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In an extensive IndieWire interview Rifat Oguz responds to questions that have his customers boiling with anger.

Sinemia, the subscription ticketing service that has been billed equally an culling to MoviePass, has had a crude two weeks. While its app prevented many users in the U.Due south. from buying tickets the weekend of March 23 ("The states" opening), even more furious customers whose subscriptions were cancelled due to accusations of fraud have taken to Reddit and Twitter — as well every bit reaching out to publications similar IndieWire and Business concern Insider by the hundreds — accusing the company of post-obit the path of MoviePass and trying to stay afloat by denying active users the ability to purchase tickets.

Sinemia Founder and CEO Rifat Oguz granted IndieWire a 75-minute interview to reply questions final Friday afternoon. Information technology was, at times, a contentious interview, with Oguz expressing surprise at IndieWire's description of the extent of the problems users are facing, but promising the growing company is committed to fixing its problems.

The following is an edited (for clarity) version of that chat — past the end of it, Oguz said he would reconsider keeping the door shut on those who accept recently been kicked out of their Sinemia subscription. The conversation is separate into five topics: 1) app problems, 2) fees, 3) requiring users to upload a selfie belongings their driver's license, 4) customer service, 5) fraud and termination of users.

1. Problems with the App

Sinemia Founder and CEO Rifat Oguz

Sinemia

Let's start with an update. What's the status of the maintenance of the app?

Oguz: Maintenance. What practice you mean, maintenance? Currently, we always work on the new app updates in Sinemia. What is the question, actually? I don't understand.

Sure, let me clarify. This weekend, the service was not working and–

Oguz: Well, okay, that was news that [was] actually in your paper, correct? That'south not truthful. We weren't down.

What customer service told–

Oguz: Users [were buying] tickets and actually the issues merely happened in the advanced tickets [sales]. Then the cardholders, which are the majority, were using Sinemia equally intended, but nosotros weren't down. I think that was coming from where? Reddit or Twitter?

Well, let me be very specific with you, users were told by Sinemia Support [crosstalk]. Please let me end. Sinemia Support said that the app was "under maintenance, please look for the update." People who were using the app were unable to purchase tickets this weekend. I have literally hundreds of examples of people, including personal ones of trusted sources, unable to apply the app.

Oguz: Tin you send me the exact messages? That our support … because I just want to make sure, peradventure because "under maintenance" is mayhap because we were working on unlimited [Sinemia introduced a new "Always Unlimited" plan], but we weren't down, I am repeating again we weren't downward. People were buying tickets and tons of people, thousands of people bought tickets last week.

So you're claiming people that were using advance tickets feature through the app, in that location was not a problem?

Oguz: No, I'm saying that there was a problem, I can talk about it, but information technology wasn't downward. There were two reasons that we found. 1 of them is because we [changed] our ticketing process to direct users to moving picture theaters' own websites, so we [stopped] directing them to third party ticket sellers like Fandango and Atom Tickets. And they were directing them in the outdated version of the app.

So allow me just clarify what you merely said. You have a policy now where users are mandated to buy tickets directly from the theater website. That's a new policy and considering of that alter users needed the updated app, or they had errors when they clicked to buy tickets?

Oguz: Yeah, because we always update it. The technology is e'er updated, currently we are updating almost every two days… so people e'er need to update and not use the outdated version, that's right.

The second problem is [at the] beginning of the March nosotros started a detailed misuses-and-fraud analysis and effectually two per centum of our users were terminated. I can talk about that more, but if you were a terminated user, yous can't utilise your app.

I want to talk about the fraud, just I want to beginning talk about people that were not terminated and having difficulty using the app. My concern is that the problem that people were having continued after the update. Even after they did the update they were still having trouble purchasing tickets.

Oguz: And they are not terminated users?

Not terminated users.

Oguz: Maybe they're terminated but they don't know that. Okay.

We're talking about the 99 percent of users who weren't accused of fraud.

Oguz: Non 99, 97.

97, 98, we can talk nearly those numbers later, because that'south an issue as well. I'm talking most the 97 percent – at that place have been system broad problems of people not able to purchase tickets even with the updated app. What people were told past Sinemia support was that maintenance was being done-

Oguz: I'm repeating that we weren't downwardly.

