Sinemia

Hidden charges, no cancellations allowed. No refunds provided. Very poor customer service response.
Subscribed to an annual plan. Was ok for couple of months then they started charging hidden charges. When asked they said they can change terms at any time. Sure but inform customers of change. If people don't agree let them cancel and provide a refund. I was told straightforward no cancellation policy. This is the first time I have heard where a company doesn't let you cancel! No grievance redressal mechanism. Been very stressful and draining experience. I have been running behind them for a refund. I still don't have it in my account they claim to have refunded twice or thrice. Even my bank isn't able to trace it. They just say check with bank. Where should a customer go to, to trace funds?

I cant get passed *** "Error" page to pay for their $1.80 processing fee. Apparently my 2 different credit cards "do not have authorization for this operation." Yet when I paid for the annual subscription, my card worked and was paid in full! No response from them to several emails and messenger messages. Lost my tickets for last month. I want a refund!

Treble experience. The worse movie experience which never was able actually use them though paid more than $200 in services. More like a scam.

I feel the marketing is deceptive....they require you to use online ticket sellers (with fees) AND then SInemia charges you an additional 1.80 (per ticket) for using their "cardless" system (which you have no choice but to use....I wish I could get a refund

A movie theater does not honor Sinemia & I was told by Sinemia they would refund my $95.88 because they have the theater listed in error on website.
I paid Sinemia $95.88 on September 4, 2018 in exchange I was to receive 2 movie tickets per month for 12 months at a theater named Riverdale 10 in Arkansas. I went to Riverdale 10 on October 3 & was told they do not honor Sinemia. I emailed Sinemia over 10 times through their website & they never replied. I tweeted them on Oct 11 & they answered. They told me they would refund my money if Riverdale 10 would not honor Sinemia. On Oct 16 they sent me a message stating Riverdale 10 was added to the list. I emailed Riverdale 10 and they stated that they do not and will not honor Sinemia. I forwarded that message to Sinemia and they stopped communicating with me. I want a refund of $95.88. I never benefitted from Sinemia. They have my money. I have nothing.

Purchased annual plan for one movie per month for $3.99 per month. Now they are charging an extra $1.80 fee per ticket - 45% more than advertised!
Annual movie plan cost $47.88, or $3.99 per month, which allows me to watch a movie every month. When I went to redeem this month's movie, I was charged an additional $1.80 'processing fee' which is a 45% extra cost on my $3.99 ticket.

I reached out to the company and asked what the fee is for because there are NO processing or transactions fees imposed by our payment processors here in our Canadian theatres' ticketing systems. When I buy tickets without Sinemia, there are no additional fees added on. And if it's an 'advance' ticket fee due to using their Sinemia app, I requested a physical card so I can purchase in person at the theatre just before showtime. This is an option in the app for "Watch" vs "Planning", but it required a physical card which was not sent to me.

Their responses:
"Hi, thank you for reaching out. Sinemia covers the cost of your movie ticket. Everytime you purchase a ticket online using your Sinemia plan there are transaction fees imposed by the payment processors. Sinemia may reflect these processing fees to your payment method on file if such fees are involved. Currently the processing fee for online purchases is USD/ AUD/ CAD/ GBP 1.80"

"Our services are Cardless for our members."

They did not answer what the processing fee was for as it's not from our theatres.
They also refuse to provide the physical card to pay at the theatre & avoid this fee. When searching this issue online, older members of Sinemia had physical cards.

If the processing fee is mandatory, each ticket actually costs $5.79. This should have been the cost advertised, not $3.99!

