GhanaCelebrities.Com has received several complaints from angry Ghanaian movie enthusiasts whose weekend has been completely tumbled-down by SilverBird Cinemas, Ghana—for false advertisement, and the Cinema has no plausible explanation for this mess.
You wouldn’t catch any Cinema doing this in any country where consumers’ rights and false advertisement is taken seriously—but in Ghana, everything goes and at the end of the day, the ordinary citizens bear the lost without any functioning entity to take the culprits on.
Can you imagine visiting the website of a Cinema which has listed all the movies being shown; the date and time slots—and then leaving your house with friends in a taxi only to be told when you arrive at the cinema that the movie is not even yet in the country?
This is exactly and how poorly SilverBird Cinemas in Ghana is operating—at least, it has been doing so from Friday when this issue was flagged.
The Cinema chain in Ghana with outlets at the Accra Mall and West Hills Mall since Friday (19th June, 2015) has been advertising that the movie-Entourage (see image above and below) is showing on the Cinema’s official website and also that of their partner website-GhanaWeb.Com. When actually, they do not even have the movie yet…
Several Ghanaians who spent money and time to make way to either the SilverBird Cinema at the Accra Mall or the West Hills Mall were met with big disappointment and no explanation—the movie was not being shown despite the cinema having advertised it. The cinema is still advertising the movie with specific showing times (as at the time of publishing this).
On SilverBird Cinemas’ website and that of their partners, they’ve advertised Entourage as showing in Ghana, starting from Friday-19 June at the following times; Friday: 1:00pm, 4:00pm, 6:10pm | Saturday: 1:00pm, 4:00pm, 6:10pm | Sunday: 1:00pm, 4:00pm, 6:10pm | Monday: 1:00pm, 4:00pm, 6:10pm | Tuesday: 1:00pm, 4:00pm, 6:10pm | Wednesday: 1:00pm, 4:00pm, 6:10pm | Thursday: 1:00pm, 4:00pm, 6:10pm.
We are told it’s not just the movie-Entourage and that this is not the first time the Cinema is doing this—perhaps, they’ve gotten away with it so many times and have wasted people’s money and time enough to the extent that they don’t really care anymore.
After all, what are you going to do? Without any proper body to lodge a complaint with in Ghana for the operators of the Cinema to be put on their toes—the best these angry Ghanaians can do is to swallow their lost and turn away.
It’s deeply unfair and false advertisement is somewhat an offence. But the absence of any real competition in Accra for SilverBird Cinemas means they can do pretty much what they want—made worst by the fact that no effective functioning consumer protection agency is out there to ensure they act accordingly.
Following these complaints and having found out that this is indeed happening, GhanaCelebrities.Com reached out to the Business Manager of SilverBird Cinemas, Ghana (Ake) and to be frank, he had no legitimate explanation for the mess , except to literally say, they screwed up.
The Business Manager said; the cinema has not yet received the movie and therefore it’s unfortunate that those showing times are still up and running on their official website and that of their main Ghanaian partner’s website.
When we asked why the showing times has not been pulled off even as at the time of our conversation (Sunday, 21 June, 2015-10: 32 pm) , he said those in charge of the website do not work on weekends and as such, they couldn’t remove them. This really shows how much they respect their customers and the various movie enthusiasts who rely on these official advertisements.
When GhanaCelebrtiies.Com suggested that, it would be prudent for SilverBird Cinemas to ensure that they have the movies in Ghana before proceeding to advertise with specific showing times, the Business Manager accepted this as the right thing to do—saying, they will start doing that now.
However, he mentioned that they have placed a notice on their Facebook page telling Ghanaians that some of the movies are not showing as advertised. Here, we pointed it out to him that, this is pretty useless to the vast majority of Ghanaians who wouldn’t necessary check their Facebook page but rather their official website where they do not even have their Facebook feed…
So as it stands, SilverBird Cinemas Ghana is knowingly advertising movies with specific showing times when they do not even have the movies yet—wasting the time and money of Ghanaians who rely on these advertisements.
We surely need a real competition for SilverBird Cinemas in Ghana, because monopoly is the obvious cause of such bad customer service and the total disregard of the basic rules of engagement…
Who does that?
