Sinemia Misuse Fee or Extortion?

If you forget to check-in on the Sinemia app, an honest mistake many make and just one of the hot friction points of many when using Sinemia these days. You will be asked to pay for your tickets in full + the service fees. They also will keep the service fees already charged when you first bought the tickets if you purchased online.

I paid their "misuse" fee for two tickets which is suppose to let me continue using their service. Then promptly a couple weeks later they cancelled my account when I attempted to buy tickets for Captain Marvel. That's when I received the message that my service had been cancelled in my previous post.

As the fee was suppose to let me continue using the service, but instead they cancelled my service, I promptly contested the "misuse fee" charge on my credit card. You can do the same.

From Sinemia:

The system detected that you have not completed your check-in process by using the Sinemia mobile app at the time and date of the advance ticket.

Your membership is still active however the online/on-site ticketing feature has been disabled due to the outstanding misuse fees (the cost of the ticket). You can make the payment for your Sinemia card misuse fee at https://www.sinemia.com/member. The online/on-site ticketing feature will be activated right after the misuse fee (cost of the ticket) is charged. Please note that failure to check in may lead to account termination per terms of service. 

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Best regards,

Gisele

Sinemia Support Team

Sinemia Pulls a MoviePass Move to Cut Its Losses

As you can see from my posts I was a fan of Sinemia. WAS as in the past.  I imagine my Google location data, Sinemia usage data, and charges to my card for service fees will prove I never violated their terms of service. They even charged me the full price of my tickets when I forgot to check in on the app to continue using their service.  Does it seem like Sinemia is cancelling everyone who surpassed what they paid for the service in the price of tickets purchased to cut their losses?

Here's my cancellation notice:

Sinemia Premium

No Notches Movement

Notches are no good. The full screen, edge to edge experience is the ultimate achievement and so far, Apple and Samsung have failed to create a phone that delivers this experience.


Notches are flaws and a step backward for mobile phones trying to fill in the "look I am different" spot. The first is this example, you can see notches suck. If you use the feature to hide the notch on the Apple iPhone you lose another portion of useable screen space. Even the Samsung S10 micro notch is intrusive. How about the Oneplus? Please! No more notches!

Fortunately, manufacturers are noticing this flaw and coming up with some elegant looking screens such as this render from Lenovo.

It is my strong opinion that notches are a flawed design that delivers only one value. The frontsixe camera. I certainly don't use more than once a year. The value as it effects the viewing experience is negative in my humble opinion. Aren't notches something you whittle into wood or into your belt? You don't put them on phone screens, please! No more notches!

Honest review of Sinemia 6 months later

+Sinemia offers single and family packages. I have a two person, two 2D movies a month subscription that I paid for one year in advance to get the best discount. It roughly came out to $15 each a month. Being tickets are up to $16.99 here for a single ticket it was a no brainer. The single and multi person packages are very convenient. They also have tiers to choose from.

+You can buy tickets online and reserve seating through Atom and MovieTickets.com way ahead of time. You can also order a physical card to use at the the theater to avoid a $1.80 per ticket service fee when ordering online.

However, there are some catches (or penalties):

• You can pay for the year in advance to get the best discount on pricing, however when you order tickets online to reserve seating, you will be charged $1.80 per ticket for a processing fee.

• Don't like the fee? You can opt for a physical Sinemia credit card and buy tickets at the theater to avoid the processing fee but then lose the ability to get tickets online ahead of time. Unless you physically buy them days ahead of time.

• You must check in on the app once at the theater between specific times when the movie is to start. They give you an hour or two before and after the start time to let you check in. Remember it's based on the start time. If you forget once they just give you warning. HOWEVER, if you forget to check in a second time, you will be asked to pay for the full amount of the tickets otherwise lose the service.

You would think its easy to remember to check in but I forgot twice and paid for it. Being that six months is left in the subscription, I paid.