View all Random Pictures.
Other not as cool looking links...
If you have the urge to link to me...
|
The woes of a box office worker
I work at a movie theater, though now I've been moved up to working box office more often than concession. (Thank goodness.) Now, for those of you who might be confused, working box office means that I sell tickets. I can definitely say that it is a lot better than working concession. I get to sit down, and I don't have the pressure of always having to clean or restock various things. When people come to me, I only have one thing for sale: tickets. (Well, that and gift cards, but that doesn't really count.) It prints up right there and I just tear it off and give it to them. I can get through lines a lot faster, and it's not nearly as stressful, and I don't smell like butter and popcorn when I come home. Though, there are of course "woes" that come to working Box Office. But, before I go into detail on these woes, I'll say that it doesn't make me want to kill myself like working concession does.
First of all, people aren't clear on what they want. (Similar problem to concession) They walk up and say, "Two tickets, please." "What movie?" And then, this actually cracks me up, almost everyone replies with, "Oh, haha, that would help, wouldn't it?" Those exact words. It's hilarious! Yes, haha, I do need to know that. At first, I'd just laugh with them. "Haha, you didn't say the movie name..." But, now I just kind of smile at them and wait for them to just tell me the movie so I can sell them the tickets. It gets kind of old. But, there are some people who just say the movie without any inkling of "Oh, I'm sorry, you need to know that to sell me tickets." They just keep giving me a stern look and say the movie name as if I should have read their mind. "Two tickets." "What movie?" "Transformers." Oh... right. Of course. Reading customer's minds. If I could just master that, it would eliminate a lot of problems. In fact, that seems to be the root of most problems. Customers assume I know what they want. But umm, I'm getting off track.
Customers also like to just say what movie they want and they don't tell me how many. There are people that look at me like I'm dumb and can't see them and the person they are with. "Is that two tickets?" Then they give me this look and point to themselves and the person next to them. Well, yes. That's very nice. I didn't know if there was someone else I couldn't see, or someone else that was coming later or if the people behind you are with you, or if you are all buying your tickets separately or together, so I'm just clarifying to clear up any confusion. Just a simple "yes" or "no" will suffice. Though, I do sometimes feel bad for asking one person, "Just one?" or "Only one?" as if I'm rubbing it in their face that they are seeing a movie alone.
That leads into another point: people buying tickets separately. You know, it would go a lot faster if one person just bought all of the tickets and you all paid them back, don't you think? When I have a long line, it would really help me out. And, it would save me a lot of one dollar bills and quarters. When you have 5 people all buy tickets separately when the ticket price ends in ".25" it makes me give out 15 quarters when I could have given out 3. Did you think about that? No, of course not. But, Jephthah. One person in our group didn't bring enough money to buy all of our tickets. Well then give that person the money you brought. Then they would have enough money to pay for the tickets.
Now that makes me think of another thing: giving people their change. I think it's so funny when I tell them the price and they say, "Wait, I think I have a quarter" and I sit there and wait for them to look through their pockets and purse to find a quarter to save me the time of getting out ones and quarters, when I could have gotten it out by now anyway. But, I know it's not just to save time. It's to save them the trouble of carrying around the change. But, it's still funny. Actually, what does annoy me is when I'm actually done getting their change and I'm about to give it to them and they just slide a quarter through the little window without saying a word. They could have told me that they were getting a quarter before I went and started getting their change for them. So, I put back the change and give them the full dollar or whatever. Though, don't get me wrong, I love it when people do things like that to save me quarters. I guess I'd just like it if they told me ahead of time or had it ready when they bought the ticket to save time.
Now, I get to the most annoying part of box office: feeling like I can't speak properly. I happen to work at a pretty old theater and our mics that we talk into don't work very well. A lot of the time it breaks in and out without us knowing and sometimes it just starts humming if I move it the wrong way. There's nothing we can do about it. Now, on the flip side, we can hear almost everything outside of our box. Our speaker picks up the customer very well. And, even if it's not on, we can hear them very clearly. Usually when people are standing back deciding on movies I can hear every word that they are saying and I know what they want before coming up to me. It's always entertaining to see people lean down so they talk into the little hole in the glass where we slide the tickets and money back and forth to talk to me. They look like such an idiot! They have no idea how hard I am trying to keep from laughing at them. Just, stand up. It's okay. I can hear you just fine. Then, there are people that talk right into the mic. Sometimes when Abijah and I are working in the same box, we turn up our listening mic really loud, so when people do that it's like they are screaming at us. One time when we did that we just lost it and started laughing really hard. The customer had no idea what was so funny, and I couldn't really explain it to them. If there's one thing I want people to get from this rant, it's that we can hear you. Don't worry about that. The only time that I can't hear people when they order is when they mumble or speak barely above a whisper, which even then I can usually hear them. Or, if someone talks on the radio right at the time that a customer orders. Then all I hear is, "Yes, I'd like two tickets to -- Podium, number 9 is done. -- please." "What movie was that?" And then they either lean over to talk into the hole or talk directly into the mic and scream it at me. Oh, it's so funny.
