Sinemia

Sinemia charged me a "misuse" fee when the issues was their fault and now have terminated my membership due to "fraud" when none occurred.
I purchased a year long movie membership to Sinemia in August 2018 for $191.88 In December Sinemia charged me a $40 "misuse" fee for not checking into a movie on their app when it was impossible to check in because their app was not working. I could not use my membership until I paid this fee. I emailed customer service multiple times and they repeatedly denied my explanation and enforced this fee. If you google this issue they did this same thing to many other customers and it has been written about on the news website Business Insider.

On Sunday, Sinemia terminated my membership saying due to "fraud". Again, if you google it they did this to a lot of members this weekend and it was again written up on Business Insider. I have not done any fraud, I am a guy that goes with his wife to the movies and uses the Sinemia service. I have not done anything wrong and abided by their rules. Their website said they will evaluate a refund and while they don't owe anything because of the fraud, they will review the remaining unused membership again "the actual costs of the tickets purchased" and issue a refund for any difference. That is no way to issue a refund like any other membership it should be for the remaining unused months.

I have emailed customer service with no response. They do not have a phone number.

Service rarely works, feeds added frequently despite terms stating they would not be.
I prepaid $95.88 on 8/27/2018 for a 1-year, two movie per month membership which amounts to about $4 per per movie. At the time the terms stated:

"You will be notified of any changes made to the terms of service prior to your next billing cycle. Sinemia will not make any changes to your plan mid-cycle, all changes will be in affect at the start of your next billing cycle."

As I prepaid for a year, the next billing cycle would be in August 2019.

Shortly after this, Sinemia added a $1.80 fee per ticket. I buy my tickets through my theater's site and do not pay a convenience fee. Until recently, I was able to enter a fee of $0 in the app but now the minimum convenience fee is $0.90. Since I do not pay a fee, this amounts to another fee with no explanation.

The fees that were added after I pre-paid for my membership raise the ticket price from the $4 that I agreed to the $6.70, a 68% increase over the price I agreed to and was guaranteed would not be raised during the period I had paid for.

Lately, the service has not been working at all. When I attempt to purchase a ticket using the credit card number generated by the app, I am told that the payment has been declined by the bank. Most of the time I am not able to use the service that I prepaid for at all.

Provider has failed to provide product with billing accepted due to inappropriate verification methods
Sinemia product purchased in November 2018. Product pricing is $15.99 per month for 3 movies a month (2 tickets per movie). Product frozen in February 2019. Four attempts to discuss matter with Sinemia have been made and utility bill document has been submitted for identification verification per policy. Requests have been made twice to speak to a *** and have been refused. Customer service representative has been ***. ***. Company has requested a copy of government issued photo ID for verification. The policy written by the company itself is unable to guarantee security of documents. It is unclear as to to what account actions would have caused a need for verification of this kind. The company has also failed to provide reasoning as to why utility documents, as noted in the policy, would not be accepted and why a *** is unable to respond. My account is currently being billed but no product is being received as I am unable to use my account currently. Sinemia. My account has been updated to show a cancellation of product (product end date of March 31, 2019). I have not received notification of this action.

New requirement to send photo of government ID to use a service already prepaid for was added, and they won't unlock account or issue refund.
I sent them a redacted photo of my ID as a *** told me would be acceptable (showing only my picture, name, and DOB), they have since notified me they are missing documents. I will not send them anything else, and they have told me they will not give me a prorated refund. I want my account unlocked so I can use the service I paid for, or a refund, as they have obviously changed the terms of the service mid-contract.

Sinemia cancelled my subscription to their service without any explanation or warning. When questioned about the cancellation, they provided no answer
I subscribed to Sinemia on December 6, 2018. I paid $192 for a one year subscription that entitles me to view 3 movies per month. I also paid an additional $30 for a physical Sinemia credit card that enables me to purchase tickets at a theater. I paid for my subscription with a credit card.

I tried to use my subscription on Saturday, March 2, 2019 at the AMC Boston Common to purchase movie tickets and I got a cryptic message on the app that said there was an "important message" and directed me to go to their website. When I went to the site, there was a vague message that stated my account was cancelled. No reason or explanation was given for the cancellation.

I immediately searched for customer service. I discovered that the only way to get assistance from Sinemia support is to reach out through Twitter. I sent the following through Tweet and direct message:
I am not sure why my account was terminated. I did everything as asked, including paying for the card and uploading my ID and all check ins.

