This is the second part of an ongoing look at MoviePass, a subscription service allowing unlimited access to movie tickets. You can read the first part here.

Last week - a week today, exactly - I signed up for MoviePass, the service that cinephiles all across the US have been losing their mind over.

The idea has been simple, pay $10 a month, get to see unlimited movies (1 every 24 hours) - use an app to reserve your ticket, and pay with a special MoviePass credit card.

But what if that card doesn’t come to you?

That’s the struggle I’m dealing with now.

When I signed up, MoviePass promised 5-7 business days before the card would arrive. No big deal. Or, at least, it wasn’t.

Last night, MoviePass sent its subscribers (myself included) an email, shared below in full (emphasis and bolding, theirs):

Dear MoviePass Member,

In recent weeks, we’ve received hundreds of thousands of emails and tens of thousands of chats through our customer service channels. Though we increased our staff in anticipation of the new plan, the response has been overwhelming. In an effort to address all of your questions, we’ve tripled the size of our team, which is working to respond to everyone as quickly as possible.

Due to heavy traffic, our card processing facility has increased manpower to accommodate the high demand. After hiring more employees and lengthening their service hours, they have drastically increased the number of cards shipped on a weekly basis.

In the hopes of delivering your card as close to your sign-up date as possible, cards are created in batches on a first-come, first-served basis. Recently, the manufacturing queue was shuffled, so some of the cards have been delivered out of order. While we work to ensure that processing is fulfilled according to your registration date, some of our more recent sign-ups may receive their cards before some of our earlier sign-ups. There is currently a 2-3 week delay in card delivery. As an added measure, we’ve opened another fulfillment center that will double our weekly output.

Although you were billed for your first month of service upon registration, your membership does not begin until you receive your card and activate it in the app, and you will not be billed the second installment until a month after activation.

E-Ticketing

If you would like to use the service immediately, feel free to check our app for e-ticketing theaters, which allow you to retrieve your same day ticket, without the MoviePass card. These locations are identified by a red ticket icon next to each theater’s name. Participating theaters are Goodrich Quality Theaters, Studio Movie Grill, and MJR Theatres. Once you reserve your e-ticket at one of these locations, your first month of service will begin regardless of whether you’ve received your card.

For your convenience, we’ve included a few resources that can help you find additional information you may need. The FAQ’s should provide answers to all of your questions and the theater map allows you to search for supported locations in your area. Though several unauthorized sites were created to provide a list of supported theaters, only moviepass.com can provide accurate results.

Thank you for your patience. We’ll continue to send updates on a weekly basis.

Theater Map: https://www.moviepass.com/

FAQ’s: https://moviepass.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

Thank you,

The MoviePass Team

OK, so it sounds like they are going through the growing pains of any successful company - lots of interest, not enough bodies, and they’re hiring to fix it. And I will say, props to them for not charging us for our second month until our cards are activated.

That said - it does bum me out to see that they clearly did not expect (or plan appropriately) for the influx of customers they now have. They had to know this would increase their numbers, so who dropped the ball? It’s a shame that we subscribers - especially given that the first month is charged upon sign-up - have to deal with the delay and the fallout from their mismanagement.

I remain optimistic on the service as a whole right now, but if you’re considering signing up, you may want to wait a bit.

More updates in 2-3 weeks, it sounds like. Now to pay for my September movie tickets like a chump without a cool unlimited movie subscription.