Your Greed Is Your Loss

This was a letter I sent to the Prasad’s Multiplex in reponse to their new ticket charges.

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Dear Sir/Madam

I was shocked today, when I went up to your counter, to be told that the tickets for the first two weekends after the release of a movie cost Rs. 100. Tickets at your theatre were already priced at almost twice the cost of tickets anywhere else in the city. This, however, did not deter me from visiting your theatre for almost two to three movies a weekend with my family and friends. Although priced high, I sincerely felt that Rs. 60 a ticket was worth the experience at your movie house.

I was supposed to buy three tickets for this weekend. That would mean Rs. 120 more than I am used to paying. From my point of view, I can spend that money on fuel and go watch the movie at any other theatre, and I would still save money as the tickets would be cheaper.

I must also mention here, that your greed at charging your customers for parking did not go unnoticed. It jarred me each time when I spent that money, not because I could not afford Rs. 10, but because I felt it was wrong to charge a paying customer for parking.

This latest act of greed by your theatre is the last straw. For the first time since you opened, I have walked away from your ticket counter without purchasing a ticket. I am sure that there are more like me.

I would also like to bring to your notice that I am not the member of any VCD library in town. In fact, I am totally against piracy. However, I don’t think my pocket can afford to pay for my principles. Hence I shall, henceforth, watch movies in other theatres, and when that is not possible, I shall borrow pirated versions and watch them.

All members of the cinema fraternity are united when you scream about piracy, but you don’t raise a finger at unashamed greed when perpetrated by you yourselves.

The only way I will ever see a movie at Prasad’s Multiplex again is if you reduce your tickets to Rs. 60 and stop charging for parking.

Such decisions don’t just affect your ticket collections, but also the business of the various vendors in your complex. Mary Brown will now lose me as a customer, so will Sangeet Sagar, and the other shops that I used to frequent when I visited the complex to watch the movies there.

I wish I could sign off with “warm regards”, but unfortunately I feel anything but warm towards you right now.