Yesterday David I were in Charlotte. Part of the reason we went all the way there was to see the new Batman movie on Imax. David had never been to any Imax movie, and when he found out that Batman was playing on the Imax in Charlotte, he bought tickets online and we drove the hour and half to the Discovery Place to experience Batman on Imax.
Some of David's friends had advised him to get there early to make sure we had seats in the back row, as those are actually the best seats in the house for Imax. So we arrived just after 11am for a 12pm movie and got in line at the Will Call window. We noticed all the other people at Will Call had printed confirmations with them, but David said that when he bought the tickets it didn't say to print it, but just to show up at Will Call. Once we got up to the window we were sure that all we would have to do was give them our name and they would give us our tickets. Well, that's the way it should have worked. However, after searching their computer system multiple times, they told us that they could not find our name anywhere on the list. So they got another lady to try looking us up a different way. But again, to no avail.
David was doing a very good job at keeping his cool, but I could tell he was getting rather upset. He proceeded to tell them that he had already been billed for the tickets, so they either needed to give him the tickets or give him a refund. Finally, they got another different guy to look up the credit card number this time to see if it matched any transaction. We thought for sure that this would work. But alas, no matches.
We were both starting to get a little perturbed at this point. We had just driven all the way to Charlotte to come to this movie and they couldn't let us in. We tried a different approach. If they could just let us use the Internet we could print the confirmation email or even a bank statement showing the transaction. They just responded that they did not have email access in the building at all, but if we wanted to go across the street, there is a library where can use the Internet.
By now it was nearly quarter till the time the movie was to start and David was saying that at this point he didn't even want to go. The line to get into the theater was wrapping around the building and there was no way we would get good seats now. But I had bottled up my anger with the situation for so long while we stood at the counter, that I just had to let it out. I burst through the front doors and just started walking off the frustration. While we were at the ticket counter, I had said a quick prayer that God would just let all this work out, but at this point it didn't seem like anything was going to happen.
Well, as I was walking off my frustration, I walked right into the library, so I figured we might as well use the Internet to print off the confirmation or statement or something so we could at least prove the transaction and get a refund. A very sweet and helpful girl working in the library let us use a computer station after hearing our story and even paid 10 cents for the print out of the confirmation since neither of us came prepared with even a penny on us - and they don't take cards at the library, of course.
With the confirmation in hand we practically ran back to the ticket counter and got the man's attention who had tried to find our credit card number earlier. David handed him the confirmation. But when he looked up the number, he said that it came up with different name, Michelle Bryant. What?!? Their system had messed up the confirmation, and it was
their fault not ours that we had just gone through this whole fiasco. David explained that we had purposely gotten here early so that we could get a good seat, and by the looks of the line, we are not going to now, so we would just like a refund. The man behind the counter was very nice and assured us that if we still wanted to see the movie today, he would not only give us tickets, but take us up the back way to the top of the theater and make sure we had good seats. We agreed as long as we really could get the seats we had gotten their early to get.
First he tried to take us up the elevator, but every time he pushed the button, it never moved. Now this is just getting funny how many things are going wrong. But at least we weren't stuck. We just had to run the stairs to get up there. We finally made it into the theater, and there on the very back row, two seats from the right side, were two empty seats that just seemed to be waiting for us - the best seats in the house! AMAZING! God really did answer our prayers and not only got us into the movie so we didn't have a wasted trip, but got us the best seats in the theater. It was truly a blessing in disguise and a little test of patience as well :)
By the way, the movie was excellent. It was really cool seeing it in Imax, but some of the action scenes seemed too close and hard to follow sometimes. I do think Imax is best for nature themed movies instead of action movies. However, the coolest part of the Batman movie in Imax was feeling like you were flying with him over Gotham city. Overall it was a good experience in the end and we will definitely go back to see something else in Imax someday - only this time we will carry a printed confirmation with us. :)
