Sinemia

Terrible customer service and the product is very difficult to use
We purchased 2 movie pass subscriptions to Sinemia and chose the cardless option. We downloaded the Sinemia app as instructed. We have not been able to figure out how to make it work to go to a movie. We even had a manager at one of the movie theaters here in town look at it with us and he was a young man who uses phone applications frequently and he couldn't figure it out. We have tried emailing the company several times as there is no phone number for customer service and have not gotten a response. There is an option to use a physical card with the app and all we we're trying to do is order the physical cards and cannot get them to respond. Very very unsatisfied. Please help!

I was not able to use the service they provide. Contacted customer service and received no response for 30 days. Refused refund.
I contacted customer service in November because I wasn't able to purchase movie tickets. I tried on 3 seperate occasions and each time I was declined. I finall left a complaint on their facebook page and that triggered them to response to my customer service email. They basically said they wouldn't do anything and would not refund me the money for the month I couldnt use their service.

Sinemia started charging processing fees in the middle of my contract. They stop responding to support requests when I bring this up.
I signed up for an annual Sinemia movie membership plan on Aug 22, 2018 for $179.88 ($14.99 per month). I did not see any mention of fees being charged when buying a movie ticket on top of this charge. I also paid a $9.99 express activation fee thinking I would be getting a physical card. This is because the pictures on the website at the time and their documentation advertised a card. I then find out its cardless. No big deal I thought.

I got to my first movie and am told I'm being charged a convenience fee. I contact support about this and they tell me its standard. I ask why they advertised a physical card and they said they dont offer it. I asked why its still on their website. They do not answer the question.

I suck up the convenience fees but I notice I now am also being charged a processing fee for each movie. I do not see any mention of them being allowed to do this in their TOS. It might have changed now, but you can view what it looked like back when I signed up:

https://web.archive.org/web/XXXXXXXXXXXXXX/https://www.sinemia.com/terms

I emailed support specifically asking about the processing fee twice with no response. I tweeted to them asking specifically about the processing fee with no response. I tweet to them and don't mention the processing fee and they tell me to DM them. I think they intentionally ignore questions about the processing fee. I DM them multiple times about the processing fee with no response.

Not only is this company violating their TOS, but they also do not respond to support requests when I try to get clarification.

I am not the only one not happy with this. You can view here:

***

My supporting screenshots are here:

Service did not work as advertised.
I have reached out twice now to get my issue resolved without even a response... I tried purchasing a ticket to see Instant Family (Sunday November 25th) on Saturday November 24th. When I went to Fandango to purchase the ticket it declined my Sinemia credit card info. I tried multiple times. I also sent a message that night (11/24/18) to your customer service team via the website and facebook with no response. Since I did not receive a response I purchased a ticket through Fandango for $13.20. I feel that I should be reimbursed for this because it was an issue with the Sinemia credit card

No response from Sinemia customer service for 2+ weeks.
Billing issues, over charged for subscription.
Sinemia running Gift card scam.
After attemping to reach Sinemia customer service at their support email address for over two weeks it is clear this company will not respond to customers in a timely manner. This is extremely concerning especially since I am a victim of their gift card and billing scams. At the end of Nov when they launched their gift cards for purchase, their advertisement and website clearly indicated their gift card can be used to pay for their subscription. When signing up for their yearly subscription there was no option to pay using the gift card I received. There was no way to continue without entering a credit card information. After entering the credit card information and believing there would be a place to redeem my gift card. However, there was no additional option to redeem gift cards and my credit card was charged full amount of the subscription. I purchased their gift card to pay for the subscription and now not only can I not redeem my gift card my credit card was charged. On top of this billing issue, the discount for purchasing their gift card should have been 30%, however, I only received a 20% discount. That's a second billing issue. I'm opening this complaint in the hopes of receiving a prompt response from Sinemia and resolving these two billing issues.

There was fraudulent activity on my email account and bank card. I need to be refunded for a charge of $359.88.
Dear whomever this may concern at Sinemia,

There has been fraudulent activity made through my email and my credit card number. I have contacted my bank - CHASE - but they have notified that I can only contact you instead. My email was hacked and I had to make a new address with a new password. Because of this someone used my account to make purchases through a number of different merchants including yourself and Amazon.

The account was with ***@GMAIL.COM and the fraudulent charge was made back in September 2018.

