Plymouth Pavilions Reviews

The Pavilions cancelled a concert due to civid 19 but kept all the booking fee even though no tickets had been sent. Very poor.

Jools Holland concert, Friday 7th December 2018.

Below is a transcript of emails between myself and both the Client Services Manager and CEO of Plymouth Pavilions (names removed).

I will leave the reader to form their own opinion as to whether to set foot there...

Re: Aggressive security staff at your venue

I am writing to express my astonishment and anger at the way I was treated by a member of your security staff on the evening of the Jools Holland concert on Friday 7th December.

After waiting patiently for some twenty minutes in the venue’s airport passenger-style queue for the bar, I left my friend in the queue and visited the toilet, as the start of the performance was imminent.

Upon my return I was confronted by a very aggressive female member of your security staff. I was informed that the queue for the bar was now closed and I indicated that I my intention was only to rejoin my friend, who was now second or third in the remaining queue.

The woman in question then physically stood in front of me, barring my access, even though I had made no attempt to move. She then said in an extremely confrontational manner that she had explained the situation already and that I “obviously hadn’t listened”.

For the sake of clarity I explained very politely once again that I had no intention of queue jumping and that I merely sought to return to my previous position alongside my friend, who was standing only a few feet away. I am a grown man and was simply minding my own business.

The woman’s aggressive behaviour continued for quite a few minutes to the point where I felt very humiliated. Other people in the queue were sniggering and I heard the words “Gestapo” and “Nazi” mentioned.

It was abundantly clear that this woman was trying to get a reaction that would lead to my being escorted out of the venue (I was aware that another member of your team was now hovering around behind me) and her frustration only increased as I would not lower myself to the level she desired.

My personal circumstance, which is not for discussion here, means that I am currently feeling vulnerable and indeed I was so upset by this incident that my friend and I ended up leaving the concert early, on what should have been an enjoyable night out.
I expect this matter to be investigated as a matter of urgency and a full response given.
Furthermore, as my friend had journeyed down from Windsor and we had then traveled from St Austell for the concert, we have both wasted a fair amount of money on fares and a hotel booking, only to have a terrible and regrettable night.

As an absolute minimum I would expect a full refund of the cost of the concert tickets.

Finally, I should mention that we saw Jools Holland this time last year at The Pavilions and had a great night. What went wrong this time?

I look forward to your prompt response.

Yours sincerely....

Dear Mark,

Thank you for your email regarding your experience at the recent Jools Holland performance at the Pavilions. Customer feedback is always welcome and is used where possible, to improve customer service.

I am sorry you had issues with one of our security staff at this particular performance. It is always our intention that our patrons have an enjoyable and trouble free experience whilst visiting our venue and it is always disappointing to receive any negative comments.

Jools Hollands annual visit to the Pavilions is a somewhat difficult show to manage, as it attracts a particular diverse audience, some of whom prefer to remain in the bars drinking, and those that wish to listen to the music of both Jools and his support acts without being disturbed by latecomers disrupting their enjoyment.

Over the past few years our policy has been to keep our bar open for the support act and close once Jools has gone on stage. We are also constrained by the fact the show has to start on time, and the audience must be seated prior to Jools coming on stage. This is relevant to all seated shows at the Pavilions, and is something insisted upon by the various promoters who hire the venue.

This is the reason we cap our bar queues to a manageable length to ensure that everyone is seated in time for the performance. I understand that this can be frustrating to some people wanting to purchase drinks, but we do have occasions when people attempt to infiltrate the queues. This is why we have to take a firm line in managing the queuing system. I do apologise again if you felt our member of staff was overzealous towards you.

We always suggest that patrons encountering difficulties should speak to the duty manager on the night, as most issues can be resolved at the time. Unfortunately, there is very little we can do after the event, and I refer you to our Terms and Conditions of Sale which state refunds can only be issues in the event of show cancellation.

Thank you once again for taking the time to contact us.

Yours faithfully,
(name removed)
Client Services Manager

Dear (Client Services Manager),

Thank you for your email.

In response to your points; it was abundantly clear that I was not attempting to do anything other than re-join my friend in the queue.

If there had been time to take the matter further at the time I certainly would have done so, however as I previously stated the performance was about to start and I was certainly not going to waste time on this.

I find it disgraceful that no attempt has been made to compensate me for my loss, regardless of your terms and conditions. These terms certainly do not state that your staff have the right to publicly humiliate patrons of the venue, thereby ruining their night out.

I would be grateful if you would now escalate my complaint to your CEO.

Dear Mark,

Thank you for your continued correspondence.

Firstly I’d like to assure you that, as is standard procedure here at the Pavilions, (name removed)’s previous response was approved by myself ahead of sending. Indeed, I’d like to echo his sentiment when stressing that it is always our intention that our patrons have an enjoyable and trouble free experience whilst visiting our venue.

Most importantly, I would like to sincerely apologise that you felt in any way humiliated, I’m sure this truly would not have been the intention of the member of staff with whom you spoke. This said, I will personally liaise with the Senior Manager responsible for this team, to ensure that refresher training takes place, stressing the importance of clear and sympathetic communication; which is of course extremely tricky when delivering a message that a customer doesn’t want to hear.

As my colleague states, we are very clear in our request that, on the rare occasion where a customer finds themselves with an issue whilst visiting us, they should liaise immediately with a Duty Manager so that a timely resolution can be found; which of course we are unable to do once the event has passed and the customer has left the building. As you chose not to do so, and instead continued to watch the performance, I will not be authorising a refund.

Whilst I appreciate this is not the response that you are looking for, I do hope that it’s no too long before we are welcoming you back to the Pavilions so that you can experience first-hand the impact of the training I mention above, and we can therefore regain your confidence in our venue.

Yours sincerely (CEO)

At this point I emailed back, simply stating that this culture of rudeness and intimidation was obviously encouraged "from the top down" and that I would never again set foot in this venue.