Denver Electronic ticket sales go haywire

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Electronic ticket sales go haywire Denver moviegoers overcharged by UA

Paula Moore Business Journal Real Estate Editor Some Denver moviegoers are upset about being overcharged when buying movie tickets by credit card, but purchasing such tickets electronically is here to stay.

One local citizen recently complained to United Artists Theatres about a single ticket charge showing up three times on a credit card bill. The person added that the same thing happened to several friends, as well.

Full-price movie tickets in this area cost roughly $7.50.

Colorado-based United Artists, commonly called UA, admits it recently had problems with overcharging credit card customers. Those difficulties, though, were caused by software glitches that have been fixed, according to the company.

"Everybody had a little trouble with Y2K issues," said Kurt Hall, president of United Artists Theatre Circuit Inc. in Englewood. "And some credit cards got swiped twice, so customers were charged twice."

If local UA customers complained of overcharging to the Denver/Boulder Better Business Bureau, those complaints were resolved. In the last three years, UA has had a satisfactory record, according to the bureau. That means problems brought to the bureau's attention were rectified by the movie theater company.

Efforts to find out if other movie theater chains in the Denver area have had overcharging problems were unsuccessful. Executives at AMC Entertainment Inc. in Kansas City and Mann Theatres Inc. in Encino, Calif., were unavailable for comment.

Landmark Theatre Corp. of Los Angeles, which owns several art-house movie theaters here, has no electronic overcharging difficulties because it accepts only cash for movie tickets.

"We don't do the credit card thing," added David Kimball, Landmark's Denver manager. "We do advance sales, but they're for cash, too."

Buying movie tickets by means other than sliding a fistful of bills to a person in a ticket booth has been going on for a while, but it's still relatively new in the movie business. It's also growing rapidly. AMC Theatres even has its own online movie-ticket buying venture, MovieTickets.com.

UA last year partnered with America Online Inc. to use AOL's Moviefone.com service. Beginning this summer, movie fans supposedly will not only be able to buy tickets on the `Net but print them at home as well.

Web site ticket sellers guarantees confidentiality to prevent the theft of customers' names, addresses, credit card numbers and other personal information. "We don't know who you are unless you tell us ... We keep your information secure," promises Moviefone.com.

Selling movie tickets online is just one way movie theater chains are trying to keep their customers out of long lines at the box office. They also sell tickets over the phone and in advance at the theater.

For the cash customer who doesn't mind standing in line but forgets to bring money to the theater, some companies, including UA, have even installed automatic-teller machines in their lobbies for quick cash.

"The biggest thing going on now is the whole Internet ticket-selling thing," UA's Hall concluded. "We're all trying to figure out ways to make going to the movies more convenient."

http://www.amcity.com/denver/stories/2000/04/03/story6.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 03, 2000


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