Please cancel this account and refund the entire charge of $359.88 immediately.

I have not used this account and I do not know what it even means. Please refund the total charge. Or I will be forced to file a complaint with the Revdex.com and investigate this business further.

Sincerely

Will not send me physical purchase card
To purchase movie tickets using their service you can use two methods. One is cardless the other is to be issued a physical card. I have emailed them on 8 occasions starting since Oct. 2018 requesting a physical card be sent to me which I am entitled to according to my contract. I have received no response at all. I want to have my annual membership fee refunded or have a physical card sent to me.

Apparently the only way to get a response from customer service is to file a complaint with the Revdex.com. That pretty much sums up how horribly this company is being run.

First off, over the summer when Movie Pass *** their terms of service on me and gave me the opportunity for a refund of the remainder of my year's subscription, I decided to check out Sinemia to see if the plan was better. What the advertised was basically the same price for the same amount of movies as movie pass, but they had more theaters and said I could purchase tickets via their credit card or digitally. It said the credit card would take 6 weeks and I wouldn't be charged until it was active. But apparently they stopped doing credit cards between the time I signed up and the time they activated my account, but they didn't tell me. Then I find out I have to pay the service fee from the ticket vendor every time I want to see a movie, and I ***'t avoid it because I don't have a card. So this now makes Sinemia more expensive than Moviepass *** the same amount of movies.
When I contacted to ask about how long the card would be, I got no response over 2 months. Then they sent out a newsletter telling customers that they would start doing physical cards again, which was news to me that they ever stopped, because it was advertised to me before I signed up.
The app also has issues. It freezes and crashes. It's so graphic intensive too that if you're in a place with poor reception LIKE A MOVIE THEATER, it makes it a bit hard to check in on their app. And if you don't check in on their app in the 1/2 window of time before or after the movie has started (which no one should be doing so really you only have a 30 minute window to remember to check in) Movie pass *** charge you a fee for the full cost of the ticket and if you don't pay they lock your account. And since their customer service is non existent, you ***'t call and explain the issue and sort it out, they just extort you for more money.
By the way, if you're expecting the app to remind you to check in during that window, it doesn't. Yes they know what time your show time is, and yes they could remind you to check in during that window, but they don't, they only remind you when you purchase your ticket in advance, in a place and time where you ***'t check in yet.
I get the check in thing, and I'm happy to do it, but you ***'t expect people who are out with friends, in a parking garage/mall with terrible cell service or rushing to make it to the theater before the movie starts to always check in during that 30 minute period.

Since customer service is non existent, I guess my only option is to have my credit card dispute the charges since Sinemia wants their customers to constantly forgive all their mistakes but will fine you for not checking in. Honestly I'd rather just go back to buying my movie tickets rather than dealing with this.

California Attorney General complaint filed.

I urge others to do the same: https://oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company

Horrible service and scam artists.

Service has degraded and they charge extra processing fees that are not included in the original agreement.

Half the time their generated cards do not work and are rejected by the theater.

Their cardless option works only about 30% of the time. They've added on additional fees that were never disclosed and never gave the option to opt out and receive a membership refund. They did not provide the physical card as was promised and now charge extra for something that was supposed to come as a part of the program. Customer Support is non-existent.

Do not sign up for this company's product you will lose money on it.

More issues. Their app requires check in (seemingly to make the process more cumbersome so that there will be issues and you will get stuck with the bill). The stupid check in process never worked, I submitted a ticket the second time because I knew exactly what they had done, but they never responded to my ticket (Not the first time, they do not care AT ALL). What they did was put the wrong date on the movie (Mirai) so you ***'t check in on that date and it was pretty clear as day. The app said Nov 30th, but the poster THAT THEY WERE USING and the actual movie date were completely different (Nov 29th). This would be an easy issue to clear up with any other company, but these guys are lazy, unresponsive, and for some reason feel that they are doing nothing wrong when it is clear that they are. This is no way to run a company or treat customers and the fact that some people are too dumb to realize it doesn't make it okay. I only ended up losing about a movie tickets worth of money with this service (2 missed check-ins and they suspend you), but I am definitely not sticking around to try and get ahead because they will just add another fee to charge me and cover themselves.