That's fine, merely what I'm request is what would you say to the people in expert standing that have not been able to purchase tickets?

Oguz: Chris, allow me just clarify this, if you can merely send me those and I can perhaps find out who sent information technology to yous and I can cheque and come up dorsum to you. That'southward what I'm aware of. I told you that there'south two reasons — at present you're saying system was downward and I can tell, we weren't down so.

Terminal night it took me 90 minutes to buy a ticket and I have the updated version [of the app].

Oguz: xc minutes to buy the ticket. And so what do you lot mean 90 minutes?

I got a lot of "Fail, attempt once again" messages.

Oguz: Hmm… I'm sorry that you had that and I'm sorry to hear that, but here'southward actually – if you could provide–

This isn't virtually me. I gave you that instance because I need you to sympathize I'one thousand not taking this from internet chatter. I'm hearing directly from readers too, but I take trusted sources, people who work in the industry who use your service, friends who use the app, and when I hear at that place's problems with Sinemia, I enquire them, "Are you lot able to use information technology?" And across the board this weekend iPhone users were not allowed to employ information technology. Some iPhone users have had trouble using it throughout March. I just signed up again and had problems.

Oguz: And how did yous terminate upwardly buying [the ticket last night]?

Persistence.

Oguz: Persistence. Oh.

Beyond the board this weekend, trusted sources were not able to use it. Across the board they were told by support, "DM united states of america, wait for the update, maintenance." Slowly, some have been able to buy tickets with persistence this week.

Publicist: Rifat, is that something you can maybe bank check in with perchance the customer service squad and get back to them on?

Oguz: That's what I right at present really desire to do and because that's the persistence cannot be an event and also something I need to dig into and find out. That's because nosotros are enlightened that the terminated users cannot buy the tickets and we had to actually 7 updates last calendar week. Let me check back.  I've never heard–

I just want to be clear, you have non heard of an increased book in people unable to buy tickets through the app?

Oguz: In that location was an increase, yeah considering we merely [moved away from using] Fandango this weekend. All I tin can requite is that maybe a bigger problem than our knowledge, because right now we thought, later terminating two percent of our users, which is a lot of people, this was a normal amount of complaints, but let me cheque, Chris.

OK, allow's move past that. Is the back end of the app a huge undertaking for a company like yours? Keeping information technology updated for all these different operating systems, forth with all the changes you are making to the subscriptions – which is a ton, rules are e'er irresolute – is that back stop a bigger deal than you had imagined?

Oguz: So you know nosotros were founded about four or five years agone in Europe and we actually came to the United States and we moved to Los Angeles in 2017. After a month nosotros saw an increase in our users. Then there was MoviePass with their unlimited model for $ix.99. Nosotros calculated and decided nosotros would not exist able to sustain if we followed them. We grew, even though at that place were was MoviePass, we grow l% month over calendar month for possibly 14 months. If you calculate that'south more than than 2000 times growth. So yes, along the way, the back end and server have ever had problems.

So we had some moments that can go down and can go up, but our engineers are working well-nigh 24/7 and that's because nosotros have two teams, one in Europe and over here, so that'south overlapped. We also know that we are a startup and we are struggling, but also nosotros are making film goers go to movies and we're the simply ane offering the any time, any theater, any movies. We are non limiting movies, not limiting showtimes. And since we were actually growing that much I tin see that nosotros can also accept a growing number of customers and customer complaints, and you can come across in LinkedIn maybe, but nosotros likewise increased our employee number possibly 30 percent this year, maybe twoscore percent, so we're growing and we're advancing with increasing our customer back up, increasing our squad. We doubled our engineering team this yr. And we are growing to exercise that, but as a starting time upward, we are besides [facing challenges] and that's how we try to overcome [them]. We are trying to practice something over here and that's actually not easy.

[Editor's Note: Reports are the Sinemia app was functioning far meliorate this by weekend, March 30-31.]

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Source: https://www.indiewire.com/2019/04/sinemia-ceo-rifat-oguz-moviepass-alternative-problems-backlash-1202054570/

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