I booked and paid for 2 tickets to Avatar via GSC’s website on Saturday morning for the 6.20 p.m. show (same day) at GSC Pavillion’s Hall 9. The seats that I selected were at the back row, A4 and A5 respectively.

Upon entering the hall, I found that the seat A5 was faulty, the seat cushion was sagging too much to the front, providing inadequate support unlike other seats, such as A4. I alerted one of the staff who then proceeded to check and confirm the problem, he even got a second staff to confirm it.

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In addition to this, the seat was already marked (!) with an X on the upholstery indicating that there was something wrong even before I came along!

Since it was a full house, he cannot offer equivalent seats and the only available replacement seats were that on the middle row. Hall 9 is a small cinema hall but at the same time  considerably wide with a really big screen. Seeing that sitting in the middle row would be inviting neck cramps to not only myself but also my girlfriend, I declined the offer.

He also suggested alternatively he could do a refund. I declined this as well, knowing the trouble I went to get the tickets in the first place.

After going through the 2 hours + movie, I went downstairs again to complain about the seat. This time, another guy checked the seat and I made it clear in no uncertain terms on my disappointment with GSC. The staff brought the manager who was apologetic about the whole matter and offered me complimentary tickets for any future movie but the thing is, I would have to call him for the tickets.

The question to GSC would be what are the protocols or guidelines that your staff have to follow in the event where customer is complaining about the seat. I don’t think customers would be happy just settling for a refund, especially when the movie in question is a highly anticipated one like Avatar and tickets are simply scarce. Also, the off-hand nature of the compensation was rather off-putting.

Also, how soon do seats under maintenance get reported to the people in charge of the online booking system? I can tell that the problem with the seat wasn’t recent (it was already marked!), and the manager’s explanation on how sometimes the seating arrangement for the cinema is updated locally and before taking time to be reflected on the online booking system was simply, unacceptable.