Sinemia

Unethical practice of locking out our service unless "fake" fine is paid
Our sons prepaid an annual subscription to use service provided by Sinemia so we could attend 1 movie per month as a couple. The cost is $8.99/month.

For two months in a row, Sinemia's process has fined us $21 for not checking in at the movie theater via their phone app. I paid the fine for the first month and paid special attention the next to make sure I checked in. I checked in but their system again charged the $21 fine and locked out our account for future access until its paid.

I've communicated with their customer service (email and twitter) 3 times today and they've only replied with generic "fine print" about checking-in.

PROBLEM DATE: 1/24/2019
PURCHASE DATE: 07/29/2018 (gift - started using 8/28/2019)
PAYMENT AMOUNT: $107.88
PAYMENT METHOD: debit card

Refusal to refund for a service that I did not order
***,,

On November 3, 2018, I purchased the Sinemia movie plan, which is $29.99 month for 30 movies per month. That plan may be paid annually ($359.88) or paid monthly. If you pay monthly, then you are required to also pay an additional initiation fee of $29..99 at that time for the privilege of being charged monthly, instead of annually.

Sinemia then correctly charged me the monthly fee in December of $29.88.

But in January, they charged me the annual fee of $359.88 (twice). They then also charged me the monthly fee of $29.99.

They agree to refund the second annual fee of $359.88, but they won't fully refund both annual fees unless I agree to pay the full cost of the seven movies that I have seen so far in January.

So they are offering a refund of only $273 for one of the annual fees (and the full refund of $359.88 for the second annual fee) even though I did pay the $29.99 for the month of January.

***
XXX-XXX-XXXX

I followed the check-in procedures, but a charge has been placed against my account and it is now unusable.
In December 2018 I went to a movie using my Sinemia membership. I checked in using the Sinemia app when I was at the theatre. The next day I received an email saying that I did not check in. That same day, I sent an email saying that I checked in and asked if it was a mistake. I received a ticket number. I still have not received a reply to that ticket.

I was waiting to receive a reply, but the following month's tickets were about to expire. I went to a movie in January 2019 so that I wouldn't lose the benefit that I paid for. When I arrived at the theatre, I checked in using the Sinemia app (I received the notification that I needed to check in and I was taken to the screen where I indicated that I was at the theatre). I even went through all the tabs of my app to make sure that there was nothing else needed to be done. To be sure, I exited the app and went through the tabs again.

Now I have a charge against my account and my account is locked.

I have emailed Sinemia's customer service repeatedly but they have not addressed this problem, nor addressed how this could be fixed for future uses. I even provided a copy of the movie tickets and a screenshot of my location history. Most of the replies have either been automatic replies or instructions on how to pay for the charge.

I looked through the Google Play Store and the Revdex.com website and I found I am not the only one with check-in problems.

Thanks.

Sinemia overcharged me and refused to issue refund. After I placed dispute, they cancelled my membership and they kept still my money.
On January 1, 2019 I was charged by Sinemia $52.99 with overcharges of $35. My monthly plan is $17.99 per month and my membership started August of 2018. I tried to contact Sinemia via email and their twitter but they won't budge so I disputed the $35 last January 3, 2019 on my Amex account. When they became aware of my dispute with Amex they suspended my Sinemia membership and they told me that I have to withdraw my dispute so they can reactivate my membership and refund the $35 overcharges. I spoke with Amex representative to cancel the dispute on January 15, 2019 and it was withdrawn. Unfortunately, even after I followed Sinemia's request to withdraw the dispute against their unjust overcharges, they still wouldn't refund nor reactivate my account. I tried to contact Sinemia but they won't budge again this time. So after all the trouble, they still have my $52.99 that includes the overcharges of $35 and the $17.99 monthly fee for this month of January while I couldn't able to use the service since they disactivated my membership account.

Service is to pay for tickets; company's service did not work properly, so I had to pay for my own. Company has service fees undisclosed at signup.
I initially contacted Sinemia on January 11, reporting issues of the Sinemia service incorrectly saying I had not checked in, as well as the transaction not being accepted (on Sinemia's end) at a theater where it had previously been used. Because the service did not allow me to purchase the tickets, I was charged $21 of my own money. On top of that, the hidden service fees (not processing fees) of $3.60 per transaction that occur each time I use the service was not part of the sign-up documents and information, and it is unfair business practice to charge that service fee after the fact. ***, their customer service representative, attempted to explain the missed check-in email (as though it was my fault, when the app told me I checked in but I received an email that said I hadn't), but completely ignoring my other concerns. Upon emailing again on January 15, I received no response whatsoever. I am not receiving the service I signed up for, I have not received satisfactory customer service, and I would like the situation to be remedied. I paid $95.88 to receive the service that was promised, with no extra fees. That was on 9/1/2018. On 12/1/2018, I was charged a processing fee for my tickets. There are also undisclosed service fees separate from the processing fees. Sinemia suggests that you can avoid service or processing fees by paying $15 to have a physical card sent to you. Sinemia advertised a physical card at the time of purchase (9/1), and that card was free. Upon signing up, I was unable to request a card and did not receive a card. I sent Sinemia an email regarding this in September, but again received no contact.
My last two messages, on January 11 and January 23, have not received responses.

