The Cathay 75 Years anniversary promo ends with 75 disgruntled patrons

Ok, I know I haven't blogged for very long coz I've been busy and lazy as usual but what happened today made me so pissed off I have to blog about it!!

Jace told me about the promotion where we could get 75 movie tickets for $75 about a month ago, and we were so excited about it that I took leave just to go queue for the tickets which had to be bought at 10am today. However, she realised she couldn't go at the last minute so I pulled another 2 unfortunate friends of mine to go with me.

This was the promo (taken from cathay's website) :

Purchase 75 movie passes* at only $75!

Be among the first 75 patrons at The Cathay Cineplex (Level 5 box office)

From 1st October 2010

Terms & Conditions

Packages are available for sale only at The Cathay Cineplex.

Limited to the 1st 75 customers and are valid only while stocks last.
Limited to one (1) 75-movie pass package* per customer.
Not valid with other discounts and promotions at Cathay Cineplexes.
The Management reserves the right to amend any terms of this promotion without prior notice.

So we reached there about 2+ am (we actually went to cine first but realised it was wrong info given by jace, the person on duty there was not very helpful and didn't seem to know much about the promo either) and when my friend parked his car, we realised there was an entrance from the car park to the building. However, when we talked to the security guard we were told that people would only be allowed in from 9am onwards from ONE entrance to start queueing.

Thinking that the security would have it under control, we walked to the front of The Cathay where there was already a queue. The first group of people who were queueing were really nice and they told us that they wanted everything to be orderly and formed a queue. They even stuck a sign on the wall!!

This was way more efficient than Cathay management can ever hope to be. All they had was a sign at certain entries stating that doors open at 9am and ticket sales start at 10am, which is fine IF they actually acted according to the sign but..

3am. We talked, smoked, ate junk food.

4am. We played with our handphones.

5am. Our handphone batteries died. We grew restless.

6am. The queue grew longer, probably hit 75 people around that time. We were sleep deprived.

7am. Our butts and backs ached and we started counting down.

8am. Another guy in the queue spoke to all of us asking us to go into the building in a civilised manner as the first 75 of us in the queue outside had already written our names down on a list passed around by the first group to ensure we would get the tickets.

8.30am. The Cathay management finally let us queue outside the glass door entrance. By then, this was the queue.

Yes, it was already wayyy past 75 people but at least these people bothered queueing in an orderly manner.

9am. Two women from Cathay came and shouted fiercely at the front people. Could not really hear what they were saying but they were behaving like total bitches. Some people were trying to cut queue also. Anyway, finally the doors opened and we were all so happy that we would finally get what we waited for so long! Some people even ran up the escalators coz the lifts were overcrowded.

SO, can you imagine our total dismay and anger when we reached Level 5 and there were already like 100 over people in the queue?!!?! Omg I'm so pissed just thinking about it now la!!! How the hell did those people get up there if Cathay did their job and made sure that ONLY ONE ENTRANCE? Well, obviously not through that one entrance as we can see by the comments below.

Obviously we were unhappy. We queued for 8 freaking hours! Some of them even up to 12 hours!! We thought Cathay had a proper system. We thought wrong.

So we (the original 75 queueing) went to the front of the queue and started questioning the management. Words were shouted here and there and everyone was getting really upset and all the management could tell us was that they already had the first 75 people. Way to make an angry crowd even angrier, Cathay! Best part is, the 2 fierce looking Cathay women staff took the list of the 75 names and the Theatre Manager didn't even know who they (the staff) were when he was questioned!!! Laughable right? Since then the list has mysteriously disappeared and a new one has been made.

After lotsa chaos, Cathay called the police in (LOL) and the Theatre Manager, Mr Jeevan, said he would speak to afew of us to find out what was happening. We waited another TWO hours (during which the press from Straits Times and TNP came to interview us) while he talked to them and when he came out, he said he would escalate this issue and would email all of us within 48 hours with a satisfactory reply on this issue.

Honestly, the only satisfactory reply would be for us to have the tickets. And I really really hope they do coz I would hate to boycott Cathay, but trust me, I'm so angry I'd probably do it.