Never again, Sinemia.

I was very happy to see Sinemia, MoviePass’s up-and-coming rival, announce an unlimited movie plan of their own this past September. Yes, the price was listed at $30 per month, which is $20 more than MoviePass, but I didn’t oppose that higher price because it seemed like a more reasonable and sustainable price point for an unlimited cinema experience.

In fact, I had already also subscribed to AMC Stubs A-List after the downfall of MoviePass. Instead of canceling A-List, I was willing to also subscribe to Sinemia’s unlimited plan so that I’d be able to see more independent films at my local art house theater, while still being able to see films in IMAX and 3D with A-List (Sinemia’s unlimited plan is only for regular 2D films).

After convincing myself that it was worth it, I found myself on Sinemia’s website inputting my debit card information for the new unlimited service. At the time, I didn’t even mind the $30 activation fee that was included only for monthly subscribers (it’s waived for people who pay annualy). I was too excited.

After making sure all of my information was correct, I clicked on the button to register and finalize my subscription. It didn’t go through. I forgot exactly what the website said, but it just simply wouldn’t allow me to sign up for the service. I tried four or five more times and still, nothing.

The really frustrating part happened when I went to check my bank account to see if the problem was occurring on my bank’s end. What I found was that the payment for Sinemia wasn’t only going through, but it was charging me for each of those attempts, even though Sinemia’s website said that the payments were not working. I got the refunds almost immediately after, but it was still pretty annoying.

The next morning, I decided to try one more time, and I was able to successfully register. I figured it’d be best to look past the issue from the previous evening.

Then the second issue comes in. After going to my account on Sinemia, I saw that I wouldn’t be able to use my membership until the ‘cardless’ feature (the way you actually pay for tickets) on the app was activated. It said that activation can take up to two weeks but there is an option for accelerated activation which taps on an additional $10. That frustrated me because on top of paying the $30 for the first month, I paid a $30 initiation fee and then in order for me to actually use my membership, I’d either have to wait two weeks, or pay another $10.

Yes, MoviePass has definitely had its share of issues, but it didn’t have issues straight from the get-go. At least not for me. I’d subscribed to MoviePass as soon as I heard about the new price drop to $10 over a year ago and I got my card about two weeks later. Yes, I had to wait two weeks, but it wasn’t an app that could’ve been activated immediately. And they weren’t trying to squeeze any more money out of my pocket (at least not until peak pricing, which came around 10 months after I got my MoviePass).

So, I then decided to go to YouTube and look up the accelerated activation to see if it was worth it and if it actually worked. I found a video a guy made about his first Sinemia purchase, and that’s when I learned about the shadiest issue yet: processing fees.

What Sinemia fails to mention when you sign up is that the only way to buy tickets is with the cardless feature through the app, because they aren’t sending out physical cards anymore. And every single purchase made with cardless has to go through third-party websites like Fandango and Atom. And guess what comes along with those purchases (which Sinemia will not cover)? Yep. Processing fees. That was not transparent on their site. Not at all.

Each processing fee is typically around $1.50 — $2.00 per purchase. If someone would so desire to actually watch a film a day with their Sinemia membership, that would more than double the base cost of the $30 unlimited plan. That’s just bogus.

I took to Reddit about the issue and I learned of some ways to avoid the processing fee. Some people even told me that I should’ve done research before subscribing, but that’s not the issue. Even if Sinemia wasn’t entirely clear about their service through marketing, they should’ve been more precise at least in the registering process. They weren’t. I shouldn’t have to hear about all of these other fees from other websites or YouTube. That automatically brings them below the level of MoviePass for me.

I then tried to cancel my account and request a refund, but the site said that I wouldn’t be able to cancel until cardless was activated within the two weeks. I didn’t want to wait that long, because with their unreliability, I was sure that if I did wait until then to cancel, I wouldn’t be able to get a refund, even though I didn’t use their service at all.

I tried to reach out to Sinemia through e-mail to cancel my account and request a refund, but of course — no answer. Their customer service is really bad and after a week or so without a response, I decided to go to my bank about it. My bank refunded me my money and I recently got an e-mail from Sinemia about the claim my bank made with them. I e-mailed them back that my bank did refund me my money and I want my account canceled immediately.

So, if you were considering Sinemia, don’t do it. It’s way worse than MoviePass. If you have an AMC near you, subscribe to Stubs A-List. It’s way better and doesn’t have headaches included with the membership.