There was not much to see at the theater, the coming blockbusters, Two Towers and James Bond not yet released and a recent favorite of mine Bartleby, the 2002 version no longer playing, I'd dearly love to watch that one again. A recent practice when we go to a movie is to use Fandango online ticket sales. I like to guarantee that we'll get a seat but even more important I like not having to wait in line at the ticket window. You print out a ticket at home that can be scanned at the theater right at the podium where you enter for your movie. This has worked out well in the past, but whether it was because of Halloween and all the folk at the theatre Century 16 in Salt Lake City had been hexed or had joined some new axis of evil this visit was anything but satisfying. We arrived at the theatre went straight to the podium presented the ticket to scan and to my surprise the polite young man, the only employee I ran across that was polite, informed me that I would have to go to the ticket booth for my ticket. I protested, but he has no power, so off to the ticket booth I went, steaming. Members one and two of the axis, a couple of young people at the ticket booth didn't want to hear my protest. I thought it only fair that they refund the extra $4.00 I'd spent for the conveniece of avoiding their smiling faces. They got to the bottom line rather quickly and not very sympathetically, Informing me that they the theater had nothing to do with Fandango and that if I had any complaint I would have to take it up with Fandango. I'll have more on that later. I pointed out the absurdity of that. Obviously, they had contracted with Fandango to provide tickets, and that was a little more than "we have nothing at all to do with them," I thought. They were not persuaded. They had their broken record response down pat. I ranted some more, they asked whether I wanted a manager, "damn straight ," I said. The manager arrived. I know you won't believe this, well maybe you will, but this member of the axis was even less sympathetic than the mindless bots I'd just been talking too. Bottom line we have nothing to do with them tough luck fuck off. Not his exact words, but that was certainly the message. I pointed to the sign above the ticket booth advertising the benefits of buying tickets at Fandango which explained how you could avoid the ticket booth, he pretended I was speaking a foreign language. I mumbled something about that being bullshit. Well to be fair I didn't mumble at all I said in a voice a little louder than conversational "this is a bunch of bullshit." He pretended not to hear me. The movie, Transporter, filmed in the south of France oh I want to go there right now featured a Jackie Chan wanna be British dude demonstrating some excellent driving skills and how to kick the crap out of ten or twenty dudes trying to take his head off. Nothing special but it passed the time and when we got home it was even colder than when we left, the low 20's and the tricker treaters were nowhere to be seen, probably someone was spreading a rumor about the porn movies at the Jenson's (my wife doesn't think the bit about the porno movie is funny but in poor taste, I think it's funny. This is the my wife doesn't approve disclaimer. I certainly wouldn't want to get in the same sort of trouble Mike Golby has recently related). I just received an email from Fandango in response to my rant about the lousy service I received. They are apologizing for the "less than perfect experience I had with their partner" Century 16 Salt Lake. " This is not the experience moviegoers who use Fandango should have." They have referred my case to the appropriate department concerning my request for a refund of the service fee. They say they will contact the Century 16 and also suggest I make my feelings known to the management there. I suppose the manager has a manager. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Update: No word from the punks at Century 16, but the kind folks at fandango have apoligized for the problems I encountered and have graciously refunded the $4.00 I requested. I'll use their service again but not at Century 16.