In September, I paid $359.88 for a yearlong membership in Sinemia. I just received word that my account was cancelled, and I'd get no refund.
On September 21st, 2018, I paid $359.88 for a year long membership in Sinemia, a moviegoing app. A couple of weeks later, my membership started, and for the next few weeks, I was able to use the app essentially as advertised, although there were user fees that I was not told about when I signed up. This morning, I woke to an email from Sinemia telling me that my account has been cancelled because I did not "check into" one of the movies I used the app for, and because my credit card isn't on file so that they can charge me a fee. Neither of these things are true. I did check into the movie, and the credit card is on file. (In fact, I was charged a user fee for that movie on the very payment method they claim not to have.) I tried contacting Sinemia via email and on Twitter, and receive a form-letter response, falsely making the above claims, and also stating that I cannot be refunded the pre-paid amount. No other information is offered, and when I asked about a possible appeal, there's no response. This feels like a scam. The excuses they gave for cancelling my account are flatly untrue, and the fact that no refund is offered feels like theft. Anything the Revdex.com could do to help me with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Membership improperly terminated immediately. Termination without merit. No refund was given.

Numerous attempts to ask for reinstatement ignored.
Entered into monthly service plan in March of 2018 that allowed for the purchase of two movies per month.

On October 8th, purchased tickets using the plan as intended.

On October 16th - Sinemia unilaterally terminates the membership without any warning.

Lost access to remaining movie slot for that month.

Multiple attempts to reinstate reference only that the Sinemia "Terms" were breached without specifics other than allegation that October 8th purchase was not for movie tickets..

Detailed submission provided to establish how termination was improper and how October 8th purchase was fully within rules on October 21, october 24, and October 27th all without response.

Alternative request for refund of funds charged for current month also denied.

After roughly a mont and a half of annual membership, they canceled both my and my father's account for illegitimate reason, refusing any refund.
In September I had set up accounts for myself and my father (a senior citizen) on my phone. Today, they claimed that I used multiple accounts on one device, when in fact only one account has been used on my phone since signup. After setup, I instructed my dad how to download the app and sign in. After I received the email saying that my account was terminated I reached out via email to no response. I then found out that around the same time they canceled my account they canceled my fathers, saying that there was a missed check in back on Oct 6, 2018 and that they wanted to charge for the full price of the ticket but that the payment method associated with the account was invalid and as a result the account was canceled. An email was sent telling them that back on Oct 6 the card was valid, that in mid October the card was cancelled by the bank for fraudulent activity and that once the new card was issued I immediately updated the card information for the account. The service was not used during the time the credit card was inactive, meaning that an invalid payment was impossible. Again no response to the email. I reached out on twitter explaining the mix up and they responded, ignoring the circumstances, saying I was wrong and that both my father and I were banned. They ignored requests of a pro-rated refund.

The issue regarding the check in, was never addressed in an email, warning of missed check in. The alleged failed charge was almost a month after they claim the missed check in happened. Having used the app myself, there were several times errors occurred during check in and multiple attempts were made before it was successful.

This company clearly is doing whatever they can to cancel members and keep their money. Fraud

I was never told about the additional $1.80 processing fee per ticket. How can a company make a change without telling their customers?
How can I plan for more than one movie at a time?
Why does no one ever respond to my inquiries? I have tried contacting through the website, through email, and through Twitter.

Sinemia leaves out information that financially impacts members in their ads and does not directly inform members of changes that do the same.
On Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018, I emailed Sinemia support regarding an additional charge of $1.80 per transaction I had just noticed appearing when I booked my movie tickets through their app. I had already discovered during my first use of their service that Sinemia members have to absorb vendor ticket booking convenience fees, which is a significant, financial aspect of their service, but Sinemia does not inform potential members of this fact in any of the advertising or promotional materials I saw. When I saw the additional $1.80 convenience fee, I was very concerned. It had not appeared before when all I was having to pay additionally was the convenience fees from the ticket booking vendor. Sinemia responded that same day (10/28/18) that transaction fees from payment processors are passed on to the customer. This, in addition to the having to cover convenience fees from ticket vendors, significantly changes the value of the membership. At the membership level I have, 30 movies per month at $30 per month, if I took full advantage and saw 30 movies each month with the $1.80 fee, I would paying almost double the value of my membership. This is a significant aspect of their service that they have not openly communicated to their customers. Additionally, I only started seeing the extra $1.80 processing fee recently. It was not charged during my first few uses of the service. In response to Sinemia, I asked why I did not see the $1.80 fee before now and that, if that's the way they were going to operate moving forward, I wanted a partial refund for the time I've paid for but have not used (I paid $360 upfront for a full year's membership.) I sent that email on Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. In their response on Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018, Sinemia simply said that their plans are non-refundable and did not address my first question about why I had only just started being charged the $1.80 processing fee. I responded that same day that I was disappointed in their customer communication practices regarding these hidden fees and that changes that impact customers financially, like the apparently newly implemented $1.80 processing fee, should be widely and openly communicated to customers. Sinemia responded again that same day repeating that payment processors apply the $1.80 charge and that Sinemia charges our on-file credit card for them. They also said that I am asked to confirm the charge before it is applied when booking the ticket. The still did not, however, address my concern that I only just started seeing the $1.80 charge and it was not present on my first transactions with them. Their statement regarding my confirming the charges was extremely unhelpful and rather pointless. Yes, I am asked to confirm the charge, but, if I don't, I can't get the ticket and use the service for which I have already paid. I responded to Sinemia on Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018 telling them that and reiterating my question regarding the absence of the $1.80 charge in my early transactions with them. As of the submission of this complaint, I have yet to hear back from Sinemia again.