Customer service non existent... unable to use product... overcharged because of failed product
I have purchased the physicall card from the company for 14.99. I have not been able to use the card since I received it. I have been attempting to contact the company via email and facebook since Dec 19 as I was questioning the additional fees that I did not want to pay for using the advance ticket service. I was unable to cancel the ticket on the app sinemia produces. Why is that my fault that your product is faulty? On Jan 20th, after writing again via email, I have a response from sinemia saying I have a misuse fee... They give me no way of fixing the problem. I ask them for a way to fix the issue and I get another email on how the service works, and also telling me that my account is still active. But I cannot use the service or the 14.99 card I purchased. I also repeated that this misuse fee was not my fault, being held up for something I didnt get to use is not right. I have had no response in a week now

Suspended account based on paying a ransom fee they are demanding to have service restored.
Customer as of 9/2018 and was promised a mastercard/visa for purchases at the point of sale/counter. This was to be included as a transaction and payment method included in the existing price as agreed. I was told it could take up to 6 weeks for the card to arrive. It never did and the online screen form for customer service that I completed twice after the 6 weeks was never followed-up on; neither did I get a copy at any time of what I submitted. Used the cardless option that I was told was an alternative and wasn't charged any additional fees. After the 6 week period, suddenly fees were being levied against the credit card I had never authorized them to keep on file. Fees based on using the cardless purchase option and levied each time I watched a movie. Keep in mind I have, as of today's date about 5 months later, still not received a card so they breached their own terms of service. I than began receiving thinly veiled threats of discontinued service and or cancellation if I continued to use the cardless option and didn't follow an unknown process of checking in at the theater. At the point of the ticket purchase with the theater rep in front of me processing the transaction and a receipt issued, Sinemia is obviously well aware that I and only me purchased the ticket since I am doing it simultaneously through the app on my phone. Clicked through the various required screens and saw myself as completed on the process. However, as I mentioned above I would than get a follow-up obnoxious email stating I was not only not following the terms of service but was belligerently abusing their service and could only get my account re-instated if I paid an additional extortion fee.

I would give zero stars if the system allowed this. We were given a gift subscription at Christmas and to this date have not been able to successfully use this gift. I was unable to submit the gift code because it said it was not valid even though I had received this code in an email from Sinemia. When I was told tickets were reserved and to check in at the theatre, I tried to do this but the entry was gone when we got to the theatre even though we were within the time frame. Since there was no way to get tickets through the outside vendors without paying for the tickets and no place to enter our gift information we saw no way to get our free tickets. We were told at the theatre there was no record of tickets and the manager of the theatre never heard of Sinemia. We paid for the movie. Then we purchased a physical card for $30 thinking our gift information would be programmed on the card. No it wasn't. We bought the card because we wanted to try to do everything possible to use this since we didn't want to disappoint our son's girlfriend who thought she was doing a nice thing for us at Christmas. We checked in at the theatre to be told on the Sinemia site we were all set and enjoy the movie. Again no record of any tickets and we paid for the second movie. On the way home from the movie we received a notice from Sinemia that because we didn't pay for the tickets we still had 3 movies left! Great but you ***'t use the service! The customer service is not helpful and they have no refunds. We were unable to get our money back from the card before we even tried to use it. I got no response from 2 emails asking for technical help. I think they realize people will not *** them for money under $100 so they are able to scam people. I cancelled the membership today. Please don't buy any gifts for anyone with this service. It doesn't work, they nickel and dime you with extra fees, customer service is not helpful, there are no refunds and you need to cancel before the exact expiration date or you will be automatically charged for another month.

Horrible. They keep on saying we misuse their product when we did not. It is the fault's app that is keeping us from checking in. When we try to resolve they say they cannot help. Definitely trying to get us to sign up but make it hard to use their service. Really bad experience as we had Moviepass *** over a year and we did not have issues with them compared to Sinemia.

They will not respond to emails or direct messages on twitter. I've paid for a year in advance and also recently purchased the physical debit card to use at the box office. The last 2 times I've tried to use it at the box office....DECLINED! My sinemia card was declined and I had to pay out of pocket for these 4 movie tickets after paying already 250 plus for the whole year. I have no recourse because they will not help. So it looks like I just blew that year subscription fee because I'm paying for my movies out of pocket! I need help or a customer service person to respond. This company has not be great!