I got the following reply:
Hi, thank you for reaching out.
We see that your account's been terminated by the system automatically. Unfortunately, we cannot provide any further details as we do not have access to such information. You may refer to the message you see on your membership area for further information or visit *** for the terms of service.

Best regards

I replied back:
For what ? For following all of the rules? Please provide a reason. I have paid for my membership, my card, uploaded my ID and checked in to all movies.

I got no further reply, so I sent the following Tweet
I received a DM stating "your account has been terminated by the system automatically" and "we cannot provide a reason or help". Why can you not help? You are the support team. I paid for a full year.

I got no reply, so I tried to reach out again with the following:
The answer below is not an answer at all. I would appreciate a reply from someone with the authority to address my inquiry and reinstate my account.

I have not heard from Sinemia regarding my inquiry and I would like my account reinstated as soon as possible.

Sinemia App is non-functioning. Could not comply with Sinemia check-in policy due to App's non-functionality. Now my account has been locked.
1) Sinemia app requires that I update the app EVERY time I go to a movie, often making me late for the movie.
2)Most recently, I was cited for "failure to check-in" using the app. I was informed because of my failure to check-in, I would have to pay for the ticket out-of-pocket. The "check-in" option was never offered until well past the window in which users are required to check-in.
3)The app has become so user unfriendly as to make it impossible to use.
4)I have paid for a year in advance. This smacks of a money grab from a struggling business before it folds.

paid for one year membership which was terminated for "misuse." No misuse involved, in fact, followed all directives to the letter. Received no refund
Purchased one year membership approximately three months ago. Was advised a membership card was being mailed. Never received it and then paid an additional $20 fee to actually get a card later. The card is important because Sinemia had "add on" fees to book movies ($1.80 per ticket) but the card allows you to avoid that. The add-on fee was not disclosed when I paid for the initial membership. Multiple times my membership has been suspended/blocked which my identification was being "verified". I followed the verification process, which required a photo and uploaded ID, and was still blocked. I then posted a negative review on Trustpilot and was immediately reinstated. Today I learned my membership has been terminated due to misuse and fraud. I'm a 30-year law enforcement officer and have no desire to risk my job or reputation by defrauding someone for the price of a movie ticket. This experience is apparently quite common with Sinemia. I've sent a message to the company requesting a refund. This message is one of probably 12-15 messages I've sent in the past 90 days. The only time the company has responded was when I was contacted regarding my negative review of their services. I may not get my money back, but I certainly want people to be aware of this company and their practices so others won't experience what I have.

Deceiving customers, making significant changes to terms and conditions, poor and unresponsive customer service.
I paid $299.98 for my Sinemia subscription on Apr 4, 2018 and was issued a sinemia card. Few months after using it, the physical card stopped working on October 20th and when contacted them on twitter, they replied that there was a problem with my physical master card. Sinemia activated virtual cardless functionality for the time being and I was charged processing fees while using the virtual card (this was caused since the physical card was not working). A month later they sent an e-mail stating they were disabling the physical cards completely and virtual cardless is the way to go.

I used the cardless a few months bearing the processing fees and again in February 2019 I saw my account was blocked and I saw a request for ID proof (driving license or passport *** I submitted the required information and a week later (March 2, 2019) I see a message that my account had fallen under the fraudulent activity. I asked the customer service and they replied that Sinemia system has fraudulent checks in place and they would not be able to help me in resolving the issue or dont have any information why the system flagged my account as fraudulent.

The reason they gave for an account to fall under fraudulent category are

*Holding multiple accounts by the same person*
*- Sharing Sinemia membership with others*
*- Using same mobile device for multiple Sinemia memberships*
*- Use of Sinemia Card/Cardless for transactions other than movie ticket purchases*
*- Use of Sinemia Card/Cardless for a ticket purchase other than the one indicated in the app.*
*- Reasonable suspicion of fraud and/or abuse*
*- Use of manipulated location data*

Out of these the only one I can think is asking my wife to download the Sinemia app on my wifes phone and logging in from her account since Sinemia app has been un-responsive multiple times from my phone or threw different errors. I have screenshots to prove this. Also, I live in staten island which is (5 miles away from brooklyn, new york city) and 10 miles away from new jersey. I have the opportunity to go to any movie theatre since I am located in the geographical area. With the exception of these I dont see any reason why account got de-activated.

Sinemia canceled 2 of my families year long accounts and said I violated the agreement. No refund. They will no show proof or explain how.

