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Original poster

Somone took booked seats 02

81 replies

Theshowmustgoon22 · 23/12/2022 15:18

My daughter has gone to the 02 to see Disney on ice with her son and Friend . She booked their seats. Was sitting there. And some big bloke came along, couple of people with him. . Told dd to get out of the seats dd said she has paid for the seats. Then they got aggressive so dd was scared and got out of the seats . This left dd her son and friend with no where to sit . People started having a go at her because she was not in the way . Staff got involved. Told the people ti moved or they be kicked out . But staff did mot follow it through. Dd got told yo sit somewhere else. They have since had to move 3 times.

Dd is so upset . She's been a victim on domestic violence so she gets very upset and scared. Her son has special needs. Dd ended up crying and her son got upset as well. He was effected by the DV as well so he's effected when men shout or show anger.

I was wondering if anyone has experienced anything simlar. If so what did you do ?

OP posts:
AtomicBlondeRose · 23/12/2022 17:17

@Notanotherone6 it’s hard to “keep on” at security staff who aren’t doing what you expect them to do if you’re in sole charge of a child and both at that point very shaken and upset. I know I would probably cry as I cry very easily and then would feel very embarrassed and small and not at all have the emotional strength to argue against a large and aggressive group of people, especially men. That’s the whole reason there’s supposed to be security there!

Notanotherone6 · 23/12/2022 17:23

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DomPom47 · 23/12/2022 17:27

This is not okay. The people working there should have name tags, can your daughter please get their names and send a long email to complain and demand - not ask, not request, but demand a refund. This is not okay.
The arsehole of a man should not have intimidated your daughter and the people working there should have done their job and got rid of him. So sorry her experience has been ruined but with a refund she can go and see another show and hopefully have a much better experience. So sad that there are arseholes who ruin things for others.

CuteAsDuck · 23/12/2022 17:34

This is horrendous. Absolute failure on part of the venue staff.

I'd be pursuing a full refund plus some sort of additional gesture from the venue/event management company.

So sorry for your daughter and her little boy that this has happened to them.

HomeAGnome · 23/12/2022 17:35

Christ , this will make me think twice about booking there
Your poor daughter
Perhaps they should think about putting an announcement out that people not moving to their correct seat could cause a delay in the performance starting

forlornlorna1 · 23/12/2022 17:35

@Notanotherone6 vile thing to say. Are u suggesting she should of stayed and possibly put herself and her child in danger. Not everyone's so confident. Did you even read the kart about her being the victim of domestic abuse.

Absolute dick thing to say

Favouritefruits · 23/12/2022 17:41

That’s awful, why didn’t the venue call security or the police to kick them out? It’s so scary but your daughter did right telling staff rather than sticking to her guns. If your daughter and grandson are a bit uneasy could you ring the venue and explain what’s happened they might treat the little lad to a teddy or something to ease his anxiety.

Return2thebasic · 23/12/2022 17:43

I've have put up a big show about it when they tried to threaten. Make it really loud and crying to make sure staff have to do something. But...your daughter had her son and friends together. So a big drama may not be a good idea...

But certainly hold the venue accountable. They really should have dealt with this with their security guards. Shouldn't trouble your daughter at all.

middleager · 23/12/2022 17:53

I'm furious on their behalf.
As others have said, kick up a fuss on social media, email the venue and do npt let it go.

This puts me off going. The venue clearly knows this happens, yet treated your daughter like the criminal. Furthermore, tickets aren't cheap and I would expect a level of service, not intimidation.

Original poster
Theshowmustgoon22 · 23/12/2022 18:15

Notanotherone6 · 23/12/2022 17:13

I'm not sure why she didn't just keep on at the staff to allocate the correct seats to everyone.

And she should have stayed where she was.

Because she was scared. She can't actually (force) staff to do their job.

OP posts:
Original poster
Theshowmustgoon22 · 23/12/2022 18:29

Thank you for all your kind replys. Sadly I don't think dd will get a refund as she did not have to actually leave. They gave her other seats though that meant 3 times to start of with. I doubt very much they will care that my grandson was upset and asking to go home. Do never got to actually enjoy it.

OP posts:
SinnerBoy · 23/12/2022 18:31

Theshowmustgoon22 · Today 18:29

Thank you for all your kind replys. Sadly I don't think dd will get a refund as she did not have to actually leave.

But she was put in fear and the staff refused to deal with it. She then saw the show in a state of nervous tension, because of the fear an knowledge that the potentially violent bullies were nearby.

SinnerBoy · 23/12/2022 18:32

Sorry, posted too soon....

And those circumstances prevented her from enjoying the performance as she should have been able to.

Original poster
Theshowmustgoon22 · 23/12/2022 18:35

SinnerBoy · 23/12/2022 18:32

Sorry, posted too soon....

And those circumstances prevented her from enjoying the performance as she should have been able to.

Maybe your right. I don't know how she word it though. She also has no proof at all.

OP posts:
HomeAGnome · 23/12/2022 18:38

I think that @SinnerBoy is right, you need to push this if you are up to it

SinnerBoy · 23/12/2022 18:44

You could help her by some of the advice and comments people have made here. It's really the limits that she should have to first put up with this and then get not so much as an apology.

If she puts it on social media, they'll hear about it and try to head it off at the pass, before the Daily Mail does an outraged piece about it!

BadSkiingMum · 23/12/2022 18:50

I was there this afternoon too. It was a great show and I am sorry that this happened to your DD. To alleviate any concerns amongst MNers, I would say that 99.9% of the audience were families there having fun and being generally polite/considerate. I didn't see any antisocial behaviour - apart from a few pre-schoolers breaking away from their parents and dancing at the front! Behaviour in the corridors and at the outlets seemed generally very good.

