Am I justfied in being peed off or should I just be understanding?

[BankerMommy2010]

All of last week we promised our 3 year old that if he was good we would take him to see santa at our local house offraser, so yesterday we wrapped up warm and headed out to town...the grotto was advertised as being open until5pm but when we arrived at 3pm we were told it had already closed as there was a 2 hour queue (now granted, I wwouldn't have wanted to wait for that long but when you promise a 3 year old they are going to see santa, you can't go back on your word) we got a "sorry" but that didn't mean anything to our son.... is this worthy of a complaint or am I just bitter as I had to spend the rest of the afternoon explaining to my son why santa wouldn't see him...surely they should advertise that the grotto clpses earlier to allow for queues???

oh lord....

its a cynical ploy to get customers in its not hard to project time each child with have with FC running two hours late means somewhere something has been badly mis managed.. perhaps the person who jollies the kids along?

try NT places and things like that.

Couldn't you have told DC that Santa was on his was to 'x' and you'd go and meet him there then take DS to a different grotto?

Sometimes you gotta think on your feet!

We told him he had to feed the reindeers. Like I said pointless rant... ive been put in my place, old news now. Still doesn't stop me feeling mad...no matter what anyone says I still see it as the grotto closed at 3... What's the point of advertising it being open til 5...so people can sit and watch the queue??? Supermarkets advertise they are open until 4... they won't stop you going in at 3 will they?

This happened at the library last year. They advertised Father Christmas would be coming before the lights switch on but didn't mention anything about booking.

On that day it seemed every parent in the town brought their child and the library staff told them to book at the desk. The booked slots went quickly, everyone one else was turned away. It was chaos and there was a lot of angry people.

One parent after being turned away loudly told her child Father Christmas was only seeing the naughty children that day so he could tell them to be good. She was standing next to the queue of the ones who were going in at the time. I thought that was a bit shit of her.

This year Father Christmas comes to the library every Saturday in December and the fact you need to book is clearly advertised. So they learnt from last year and improved it, hopefully the place you did will do the same.

I'm sorry your son was disappointed, that is a shame.

Its all part of the madness of Christmas...never mind, I know to avoid next year x

For heavens sake, the grotto WAS open until 5 p.m.! The staff are not psychic and couldn't anticipate its popularity on that one afternoon. You said yourself that in previous years you had just walked in so if you didn't anticipate the queue, why did you expect the staff to do so? If they had let you join the queue, you would have been even more upset if you had failed to get in or you would have been complainingly vociferously for the two hours while queueing that the grotto should be better managed!

Unexpected....the grotto was open until 5... I know that! The queue wasnt. Have u not bothered to read the rest of the thread. Sunday wasn't a one off, apparently its been heaving the past 2 weekends...so I think maybe they should do something about their advertising

Anyway...like I said it doesn't really matter does it... I asked ifI was being unreasonable and I got my answer.

The grotto was advertised as being open til 5. It was open until 5. You really have no cause for moaning here.