My wife, daughter, and I all purchased year long memberships in Nov and Dec 2018 for about $100 each (online at Sinemia.com via a Credit Card). Each membership provides 3 movies tickets per month (as the "Classic 12 month plan") to each of us at a number of theater chains.
ACCOUNTS are listed under our name and email.
1) *** - *** (about Dec 5, 2018)
2) *** - *** (about Dec 5, 2018)
3) *** - *** (about Nov 11, 2018)

***'s and ***'s accounts were just terminated (PROBLEM DATE = 3/2/2019) for violating there agreement. We asked why and they said "we are unable to give you the details". It is very odd that this is a rampant issue on the net ***

Their app gives this reason:
"accounts have been terminated due to possible fraud on my part due to one of the following:
-Unauthorized use of the Sinemia card/cardless outside of its intended purposes, resulting in fraudulent financial activity
-The use of multiple Sinemia accounts in the same device resulting in financial abuse
-Reasonable suspicion of fraud and/or abuse
-Sharing one's Sinemia membership information to purchase tickets for other persons.
-Manipulation of location data resulting in deceptive ticket purchases"

I have no idea what this is about. We have never tried to use this service in any way inappropriately. We have complied the best we know:
- Last week (2/23/19)they even asked us to send in copies of our IDs to follow their "verification process". We did not feel comfortable sending in copies of our licenses but we did it anyway without a single complaint.
-The app does require us to check in (via the app) for all movies. And we have done this each time (though we may have missed 1 early on due to cellular issues and because we could not get to the theater in time).
-we even paid an extra $15each ($45) for 3 physical cards to use at the theater (the contract never mentioned that cost).
- The first red flag was that they never gave us a $10 credit for their referral program. I overlooked that and took the high road! They refused to help there.

I emailed them asking why we were canceled, and they responded and said "We see that your account's been terminated by the system automatically. Unfortunately we cannot provide any further details as we do not have access to such information."

Why can't they tell us more? We don't know why and can't dispute it. With tons of online users getting terminated, why can't they look to see if they are having computer errors?

The outcome we are hoping for is to simply get *** and *** membership reinstated. Or at minimum, a full refund for months unused and the physical cards purchased. (and hopefully *** membership does not get canceled during this dispute and stays OK). I feel used and taken advantage of.

Sinemia app doesn't work and they charged me for miss use payment and they are not allowing me to use the app .
Their app wasn't working properly and they are charging me a misuse fee . I signed up for Sinemia a few months ago and have had issues with their app since the beginning. I used the app to purchase movie tickets ,last time when I went for movie they didn't give a chance to check in the sinmeia app . They app doesn't work at that time and it was unresponsive which doesn't allow me to chekin.the check in button did not show up in the app. After that they charged me $20.64.I emailed them about it and they just sent a standard response that I missed check in even though I told them the app wasnt working right. Out of all the times I used the app the check in button only appeared once. After my most recent movie when the check in app didnt appear they told me I have to pay a $20.64 misuse fee and I cant use the program until I pay it. I emailed them again telling them the check in button isn't appearing but they said I have to pay it.

Sinemia has wrongfully terminated my yearly subscription account and will not give me a reason why.
On September 22nd, 2018 I had purchased a plan by Sinemia called the "Classic 30 movie days plan" a plan in which you could see a movie every single day of the month (at theaters their service supported) and paid a years subscription of $359.88 up front. Since purchasing the plan, I had seen around 20 movies and even purchased a physical card version of their service to purchase tickets at the theater and avoid online fees. On Saturday March 2nd, 2019 I had gone to the theater to see a movie and upon trying to check in and use the Sinemia app, it prompted me to visit their website for a message in the member center. When I logged in, I was greeted with this message: "Upon reviewing your account, we regret to inform you that the system has detected examples of your membership use that violates the terms of service. As a result, your account has been terminated. An account may be terminated, but not limited to, for the following reasons: Unauthorized use of the Sinemia card/cardless outside of its intended purposes, resulting in fraudulent financial activity, the use of multiple Sinemia accounts in the same device resulting in financial abuse, reasonable suspicion of fraud and/or abuse, sharing one's Sinemia membership information to purchase tickets for other persons, manipulation of location data resulting in deceptive ticket purchases."

