'Legally Blonde the Musical – worst theatre customer service...' blog discussion

Steve_Rich

As someone interested in theatre from a consumer angle, I find this fascinating. Quick update (9th April 2010): further to Martin's message below, and clarification of board posting rules, I should explain that I'm from theatremonkey website. Details in my profile.

On the subject of non-appearance. Ms Smith’s absence was indeed publicised in advance, as another poster pointed out. Ordinary theatregoers could indeed have missed it, though, as it’s not that widely done outside the 'theatrical community,' I guess. Generally, I understand it that you pay for the show, not the cast, and since theatre is live and absences can be random; there really is little that can be done. In previews and the first month after opening nigh, though, contractual obligations usually make cast holiday least likely, I’m told.

The seat comfort problem is also dealt with both on a mentioned guide website and is warned of on the venue’s own site if selecting your own tickets - telephone operators see it too, I understand. On view, having seen the show, I’d say you miss nothing significant – maybe five minutes of (non-key) action over two hours – and you’d hear it all anyway. Seat prices generally drop to reflect anything missed, and in this case you save £20 – a third of the seat price, when missing about a twenty-fourth of the show. Not a bad discount on that score… though no compensation for that horrible seat back, I agree!

As for the rigmarole of complaining, theatre is no different to shopping in a mall. If you visit West Cross Shopping Centre and buy a faulty piano in Marks and Lewis, you complain to the customer service desk in Marks and Lewis. If you then walk to John Spencer further down the mall, but are tripped up by a West Cross Shopping Centre cleaner’s broom on the way, you complain to West Cross Shopping Centre.

West Cross cannot afford / don’t wish to operate retail store Marks and Lewis, so rent space in West Cross to them. Similarly, Marks and Lewis don’t wish / can’t afford to operate a shopping mall, so rent space from West Cross.

It is the same in theatre with producers and theatre owners. One owns the building, the other the production… and it is the production you pay to see. That logic means that a failing in your view of it is the producer’s concern, how you are treated by theatre staff that of the venue you are in.

You wouldn’t expect West Cross to compensate you for that faulty piano from Marks and Lewis or John Spencer to compensate you for your broken leg on the way to them, would you? Of course they should work together, but... they don’t and there’s a flawed reason as I’ve outlined. I’ll be interested to see what happens next – my guess will be a free repeat visit from decent seats – can’t wait to find out.

Davenjon

Steve_Rich wrote: »

On the subject of non-appearance. Ms Smith’s absence was indeed publicised in advance, as another poster pointed out. Ordinary theatregoers could indeed have missed it, though, as it’s not that widely done outside the 'theatrical community,' I guess.

With respect, we are talking about 'ordinary theatergoers' here and only someone who is professionally involved in the Theatre would seriously hide behind the fact that Ms Smiths holidays are hidden deep within the Savoy Theatre website, where no one can find them! Incidently at the performance I asked numerous staff if they knew why Ms Smith was not performing, and no one knew! So if the staff don't know she was on holiday....

Steve_Rich wrote: »

As for the rigmarole of complaining, theatre is no different to shopping in a mall. If you visit West Cross Shopping Centre and buy a faulty piano in Marks and Lewis, you complain to the customer service desk in Marks and Lewis. If you then walk to John Spencer further down the mall, but are tripped up by a West Cross Shopping Centre cleaner’s broom on the way, you complain to West Cross Shopping Centre. West Cross cannot afford / don’t wish to operate retail store Marks and Lewis, so rent space in West Cross to them. Similarly, Marks and Lewis don’t wish / can’t afford to operate a shopping mall, so rent space from West Cross. It is the same in theatre with producers and theatre owners. One owns the building, the other the production… and it is the production you pay to see. That logic means that a failing in your view of it is the producer’s concern, how you are treated by theatre staff that of the venue you are in.