I guess I never talked about people not understanding me. There are so many times that I say the price and they don't hear me but they just give me money assuming that it's enough and move on. Then, they either give me too much or too little and I say something back and I can hear them tell their friends, "What'd she say? How much was it?" as if I can't hear them. It's actually pretty entertaining, but nonetheless annoying. You can say, "What?" and I'll tell you again. I'll readjust the mic so that it will work better, or at least try to. Sometimes I can't tell if the mic isn't working unless you tell me. That's not really anyones fault except the microphone. Stupid microphone causing me to be annoyed.
What else? Oh yes. Prices. Our ticket prices are very low compared to most theaters, so I don't really see a valid reason for people to complain. Yes, our prices have gone up a whole quarter in the past 4 or 5 months. I think it's so funny that more people comment on those prices going up than everything in concession going up a quarter last Christmas season. I've have a whole 2 or 3 people comment on the prices going up in concession as opposed to the hundreds of people that comment on it in box office. "It seems to go up everytime I come here!" Maybe you should try coming to the theater more than once every 4 months. People comment on how we used to be 75 cents cheaper, and I just nod and say yes. Yes, we were that price about 5 years ago. There is this thing called inflation that makes prices go up.
Movie times. Oh goodness, movie times. If you go to the Cinemark website, those times will always be right. They come from the same database that our computers get the movie times from. When we change them, it changes automatically online. The newspaper, fandango, or anything else has the possibility of being wrong. Sorry. That's not really within our control since they aren't part of Cinemark. When people said that the movie times in the paper were wrong, I used to think that they just looked at the wrong theater and it was probably right (which happens quite often, actually), but then I got the newspaper one day and looked at the times. There were two times that were just completely wrong. There was a showtime at 10:20, and the paper marked it as "0:20" and then the 1 drifted into the 2:30 time so that it showed "12:30." Grr. Though, granted the newspaper then showed times "0:20 11:10 1:15 12:30 4:45" and it looks a little obvious that 12:30 doesn't fit in between 1:15 and 4:45, but it still said it. Fortunately only one person looked at the newspaper and was disappointed to wait until 1:15. On top of that, about half of the times in the newspaper were 5 or 10 minutes off. What the heck? Where do they get this information from? At least 5 or 10 minutes won't make people upset, but it's still wrong. And apparently fandango is often wrong. People tell us that "on your website it said..." but, actually, fandango is not our website. If you looked at our website, it would have been right. Now, I know that there are some people that don't get the internet (I don't know how they live their life to the fullest) and they are forced to look in the newspaper. Well, then just be ready for the times to be a little off and try to use common sense when they don't go in order. Oh, and make sure to look at the paper for today's times since we do change showtimes sometimes. I've had people ask about a showtime on Saturday, and they were confused and continued to tell me that Sunday's paper said a different time. Well... that was for the showtimes on Sunday. It's a strange concept, I know.
In box office, we also act as receptionists for the theater. We have a phone that rings when people call our main number. Sometimes we are in the middle of a rush and I have a customer waiting to be helped while I'm answering the stupid phone. Then, when I get the phone the person just says, "Yes, umm, what are the movie times?" Ummm, yes, can you be just a little more vague? Come on! So, I usually ask, "What movie are you looking for?" and they get a little more specific. Then after that, they ask for another movie, and then they ask all of the movies that we are showing, and oh, what was the times for this movie again? Meanwhile, I have a customer in front of me that is getting more and more angry for me just talking on the phone instead of helping them. It's not exactly in my control that I'm on the phone not helping them. I've tried helping a customer while on the phone, and it just doesn't work. I can't concentrate on two things at once. I just ask for what tickets they wanted, and then the person on the phone was talking so I have to say, "What was that?" to them, and then I've forgotten what the customer wanted and I have to ask them again, and it just ends up going slower. So, I try to finish with the person on the phone as fast as possible so I can help them. All I ask is to ask a simple question, or be quick on the phone and not to be upset when I'm on the phone instead of helping you. I'm trying to go as fast as I can so I can help you.
Okay, I think that will be all for now. While working box office is loads better than working concession, it (like all jobs) has its downsides. Just like I said in my Woes of a Concessionist rant, try to be nice.
ARCHIVE
What's happening to basic grammar?
You don't itch, you scratch
That's just the way I am
Stylish = holes in your jeans??
Comedies should be comical!
What's the point of All Region?
The woes of a concessionist
The woes of a box office worker
The Adventures of HP Support
How are you?
Freakin' talking online ads
Vote For the Worst...
Cutting in line
Celebrity Personal Lives
I was just going to say...
|
|