Company has refused to address an issue with their service which has resulted in poor service and a membership misuse fee.
The company charged me a membership misuse fee of $46.xx because I was unable to check into the movie through the iPhone application. Because the app crashes whenever I attempt to check-in, I am unable to do so. Sinemia replied to my first email asking for screenshots. It is impossible to provide screenshots of an app crash. Additionally, I am unable to get to the part of the app where it crashes unless I am able to actually book an advance ticket and "check in". I reached out to them for assistance to obtain instructions on how they would like to me accomplish this request and they simply responded with an email that the app is working and their decision was final. They've yet to provide the actual instructions on how to complete their request (I suspect because it is not possible). They've routinely told me that their decision is final and repeatedly close my ticket. They also have not reached out to me via Twitter (which I contacted them at the time of the movie).

Terrible customer service with borderline unethical communication policies
As a movie lover, I was thrilled to here about Sinema. I knew that the process of buying tickets was a bit indirect, but for the savings, I could overlook that.

The first frustration began when my physical card was unable to be activated. Not the biggest deal in the world though, so I put the thought aside and continued on with just the cardless option.

My next frustration was harder to put aside. Suddenly, with no warning or heads up, there was a $1.80 service charge added. Even with some communication, this would have been frustrating news, but to receive no advanced warning left quite a bitter taste in my mouth as most companies would give at least a 30 day notice that such charges would kick in. After months of waiting for my physical card, I decided it was time to follow up (since that's how you can avoid paying this $1.80 fee. Several times I inquired about the card, but I got no reply.

Frustrated, but still able to use the service, I once again put aside the feelings.. until another problem came up.

I couldn't purchase a movie. To make things more frustrating, I couldn't get a hold of someone in time, so I had to pay out of pocket for the movie. Sinemia still hadn't gotten back to me, but I later found out why. I'll get to that soon.

Shortly after, I tried to make a purchase again. This time with more time in advanced so if something went wrong, I'd be able to get a hold of someone.. Well, something did go wrong. I still couldn't get a hold of them. I decided to look at other people's tweets to Sinemia and finally discovered there was a separate account for support. Not sure how anyone discovered that though, because there's no reference to it on their site. I'm also not really sure why Sinemia just decided to stop replying from the account they always used to. No matter, I FINALLY reached someone and have discovered that I suddenly need to go through some weird work around in order to purchase a ticket. That's on top of the already slightly long process of buying a ticket.

In either case, I finally got my ticket. After purchasing, I got an annoying pop up about checking in. I've never checked in before, and didn't see why I had to start now.

Well the next day I received an email explaining that I had misused the service and if I continued to do so, I'd receive a charge to my account.

Wait what? Not really sure where this came from. Now thinking about it, I suppose there was a warning given, but it still wasn't communicated well.

Shortly after I saw another movie. I made sure to check in due to the warning I received the previous time. Despite checking in, the next day I received an email saying that a charge had been added to my account and I can't use my service until I pay it.

I reached out to SInemia to explain the issue. All I received was instructions for checking in. I explained that I did check in. No reply for several days. So I contacted again, also explaining that I was running out of time to use my last movie for the month. I was told again how to check in, and was told my movie wouldn't roll over. Several more times I tried to explain that I did check in, but Sinemia refuses to remove the charge, claiming that I didn't check in.

I work with technology so I can understand that errors happen, but if an error occurred, that's not my fault.

I'm at a loss. I don't see why I should have to pay for a wrongful charge, and why it's essentially being implied that I've lied about checking in.

Sinemia has failed to provide the service I have paid for. Due to the failure of service, I have had to pay out my own pocket.
My first payment to Sinemia was processed on August 2, 2018. My year to date membership fees have totaled $59.95. These payments have been processed through the account username: *** email: ***@vt.edu. In the first months of use, the app simply did not work. I was paying $9.99 a month to see two 2D/3D movie a month. The first time I successfully used the app to check into a movie was on 11/23/2018. Sinemia provided a temporary credit card number to purchase the ticket. The number provided to me was not accepted. I had to pay $14.22 plus $2.00 "service fee" out of my own pocket. When contacting Sinemia through email asking for a refund and service cancellation, I was told that it could not be done and the best they could do was give me an extra movie credit that I am unlikely to be able to use. Sinemia then made it exceedingly difficult to cancel my membership. You can not cancel from the app and must go through a process online that took me 5 tries to properly cancel the service.

