified that they’d upset and disappointed someone so badly).

By all means, write your letter. I’m sure this has already been bought to the manager’s attention and steps would have been put in place to ensure that this does not happen again. But go ahead, burn off your congealed ‘entitlement’.

What the $#%@ more do you want?

I can understand your frustration, and they certainly deserve the slapping you gave them for screwing up and screwing you around, but their apology seemed genuine and, as Clown Killer says, their response seems pretty reasonable.

Clown Killer7:40 am 04 Jan 11

Not really sure what else they could have done. Apology, refund, offer of another ticket at no cost. It was an oversight after all.

I don’t think the deaf demographic sonstitutes a large enough market share to result in the lifetime of free tickets you were fishing for.

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