a trucker cap moron ruined my evening
This is what happened to me last night. I went to see The Day the Earth Stood Still at Hoyts Melbourne Central with my girlfriend. We bought tickets for the 6.30pm session, went in and sat down, and the movie eventually started after 20 minutes of ads.
After the film had been running for about 10 minutes, a couple came in and walked in front of us looking for their allocated seats. Hoyts continues to use the allocated seat ticketing despite it being fundamentally inefficient and inconvenient for its customers. The cinema was barely one third full, and there were plenty of empty seats, but these retards were insisting on finding ‘their’ seats despite this requiring them to interrupt other people in the process.
They stood in front of us, blocking our view of the screen, and told us we were sitting in their seats. We told them they were wrong (and they were wrong, because we made sure we sat in our allocated seats to avoid this situation, which we have witnessed previously). They insisted again. I told them to fuck off and sit somewhere else and stop interrupting us. The man responded by pouring his soft drink over my lap and my girlfriend’s lap, and the couple sat down next to us.
We got up and left the cinema and approached the nearest Hoyts staff member. We reported the incident and asked the employee to call the Police. She responded that she could not directly call the Police and that she would call security, which she did. The two security staff we spoke to were helpful. They confirmed our story, then went into the cinema and asked the couple to come out. The moron in the trucker cap is the offender. He cowardly turned away when I attempted to photograph him.
The security staff then came and spoke to me again, and I repeated my request for them to call the Police because we had been assaulted. The security people went away and some time later came back to say that they had called the Police, had spoken to them and the Police had declined to attend as they were busy and they did not think this incident was a priority.
So much for the recent Police statements about calling them when you observe or experience anti-social behaviour or feel threatened. The trucker cap moron came into the cinema late, disrupted other people while unnecessarily trying to find his seat when he should have sat down somewhere else to minimise the inconvenience to others, then he initiated a physical assault on my girlfriend and I when we told him to stop annoying us.
We got a refund on our tickets and left the cinema. I doubt I will be returning to Hoyts. I hate the allocated seating, which causes confusion and disruption, they usually place me somewhere I would not usually sit and asking for a preferred location confuses the ticketing staff. Next week I’ll see the rest of the film at Greater Union.
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- what customer service?, 2 November 2006
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- Melbourne Central, 4 June 2006
January 7th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
does anyone know who this is? lets start a facebook group
January 7th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
its free seating back in sydney~
i always chose to go to my neighbourhood cinema over hoyts .. didnt matter that the screens were smaller, and no high tech surround system .. there was always a nice community-like feeling and they showed more indie movies
January 8th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I recently went to Cinema Nova — they too, now have allocated seating (boo..)
January 8th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
He sounds like quite a tool.
Once in Canberra someone sat in front of me in an otherwise completely empty cinema. I laughed, thinking it was a joke, but he turned and asked me what was so funny.
I didn’t tell him to fuck off, instead moving to a different seat. But, my clothes are dry. Pick your battles, I guess.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
But only for selected sessions I think, eg Fri and Sat nights when it is busy? I also hate the allocated seating at the Como :-(
January 8th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Possibly, I thought it was because they’ve launched their online booking service — it was a popular session on a Saturday night though so who knows?
January 14th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
I usually like your posts, they’re generally very intelligent and well-thought out. But this is just whinging. Calling the police because a drink was poured into your lap?! Come on! That’s not assault! If it was a boiling hot drink then you’d have a better argument. You’re also potentially getting yourself into future trouble by posting their picture and this story on a website, should they take it into their heads to sue you for defamation/libel/your own claim to intimidation/whatever.
Security at the cinemas did a satisfactory job by the sound of it, the cinema staff seemed to be gracious enough and yet you must be having some serious male PMS (or was the heat of the day getting to you) if you’re going to insist on cops for a spilt soft drink, then proceed to slag off everyone, including the ones who tried to help you in this post.
Maybe you need another drink on your head to cool you off?
January 15th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Assault is assault. If you think this is too trivial wait until you’re a victim of assault and see how violated you feel. The cinema staff handled the matter reasonably and I state this, so you misrepresent my opinion. As for defamation, truth is an absolute defence and the photograph was to record evidence for the Police should they have come. Anti-social behaviour is unacceptable and I refuse to placate or submit to the unethical behaviour of thugs. People who stand up for their rights are often criticised because most people are afraid of conflict and are incapable of challenging bullies.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I still debate whether you can call it “assault”. I haven’t had a drink poured on me but I have had other similar situations, such as harrassment in a cinema and getting slapped a few times, etc, so I don’t deny you being pissed off at the situation, I just think it’s an almost criminal waste of police time if you were going to call them out just for getting a drink spilled on your lap.
Standing up for yourself and fighting antisocial behaviour: great, sure, do that. But situations like that is what security is for. They should’ve been who you asked for first and not the police. Everything in your story I more-or-less sympathised with until I read that you wanted the cops to come for them. Will you call them if someone gives you the bird when you honk your car horn at them too?
January 26th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
Again you miss the point. Unwanted intrusive physical contact is assault. As a citizen I pay taxes for law and order services like the Police and I have a reasonable expectation that they should provide assistance when required. A venue’s private security have no power to deal with these circumstances. Trivialise things as you seek fit; this is the last comment from you I will publish unless you have something more constructive to say.
March 27th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I have to agree that this is assault, regardless of how minor it may seem. It sets a sad precedent that people can cause physical distress to you and your property (I hope your clothes were ok). You try to do the right thing by not taking justice into your own hands and what do you get? Snobbed by the authorities. Yet if you stood up for yourself and punched him in the face, they’d be all over you in a second. What are we to do when our systems favour aggressors? What is the take home lesson here? That you can be an asshole to anyone you like as long as it’s not ’serious’ enough to warrant police attention?
Next time, go get yourself a couple of those mega-sized cokes and pour them directly on their heads from behind and run like the wind! It’s ok, we’ve just seen that this kind of behaviour is apparently ok…