I was caught off guard and confused as I did not engage in any of the above that would go against their terms and conditions. I reached out to them on March 2nd on social media and by email to challenge the termination and ask for an explanation. Their response was the following: "We see that your account's been terminated by the system automatically. Unfortunately we cannot provide any further details as we do not have access to such information. In certain cases you may be eligible for an adjusted refund based on the difference between what you've paid for your plan and the cost of the tickets you have received through your Sinemia membership. If you would like to find out if you are eligible for an adjusted refund, you may click on "Request usage history" on your membership area."

I replied once again, confused, asking for them to explain the termination and they closed the support ticket and did not respond. In all honesty, I am not interested in a refund, I just wanted to use their service. The refund would have been the *** subtracted the amount it cost of the tickets of the 20 movies I have seen (with an LA average of $17/ticket) and I would probably not get any back. With that being said, they did not provide a service they marketed back in September since my year subscription was cut short and my account was wrongfully terminated and I was not even given an explanation why.

I have contacted support multiple times during their duration of their service to work through problems such as the app not working or holds on my account, but this is the first instance where no explanation was given and the problem wasn't even addressed. They have also engaged in unethical practices in the months I have used them such as adding on $1.80 fees per ticket that were not in the terms and conditions during sign-up and recently have been having members send in their drivers licenses for "ID verification" which is an extremely reckless and unsafe business practice for a movie ticket selling service.

I as I said to them, I did not violate any terms or conditions and was not given a reason to why I was terminated. I have records of every conversation and issue I have communicated with their service if needed. Thank you.

Account Termination
I purchased a monthly unlimited movie subscription for the year ($360+instant activation fee+card purchase fee) back in I believe November of 2018. I had little issues using the service except for being charged fees for not using the card when the option for the card was unavailable. Eventually Sinemia started reissuing cards again which solved that problem when my card (at additional cost) was received. I then started using the card provided exclusively and had no further problems with my service. Until I upgraded my phone back on Feb 11, 2019. I installed Sinemia onto my new phone and had no problems using the service until March 3rd, 2019. On March 3rd, I went to sign in and reserve the movie I wanted to see and got a message saying to check sinemia.com/membership for an important message. When I did so I was notified that my account was terminated with no explaination except that I violated the terms of service and then a list of the potential terms of service that I supposedly violated was listed with no specific answer saying this was what term of service I specifically violated. I then contacted customer service to resolve this issue and have never received a reply to my email message. There are no customer service phone numbers listed to call and resolve this issue only email. I googled Sinemia Account Terminations after my account had been terminated to find out why my account had been terminated and found that other customers who upgraded their phones have faced similar terminations. Since I upgraded my phone just recently this must be the reason for my termination. Upgrading a phone is not a violation of the terms of service of only having one device. My old phone no longer is active due to my new phone replacing it. Both phones have or had the same phone number, thus only one device is active. To terminate a customers account for upgrading their phone should not be terms for termination since in my case at least only one phone is active.

Got an account for me. One for my kid. They asked for ID confirmation. My kid is 10 and has not government ID. They ignored my emails to try to fix.
Got an account for me. One for my kid. They asked for ID confirmation. My kid is 10 and has not government ID. Tried using his school ID. No go. I contacted support and told them this and tried again. No response for a week. Tried again. No response for a week. Tried using my ID, since I'm the one paying for his account. Account terminated.

How am I supposed to confirm his ID? Why won't Sinemia at least answer me? If I have to roll his account into mine, I would do that. But they ignore me. Stay away from this company.

Not able to use Sinemia Cardless. Customer service not responding. No phone to contact.
I am Sinemia Cardless member since Nov 2018. During Second time use of the service because of internet connection issue could not check in and since then they have blocked service. Sent 3 emails to help desk no response to emails. They are Forcing me to pay for the tickets. These loopholes in the contract are not visible to customer or never explained when sign up. Even App does not show any ways to check in. I feel all these have been created to trap customers. Feel like cheated by this company.

Cancelled my membership when I have not disobeyed rules.
The company requested I upload my drivers license photo to verify identity. I did this and they said they accepted it. Then they sent me a notification stating my membership was cancelled. I have abided all their rules. One time, I was unable to check in at the movie theater and I paid the $25 fee. I have not shared the membership. They cancelled my membership and gave me no reason other than I have disobeyed their rules. There is no way to contact them. I still have 6 months left on a prepaid membership.

