Reader Anthony says he paid for his movie ticket with “$8 and some change.” The transaction resulted in AMC owing Anthony a nickel.
But AMC doesn’t carry nickels. They told Anthony that if he wanted his nickel he’d have to go get it from the “Guest Services” desk. So he did. But instead of a nickel, he got attitude. Anthony writes:
“The ticket was $9 and I had $8 and some change to get rid of. So I paid with 3 quarters and 3 dimes which would have had me with a nickel change. The ticket seller told me they don’t carry nickels and if I want my nickel I have to go to the Guest Services desk. I thought this was a bit odd so I went to Guest Services where I was told again…they don’t carry any nickels in the drawers. So I asked to speak to the manager. The manager came over… he told me it’s policy that AMC doesn’t have any change in any drawers. Now I am not bent out of shape over a nickel, I am just utterly confused that a major movie theater chain would not have any coin change in any cash drawers (except maybe concessions). I asked for the managers name and he got an attitude and asked for mine which I gladly wrote down for him. “
Well, we guess that when you never give out change you don’t really “need” to carry any… but you’d think they’d have some emergency nickels laying around just in case. You know, so they didn’t have to tell Anthony to take a hike over a nickel. If AMC owes you a nickel they should give you a nickel.
Silly.
(Photo:Paxton Holly)
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@balthisar :: I agree completely, but where is the 6% money market or savings account (or even CD)?
Also, extend that calculation to using a debit-based cash-back card with 1% cash back on everything. That 6 months worth of cash spending (say $1500 per month to keep it easy) now pays you an additional $90.00, making the total $96.80. Also, the cash you’re carrying in your wallet could be earning 5% in your debit account instead of 0% in your wallet.
-Reagan
I worked at a movie theater for a couple years. Everything was like a previous poster wrote, everything in $.25 increments this is not because it’s “expensive” to keep dimes, nickels, and pennies in the register. It’s because the people you are employees you are paying $6/hr are not good at math nor are the $8/hr managers (yes I know it’s simple math but, you complain about your 5 cents think about that over multiple registers and a lot more transactions across thousands of locations). If you go to the movie theater for service prepare to pay a lot more than $9 otherwise start using a credit/check card like a normal human being.
That’s illegal in the state of Canada.
People go to theaters? This is why pirate bay exists. OK… I confess, I do go to the movies but not to these megaplexes. Why would anyone stand in line to get a ticket, wait in line again for good seats, allow themselves to be treated as cattle and be seriously over charged for junk food? Oh, and if you bring water and fruit, they may just kick you out.
Let’s just round everything up to the nearest dollar, dammit!
@Nemesis_Enforcer:
@Hawk07: Wow you must not spend much in cash. My wife and I throw our change in a 5 gallon water bottle and I usually take it to the bank once every 6 months or so and its usually around $450 or so… Usually about the time where it takes an effort of will to pick it up and dump it on the table to sort and count
–
I was thinking the same, in April I cashed a little over $350 in change that was in my big plastic Coke bottle for a little over a year.
I use a credit card to pay for whatever I can most of the time then pay it off at the end of the month, yet I still managed to put that much change from the cash I do use!
@SportsCentre:
I think SportsCentre hit it on the head. They should let the CUSTOMER keep the nickel rather than charging an extra nickel. It’s their mistake for not having change.
It’s no big deal, right?? It’s ONLY a nickel.
@mannymix03:
I haven’t been to an AMC in a long time, but here in Chicago, they charge tax on everything, even the tickets came out odd, because of tax.
/IIRC, they were trying to make a point that the tax shouldn’t be there and charging 2.13 for a small soda, etc.
I’ve been party to National Association of Theatre Owners conventions since the early 90′s. Making the math simple for the high schooler pouring your drink and making change for you is only one of the reasons. The main reason for the .25 increments in pricing is to give back to the purchaser as many quarters as possible. It was quickly noticed that the more quarters you gave back the more money your arcades generated for you. So a drink that once cost $2.85 was soon priced at $3.25. They made more on the sale and were assured a good chance at getting the other $0.75 as well when you played Street Fighter.
If I had a nickel for each movie ticket, I’d be one rich movie chain.
How hard would it be for the theater to go down to the bank and get a bag of nickels? It’s not the amount of money, it’s the principle of the thing. Next thing you know, it’ll be “We don’t carry $1 bills.”
Just tell them that they can keep the nickel as long as they want, just make sure you get them to sign your loan forms which entails a 700% interest for every hour the nickel is not payed back. Lets see how fast he runs to his car to get you a nickel.
That reminds me that when I worked retail and needed change, I couldn’t get nickels from our cash office. Basically we would just try to accumulate them when customers paid in cash. My question though is did the cashier not have pennies either? ‘Cause, 5 pennies equals, you know.
Oh actually maybe it was dimes we didn’t have…
It is federal law that any reasonably public place that sells products or services accept all forms of cash, and provide you with the correct change. I would involve the better business bureau as well at the DA’s office where you are.
@geekire: Oh, what a horrible burden on a cash business to actually keep some cash around.
It’s policy to not have any change in any drawers, but they’re perfectly willing to accept his quarters and dimes. Er?
Kudos to Anthony for asking a common sense question, no kudos to AMC or the manager for being so ridiculous.
OK, I’m sorry (not really), but in reading the comments, the one that made me stop & think “WTF?!” was MANNYMIX03′s. In it s/he states, “Its not the theater’s fault, next time know that you will need to pay in quaters (sic), or at least have exact change.”
Again, WTF?! Last time I checked, each and every denomination of bills and coins is “legal tender for all debts, public and private”. Now, I’m not highly educated as a financial guru, but this means to me that anyone person or business can use any combination of coins or bills to pay the debt incurred.
