Cineworld Misleading and exploiting customers

johnoflynn

Cineworld advertise that booking on line is always cheaper by at least 10%
However in my home town it actually costs you more! They charge a 70p booking fee but not per booking on every ticket!

The difference in cost is not the point it's the principle and I wonder if it breaks trading or advertising laws?

I raised this customer services and got the following response which I think is complete rubbish and an attempt to fob me off

"Thank you for contacting Cineworld
I am sorry to hear that you are unhappy that we have decided to re-introduce a fee for telephone and online bookings.

Cineworld are committed to offering great value for our customers, we were the only cinema chain to trial removing booking fees and we wanted to make this work for us and our customers.

Cineworld made the difficult decision to reintroduce booking fees to help contribute toward the cost of providing our online and telephone booking channels and also because we want to invest more in improving the experience all customers have with Cineworld. We have an ambitious programme of investment in new services for our customers including: New cinemas, refurbishment of existing cinemas, introducing more IMAX screens and Starbucks at selected cinemas, and improved ticket collection facilities across our circuit.

In addition to this, Cineworld will continue to offer value to our customers through our Unlimited Card subscription service and through Movies for Juniors, both of which will be exempt from fees. We are also continuing to offer a discount for customers who book online through MyCineworld, ensuring that booking online through MyCineworld still offers the best value on ticket prices.

It is important to us that customers continue to enjoy the benefits of booking online or by telephone including: The freedom to choose your seats in advance and the ability to collect pre booked tickets via our ticketing machines and avoid queuing for tickets in cinema. We have therefore kept our booking fee low, at just 70p per ticket which we believe is one of the cheapest booking fees in the cinema industry."

I hope that my response has been helpful in terms of explaining our intentions in re-introducing a fee for telephone and online bookings, and I would like to thank you for taking the time to provide us with genuine and constructive feedback.

theonlywayisup

If you feel they are misleading customers due to their advertising, you can get in touch with Advertising Standards Authority online and put the case to them.

IAmWales

The 10% off is for Cineworld Plus members. Are you a member, and which is your local cinema?

custardy

is the ticket price at least 10% cheaper?

unholyangel

It isn't actually even 10% off

For example on tickets costing £11.50 normally, the "10% off" price is £10.42 when imo it should be £10.35.

Despite stating that you get 10% off the ticket price and that the 70p booking fee is included in the ticket price, they don't include the 70p booking fee when calculating the discount.

I do think THAT is misleading, but I can't see any advertising from cineworld that booking online is always at least 10% cheaper. So I suppose it would depend on what exactly was said in the advert. I'm wondering if its been an advert for cineworld plus.