New Wimbledon Theatre — Attraction in London

ATG TICKETS - AVOID! We have been happily attending the pantomime at the New Wimbledon Theatre for several years, and have always enjoyed it with no complaints. However we are due to attend this years show tomorrow afternoon. Earlier today our son was taken ill with a vomiting bug so we are no longer able to go. We didn't think this would be an issue - these things happen, surely we can get an exchange for another date!? Surely!! We had even paid extra for refund protection just incase. The first issue we had is trying to get hold of someone who can help. There is no number for the theatre or box office and you are constantly steered towards an online chat bot and help centre that are both absolutely useless. I finally managed to ascertain that there is some kind of exchange function available on your online ticketing account - however we checked out as a guest (as countless people do, I don't wish to have a ticketing account with every company in the country!) so our tickets were not assigned to any particular account so we couldn't do this. After much googling (they clearly make it as difficult to find as possible as they don't want to speak to anyone) I managed to find a working phone number and after being on hold for about an hour I finally got to speak to a human being. She was perfectly pleasant, but the exchange policy is ridiculous - it must be 48 hours in advance of your booked show date to exchange. Our child is ill as of this morning, we could not have anticipated this. Are we supposed to just say goodbye to £160 worth of tickets? We don't have the money to rebook for another day and claim the refund back later!! Which leads me to my final gripe - the refund protection (we paid £10 extra for this) is provided by a third party insurance company which is again utterly useless with deliberately difficult and restrictive terms and conditions. In order to get a refund for illness, you have to submit a claim with a doctors note as evidence. I've got an 8 year old with a sickness bug. He needs 48 hours in bed, a bit of calpol and some TLC, he does not require a trip to the doctors to get a sicknote! I could send them a picture of my bathroom floor as evidence! This could take weeks to get an appointment anyway, plus the processing time of the claim, even if we did get a refund it would be too late for us to see the show anyway - we can't afford to pay twice! We don't even want a refund, we want to see the show! There's hundreds if not thousands of tickets available for the show, it's hardly a sell out. There are dozens of seats still available on our booked day. A years long Christmas family tradition is threatening to be ruined by ATG's stubborn and inflexible policies. Bring back the days of independent theatres with humans running them that are capable of using discretion, not bloated faceless corporations with customer services departments run by AI and robots. If this is not resolved satisfactorily, ATG will never see a penny from us again and i'll plaster this review on every forum I can - we'll either pay the premium and go to the Palladium next year, or find a small local production instead. ATG you need...

I recently visited New Wimbledon Theatre for the first time to watch War Horse. My rating is based purely on my experience and enjoyment of the theatre and not the play - which was phenomenal.

Tickets are reasonably priced, and the theatre itself is quite charming. However I did feel the seats were quite uncomfortable and not really suitable for productions longer than an hour. The armrests are also pretty pointless as they’re minuscule, and rather than wasting my energy engaging in elbow wars with the space invader next to me, I decided to let her have them both. Lack of space will definitely be an issue for anyone who is very tall or slightly larger.

I visited the bar upstairs prior to the show beginning: service was great, and the decor was very elegant. There’s not a lot of seating, so I’m glad I got there early.

During the interval I didn’t go to the bar as I’d preordered my drink to be delivered to my seat. But I do think it’s ridiculous that they expect you to stay seated until your order is delivered. After being sat for nearly 2hrs (and having had a G&T or two beforehand) we all know where I’m going during the interval! Queues at the ladies are notoriously long, and I couldn’t risk waiting for my drink to be delivered and missing a bathroom break, or the second half. As it turned out my drink wasn’t delivered until just before the show resumed, so I’m glad I decided to visit the bathroom and not wait for my drink to arrive.

All the staff I met were friendly and helpful. Security on the doors were also polite and respectful.

I would visit the here again, but it wouldn’t be my first choice of theatre. It’s a shame as this venue has so much potential, but I think a refurbishment and rethink about seating capacity is very...

Shocking customer service. On complaining, didn't even bother with an apology!

Though a lovely performance in the end, a really disappointing start to the show (Where's Mrs Ladybird for 0-18mo, we attended with out 7 month old). Obviously the theatre experience starts before the show itself. However, we were completely let down by poor management and planning and left to stand outside in the cold with our poor young babies. This is despite clear emails stating we needed to arrive by half hour BEFORE the show. There was no such follow-up emailing warning us about having to wait outside right up to the show start time, or that the foyer would be closed.

Clearly, management do not have babies, as they have not understood or appreciated that we can't simply just turn up with our babies. They need feeding, changing, cuddles, settling, naps etc and to stipulate that we arrive half hour before only to stand outside was hugely upsetting.

You could easily have allowed us to enter into the warmer indoors and wait by the buggy park area whilst you were setting up, when we asked the ticket attendant.

We also attended the last show so there was plenty of opportunity for you to send out a message ahead of time - you claim this was sent but how was it then not received by any of us?!

Such a shame, as the show itself was lovely, but such an awful experience beforehand overall (and since with no apology even!). I guess at least it wasn't raining! Don't think we'll be...