You wouldn’t expect West Cross to compensate you for that faulty piano from Marks and Lewis or John Spencer to compensate you for your broken leg on the way to them, would you? Of course they should work together, but... they don’t and there’s a flawed reason as I’ve outlined. I’ll be interested to see what happens next – my guess will be a free repeat visit from decent seats – can’t wait to find out.

This is not a correct or fair anaolgy in my view. As a consumer I am not expcted to unravel the contractual details of whos renting what from whom, the quailty and location of the seat, etc. If I buy a PC from Currys and it fails, my complaint is with Curry's not the manufacturer. I pay the theatre and understood my contract is with the theatre, not the producer, production company, etc. It is for the theatre to compensate/refund etc, and have a policy in place with their partners/clients they rent out space to on how to deal with this. It is not acceptable to shift the blame on the night to the production company, who clearly are not represented.

nasus88

I can understand your annoyance, but you've just completely bad mouthed the show and potentially put people off going for some reasons that are ridiculous.

If it was last Saturday like you said, then Sheridan was on, hence it wasn't publicised. As others have said, booking sites do state when the leads have holiday, and it is always displayed very clearly when you get to the theatre - posters everywhere and the main cast board as you first go in. Even so, where's the problem seeing understudies? Amy Lennox is amazing, if Sheridan was sick, which has happened would you still complain then that it wasn't publicised? I can guess which paper you read it in, and the exact article actually, Sheridan had returned the day before.

The tickets being right at the back, you said your wife only booked a week before, did it not occur that booking a Saturday show during half term would be busy?
Moving seats, yes, the theatre staff should have prewarned you that you'd miss the first 2 songs, but the majority of theatres will just sneak you in and stick you in wherever they can until the interval, so 2 songs is hardly worth the fuss. Surely by this point you knew the show was due to start, they're live performers before you, it would look rude to them to see people still wandering in whilst the show had started, and not to mention the other audience members you'd have been disturbing.

I sincerely hope people don't take your moan seriously and don't go and see this, do your research guys, the Savoy isn't like this.

emsyemsy

(apologies for bad spelling in advance)
Im sorry you had a bad experience at this theatre but I do think you are going above and beyond to rectify this. It states clearly on the website where the best seats are for leg room - Limited Mobility
Upper Circle has the least number of steps but the Stalls has the most leg room, especially H1 and H28.

As you have back problems I would have assumed you would have checked this out beforehand and the problem would have been solved. As for ticket reimbursement - the tickets are brought from the company not the theatre and so there is no way they can be reimbursed on site as it is in many theatres and again this is something you can learn from the site.
I feel if you had of stayed put in the seats you had paid for and dealt with the fact that you didn't do the leg work/research you would have had a completly exhilerating theatre experience as Legally Blonde was one of the best theatre experiences I have ever had (and this includes the exemplary customer service from all Savoy Theatre staff) and I would do it again in a heartbeat. You missed out on a great show there - understudy or no understudy!

Horse1010

Although I sympathise with the spoilt night out, nobody wants that, I have to disagree with some of your points.
I to regularly use Theatremonkey to gauge seat position, comfort and viewing angle. I then make a purchase of specific seats based on that information, or I wait until I can get what I want. Its how MSE tells us to make all our purchases, based on research and reasoned judgement.
Yes the service after the fact in the theater was poor, but how long did it take after you arrived, before you decided the seats were uncomfortable. I always make it a point to arrive well before hand and get seated and sorted well before the start, this also prevents me from disturbing others. Would you have been happy if someone had been reseated and ushered in front of you while you were watching the performance. I doubt it, there's nothing worse.
My main point however is, surely when some pre-visit research could have easily avoided this situation, this is a 50/50 blame situation. If you want to make a complaint about the service I totally support you, but to expect a refund or indeed as some have suggested compensation smacks of "someone else to blame culture".
I am not saying don't ever complain, I am saying complain where and when it is appropriate.

MSE_Martin

Thanks for the previous three blogs - I'm very interested that all are by first time posters - rather strange for a blog discussion.