Sinemia promised services that were not delivered, then added fees not in original contract, and blocked account in error, refuses to respond.
Sinemia offered a one year subscription plan for 2 movie tkts per month for two people. It included a statement that a membership card would be mailed. It did not mention any of the issues below.

(1) the physical membership charge card was never mailed.
(2) Additional charges ($3.60) began to be added in October which were not in the original subscription.
(3) A policy to check-in at the movie theater was added recently without explanation.
(4) website did not respond to check in in Dec.
(5) we did check in for movie on Jan 8, but Sinemia claimed we did not check in, blocked use of our account, and demanded a fee of $22.86 to unblock the account
(6) the company has failed to respond to numerous emails regarding the issue.

My Sinemia account was terminated by the company.
I have registered for a Sinemia 2 movie days premium Family membership plan (2 members) and 3 movie days premium Family membership plan (2 members). This was an annual subscription. The whole year's payment was deducted upfront. I was able to use the service for more than a month. One day I just got an email which said that my account was terminated as I have violated Sinemia's terms and conditions. I had no clue on what was violated. After creating multiple support tickets, I was notified that I have used multiple devices to logon to my profile and purchase tickets and I have multiple accounts.

Both the statements are true. I did explain to the support person. But the account is still terminated and more over the full year money is gone. I atleast deserve a refund.

1) I and my wife were on the way to the movie, my cell phone battery was dying. I used my wife's cell phone to logon to my profile and purchase the tickets. I had no idea that this would result in violating the terms of the Sinemia membership.

2) I registered for two plans. a) A 2 member 2 movie plan and B) A 2 member 3 movie plan. The reason is that I wanted to use it separately for my children and with my wife. Technically, I had no problems registering. Again, I had no clue that this is a violation.

In both the cases, Sinemia could have prevented me from doing it by implementing the technology. I did not mis represent my information in any way. I used the same name, address/credit card information.

I do not think it is practical for anyone to read pages and pages of terms and conditions.

Kindly refund my money or activate my membership.

A complete and total scam. Aside from having a terrible interface and terrible customer service, they do very shady things like:

- Add a "service charge" to every ticket purchase AFTER you sign up for a membership
- Charge a "misuse fee" if you don't check in at a movie via their app (which doesn't work)
- Charge a "card fee" to get a card to pay for your tickets.

A complete and total scam. Do not use.

Unfairly charged a "Misuse" fee.
1/12/2019 I was charged a misuse fee for purchasing tickets near a different theater. We were eating dinner at a restaurant that was directly next to a theater we were not going to. I bought tickets after dinner at the table because the area we were driving too did not have any reception for cell service. I tried checking in before we left but was denied. I even had to screen shot the ticket before we left cause I knew my phone would not work at the other theater which was a 6 minute drive. The next day I was charged a misuse fee because the app said I was at the wrong theater at the time, thinking I was doing something wrong with the sinemia card??? I have since emailed 10 times to sinemia. I have supplied receipts from the restaurant that is near the theater, maps of where the theater is compared to the restaurant an the other theater, supplied bank statements of purchasing food from the correct theater, supplied receipts of the Fandango ticket of the correct theater, correct time, and the correct sinemia credit card numbers. I did nothing wrong or sneaky with the use of this membership. I now have missed out one movie this month. Received emails with confusing reasons. I do not understand why they cannot just remove the fee. I paid 200 dollars for this membership, I do not, and never abused membership... I sometimes don't even use the 3 movie a month. I never abused the use of this membership and horrified at the customer service.

The company does not fulfill the service sold. You cannot contact them for resolution. In addition, they charge hidden fees after the signup.
I purchased a 12 month two premium movies twice a month ticket plan on July 29, 2018 from Sinemia. After signing up I was not able to use the service immediately. The terms of service at the time of the signup do not state that it takes an additional two weeks. To use your subscription immediately they charged a fee of $9.99. The terms of service that were present on July 29, 2018 are viewable here - ***
The second issue I have had with the service was on August 5, 2018. I used the service to purchase two movie tickets and then I tried to use their Check In feature which is required to prove that you used the purchased tickets at the theater. The service did not work. I contacted them via their customer support email at ***@sinemia.com.
On September 26, 2019 I was also not able to check in using their service. I contacted them on ***@sinemia.com and did not receive any reply from their customer service for thirty days.
On December 26, 2018 I attempted to use their virtual credit card to purchase two movie tickets and the service was not available. I then attempted to contact them on ***@sinemia.com and did not receive any assistance. I was forced to make the purchase using personal funds. I followed up again on December 30, 2018 asking why the service was not available. I never received a response.
On January 19, 2019 I purchased two movie tickets with the Sinemia app and then when I went to use the Check In service I received an error. I then received a notification from Sinemia that I would have two pay them $31.98 to reinstate my account which I already prepaid for the entire year.
In addition Sinemia charges a hidden convenience fee which they did not state in the sign up process or in the terms of service during the purchase. This is an unfair business practice and they are now being sued for it. The details are available at https://chimicles.com/class-action-filed-against-sinemia/

I changed my billing information with the company and was double-billed in the same month; but the charges increased, and the company hasn't resolved.
I changed my billing details with Sinemia in November, after my normally monthly $9.99 charged posted to my old billing account. I was then charged $30.99 to my new account, and when I wrote to the company, they were non responsive. I have actually never received an email back from their "support email", and only gotten responses from their Facebook page, though intermittent and unreliable.

