Panto grumble

[Staten]

It has not been a great year for my little family and we have missed out on doing so much together.
I thought I would treat us to the pantomime, our first outing as a family this year.

There are a few theatres I could have chosen but went for the small local one, there are no famous people in it so thought it would be cheaper.

It cost me £60 for 3 tickets!

I'd gone down to the theatre as I couldn't work out how to book a wheelchair space online. The tickets were advertised as being from £10 and we were all entitled to the discounted rates so I wasn't expecting it to be too expensive.
When I was told the price I thought I'd misunderstood and paid by card then was too embarrassed to say anything.

I checked online when I got home. The person who sold me the tickets had to tell me what day and time showing I could go to as they only have 2 wheelchair spaces. Those wheelchair spaces are in the expensive area. So now I'm feeling a bit conned.
Surely it is discriminatory behaviour on their part?

[malc]

it's hardly cricket is it,i'd go and see the manager and get my money back,i know where your coming from i've just had my bill off the builders who built the extension for the council,i got them to wire my garage and take down kitchen wall,electrical part of bill fine but building work isn't,they have billed me for helping me drop in 5 fencing panels £76 + vat when the joiner offered to help me ,which i thought was a nice gesture at the time,it would be like me offering to run someone to an airport then demanding £80 when we got there when they thought i was doing them a favour and then they have ignored the fact i helped with kitchen which turned out to be 6 hours labour and then a bit of plastering £288 + vat not happy and to make it worse i got the bill yesterday as the office shut for christmas,so thats going to be the first argument for 2012.

[michael parker]

So much for Christmas spirit.Like Malc said,try approaching the manager,you never know,might be lucky.

[Sassy]

Wow, for an extra £10, you could have gone to my local pantomime which has the celebrities in!!!

This is where you need to look into things. Have a look at what the theatre's policy on the disabled is, it might tell you somewhere on the website but if it doesn't it'll definitely be somewhere in one of the booklets. Some (but not all) grant extra money off or even free admission for carer's of people in a wheelchair. It might also be worth going to your local CAB and asking them if they can legally charge more more because you need a wheelchair bay... after all, it's not your fault they were built in the expensive area.

As for them charging more because the wheelchair bays are in the expensive area, I'm not even sure that this is legal but it's certainly immoral.

Once you have this information, you are armed to do battle with the theatre's manager.

[charles47]

I'd take the line that the fact that you have been given no choice as to where you sit (only two possible seats, all in the expensive end) - unlike a person not using a wheelchair who can choose to sit in the cheap seats - makes it discriminatory, and likely to deter disabled people from going.

And that is likely to be a breach of the Equality Act 2010 - discriminatory behaviour in the manner in which goods and services can be accessed by a disabled person.

[Dipsy]

I also though Carers go free. Whenever I've taken Mark to the theatre I've only had to buy his ticket. I always go for the cheap seats but if he was in a wheelchair we'd be in the expensive bit, but again its carer gets in free.

[Scally]

Agreed, if it looks like discrimination it probably is. Actually a lot of venues I use give the carer/supporter a free ticket. It is always worth asking.

[Staten]

Thank you all for the advice. Knowing that I was in the right helped me stand my ground and when we went to the panto yesterday I argued my way into receiving a £20 refund.

Malc, I hope you get those rip off merchants sorted. x

[charles47]

Thank you all for the advice. Knowing that I was in the right helped me stand my ground and when we went to the panto yesterday I argued my way into receiving a £20 refund.

Malc, I hope you get those rip off merchants sorted. x

Now that's what I call a result!

[Myrtle]

Hey!!! Well done!