The MoviePass app was not working for a few hours on July 6, forcing subscribers to pay for tickets out of their own pockets to push through with their Friday night movie plans.
MoviePass has since apologized for the Friday night outage, which happened to coincide with the highly anticipated release of the latest Marvel movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp. The service is now offering ticket refunds for affected subscribers.
MoviePass App Down Last Friday Night
MoviePass is a service that offers users one movie ticket each day in exchange for a monthly subscription fee of $9.95. Subscribers "check in" to watch the movie of their choice through the MoviePass app once they arrive at the theater, which activates the MoviePass Mastercard that is used to buy the ticket.
However, on July 6, the MoviePass app was not working. The service's official Twitter account tweeted at 4:44 p.m. ET that day that it was informed about an issue that was preventing subscribers from checking in.
Amid the flood of disappointment and outrage vented out by subscribers, it was not until two hours later that the company said that the problem was fixed through a MoviePass app update. However, by then, there were already numerous users who were affected by the outage. Some customers decided to pay for their movie tickets when the MoviePass app was down, because Ant-Man and the Wasp is the kind of movie that is needed to be watched on the first day.
MoviePass apologized for the issue, and promised to issue refunds for customers who purchased tickets while the service's app was not working. Subscribers will only need to log in to the MoviePass app and send the company a chat message that shows the receipt for the ticket purchase to reimburse them.
Bad Time For MoviePass Mishap
MoviePass was relatively quick in fixing the problem, and displayed generosity in offering to refund tickets that were purchased during the Friday night outage. However, the mishap comes at a bad time for the subscription service.
MoviePass was criticized earlier this year for allegedly always tracking the location of its users, whether or not they were in movie theaters. The revelation made some customers uncomfortable, as the MoviePass Privacy Policy did not mention anything about the intrusive data collection.
Rival movie subscription services popped up shortly afterward, with Sinemia launching a $4.99 per month plan and AMC Theatres announcing its own subscription service for $19.95 per month.
If MoviePass wants to continue in business, it will need to make sure that issues such as the outage last Friday night will be kept at a minimum.
