Silverbird Cinemas - Customer Service and Deplorable Infrastructure

The Cinema culture in Nigeria has been on the increase for close to a decade now since the big players in the industry such as Silverbird Cinemas, Genesis Deluxe and Filmhouse Cinemas brought a whole new meaning to the culture of film showing. Before this era, there was very little or no presence of cinemas in Lagos or other states in Nigeria. The big players in the industry have managed so far to maintain the infrastructure, quality of films and customer service at these new cinemas. Hence people enjoyed a quiet evening out at the cinemas either alone or with the rest of the family.
But recently, i have noticed the deplorable state of infrastructure at these cinemas and the level of customer service offered to customers. One of such cinemas is the Silverbird Cinema in Ikeja City Mall. I had a few hours to myself on this day the 24th of March 2015,  so i thought it wise to go see a movie before heading home.

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 I got there bought my ticket and proceeded to the popcorn and drink counter to get myself some popcorn. I bought the popcorn and a bottle of water and proceeded to the waiting area to wait fir my movie to start. The waiting area had a couple of tables and chairs that were scattered around the corner i chose to sit. On the tables were left over bottles of drinks and popcorn bags with the remains of the popcorn scattered all over the floor. This i thought was quite appalling as i noticed there were staff loitering about not giving a hoot about the state of the waiting area. Anyway i chose to ignore that scene and sat down on a thankfully clean spare seat. As soon as i sat down, i chose to look at my ticket again just to be sure of the showing time and the hall the movie was showing. I brought out the ticket and saw attached to it was a coupon for a free drink and popcorn. Didn't bother to look closely earlier cause i thought the only day this was offered when you bought a ticket was Tuesdays. So anyway, i decided to go back to the popcorn counter to use the coupon. On getting there i explained my case to the attendant that served me earlier, to see if i could return what i bought earlier for my money and to use the coupon i had with me for a free drink and popcorn. His response was normal of most attendants we have these days. I expected him to say the obvious No, so just as i thought his reply will be, he had entered it into the Point of Sale machine, therefore there was nothing he could do. Unfortunately for him, i was in the mood to express my rights. So i told him that wasn't a good excuse as i know that any sale made can be voided. All he had to do was call the attention of his supervisor to void the transaction. So, i insisted i wanted to see the supervisor to state my case, at this point his colleague who seemed to be serving other customers answered by saying there was no supervisor around. I replied that wasn't possible as the cinema was still very open. When my attendant noticed i wasn't going to give up he excused himself and went into an inner room behind the counter, supposedly to go and get the attention of a senior colleague. After about 5 mins he came out to serve me, but just as he was about to do that, his colleague who was serving other customers told him not to worry, collected the stuff i bought earlier, returned my money, collected the voucher and gave me the free popcorn and drink.

So, the first scenario ended and i went into the Cinema hall (1) to see my movie. About 10 mins into the movie, i saw attendants moving in and out of the hall using the emergency exit, this in my opinion was done quite loudly as he or she kept banging the doors rather loudly which obviously distracted my attention and others too. Finally, about half an hour into the movie, i noticed the lady sitting behind me got up from her sit and sat down on the aisle in front of me, i was curious to know why, so i looked back and saw that people were actually moving away from that spot, i also couldn't help but notice that water was pouring from the ceiling above into the cinema. So the lady actually got up to avoid water ( Or whatever liquid that might be, don't even want to imagine it)  pouring on her head while she was watching a film.

With this horrid state of service and infrastructure, if nothing is done, we are going back to the days when nobody wanted to go the the movies because of the horrible experiences they encounter. I have decided to write on the incidence, not to slag off the management of Silverbird Cinemas, but to bring the degrading state of the cinemas to their attention so the necessary corrections can be implemented.

If you or anyone you know has faced similar incidents please do mention it here so we can have a common loud voice to awaken the sleeping giants of the degrading state of their cinemas.

Until next time; Adios........
K David