The Consumers’ Foundation yesterday said some movie theaters have been charging customers up to eight times the price of a movie ticket if they break the theater’s 3D glasses when watching movies in 3D.
Recent blockbuster movies such as Avatar attracted huge crowds to theaters equipped with 3D technology.
PHOTO: CHANG CHING-YA, TAIPEI TIMES
However, the consumer rights watchdog recently received reports that some theaters charged customers as much as NT$2,500 if they accidentally broke the 3D glasses.
The foundation last month conducted a survey of 10 movie theaters by asking service staff, as a regular consumer would, questions about the 3D movie ticket prices and 3D glasses.
The 3D movie tickets typically cost NT$70 to NT$80 more than regular movie tickets, which are generally below NT$300.
Of the 10 movie theaters that the foundation surveyed, those with the most expensive 3D movie tickets were Xinyi Vieshow Cinemas and Dazhi Miramar Cinemas.
“Most movie theaters said the reason 3D movies are more expensive than 2D movies is that the ticket price includes the 3D glasses rental fee and maintenance costs associated with the 3D equipment,” said Yu Kai-hsiung (游開雄), publisher of the foundation’s Consumer Reports Magazine.
The foundation also found that only two of the movie theaters surveyed said customers who accidentally broke the glasses did not have to pay for them, two theaters did not have related policies and six theaters charged customers fees ranging from NT$200 to NT$2,500 for breaking the glasses.
Among the theaters that charged customers the highest fees for breaking glasses were the Shin Kong Cineplex in Taichung (NT$2,500) and Ambassador Theater in Taipei (NT$2,000).
The foundation said it was “unfair” and “unreasonable” to charge customers if the 3D glasses broke because the devices, which are one-size-fits-all, are prone to break if people with different head sizes wear them.
“Charging higher ticket prices for 3D movies based on rental fees for the 3D glasses is unjustified because the cost of the 3D glasses to theaters is not very high,” Yu said.
Based on the wide discrepancy among theaters on charging customers for breaking 3D glasses, certain theaters were charging unreasonably high prices, he said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS