The Beacon Cinema: Poor Management, Freedom of Speech Censorship, & Horrible Parking

The Beacon Cinema is a new cinema complex that opened up in October of 2009. Locals were excited about it's opening because the Beacon was built in a historic building on a street that was once the hotspot of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. They have experienced great business even though it is becoming increasingly obvious that some issues need to be worked out. This includes their parking situation, customer service, and my most recent experience with them on Facebook.

The parking situation has been a heated topic amongst those who want to support this new cinema. It appears as if the developers of the complex did not plan for enough parking. They currently rely on an old parking garage structure that sits about 60 cars on a regular business day. You are allowed to leave you car in the garage for three hours before receiving a ticket. This basically means you can only enjoy a movie instead of making it a night and visiting one of the local restaurants nearby before or after the movie.

Parking on the side roads is no better. Even though I enjoy a brisk walk from time to time, you can often find yourself parking up to 2 miles away on a busy business day. Another issue is the parking meters for most of these parking spots. They only give you one hour and a half or two hours at maximum to park there. Good luck trying to get back to your car before you receive a nice $10 ticket on your front windshield.

There have been issues with the customer service in the past. Some of the staff seems untrained in how to properly serve a customer. I often find them standing around and chatting with one another instead of serving the customers. Waiting to be served can be frustrating for anyone. And do not try telling the manager about this problem because he is usually the one doing most of the unprofessional slacking. The current manager gives the Beacon Cinema a bad representation by the way he holds himself while working.

I would like to make a quick note and say that the Beacon Cinema was quick to apologize when one of their employees was rude to me. The General Manager John Valente was pleasant and welcoming to me. He gave me four complimentary tickets to take out my family one night. This was a great showing of customer service and shows me that he understands customer service. However, I think he needs to keep a better eye on the daily management on the floor and through the social media platform known as Facebook.

The individual who runs Facebook should not be the person representing the Beacon Cinema. Most of his answers to tough questions have proven to be undereducated and shows everyone that he should not even be answering them. I recently addressed an issue I had as a fan of the Beacon Cinema Facebook page. I was upset that they would advertise movies to never actually show them. It was my goal to attempt to get an answer by writing a professional message on the wall. The manager of the page replied that they advertise movie that they think they are going to get but necessary might not get.

My initial reaction was one of shock and I expressed this by telling him it is not too kind or professional to advertise movies you do not show. A lot of my friends and I will hold off seeing a movie from their bigger rival to support the new cinema and the local economy. His reaction to this was to censor my freedom of speech and ban me from the Facebook page. Once again poor customer service was displayed and I am on the brink of never going there again.

Overall my experience with the Beacon Cinema has been an up and down one. They need to take a close look at their basic management and make a change. The younger gentleman in position of manager, I believe his name is also Steve, has shown me he does not have the maturity to be in such a position. If you are planning to visit the Beacon Cinema at anytime, be advised of my own experiences and choose somewhere else before it is too late.