Just in case (not an accusation but a clarification) I should remind that both this sites rules and now the law notes that representatives of companies or institutions related to a discussion should declare it.

However to answer your points - we did not know which seats we were in. The service was poor - that doesn't mean the show is. I don't want compensation I just want to see the full show - at the time I requested an exchange of tickets for a different night when we wouldn't have missed it.

Sadly no one there had the authority to sort this out which I find shocking; instead we needed to take a gamble on leaving. Had it been sorted out there and then I doubt it would've been a problem.

I'm a great supporter of live theatre, both the site had sections on how to get tickets and we are fans. Yet when you pay for costly tickets and it doesn't live up to expectations the argument doesn't hold up. As I write in my book - consumers have both rights and expections. Here if the first wasn't impinged the second was.

While I don't want to put anyone off Legally Blonde - Im sure its a great show (though for obvious reasons I' haven't seen it) I do want people to stand up to ensure they get decent service and what they've paid for - with such costly tickets.

Horse1010

So you are aware I am not and have never been connected with the theatre or production. I can however see how you wondered. I just received you newsletter today was reading various links, saw this subject and it snowballed from there.
Hopefully you can understand the points made, and get the issue resolved while taking them on-board.

basilsauce

As an ex-West End Theatre Manager myself I can sympathise with what happened to you - we honestly don't want people to have a bad experience when they come to the theatre (it causes too much aggro for us if nothing else!), but we do, in general, have very little power, particularly when it comes to dealing with refunds/exchanges etc. As other people have said, the tickets and money belong to the producer, not the theatre, so we cannot give you your money back, no matter how much we might agree with you. If its a quiet show with good ticket availability I would sometimes invite people back but obviously you can't do this if its a sold-out show, and I could have got into trouble with the producers for doing that.
I am surprised that you were kept outside for the first 2 songs - most shows do have latecomers policies to try and minimise disturbance, but in all the theatres I worked in we would at least get latecomers standing at the back so they didn't miss anything, until a suitable break when we can get people into their seats, or sort out the problems - even if the Savoy's policy is not to admit latecomers, I would have expected the manager to overrule this in this instance, to try and placate you while something else was sorted out. As for the issue of your seats, I cannot comment on that without knowing exactly what your wife said or asked for when she booked the tickets, but in general I would always recommend that people book directly through the theatre (the box office staff are more likely to know about the good/bad seats than an agent who has never been anywhere near the theatre) and if you have any sort of medical issues explain it fully, and of course think about the price - if you book a show that has ticket prices ranging from £10 to £60, and you buy a £10 seat, then of course it is going to be at the back/in the balcony/restricted view etc.
Overall, I would say yes, I agree that the theatre managers should have more power in this area, or the producer should have a rep available in the theatre to deal with such issues, but those are things that someone else (Martin?!) needs to take up with the producers - as managers we are very small, insignificant cogs in a very big machine, and in many areas our powers are very limited.
Martin, I am very sorry that you had such a bad experience, please don't let it put you off going to the theatre again!

basilsauce

And I forgot to say...

announcements about leads being off are again upto the discretion of the producers - some will exchange tickets, some won't - it really is a case of "you have bought tickets to see Legally Blonde, not Sheridan Smith in Concert" - I bought tickets for Carousel (at the Savoy!) last year, largely as Lesley Garrett was in it, and on the night I went she was off, along with about 3/4 of the other leads - I accepted it as very bad luck on my part! And it was still a great show!

I also had experiences as a Theatre Manager when the producers actually failed to tell me that someone was off, and it was only when the show started that one of the staff would come and tell me that an understudy was on, so there is always the possibility that the theatre don't know about absences (even when its a holiday and therefore planned in advance!) so have very little time to put up notices or inform anyone!

ColinPaul

Hi Martin
Sorry to hear of your bad experience. Perhaps with the shoddy way these places are managed someone should get Health & Safety and The Fire Inspectors to do a check, as if there management is so bad what is the safety in the premises like?