With MANNYMIX03′s example of a sale of goods or services costing the consumer a total which ends in “5″ (e.g. .05, .15, .25, etc.), if the consumer pays that cost with 3 dimes (entirely reasonable), It’s not the consumer’s responsibility to provide only denominations which are preferred by a particular party; rather, the responsibility lies with the party selling the goods or services in providing the consumer adequate compensation to pay for the new debt incurred. This means, if the consumer pays for the $3.25 gummy bears with 3 one dollar bills and 3 dimes, the other party now has a debt to the consumer and has a responsibility to the consumer to pay that debt.
To be quite honest, I’, REALLY starting to get annoyed* with VISA & their new ad campaign. To me, their new catch-phrase (“Life takes VISA”) is one of those great works of marketing which can mean different things, depending on the perspective one thinks of it in. The catch-phrase itself seems quick, snappy, and taken at face value, can mean that one can use the VISA card for anything one encounters throughout their life. I can see a more subtle & troubling interpretation as well, one which can mean that one figuratively (or even literally) CANNOT get through their life without using the VISA card. ([usa.visa.com] , “Downtown”)
This is even more disturbing when you stop to consider one particular message ([usa.visa.com] , “Morning in Manhattan”), which can be indicative of a larger marketing strategy, which is that it’s a bad to use (or even CONSIDER using) cash anymore. It’s my belief that the longer-term (meaning 5 or 10 years) strategy is to slowly but surely influence most consumers tho change the way they think about cash & cash transactions. This is so wrong on so many different levels, it’s just not funny.
So, I ask again… WTF?!
*…and kind of puzzled, why there doesn’t seem to many other people (if at all), who are having the same reaction
It’s a nickel. It’s just not worth it. You’ll probably find one on the ground as you’re leaving the theater.
@joemono: That’s completely not the point.
I’m sure AMC would not say “It’s a nickel. It’s just not worth it.”, so why should he?
one more reason why i don’t pay the fucking high prices for a movie ticket! most movies are crap and not worth my hard earned money. and they wonder why i never by the over priced refreshements? because i always bring my own! i go to rite aid or costo and get 100 times more for the same price and fill up all the pockets in my cargo shorts. now if i could only find a personal size icee machine to sneak in so i can enjoy a cherry icee during a movie.
other reasons why i don’t go?
• people who talk during a movie (i always ask with a smile, “will you be talking thru the entire movie?” and i’ve been known to yell across a croweded theater “shut the fuck up. this isn’t the front porch of your single wide trailer.”
• people who answer cell phones (again, i ask loudly to shut the fuck up. or “what did they want?” i love the stares of “none of your business”. but i reply, “it must have been since you were talking so loudly for all of us to hear it.”
•screaming kids. leave your brats at home. hire a babysitter. nobody, and i mean, nobody, thinks they are cute but you.
• people who come in late and then expect you to move over a seat or two so they all can sit their fat asses together. i get to the theater with plenty of time to pick my seat. i’m not moving for anyone, especially if they are late and obstructing my view. a well versed, with a smile response of “i’m fine where i’m sitting, thank you.” usually shuts them up.
• the theaters never let me sit there in my underwear or naked. (ok, just kidding with that one!)
Sue
Go down and spend $25 to file a small claims action against AMC seeking the nickle.
It would be fantastic – forcing them to hire a lawyer for many thousand of dollars and surely driving the point home.
@The Meathead: It’s five cents. Complaining about the attitude the manager gave him is fine, but complaining about the loss of five cents is greedy and stupid.
Next time you’re there, you should use nickels and only nickels to pay for EVERYTHING!
@cleric:
Yeah, the grocery stores must hire all the smart kids, though it is a little scary how often one encounters a cashier who can’t ‘make change’ in their head if they have accidentally entered the wrong tendered amount in the register.
What I’m curious about is if the movie theater would TAKE nickels… what if I came in with a $5, three $1s, three quarters, and five nickels?
would they refuse to take them?
And complaining about five cents is not greedy and stupid. If this was a situation in which it was happening regularly (say a store decided to stop carrying nickels and shorted everyone who was supposed to get a nickel five cents), the amount the company would be stealing from the customer’s change would add up a lot.
@dohtem: The Alamo Drafthouse theatres here in Austin serve beer (and food) — and they’re great! Ordering is done by writing on paper, so disruption via verbal communications is avoided, and I’ve yet to see the “drunk talkative idiots” situation you’re so concerned about.
i use to work there… as a manger, and we were actually told for a while from corp to not accept pennys and or nickles coz they messed up our deposits… it was totally crazy and when i was working i always accepted them, it kind of made sense not to have pennys/dimes/nickles in the registers coz all of the products were rounded to quarters but to not accept them was insane
I work at an AMC Theater, and we indeed do not carry any change in our registers except quarters. We include tax in the price to make most people’s lives easier / more efficient.
That said, if someone does pay with coins that would result in change, we just round up at our theater. In this case, we would probably just tell the guest (dumb amc speak for customer) to keep one of the dimes.
seriously, get the hell over it. I work an AMC and no we dont carry nickels. Nothing we sell is denominated into 5 cents, so the HOME OFFICE made the descion not to have to go to the trouble of carrying them. Stop being an asshole, and get over 5 cents, dont you have something better to do with your life than pissing people off? and the fact that you actually took the time to write this on here, shows whant an absolute idiot you are.
I can’t imagine going to guest services over a nickel…given the time factor, that can take several minutes at a lot of places, and if it takes even two minutes to get your nickel back from guest services, that is the same as placing a value of $1.50 an hour on your time.
When I worked at Lowe’s a few years back a woman literally drove back to the store from ten miles away because the cashier had accidentally shortchanged her by a PENNY!
If you can afford to spend $9.00 on a movie ticket, is 5¢ really that big of a deal?