More irritation

Yesterday evening I was moved to buy tickets to a show for which some agency had sent me a flier. A buying which was not a good buying experience and I was still a bit cross about it when I woke up this morning. I think it will reduce my number of buys in the future.

In the first place, when one goes to the website of the theatre concerned to buy the ticket, thinking to put one's money into the hands of the theatre concerned, one is redirected to the agency which sent me the flier. Clearly what one likes to think of as an independent theatre is actually part of one of the small number of chains which have gobbled up all the London theatres. I associate to the Maigret story - Un échec de Maigret - involving a chain which had gobbled up all the Parisian butchers. Butchers which still looked cuddly & independent when we last visited a few years ago, but which were not at all. So not a good start.

I then pay what I think is a reasonably steep price for good seats at a matinée.

I then pay a supplement for booking.

I then pay a supplement to have the tickets held at the box office.

I then pay a supplement for cancellation insurance.

All of which took the bill to rather a large number, rather larger than I was expecting.

I then get an email which explains in rather stroppy language exactly when I am allowed to collect the tickets. And attached to the email is a pdf explaining exactly when I am allowed to get a cancellation refund - details which I had not been able to access at the time of purchase. It also was rather stroppy, reflecting, I suppose, the tendency of the great British public to abuse such things. I was reminded both of the similarly stroppy language used in hospital appointment letters and of the recent scandal about the British abroad making huge numbers of fraudulent insurance claims about upset stomachs. So, in this case, if I were to have an upset stomach and not feel up to theatre, I would have to get a doctor's letter and would probably not bother. Ditto if a family member dies and again, would probably not bother. But they would pay for a rail strike, reported in the news. So insurance just about adequate, but scarcely gracious or generous in either tone or content. Unlike the last lot which I bought, which was much better. Must have been a different chain.

One can see how we got there, but I don't have to like it.

PS: a good friend has been complaining about this sort of thing for years, and I have been brushing his complaints aside. Today I find myself joining in!