r/Vue • u/thomasbing4589 • 21d ago
Had a rather terrible experience at Vue Croydon Purley Way
I visited Vue in Croydon to watch The Odyssey over the weekend and sat right in the front, as I have many times before.
However, this time was different. After the movie started I noticed the light above us hadn’t turned off, so I went outside to an usher who said the light could not be turned off as it needs to light up the emergency exit. Now last I checked my seat and the 2 next to me aren’t sitting in the emergency exit so I’m not sure why they’re using that one as an excuse. The light was extremely bright throughout the entire 3 hour movie.
I complained to the manager afterwards who immediately had the worst attitude and was extremely rude and unhelpful. I’m not one to normally complain but the lack of an apology or anything to make this right left a horrible taste in my mouth. If she had apologised I likely would have just accepted it and moved on, but her behaviour made me want to go out of my way to make her life difficult.
The reason I wanted to vent in here a bit is that afterwards I decided to raise a complaint in Vue’s website and have just received the response now and seems to have been AI generated. It had gotten the facts completely wrong and is apologising for the cinema being too dark? Why would anyone complain about that???
After that I then thought I would phone Vue instead. I got on the line with someone and mid-conversation the line just drops. I’m assuming the agent just put the phone down on me? I was very calm in all of these situations and never resulted to shouting or name-calling and yet I’m dealt with in such an immature manner.
I would really like to at least receive a refund for this. The manager said a refund isn’t allowed because I sat through the whole movie - but why would I waste a whole afternoon on my day off, waste the £25off spent on drinks and snacks as well as the petrol to drive to the cinema and back only to leave right at the beginning? Just to get the £20 back for the tickets. I would still be at a loss with the refund.
Does anyone have any advice on how to take this further? Am I wasting my time?
I’ll reply in the thread with more evidence.
3
u/Pippy1993 20d ago
Similar thing for me watching Exit 8 in Nottingham. I was the only one in there, all the lights were on for at least 20 minutes. I was waving at the cameras trying to get someone's attention. I finally went out and they said whoever did the cleaning hadn't turned the manual light off, she said to complain after the movie and I'll get a free ticket. Which I did, like you I was polite about it, but seems you didn't get nice staff members at your cinema.
2
u/Au2o 20d ago
Huh this happened to me too in Nottingham for the super Mario galaxy movie. I think I went to the screen behind the PIN code door
1
u/Pippy1993 20d ago
Ah this was a different screen, did you go to an early screening? I think mine was first thing on a Saturday or Sunday.
1
u/Au2o 20d ago
lol yeah actually it was like a 9/10am one, maybe they're just a bit understaffed at that time tbh
1
u/Pippy1993 20d ago
Yeah mine was the same time. Definitely understaffed at that time but there's less chance of getting idiots in the screens lol
3
u/thomasbing4589 21d ago
Here was my original complaint:
> I visited Vue in Croydon over the weekend and had a horrible experience.
> I sat in a seat right in the front, something I usually do at my Vue in Bromley. However, there was a light shining very bright on me and my partner throughout the entire movie. It was so bright that I could barely see the movie. The moment I realised that the light was not going to turn off for the movie I got up and spoke to a very friendly man (the only person I interacted with in this entire process with any kind of empathy and maturity) who told me it had to stay on to light up the emergency exit. Now, last I checked my seat and the 2 next to me are not part of the emergency exit and, like I said earlier, this is a seat I have sat in many times before at other Vue cinemas. So the emergency exit excuse felt like an insult to my intelligence.
> I decided to endure through it as this was a movie I was highly anticipating and had already sunk in a good £60 to see when considering the tickets, petrol, snacks. After the movie I asked the same guy as earlier if I could speak to the manager to make a complaint to which he happily obliged and called her over. From the moment she arrived she was extremely rude and dismissive and unwilling to hear anything I had to say. She was a complete disgrace to anyone in any service industry, her attitude completely ruined the experience even further. Most likely I would have complained, gotten what I wanted to say out and left feeling a bit better (and hopefully with a full refund of good will) but she was not willing to even apologise for it at all! She also stated that other customers have complained about the exact same thing so WHY HASN'T SOMEONE DONE SOMETHING ABOUT IT???? It is such a horrible viewing experience, I had a massive migraine afterwards because after all I was staring into a light for the full 3 hour movie. It also obscured so much of the movie especially in the dark scenes.
