Would just like to share my unfortunate experience from IMAX Philippines. Hopefully this will never happen again.

Here's my letter to the IMAX Philippines Management:

From: Eloisa
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 9:48 PM
To: customercare@smcinema.com; promos@smcinema.com; movies@smcinema.com; imax@smcinema.com
Cc: info@imax.com
Subject: My 1st IMAX experience ruined by Rude Ushers


Dear Sir/Madam:

I hope to find you well.

It's with extreme disappointment the way your Ushering team has acted on an incident which could have been prevented if your team has acted on a professional manner. This said incident happened on IMAX theater last July 14, 2007 approximately 2pm Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on SM Mall Of Asia (Philippines). Your team has acted with discrimination, which is totally a human violation for not letting people sit in the back row of the theater. Correct me if I'm wrong but, is it true that you don't let ordinary patrons sit in the back 2 rows of the theater? One of the lady ushers claimed that the 2 back rows are reserved seats. And if indeed these two rows are reserved, they didn't even post out a sign that these seats are reserved.

This is clearly an inefficiency of your management, cause its not that hard to print out or even just make post signs in handwriting that the indicated seats are reserved for VIP's. I'm sorry to compare you with Ayala Cinemas but on their sureseats system, Seat reservaton is well indicated on their ticket stubs. And Ayala make sure this is well comprehended by their patrons and their staff are always there to assist and did not discriminate people regardless of their age, color, sex, etc...

Here’s my side of the incident that happened last July 14:

Ushers won’t let people sit on the last 2 rows of the theater. Some of the people including my group asked your ushers to explain why are these reserved when it was clear that July 14, 2pm HP screening, does not have reserved seatings. It is a 1st come 1st served basis. They were unable to explain the reserved seatings, so we were seated on the far side of the row.

An elder gentleman even nudge a male usher for bribery just to give him the 3 seats which is clearly still available for patrons, the male usher refused but let the elder gentleman sit in the middle of the row with his 2 kids. So, does this mean that if my group also proposed a certain amount of money, your ushers will no longer be rude?

There was also another group on the back where my group is sitting which is also not included on the ushers’ so called VIP seats. Clearly the seats were given to us, so we are comfortably sitting to enjoy the movie. But after 5 minutes or so a lady usher talked to us asking us to get off the seats. We refused, then they start bugging the group on the back row. I heard a gentlemen getting hassled by this female usher. Unable to convince the man to move out of the seat, she then nudge her attention to us with the same vulgar demand.

Sir/Madam, this is clearly a manifestation of rudeness. Or was it that my group was ordinary looking that’s why we were being man handled? The movie is running for almost 15 minutes when the said lady came back with the same demand, saying that we are not reserved on the said seat when it was very clear that there were no Reservation seats for that schedule. This clearly shows that your staffs that day were liars. Your staffs were very inefficient in handling this situation. I was even the one who initiated a bargaining agreement. Just then the lady usher promised to offer another movie, but to experience this kind of rubbish service? I refused to accept. And if I were to accept I want it point Black and White, signed and sealed on an agreement with our signatures on it. But the lady usher did not come back. Nevertheless, its quite clear that the lady usher had interrupted me, my group, and the people sitting near us, hence compromising our viewing pleasure. I have been in big movie Premieres before costing more than that Php 400 ticket, but I’ve never experienced this kind of rudeness and discrimination.

I did not want further confrontation with your ushering people so I did not file a complaint on your management. And it was clear that ushering people were not properly trained to handle patrons, so I hope this can be looked into. I would also like to get your attention to prevent this from happening again. IMAX is world-class name. I hope your staff can live up to it.


Sincerely Yours,



Eloisa