This is not going to be a chill post. Also apologies for the TLDR rant I'm about to go on.
I AM LIVID right now.
On Sunday, I saw
The Mummy at Brenden Theatres in my town. Before purchasing the tickets, I Googled "Brendan Theaters Vacaville" to check the current pricing. The first search result was for Fandango. This was the second result:
http://www.brendentheatres.com/vacaville-16/ . It is very clearly on the official Brenden Theatres website. It also very clearly says that matinees are all shows before 6 p.m., that the matinee price is $8.50, and that regular admission is $11.25.
I attended the 2:20 p.m. showing and was charged $12.25. So I went to the customer service desk and was told that weekend matinees are only until 2:00 p.m. and that the price is $12.25. Being one of the few people in the world to not own a smartphone (or any cell phone), I couldn't just pull up the site to prove him wrong, so I told him that's not what the website said. He just said he'd let someone know. No apology. No offer of a refund for the difference, no offer of a free pass. Nothing.
I wasn't able to get online that evening, so I checked again on Monday and found that same page. So I posted on their Facebook page that the prices on their site are lies and that it is false advertising and provided the link to the page I had seen. Their response? "The website is correct" and they posted a screenshot of a different page with the correct pricing. I countered with a screenshot of my own. They claimed they couldn't replicate the result and suggested I clear my search history. I explained exactly how I found the page with the misinformation. Their response? "You can't Google our info, you have to type in http://www.brendentheatres.com/." Then they claimed that the page I had linked wasn't from their website because Brenden is spelled with an E and not an A.
Yes, I had misspelled their theater name in my search, but the name in the URL for the page is correct, which I pointed out. They insisted again that I needed to clear my search history. I told them that I had but when I Google Brenden Theatres Vacaville, I still get that same result. I also told them not to come back at me with the "you can't Google us" crap, because obviously Googling is what a lot of customers are going to do. Their response? They deleted the Facebook thread and blocked me from posting on their page or messaging them. I tried calling the theater, but of course nobody answered. I left a message, but of course nobody has called back. I was unable to find a phone number for their corporate office, but I did find an email link and have contacted them.
This is hands down the worst customer service I have ever experienced. Through all that there was still no apology, no offer of a refund for the difference, or any compensation for the fact that their own website has misinformation about pricing.