AIBU to expect the cinema to refund the booking fee?

[Bake]

Me, DD8 and DS3 went to watch Toy Story 3 at Cineworld last week. It was 9am viewing and we had the cinema to ourselves. We arrived early and were sat at the back, a minute or two after the screen turned on, something ran down the wall a couple of feet from where we were sitting. It moved incredibly fast but we saw it, heard the scuttling noise as it ran down the wall and a squeak. We were all startled by it and the kids immediately jumped out of their seats and asked to leave. I switched the torch on my phone on and shined it under the seat where it seemed to go but couldn't see anything.

We went back to the entrance and reported when had happened and the guy who was checking tickets said he'd get the manager. The manager dealt with it well, he immediately offered a refund and went to have a look. I'd left our water bottles at our seats so we went with him and I showed him where we'd seen it. Looked like it might have been in a speaker and then probably ran out once the screen turned on and the speaker started making noise.

The manager could clearly see my 3yo and 8yo in great distress, so refunded the nearly £30 ticket cost but said he couldn't do anything about the £3 booking fee. He also gave us 3 complimentary tickets, however, neither me nor my children are are likely to return to the cinema for a long time, if ever! I contacted Cineworld to ask for £3 booking fee to be refunded due to the circumstances, plus as goodwill, my £3.50 parking fee as it was 9am on a Sunday and nowhere else was open in the shoppong centre

Cineworld have replied with two more complimentary tickets (despite 3 of us attending), that need to be used within 30 days despite me telling them we definitely won't be back in a hurry.

AIBU to expect them to refund my £3 booking fee!? I really don't think I could ever return to any cinema after that.

The cinema don't get the booking fee to refund her it though

Lol. You received a refund and five free tickets. That's more than fair.

But spend large parts of your life chasing three quid. Why not. Please come back and tell us how it goes.

Would it not have been sensible to just move seats in a big empty screen?

Sell the vouchers for £5 each and your in profit.

There are mice and rats everywhere.

Whether you agree or not the general consensus is that you are being unreasonable.

If you refuse every opinion you get, it seems that maybe a forum where you ask people for opinions is not for you.

It's normal for booking fees to be non-refundable. The manager would have no way of making his books balance if he refunded a non-refundable booking fee- which is why he offered you the free tickets instead, the idea you don't want to go back is not his fault.

You are utterly and unbelievably ridiculous.

Just think about the hourly rate before making a fuss about this, would be my advice.

Spending hours chasing £3.50 (or even £6.50) is not sensible.

You're making a lot of fuss over £3. I could understand you being upset if they'd fobbed you off, but they seem to have been very reasonable. It's not ideal for them having a mouse in the cinema. I'm guessing they'll put a trap down or something so if you did go back it's not likely to be still there.

Stop being so ratty about this!

I had terrible arachnophobia as a child, and my mother didn't like them much either. So I can nearly sympathise, except that if we'd seen a huge spider scuttling across the wall at a nearly empty cinema, my mother would simply have had us move seats away from the wall.

Oh I see what you have done there....rats/mice....ratty! 😁😜

This reveals my age but when the film "Exorcist" came out, I snook in underage, with a group of teenage school friends.

We were just cranking up to one of the major scenes in the film and the music was building up to the big scene and we were sat on the edge of our seats in anticipation. And then my friend three seats on, jumped up and screamed and it was like a Mexican wave down the seats until it got to me and I felt something big and furry run over my foot, onto my knee and I shot up and screamed.

Then it jumped up into the back of the row in front, its big eyes glaring at us and in disappeared over the top, clicking the fold up chair down and disappeared into the ether.

We all then cracked out laughing and eventually were thrown out for making a racket and being underage.

It wasn't a rat, it was the cinema cat....sent to battle vermin. Because that is what they did in those days. Where there is food around, the litter critters will come looking for a free meal.

In your case, the Manager made appropriate recompense and then you still complained and got more. I'd walk away if I were you, feeling you had made your point.