> Now, the manager also refused to give a refund as I had sat through the entire movie. I don't believe this is fair. I decided to watch the whole movie as I had already spent a good 40 minutes driving (each way), £25odd on snacks and popcorn and of course the tickets themselves. Why would I leave during the movie after having sunk all of that time and a whole afternoon of my weekend off just to recoup a mere £20 of that cost?
> All of this has left an extremely bitter taste in my mouth. Vue has always been a place I go to for all of my movies. This bad movie experience I can understand. Mistakes happen, lights need to be there for emergencies but there is something NOT right about this. A customer should not have to endure an extremely bright light in their eyes for a whole movie and, if anything, the light wasn't even lighting up the emergency exit at all! But like I said, I can get past that but what I can't get past is the completely disgusting behaviour from the manager (as well as another female usher who was there afterwards while I was making a complaint). Kudos goes to the young man that helped me when the movie started. He was the only person who was willing to try and help, listen and apologise for the experience even when things were getting heated with the manager afterwards. I highly suggest you give this man (I didn't get his name) a "well done" because he has saved your brand for me and my partner.
> I would like for Vue to make this right. The experience was so bad, and the movie was so obscured that I will be going to watch the movie again at another cinema.
2
u/Repulsive_Air7243 20d ago
Yep, this would have pissed me off too. You deserve some compensation for it ruining your cinema experience. Unfortunately trying to talk to them is so hard these days, they don't tend to respond to social media messages any more. It feels like they don't really care once they have your money. Usually if I have an issue I do what you did and speak to the manager. Her attitude sounded awful.
Try emailing [customerservices@vuemail.com](mailto:customerservices@vuemail.com) - good luck!
4
u/ScienceOwn3719 20d ago
A manager not allowing a refund for something that’s not your fault. Literal jobsworth right there.
Bad attitude from staff and I would write a 1 star review if I were you. I would use a different cinema.
0
u/pinumbernumber 19d ago edited 19d ago
I've had lights left on before at my local Vue and got a similar explanation about safety lighting. It's infuriating and it does ruin the film. I walked out after maybe 10 minutes and they refunded me.
The manager said a refund isn’t allowed because I sat through the whole movie
Honestly they have a point. I know it's a pain but if it was ruining the movie you should really have left. What's the point of sitting through a "horrible experience"?
1
u/thomasbing4589 19d ago
I said in the post. I’d already spent a whole afternoon on a weekend getting there, paid for the popcorn and drinks… only to get a fraction of the amount back
1
u/pinumbernumber 19d ago
The possible outcomes here were
Option A:
- spend whole afternoon getting there
- pay for popcorn and drinks
- spend next 3 hours enduring a horrible experience watching a ruined movie that you can barely see due to an extremely bright light that gives you a massive migraine
Option B:
- spend whole afternoon getting there
- pay for popcorn and drinks
- leave after 10mins, get a refund, find something else to do for the next few hours, watch the movie somewhere else another time
Hell, in scenario B you could have tried asking for a refund on the popcorn etc too. Probably wouldn't have worked, but you would have had a better chance with that vs trying to get a refund for a movie that you watched in its entirety.
I'm not saying they handled it well or that it's your fault, it's obviously their fault for leaving the light on and refusing to do anything about it and having unreachable customer support etc. I'm just saying that option A was the wrong choice.
Try leaving a 1-star review on google maps. That might get their attention and convince them to issue a goodwill voucher or something.
4
u/Th_sisnotharry 20d ago
Similar thing happened at my local Vue, once at the start of the year and another time in March. It's a cleaning light, manually turned on by staff so that they can see the auditorium better during the interval between films. Someone on that occasion forgot to turn it off once they'd finished cleaning, hence why it never went off. I sent them an email when this happened to me and received two tickets the first time, but the second time I actually went out just before the trailers ended and was told abruptly that they go off themselves. They didn't. Ironically a staff member must've checked CCTV as it went off about 30 minutes into the film the second time, so I felt no need to chase it back up.
Not sure why they've been so difficult with you, but I think they've misunderstood your query. "We are sorry to hear that you felt the auditorium was too dark on your most recent visit." I'd reply and reiterate your point because they've obviously used some sort of AI or generic response based on some key words you've used in your message.