I had enjoyed moviepass *** 10 months, until they screwed that up and started going downhill rapidly. I found Sinemia and figured the 3 tickets a month for $12.99 was better than nothing. However the process to purchase my ticket was very annoying, I tried to adjust. Then the " physical" card which was promised at sign up ( I took a screen shot). Never arrived and when I tried inquiring through support.. That in itself was a horrible experience. They told me there is no physical card and everyone is being forced to cardless. Which means I have to plan, purchase advanced tickets, go through fandango whether I like it or not. Fandango charges $1.50 and now Sinemia charges $1.80 processing fee.. I was going to switch to new plan of 30 tickets for $30. If I average 12 movies a month, I'm paying $30 + $18( $1.50 convenience fee per movie) and + $21.60 ( $1.80 processing fee per movie)..SO REALITY IS.. It costs me $69.60 a month to see 12 movies. That is just under $6 a movie. Yes that's still better than full price. But I can go see a movie on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays which are cheap/ tight wad nights and pay $5.50 -$5.75. It's just not worth the convoluted hassle. Sinemia will follow the bad marketing practices of moviepass *** eventually go under.. Or they will rely on the ignorance of people to keep them going forward.

Sinemia double charged my account twice and I've tried to contact Sinemia multiple times requesting refunds. They are not responding to my emails.
On October 6th, Sinemia offered an option called,"accelerated cardless activation" for $9.99 for which they would speed the process to use their service. That is something that was not mentioned at all in their terms of use. After accepting the charge, Sinemia charged my account twice. I reached out several times on their website's help.sinemia.com/category/other2/question. I have not received a refund and they have not responded to my emails. They also charged my account twice again when it came to their $1.80 fee for using their advance ticketing option. That is something that it is also not disclosed.

Unavailable customer service
To date I have sent 8 customer service emails and from website customer service requests. 2 of which were prior to me even signing up. None of them were responded to until they cancelled one of my accounts for an obscure rule buried in their 20 page 'rules'. Then they responded once with a canned response and the 'violation' and won't respond further.

Ironically had they responded to ANY of the 8 previous emails (and btw 2 phone calls) the 'violation' would've been completed avoided.

Their website is extremely vague and you end up guessing on your own.

It seems in looking at other grievances this is their pattern to look for any reason to cancel your account so they can save your money and come out ahead. Never offering any other resolutions despite it being their lack of customer service that caused the problem in the first place.

Originally I purchased just 1 single user pass to 'test the waters'. When it seemed ok I then bought my 13 year old one for his birthday. As we all know a 13 year old doesn't have a credit card, etc. So I put the second one in my name as well. Apparently you can only have 1 in each person's name.

The questions we asked before purchasing even the first one, the shortly after were 1) What do we do for children under 18? 2) How do we convert a single user to a child or family after we purchase it and decide we like the service? etc.

Again had they responded to ANY of those requests we would've found out the answers and not been here.

