MoviePass, Dead for a Month, Sees Troubles Continue as Users Report Credit-Card Charges — Report
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It turns out MovePass’ long downward spiral didn’t actually end when it shut down last month. Some former customers of the movie ticket subscription service are reporting they’re still getting charges from MoviePass on their credit cards, an accusation that the company’s CEO denies.
The New York Post Thursday cited several interviews and tweets from people who say they’ve seen charges from MoviePass after it was shut down September 14. Some reported charges were equal to that of the $9.95 membership fee, others were smaller amounts.
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Among them was Chicago resident Maricar Tinio, who was quoted by the paper saying she was charged twice after September 14, once for $9.95 and another for $5.64.
MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe told the Post such reports were “false” and attributed them to former subscribers misreading their bank accounts. He said only one person was charged after the service was shut down.
“One single subscriber, out of the many thousands of MoviePass subscribers, was charged $9.95 on September 15 and has been refunded that amount,” he says. “We are aware that some of our subscribers have mistaken refunds appearing on their credit card statements for charges.”
IndieWire has reached out to MoviePass for comment.
Its unclear how pervasive the charges are, but it’s certain that not every former subscriber was affected. This reporter was a MoviePass member until the very end and received not a charge, but an unexplained 66-cent refund on September 29.
MoviePass had a treacherous path in its eight-year life.
In August, TechCrunch reported that a security weakness left users’ personal information, including credit card numbers, exposed.
Beginning July 4, the service suddenly went offline for an indefinite period for what was described as technical upgrades. It still hadn’t fully restored service a month later.
A Business Insider investigation in August found that MoviePass manually changed the passwords on accounts it found most active in order to prevent top subscribers from using the service as it’s millions of users and low price point left the company hemorrhaging cash.
The company saw an explosion in users in 2017 after it lowered the price for its unlimited movie-ticket service from $50 to $10 a month, a model that was ultimately unsustainable.
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