However, it is a vast arena and the ticket 'checking' was much more of a quick scan of the tickets on the door rather than showing people to their exact seat, as you sometimes get in the theatre. The ratio of staff to audience is fairly low, so I can see that they might have been ill-equipped to deal with a dispute if the other party had proved resistant to moving.

Return2thebasic · 23/12/2022 18:56

BadSkiingMum · 23/12/2022 18:50

I was there this afternoon too. It was a great show and I am sorry that this happened to your DD. To alleviate any concerns amongst MNers, I would say that 99.9% of the audience were families there having fun and being generally polite/considerate. I didn't see any antisocial behaviour - apart from a few pre-schoolers breaking away from their parents and dancing at the front! Behaviour in the corridors and at the outlets seemed generally very good.

However, it is a vast arena and the ticket 'checking' was much more of a quick scan of the tickets on the door rather than showing people to their exact seat, as you sometimes get in the theatre. The ratio of staff to audience is fairly low, so I can see that they might have been ill-equipped to deal with a dispute if the other party had proved resistant to moving.

Well, someone paid a price for the experience and the price wasn't low. So how well they are equipped was their decision which shouldn't shelter them from the responsibility. They run the venue at a certain acceptable standard. If they failed that, they should be accountable.

They made a huge profits. Do you think they couldn't afford to have the right level of staff to deal with disruptive behaviour? I have to disagree.

Original poster
Theshowmustgoon22 · 23/12/2022 19:01

BadSkiingMum · 23/12/2022 18:50

I was there this afternoon too. It was a great show and I am sorry that this happened to your DD. To alleviate any concerns amongst MNers, I would say that 99.9% of the audience were families there having fun and being generally polite/considerate. I didn't see any antisocial behaviour - apart from a few pre-schoolers breaking away from their parents and dancing at the front! Behaviour in the corridors and at the outlets seemed generally very good.

However, it is a vast arena and the ticket 'checking' was much more of a quick scan of the tickets on the door rather than showing people to their exact seat, as you sometimes get in the theatre. The ratio of staff to audience is fairly low, so I can see that they might have been ill-equipped to deal with a dispute if the other party had proved resistant to moving.

I agree with this to be honest. I can't see any security person dragging aggressive people out of a seat they should not be in. In a place where there are so many children. I do think they could have treated DD better than they did though

OP posts:
KaroH · 23/12/2022 19:02

Someone more elequent than me will be able to write you an email for your daughter to fill in the blanks with the identifying information and then send. Could you provide a approximately timed version of what happened and I'm sure someone will be able to help. If not I can give it a try.

BadSkiingMum · 23/12/2022 19:10

I do absolutely agree that more staff could have been in place @Return2thebasic to deal with emergencies or problems. I am not saying that it was right. But I was simply giving an account as someone who was there at exactly the same event (which you don't often get on Mumsnet!) and a truthful account of what I observed.

Anyway, I just did not want anyone to be put off from booking as it was a great show and the atmosphere felt very family-friendly.

Original poster
Theshowmustgoon22 · 23/12/2022 19:18

BadSkiingMum · 23/12/2022 19:10

I do absolutely agree that more staff could have been in place @Return2thebasic to deal with emergencies or problems. I am not saying that it was right. But I was simply giving an account as someone who was there at exactly the same event (which you don't often get on Mumsnet!) and a truthful account of what I observed.

Anyway, I just did not want anyone to be put off from booking as it was a great show and the atmosphere felt very family-friendly.

Its massive and if something happens the other side of the arena then other would not know or be effected by it.

And as the seat stealers were allowed to stay in the seats that dd paid for. To on lookers close to them it made it look like dd was in the wrong seats.

What was odd though is after the interval in the middle them people never returned. Very odd

OP posts:
FirstnameSuesecondnamePerb · 23/12/2022 19:45

Frankly 02 need to get bigger, scarier security. That's abysmal.

Original poster
Theshowmustgoon22 · 23/12/2022 22:01

Today (23/12/2022) I took my 5 year old to see Disney on ice for his birthday.. I asked a members of staff where our seats were, then I was shown our seats, but unfortunately a bunch of people took ours and refused to move. It caused a massive problem just because I reserved and paid for those seats; my son who has needs started getting upset and telling me his birthday has been ruined when it was his first time seeing a show which I prayed he could’ve enjoyed. The people who needed to move to their correct seats were spread out and wouldn’t move up for me and my child to sit down, I am also pregnant so it made me feel worse. Abuse got thrown at me by these people, attitude and other people shouting at me saying I am getting in their way when all I wanted to do was sit down in my seat. It got to the stage where my 5 year old cried and said he just wanted to leave the whole arena altogether; it ruined the whole experience for him as he was terrified from the whole thing. He didn’t feel like he could’ve enjoyed his first experience at the event because a bunch of people decided to scare him as these people were being completely nasty towards us, and I didn’t find that fair we was treated like that. The staff member who was involved during that time didn’t seem to be very helpful, he moved us somewhere else and then we was moved again. So I had to call him back for him to get the original people out of mine and my child’s reserved seats, that’s when the abuse and shouting started and I had enough. I am a victim of serious domestic abuse and I don’t find this fair, I took it really personally and I don’t feel I should’ve been treated like that all because me and my son wanted to enjoy his birthday treat. (This was at the 2pm showing & our seats were section 107, seats 215,216,217)

This is what my daughter is going to email. But we was hoping someone could help to word it a bit better.

OP posts:
Return2thebasic · 24/12/2022 00:38

Huge sympathy here. They really don't deserve this. Hope it can be addressed by the venue and your daughter gets a proper apology from them. 💐💐💐

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