AMC Theatres

I went to see Clerks 3 tonight at the AMC Dine-In in Framingham, MA. I ordered some chicken nuggets, a coke, and a pack of Twizzlers. I saw they had drink machines next to the counter, so I double checked with the counter girl that they would bring /all/ my food to my seat, and she said yes. So I grabbed the Twizzlers and sat down. After the movie started, a boy shows up with my chicken nuggets but not my coke. I asked where it was, he said the girl was supposed to give me a cup at the counter. I said he should go back for it, but he said I had to go to guest services with my receipt and they would give me a coke. I said that means I would miss 10 minutes of the movie, and he said there was nothing he could do about that. I paid more for the ticket than the coke, so I choked down the fried nuggets and waited for the movie to be over. When I went to guest services, they were closed. So I ended up paying $6.50 for a coke I never got.

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of some serious and concerning gaps in your theaters’ emergency management procedures.

On Monday, March 10, 2014, I took my family to your Framingham, Massachusetts theater to see the movie “Peabody and Mr. Sherman”. About 40 minutes into the film, my son had a grand mal seizure. He has epilepsy, so my husband and I are accustomed to this; I held him and kept him comfortable until he came out of the seizure and my husband went to get help. He told the staff member at the entrance that our son had just had a seizure and we needed to leave quickly. He asked where the emergency exit was around the back of the theater (incidentally, she didn’t know) and asked to get a wheelchair. He ran outside to bring our car around and then came back to the front. He was greeted by two more staff members - still no wheelchair. These young gentlemen followed him into the theater and stood there incredulous. He reminded them we needed a wheelchair.

About 10 minutes later, one of these gentlemen returned with a wheeled office chair that looked like something out of the 1970’s. He and my husband then awkwardly wheeled him down to the theater exit, only to be greeted with a gravel walkway that was impassible by way of this terrible choice in transport. My husband went to get the car. We then had to lift him out of the chair and help him stumble to the car. I asked this person to help me get him up, but he did nothing but walk behind me as I struggled to get him over to the car.

Fortunately, this was not a situation that required an ambulance. However, my husband and I were aghast at the lack of preparedness on the part of your employees, especially in light of the recent incidents in movie theaters. Your customers’ safety is decidedly at risk in this theater and we will certainly think twice about bringing our family there again. If you are at all concerned about your perceived reputation, and more importantly the safety of your customers, you will at a minimum audit the emergency management processes in this theater.

I have called the local theater’s management and left several messages, but no one has returned my call. Given that this does not appear to be a priority for them, I hope that at an executive level it is.