To the back of the line with Movie Pass gripes
In September, Austin, Texas-based real estate project manager Daniel Potter ordered a MoviePass — a subscription card that allows users to attend as many movies as they want in participating theaters for a monthly fee. As Potter is a frequent moviegoer, the $10-a-month service seemed like a no-brainer in terms of value.
But as of Dec. 21, the card has yet to arrive, he said, and he has spent nearly $200 on full-price movies in its absence, in addition to $40 on four months worth of fees. “The service seemed awesome but if I can’t get it to work, it’s worthless,” he said.
MoviePass announced Wednesday it had hit a new milestone of 1 million customers. But as its user base continues to explode, many people have complained they either never received their cards in the mail or have been unable to activate them due to glitches in the app.
Dozens of customers have taken to Twitter to complain to the company, with some saying it doesn’t reply over its customer service chat room or phone number.
The amount of anger customers are showing with the service just underscores the huge demand, said MoviePass Chief Executive Mitch Lowe. He said currently it has the capacity to ship more than 100,000 cards a week and acknowledged about 1 per- cent of customers — or at least 10,000 people — are having issues with their services.
“Unfortunately, when customers want to use our product this badly, they do not just contact us once when it doesn’t work, but dozens of times on different venues,” he said.
As of August, the company was taking on thousands of new customers a week with only nine employees to handle the influx. Now the company employs 60 people and is still growing, according to Lowe.
“When you are growing 4,000 percent in four months, it is a challenge, and it takes a lot of time and money to build it,” Lowe said.