I first contacted them about the issue on Nov 21 and received no response. I sent another message on Nov 22, then again on Nov 26, and received no response until Dec 10, when I got this:
"Hi ***,

Thank you for reaching out. Can you please share your registered e-mail address so that we can check?

Best regards,"

I gave my email address - no response. I messaged again on Dec 12. No response.

I then sent another message on Dec 20 with all my details, including screenshot from my bank's phone app of the charges in question.

They replied on Dec 20 with:
"Hi ***, thank you for reaching out to Sinemia. We have checked your account and we see that your account has been renewed without the promo code. If you can purchase the plan with a promo code, we can cancel the current plan and issue a refund for it."

To which I replied:
"Why was I billed twice in the same month (November)? That shouldn't have happened. Please issue a refund for both charges of 30.99 and cancel my account"

They replied on Dec 21:
"Hi, we see that you have contacted us regarding this issue and we have issued a refund for one of the charges. We cannot cancel your plan and issue a refund. However, if you purchase the plan using the promo code, we can cancel your current plan and refund you for that."

And I replied:
"I will not be purchasing a plan. You charged me twice in November, so I expect that to be refunded. Also the charge for this month just went through two days ago and I'm cancelling my membership, so I expect that to be refunded as well.
I've already cancelled it, in fact"

I didn't hear back, so I messaged again on Dec 24 - no response. I went out of town for two weeks and came home to no messages, so I messaged them again on Jan 13 and then again on Jan 18 and have received no reply.

I have filed a charge contest with my bank, and hopefully will get the charges reversed, but I wanted to report their practices to Revdex.com. They are not operating in a way that is healthy for consumers. They provide virtually no customer support and I have yet to ever receive a reply from their help email address.

I have screenshots of all my messages with them and can provide if necessary.

Incorrectly charged a misuse fee
I purchased an advance ticket from Sinemia to see a movie the other day. Unfortunately, I was not able to check in at the theatre because there was no cell or WiFi signal. I tried to check in right after the movie, but Sinemia wouldn't accept it.

I was charged twice for a service when I disputed it they suspended my account. I have not been able to use my account since october.
In august I subscribed to the service. I attempted to use the service in September and was unable to. I contacted them and received no response. I tried again in October and was able to use it once. When checking my credit card I noticed they charged me for the service fee twice. I disputed the second charge. I then received an email from Sinemia telling me that if I didn't withdraw my dispute they were suspending my account and would cancel the account. I attempted to use the service again and my account was closed. I disputed the amount of service dating from November through the end of the term of the agreement since they were not allowing me to use the service. I also attempted to email them several more times and received no response. My credit company denied my claim as Sinemia said I was using the service monthly, that is not true. I saw one movie - A star is born and that was it. Even after the credit card company denied my claim Sinemia will not allow me to use the service I paid for. I want my money back from November 2018 through July 2019 - since I was able to use the card in October.

company was unwilling to help after help was requested
attempted to 'check in' but was unable due to service. reached out to company to address and they refused to acknowledge problem.

Sinemia has incorrectly disabled my account and charged me for "misuse" due to their mobile app not working properly.
Sinemia is a movie ticketing service that promised me 2 movies per month. As of January 22, I have yet to be able to use the service. After purchasing tickets, they want users to "check in" once at the movie theater. Every time I have ever successfully received a ticket, as soon as I got to my seat inside the movie theater, I would check in. The location of my phone is always on. The app would say "Check-in Successful! Your check-in was successful. Enjoy your movie!"
However, I received an e-mail from Sinemia stating that I had not properly checked in and that I would be charged for two failed check ins, and my account would be inoperable. After several e-mails sent to Sinemia, I am at a loss. I bought their physical card for $15 thinking that maybe this would alleviate the problem. I'm still blocked. Sinemia refuses to take responsibility for their app not working properly. There are countless complaints and reviews from users on the Google Play Store, the App store, Facebook, Reddit, and other sites from users experiencing this same issue. Sinemia is notorious for terrible customer service. Their app is notorious for being glitch-filled and highly unstable.

I do not accept their fraudulent charges that I did not authorize. I did exactly what I was supposed to do, yet they have failed to reinstate my account and stop scamming me with false "misuse" fees. They're the ones guilty of misuse of their customers.