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Talk about unfriendly experiences. I was headed to BlockE to see a movie with my sister. We purchased our tickets on the second floor and as per usual complained about the placement of Cold Stone Creamery right in front of the escalators up to the movie, but the signs that state in no uncertain terms that the ice cream from the Cold Stone Creamery would not be welcome in the theater. It bothers me to no end each and every time I go to a movie there, but it’s the closest movie theater to my house, so I continue to go there, until perhaps now…..

I purchased some popcorn and soda while my sister went to use the restroom. She then proceeded to the theater that said it was showing the movie we were attending and was asked to please give her cell phone to the people standing outside the theater. In the meantime, I was waiting for her at the popcorn stand. I finally thought, hmmmm, maybe she went into the theater. So I headed to the door and also saw the sign that was displaying the title we had come to see that evening. I was also asked for my cell phone. Being the high maintenance/sensitive to ‘experiences’ customer that I am, I immediately questioned them.

“Why do you need my phone? Are you going to do this for every movie? What is the purpose of this? I don’t think I want to come to movies any more if this is going to happen.”

These questions and comments were met with a stream of information of the movie industry of America and the dangers and how they are preventing people from copying the movie, etc…etc…

So, I gave up my phone and went in. Both my sister and I were disturbed and uncomfortable with the experience, we continued our discussion about it and decided that as we had not been told they were taking our cell phones upon entry into the theater, we should be able to get our money back.

We exited and requested that we get our cell phones back. I was again greeted with the same poorly rehearsed speech about movie industry, piracy, blah, blah, blah. I explained to the man that I didn’t intend to use my device to record his movie and even if I did and posted it on the Internet, the people interested in that poor quality 640×480 picture/video was never going to come and see their movie in the first place. Besides, isn’t all the money in the merchandising anyway.

Next steps were to get the money back. I headed to the concierge desk, took a deep breath so as not to be rude and take this frustration out on this poor individual because they did not make this decision. I said, “Who do I need to speak with to get my money back? There are people at the door who took my cell phone before I was able to see the movie I purchased a ticket for and I was not told that I would have to give up my cell phone in order to watch the movie.”

Now, here’s the funny part. His response was: “What!? Who’s taking cell phones?”

A nearby usher overheard the conversation and she helped bring some clarity. “Which movie were you seeing ma’am? I told here which movie and she said, “Oh, they didn’t change the marquee, that movie is in theater 7 not 1, they were taking your cell phone because the theater you were going into was showing a sneak preview of Dodgeball and they don’t want that content to get out. You can still go to the original movie you were going to see in theater 7 and they won’t take your phone, that is not a standard activity.

So a couple issues of signage and a whole bunch of paranoia on the part of the movie industry and I am now compelled to not patronize that theater anymore. In fact, I stated that when my phone was being taken from me in the first place and the response to my frustration was, good, don’t come back.

A stellar customer experience, no doubt. I won’t be going back there and I can’t imagine if this becomes standard, why others would either. You already have to stand in line for the tickets, then the snacks, now you have to stand in line to give up your phone. Well, I guess I could avoid the phone line because I was given an option. “You can take it back to your car ma’am, but if you don’t we have to take it.”