Mister Chris Vincent Agyapong it is very sad that a journalist of your professed status would stoop to writing cheap pedestrian lies about a business you know nothing about. And maybe true to your stock in trade, you laced it with a lot of opinionated and biased verbiage that leaves one wondering who paid you to discredit a customer-centric business such as Silverbird Cinemas. What will Silverbird gain from putting misleading information out to its customer? These are a group of selfless professionals who perform herculean feats week in week out to bring blockbusters as they drop on the world stage to discerning Ghanaian customers. If you knew anything about cinema as a business then you would know that the challenge of running a world class digital cineplex is the logistics of getting the movies and keys to site on time in order to meet worldwide date lines. Anticipated movies are advertised before hand to sensitize and prepare the customers and if unfortunately these movies don’t get to site as at when expected, then the cinema takes off the advertised movies until when they arrive. If you were sincere and objective, then you would have reported that the movies were taken off yesterday and efforts had been made by the cinema to apologize to its customers on other easily accessible social platforms. But you chose to write lies and defame the business and business manager. Word of advise, always get your facts right and render those facts to the public without bias , defamation and fallacious playing to the gallery. I am sure that you were taught that criticism should always be constructive not destructive and on this note , you have failed to do justice to your calling.
Dude you just admitted what Chris wrote about and then claimed he lied? Typical Ghanaian with Ghaiaian comprehension issues. You just admitted that you didn’t have the movies and yet advertised them on your site. Everything you wrote confirms Chris’ post. It is simple. You don’t have the movie, dont advertise it with times and dates. That’s simple honesty and decency. He got his facts straight by just posting the schedule you have on your website. So by not having the movie means you were dishonest and deceitful. That was the summary of Chris’ point which any decent person will agree to. He didn’t lie you did. But I know honesty is not something Ghanaians do very well. When you catch them in a lie they’ll go on with some nonsense and bury their admission of the lie somewhere deep. Hoping you won’t notice their lie. That is part of the culture of deceit and dishonesty . Straight talk which usually goes with honesty doesn’t exist in the Ghanaian culture. That’s why Ghanaians can’t tell the truth and hate truth tellers. Boil down your posting and you’ll know you are the one who lied. Being a typical Ghanaian your feelings were hurt by the straight up truth talk so you naturally precipitated to your typical Ghanaian obfuscation and baby talk. But you can’t fool anyone with that. A lie is a lie no matter the excuses. the culture of dishonesty explains why Ghana airways could overbook flights. It is why contracts were terminated and judgement debts had to be paid. It is why others collected money that want theirs from the national coffers and are still walking around. Heard the expression calling a spade a spade? Here remove the chaff you try to cover your lie with and what you have is just simple. You advertise a movie you didn’t have as playing at your theatres. When you were called on your lie you talked about how difficult you work. That’s a non sequitur. Look that up. That wasn’t the question or point. The point is you fraudulently advertised a movie you don’t have. Went as far as to include the dates and times. When got caught your answer was to charge the person with posting fallacious, defamatory and biased posting. Which tells me you don’t know the meaning of any of those words. You committed the fallacious act.
I think you need a good dictionary and a lesson in truth telling. That style of mealy mouthed apologetics may work at a Chiefs house in Ghana and on Ghanaians but it doesn’t wash with the rest of the world.
Of course all what you’ve written is a lie—I spoke to the Business Manager around 10: 30 pm on Sunday and they were still advertising this movie to which he said; the IT guys do not work over the weekend so they couldn’t remove it. Any other thing you are saying is just your own measure of the facts—you are entitled to that.
Have a good day!
Ps. If you jumped into a taxi advertising Nkrumah circle as its destination and then found yourself at labadi. Would you accept ” I work hard” as a valid excuse from the taxi driver? Let your yes be yes and no be no. Not may be or probably. That lack of decisive truth is killing the nation and the community. It transcends lots of Ghanaian behaviour and attitudes. I know someone who spend lots of money to go ghana only to find out the answer should have been may be.
Lol like seriously?? You just read an article saying the truth with evidence about advertising movies they don’t have…and you are here saying is a lie! I think u don’t understand the article or have they bribe u to defend them? Boy go sleep wai and stop saying nonsense mtchewww