Being erroneously charged because their app malfunctioned and did not allow me to check in - I attempted it at the theatre, it did not work and froze.
I am being erroneously charged for not "checking in" - I attempted to check in at the theatre - was unable to because the app froze and contacted Sinemia via email as soon as I got home with a screenshot of my ticket which was scanned and offered to provide further verification (other purchases I made at the theatre, tracking on my phone). I could not take a "screen shot" of the app freezing because it was in fact frozen - I had to restart the phone and by the time it came back on the option was no longer there. I received a message from someone last night stating that it was probably fine and I just needed to let them know what happened but since it was one time thing I would not be charged. This morning I got a poorly worded email from Sinemia stating my online access was being disabled unless I paid for the ticket. This is absurd - I clearly proactively reached out to explain what happened and I should not be charged due to a glitch in their platform - there should be an alternate way to submit documentation of a check in if the electronic method fails - That is just common sense; not every movie theatre has great service, phones break, get stolen, applications stop working, etc. This seems like a painful scam to just overcharge people whenever they can. Finally, I am very upset because I never received a physical card as promised. I had been using the online method, but since that's now been disabled, I should at least be able to use a physical card, but when I try to order one, I am charged a $25 fee.

Sinemia has canceled my yearly subscription due to false inaccurate information.
I received the below communication online during my request to order advance movie tickets. The information that I received was hurting and uncalled for. I met all the related terms.

***
Dear Sinemia member,

This is an important notice that requires your attention.

Our top priority is to provide our members with the best movie-going experience possible in the most affordable way. In order to achieve this goal, it is very important for our members to comply with the membership rules and abide by the terms of service.

Sinemia has put several systems and measures in place in order to prevent fraud and keep Sinemia's membership sustainable and affordable.

Upon reviewing your account, we regret to inform you that the system has detected examples of your membership use that violates the terms of service. As a result, your account has been terminated. An account may be terminated, but not limited to, for the following reasons:

Unauthorized use of the Sinemia card/cardless outside of its intended purposes, resulting in fraudulent financial activity
The use of multiple Sinemia accounts in the same device resulting in financial abuse
Reasonable suspicion of fraud and/or abuse
Sharing one's Sinemia membership information to purchase tickets for other persons.
Manipulation of location data resulting in deceptive ticket purchases
You may review the usage terms of your account on our website if you would like to seek further information. Given the circumstances, please note that you will not be able to create further accounts with Sinemia.

Best regards,
Sinemia

You may fill in the form to get detailed usage history and refund eligibility information.

For some reason, the company maybe profiling accounts to terminate.

The company terminated my account without reason.
I went to buy a movie ticket today through the application but was notified that my account had been terminated. The only explanation was that I had broken the terms of service without any specifics at all. I have carefully followed their terms of service while using their service. Upon researching online, it appears the company has been terminating high usage accounts without explanation. The company also has terrible customer service, so there is no way to contact anybody at the company about the termination. I have payed to use the service through November. The company has also added service fees without warning for which they are currently undergoing litigation .

I missed a "check-in" for a movie and my account got put on hold. I paid the "misuse fee" then they completely terminated my account.
When I went to a movie and missed the "check-in" time by exactly 2 minutes. I sent the customer support email a message with a screenshot of my phone with the time on it as well as the alert that my "check-in" time had been missed. I got no response from an actual representative and only an automatically generated email. This email stated that my ability to use the service would be put on hold until I paid a "misuse" fee. I then paid the misuse fee. Today while trying to get a ticket for a movie I was notified that my account had been terminated because I had broken too many of their rules. Since having the service I had only missed two of the "check-in" times and was told in the email regarding the second occurrence that my account would be activated once I paid the "misuse" fee. I have screen shots of the emails as well as a screen shot that shows I paid the "misuse" fee in a timely manner.

Unfair misuse fees charged by the company. Customer service does not respond to resolve issue.
I booked a ticket to watch Alita movie at Crossgates Mall in Albany, NY on 02/23/2019 from sinemia. I tried to check-in on their app at the theater but the app could not let me check-in as it was having glitches and did not have option to check-in. I contacted the company about this issue on the same night by email but they did not respond to my query. There is no way to call the company as they do not have a phone number to call too. Then, I received an email from them that they charged a misuse fee of $21.20 to my account and they blocked my account so that I cannot watch any movies using their subscription until I pay the amount which is fraudulent. I have paid $179 for a yearly subscription on 08/01/18 and they do not even respond to their customer queries. I was charged the misuse fees incorrectly even after doing the right thing. Also, they have increased their processing fee charges for booking movies from their app without having the card which is also wrong as they changed their terms and conditions after I purchased the subscription.