Sinemia is Terminating Some Accounts for Violation of the Terms of Service
Many Sinemia customers have found their accounts terminated in the over the past few days. Sinemia is sending a form letter to some of those affected, saying they are eligible for a refund “based on the difference between your payments to Sinemia and the cost of your ticket purchases.” The letter also lists a variety of possible reasons why their accounts were terminated.
In a statement to Business Insider, Sinemia said that “after conducting a detailed fraud detection analysis, our system has detected fraudulent activities by a number of users whose memberships have been subsequently terminated due to violation of the Terms of Service. If a member is terminated due to fraudulent activity, Sinemia is not required to provide a refund. Despite that, as an act of good faith, Sinemia has decided to provide full refunds of the difference between a member’s ‘membership payment and fees’ and ‘ticket purchases.’”
Here’s the full text of the letter:
Dear Sinemia member,
“This is an important notice that requires your attention. “Our top priority is to provide our members with the best movie-going experience possible in the most affordable way. In order to achieve this goal, it is very important for our members to comply with the membership rules and abide by the terms of service. “Sinemia has put several systems and measures in place in order to prevent fraud and keep Sinemia’s membership sustainable and affordable.
“Upon reviewing your account, we regret to inform you that the system has detected examples of your membership use that violates the terms of service. As a result, your account has been terminated. An account may be terminated, but not limited to, for the following reasons:
- Unauthorized use of the Sinemia card/cardless outside of its intended purposes, resulting in fraudulent financial activity
- The use of multiple Sinemia accounts in the same device resulting in financial abuse
- Reasonable suspicion of fraud and/or abuse
- Sharing one’s Sinemia membership information to purchase tickets for other persons.
- Manipulation of location data resulting in deceptive ticket purchases
“You may review the usage terms of your account on our website if you would like to seek further information. Given the circumstances, please note that you will not be able to create further accounts with Sinemia. “Best regards, Sinemia
“You are eligible for a refund based on the difference between your payments to Sinemia and the cost of your ticket purchases. Please fill in the form to get detailed usage history and apply for a refund.”
Conclusion
Sinemia are certainly within their rights to enforce rules, and hopefully that will keep their business model sustainable. But it must be pointed out that their customer service is horrible, and some customers are claiming that they are going too far under the guise of enforcing their rules.
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Also was terminated. I prepaid for a year in Nov and did not have problems until March. Had one issue where their app refused to check me in and although I made CS aware, was charged the missuse fee, which I paid. Made another purchase w no issue and tried to buy another ticket yesterday and was terminated. I used the service maybe 6 times but I travel and was in various locations not local to my home? I only have one account and phone. Maybe they think if you travel and use the card outside a certain mileage from your home, it’s fraud? Ridiculous… Stay away!!!
I am one of the many individuals on here who where royally screwed over by Sinemia. I did everything I could to comply with their every changing restrictions and increasingly sketchy business model only to have my annual subscription (which like many, I had to pay for up front) terminated due to “fraudulent activity”. The only possibility of “misuse” would be due to their horrendous app which, for example, verified my check-in to a movie and then charged me for not checking into that movie. I have contacted Sinemia multiple times with complaints and have never gotten a response. They have yet to reply with my request for a refund of the months that they have stolen from me (I still had about 7 months left in my 12 month subscriptions).Terrible customer service and a business model designed to screw over their early adopters and customers willing to sign up for a longer term service. STAY AWAY PLEASE! Don’t become like the many people on here who got screw by this awful company.
same thing happen to my account as well. Though I didn’t make any fraudulent activity they terminated my account with out giving any email/letter. I came to know this today while I am booking new ticket. Their customer service is horrible and never respond to customer emails. Its truly unlawful and injustice to annual subscribers.
Had annual membership paid in advance, followed every rule, and even provided the required ID. I suspect they terminated my account because we have been regularly using the service and now they’re losing money. Such a scam.
I was one of these people whose account was terminated even though I have done none of things listed as justification for termination. In fact, I’ve never had any issues, misuse fees, and have always used the service according to their terms. They are terminating people with an annual subscription who use their account regularly since they can’t afford to keep them. Customer service won’t respond either. They’re hacks who steal your hard-earned dollars and don’t fulfill the service they sell you.
That is what my suspicion is as well but totally a guess.
Sinemia is not terminating accounts for fraud. It is terminating accounts because people are using them. I purchased a 12-month unlimited plan in November and pre-paid approximately $360. Since then, I have used that plan regularly and have complied with every single new condition Sinemia has imposed, including convenience fees, check-in, and identify verification. However, yesterday when I tried to use the app, it directed me to Sinemia’s website where I found the termination message you quoted in your article. I have never done any of the things listed in that message, and when I contacted Sinemia for clarification, they refused to provide any, saying only that my account had been automatically terminated. I then went and tallied up how much Sinemia has spent on tickets that I purchased, and discovered that they had spent almost exactly $360, the amount I paid for my 12-month membership. Looking online, I have seen that Sinemia has done the exact same thing to other users. Sinemia appears to be automatically cancelling accounts once they cost Sinemia more than the purchase price. In the meantime, Sinemia is collecting “convenience fees” from those users. This appears to go way beyond just a scam, and seems more like a deliberate scheme to defraud users. Law enforcement authorities should conduct a criminal investigation of Sinemia. Your article would be more helpful if you addressed this potentially criminal conduct by Sinemia, rather than just repeating Sinemia’s talking points.
Your post is word for word what I was about to type. I joined as a Premium member around the holidays. I’m a big movie fan, especially independent and foreign films and there’s one non-AMC theater chain in my city that has an exclusive on that genre. So Sinemia was perfect fit for me. I go to 3-5 movies a week and now that they’re losing money on me they terminate my account. This is tantamount to FRAUD, but not by me – by Sinemia.
I share your sentiments! I was on the same exact situation. Sinemia is losing money on us because we have been using their services, and now terminated our accounts. I have followed every step in abiding by their rules. I even provided them ID. Such a scam.
They terminated my account and said I violated terms of service. I can absolutely guarantee with 100% certainty that I did not. You know how? My partner has an account too. We used those accounts to watch the same movies, to check in at the same times, to go to the exact same movie theaters on the exact same days. His account didn’t get terminated but mine did. My account has all my information and my partner’s has all his personal information. They are two completely separate accounts. When I ask Sinemia exactly when and how did I violate the terms of service they said they couldn’t give me that information and then proceeded to ignore my messages. No, this is not Sinemia enforcing the rules. This is Sinemia stealing out money. I used my account for 8 months and verified my ID. 2 days after a successful ID verification they terminated my account. Sinemia is breaking the law.
I was using Sinema until all of a sudden i get an email that they could not process my payment on my credit card (Plat AMEX) . I called AMEX who informed me no attempted charge was made. I tried twice to contact Sinema no response. So after the 3rd phantom attemt they dropped me. Go riddens to bad customer service.
They suspended my account and made me send them my ID two weeks ago. I have used it 6 times in 4 months and have the 3 movie per month plan. There was no irregular use with the account. They did restore my service.