LOVE Theatre

Rasberry_Diva

Hi all

This is not so much a rant just hoping someone can advise if any advice can be given.

My brother bought tickets from Love Theatre for himself and partner and payed £164, for her birthday, unfortunately her grandmother suddenly passed away and she was to distraught to go. So as not to waste the tickets my brother asked me if i would like them, as he had to go to the hospital with his partner now. I called the Ticketing agent on his behalf to ask if they could be rescheduled due to unforeseen circumstances or transferred to me. I was told he could not exchange them or get a refund, and if he wanted to give them to me he had to write a letter and photocopy his debit card give it to me and then at the discretion of the theatre they would probably let me in, Bearing in mind he is on his way to the hospital morgue.

I explained we are both in different places and with time ticking (show starts at 7pm in London and it was already 5pm) that was not possible, the agent said there was nothing they could do.

I can understand not giving a refund, but we were not asking for one, what i dont understand if something like this has happened and its totally out of anyones hands that the grandmother passed away why could they not re schedule the date or offer a option to pay a small fee to reschedule the date. Just think £164 is alot of money not to be able to be a little bit flexible.

Anyway moan over thanks for reading

agrinnall

Terms and conditions on theatre tickets are very strict and it's extremely common for there to be no refunds under any circumstances. But I can see no reason why the theatre would have made any checks beyond possession of the tickets had you decided to use them yourself, I have been to hundreds of theatre performances and never once had any check done on my identity.

Although re-reading between the lines, perhaps the issue was that your brother didn't actually have the tickets and they had to be collected from the box office on arrival, in which case presenting the card used to purchase them is pretty standard - the fact that they were prepared to accept an alternative was quite generous, although ultimately of no use in this case.

Rasberry_Diva

Think it was because they were bought online, the confirmation says

*IMPORTANT INFORMATION* PLEASE TAKE YOUR BOOKING REFERENCE AND YOUR PAYMENT CARD WHEN YOU COLLECT YOUR TICKETS. YOUR CONFIRMATION EMAIL MAY ALSO BE REQUIRED.

The card is in my brothers name so would have looked strange if i his sister was collecting them when it clearly says Mr.

agrinnall

Rather than contacting Love Theatre I think I might have tried to speak to the box office at the theatre itself and explain the circumstance to them to see if they would accept some alternative means of identifying yourself. However, the short time available would have made it tricky to do much, so I don't think Love Theatre have done anything unacceptable.