Malfunctioning app prevented check-in. I contacted Customer service within hours, no help. Instead received form letter implying fraud without proof
I bought a movie ticket using Atom tickets. Arrived at the movie theater a few minutes before the show and tried to check-in, but the app kept resetting and not allowing check-in.
I contacted support immediately after the movie explaining the issue, and received a form letter saying I would hear back soon, but that didn't happen.
This morning received an email saying a "misuse" fee was charged to my account. I contacted them via email again, without response. DM'd them on Twitter and again received a form letter with text copy pasted from the terms saying they reserved the right to assess fees in case of fraud.
Numerous explanations from me have not made any difference. In addition, it has been strongly implied in their replies that I fraudently purchased a ticket, without proof even after I sent them pictures of bar codes and atom receipts and can send them whatever additional proof they want that I was at the movie.
This is the worst customer service I've ever experienced. It is one thing to refuse to waive fees, but an entirely different level of incompetence to accuse customers of fraud without proof to back it up, and then hide behind their ToS when called on it.
Judging from Revdex.com complaints, their customer service is terrible on an epic scale.
This is all in addrion to the bait-and-switch tactics involving processing fees and card vs careless service they employed to gain me as a customer, which I was willing to overlook earlier.
I do not expect a constructive reply from the company. Their sign-up FAQs never mentioned processing fees when I signed up, and promised me a physical card within 30 days (which never came). When I contacted them about it they lied and said that the card was never part of the membership material I was sent, and that their terms allowed them to initiate any processing fees they desired without clearing it with customers in advance.
The only upside is that companies who treat their customers this badly and engage in such shady business practices tend to die out naturally.

They don't have a live customer service to talk to and it's takes several day before they respond via email only no one is responding
It's take too long for them to respond and only via email only

Charged "misuse" fees for using their broken service. Fee works as a ransom. Bought a year service that cannot be used. No response from Sinemia.
I purchased the 3 movie a month annual membership from Sinemia. The service generates credit card numbers that are used to buy online tickets. These credit numbers do not work 9 times out of 10. I have lost one of my movies a month to bad/declined credit cards. I am not able to "check in" when physical at the theater as directed by Sinemia's rules due to problems the app (the app thinks I am not close enough for instance). I am being charged a $17.70 "misuse" fee by Sinemia for not "checking in." The fee must be paid to continue using their service. I have tried to contact them via email and also multiple times with Twitter direct messages as recommended by Sinemia. My wife uses the service and has had the same problems. In addition to these complaints, Sinemia is deceptive about the fees it charges customers. I end up paying double the price of the membership excluding the misuse fees. Their Twitter feed is entirely comprised of similar complaints. I realize these are relatively small problems but Sinemia's deceptive business model and penalty fees are a widespread menace, unethical, and completely unfair. They are offering a service they cannot provide. I would consider paying their misuse fee if the service actually worked. I paid $107.8 for maybe one or two movies a month plus the ransom fee. I have tried to use Sinemia's service correctly. I have politely reached out to them asking for a reasonable resolution. Thanks for your time.

I tried using the service twice in November, and the service failed both times. I have also been trying to contact customer service through their website, through their support email, and through twitter since November. I don't know if the service has been shut down, but it's definitely not working for me, and no one from the company will respond. If the service still works, stop giving me the runaround and give me some way to actually contact customer service to have my situation resolved. If the service has been shut down, just refund my money. I have absolutely not received value for this membership. When I try using advanced tickets, the card numbers provided just decline and Fandango (a few months ago when Fandango was an option) and now Atom just claim the declined reason is that the payment information provided by Sinemia is bad with an error message "Sorry, your payment method was refused by our payment processor. Please choose a different payment method and try again". When this happens Sinemia doesn't not provide any way to receive accurate information to complete my purchase, so I'm just left paying fees and unable to use the service.

I'm thoroughly disgusted with Sinemia.

Two weeks ago I was charged for a ticket I wound up purchasing via Atom Tickets and not through the Sinemia app. Then, this past weekend, after my name did not appear within the database for check-in at the local theatre I was attending, I received a notification I'm being charged a $14 'membership misuse fee' which I refuse to pay. I've indicated to Customer Service (or their pathetic excuse for it) I am refusing to pay that fee and have demanded they cancel my account immediately.

They've somewhat restored my faith in MoviePass, which is quite the statement.