MoviePass competitor Sinemia is asking for tips of $1, $2, or $5, even as it faces criticism for a spree of account terminations

• MoviePass competitor Sinemia is asking some subscribers to tip it, suggesting $1, $2, or $5.
• The function is still in the "testing phase," Sinemia told Business Insider in a statement.
• This test comes even as the app is purging subscribers who it claims engaged in "fraudulent activity."
• More than 50 users who had their accounts recently terminated have contacted Business Insider in the past week, claiming their accounts were unfairly canceled.
• Two subscribers said they were asked to tip Sinemia but declined, then saw their accounts canceled shortly after.

MoviePass competitor Sinemia is now asking some subscribers to tip the service even as it faces criticism from people who say their accounts were unfairly terminated in the last few days.

Over the past week, the movie-ticket subscription service has been on an account cancellation spree. In a statement to Business Insider on Monday, Sinemia claimed that the users it terminated had engaged in "fraudulent activity." According to emails viewed by Business Insider, Sinemia offered some of those subscribers partial refunds "based on the difference between your payments to Sinemia and the cost of your ticket purchases."

But many subscribers expressed bewilderment by Sinemia's actions and contend they did nothing to warrant getting booted from the service. More than 50 former Sinemia subscribers who had their accounts recently canceled contacted Business Insider in the past week, many of them claiming they had not violated the app's terms of service.

Even as this purge is happening, Sinemia has started to ask some users for tips, suggesting $1, $2, or $5.

"The 'tip' function is still in the testing phase for a limited number of users," Sinemia said in a statement to Business Insider. "This feature may help us to cover the cost of processing fees without passing it to the users. While our users have voluntarily been very generous, we’re still evaluating the results before moving forward.” 

Here's a screenshot of what the tip function looks like:

Two subscribers told Business Insider they'd had a particularly bizarre experience with the tipping function. Both said the app had asked them if they wanted to tip Sinemia. They declined. Shortly after, they found their accounts terminated. Both claimed they hadn't violated the app's terms of service.

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