On Friday night, July 6, some MoviePass users encountered a problem that prevented them from accessing the service. The company quickly confirmed that it was aware of the problem and said it would issue refunds to customers who paid for tickets out of pocket.
We are currently aware of an issue affecting some users who are trying to check-in to a film this evening. We ask for your patience as we work through this issue. We’ll post a further update as things progress. Thank you.
— MoviePass (@MoviePass) July 6, 2018
Users are welcome to purchase tickets out of pocket and we will issue a refund. Starting tomorrow, please send us chat through the MoviePass app showing the full receipt including the movie title, showtime, and theater for a reimbursement. Thank you again for your understanding.
— MoviePass (@MoviePass) July 6, 2018
Unfortunately, the company’s solution failed to satisfy all of its customers. Frustrated users took to Twitter to complain about the issue and said that MoviePass’ reputation for poor customer service made it unlikely that any such refunds would be issued.
I would never trust this. You guys can’t even respond to a simple message much less a refund for hundreds of thousands of people
— No Fee News (@nofeenews) July 6, 2018
It took them 4 months to update my email address on my account after telling me 3 times it was changed. I'm not expecting to get my $15 back.
— A man has no name (@boxofstruggles) July 7, 2018
Regardless of how quickly the company handles the refunds, it still reflects poorly on MoviePass, which is facing a bit of an image problem due to recent changes in its service, including the use of peak pricing and conflicting statements on whether it would keep its popular one-movie-a-day model. Eventually, the company announced that the one-movie-a-day plan was here to stay.
Perhaps worst of all for MoviePass was the timing of this service outage. The incident occurred on the release day of Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, forcing some users to pay out of pocket for one of the summer’s most anticipated blockbusters. On Twitter, a handful of users questioned whether this outage was truly an accident. While there is no evidence to suggest that this was anything more than a case of bad luck, it does highlight MoviePass’ declining reputation among theatergoers.
Anyone find it funny that the weekend Ant-Man was released the app stated having issues & times for the movie in their app were incorrect or not listed at all?
— 'Short & Sweet' Film Reviews (@8_Sec_Film_Rev) July 7, 2018
the same thing happened the weekend Infinity War was released, it’s intentional.
— Daniel Weinman (@dweinman22) July 7, 2018
Despite these issues, MoviePass remains a popular option for many moviegoers and the company’s subscription model has even prompted AMC to roll out a similar, albeit more expensive, service to compete with MoviePass.
