Dendy Canberra IMAX

I’m currently visiting Canberra and, as someone who regularly books tickets online at Dendy cinemas in other locations, I genuinely cannot understand how Dendy Canberra operates. I booked my tickets and pre ordered my popcorn two days in advance paying a $2.20 booking fee per ticket in the process. I expected that booking and paying ahead would make the experience quicker. When I arrived, I specifically asked a staff member whether there was a separate queue for customers who had already purchased their tickets and pre-ordered their food. He asked whether I was just going into the movie, and I explained that I needed to collect the popcorn I’d already paid for. I was then told, “Sorry, you need to get into the line.” That line was enormous. It took over 20 minutes and included people buying tickets, ordering food and collecting purchases. The photo attached does not even do the situation justice as I had already been in the line for 10 minutes at this point. Despite having already paid for everything days in advance, I was required to stand in exactly the same queue as customers who hadn’t booked anything. What made even less sense was that the cinema has a completely separate ticket booth, yet it wasn’t staffed at all. Instead, every customer whether they were buying tickets, collecting pre booked tickets, ordering food or collecting prepaid foodwas funnelled into the candy bar. If you’re going to have a dedicated ticket counter, why isn’t it being used? To make matters worse, there wasn’t even anyone checking tickets at the entrance. A woman in front of us was in the same situation as me had already sent her children into the cinema because nobody was checking tickets, while she stood in the queue trying to collect the food she’d already paid for. The most frustrating part is that this isn’t how I’ve experienced Dendy cinemas elsewhere. I book tickets online specifically to avoid standing in long queues, and at EVERY OTHER Dendy location I’ve visited there has been a clear benefit to booking ahead. Dendy Canberra, however, offered none. I paid a booking fee, selected my seats, completed the transaction and even pre ordered my food before I arrived, yet there was absolutely no advantage. Had I known this was how Dendy Canberra operated, I wouldn’t have booked online or paid the booking fee. I would have simply bought my tickets at the cinema because the outcome would have been exactly the same. From what I witnessed, the cinema appeared to be seriously understaffed. The queue barely moved, staff seemed overwhelmed, and there was no dedicated collection point or express queue for prepaid orders. Charging customers a booking fee while offering none of the convenience that online booking is supposed to provide makes no sense at all. This experience was frustrating from start to finish and is well below the standard I’ve come to expect from Dendy. Really poor form.