This was a terrible experience. I wanted to sign up for the monthly premium service and ended up somehow being charged for the annual price. When I reached out to customer service, I never received a response. I cancelled my service but there is nothing on the website that talks about a refund policy. I need to know if I am getting my money back. I should be since I have only had it for one week and I never used it. This company is not set up to help the customer at all.

Sinemia terminated both my account as well as my brothers account stating that we used our devices for other accounts.
My brother and I have reached out to Sinemia support to ask why there was a problem with using the app. It turned out they terminated both of our accounts saying one account was used on a wrong device so therefore they terminated both accounts. They did not give any warning or tried to see what is happening just terminated without letting us know until we contacted them to see why it was not working. There maybe a mistake in using a different device and in fact my brother had to use a different device when a new phone was brought. We only hit to use it for 5 movies when we paid for 2 movies a month for the entire year. This is very unfair with no warning and no refund just upsetting responses back saying we confirm that it is terminated and that is the final answer in this matter and will close the ticket for assistance. We have our own accounts so why would we use each other's. We should be able to continue using and to make sure only the right device will be used or be able to get refund for the prorated year.

The Subscription service a physical payment card. This card has not been delivered after 4 months and additional fees are being charged.
On July 16th, I purchased a subscription to the Sinemia Movie subscription service. The subscription I bought was to include 2 movies / month and the subsequent delivery of a physical payment card to use at movie theaters.
After completing the payment process, the website informed me that they were currently experiencing a high demand and delivery of the physical card would be delayed for a few weeks. They offered an immediate activation feature with which I could purchase tickets through the mobile app. This "premium service" was $4.99 and left the consumer responsible for convenience fees charged by theater ticketing services such as Fandango, Atom, etc. Rather than wait for a physical card, I made the decision to purchase the premium service while waiting for a card since I expected maybe that the card might really be a month to wait.
After approximately 2 months, I started contacting Sinemia via their online form (https://contact.sinemia.com/) and Twitter. I did not receive any response via the form and the one response I got on Twitter asked me to send them my subscription email so they "could look into the matter further."
This continued until 10.26.2018, when I went to use the service and was presented with a "card processing fee" of $1.80. This fee is separate from the convenience fees that are charged by the movie ticketing sites. This was clearly presented as an "online ticketing processing fee".

I proceed to contact them again via twitter, and finally received an answer to my request for the physical card status stating that "Sinemia is fully Cardless now and we do not send physical cards." I stated that the service I signed up for was to include a physical card and that I'd like the phone number of a supervisor or leadership, so I could start the refund process. I received this reply via Twitter:

"We do not offer phone support and kindly acknowledge that Sinemia plans are non refundable."

I replied :
"Kindly send me the email of one of your supervisors or leadership. These changes are unacceptable and need to be addressed."

The reply to this was a simple:
"We are here to assist if you need assistance with anything else."

Clearly, there is no real customer service, nor concern for the welfare of the customer. There is a growing documentation of the same experience from other customers on the company's Twitter feed. See the link below for an example:
https://twitter.com/SinemiaApp/status/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

sent 4 emails to customer service within 24 hours of enrollment to cancel my subscription, no upfront disclosure for fees being non refundable
For the first day of enrollment, the service did not work for both of us at the theater and the app kept on giving error messages
We paid through our Visa Credit Card and we did not even get an email confirmation that we had signed for this service with any terms and conditions

I signed up for their service and have been charged twice but havent received anything from them.
In august, I signed up for sinemia movie service. Mission impossible just came out so I was excited to use my sinemia card in two weeks so I can see it. In mid september, I havent recevied anything from sinemia. After numerous emails, sinemia finally wrote back stating that they set me up on the cardless option. I can use it at my local theater till my card arrives. They were wrong. The cardless option doesnt work at my theater. I cant use the app without the physical card. Again, I sent them numerous emails without a response. On october 25, I was charged 9.95 but I still do not have my physical card. I should not have been charged till I received my card and activated it.

Sinemia continues to charge for a service they do not provide
For the past two weeks every time I try to purchase a ticket using the Sinemia app I receive an error that they cannot connect with the payment and I cannot buy a ticket. They continue to charge me for the service but do not provide it.