House of Blues San Diego — Restaurant in San Diego

I am a quadriplegic who often cannot get out of the home to events and was interested in this show. I called the day before as I had just found out about it and expressed my needs and also explained another wheelchair could person would be in my party. I was told by a woman that the ADA list was closed but that Security would take care of my needs and I’d be put in an “overflow” section. I explained that I was concerned navigating through a GA stampede once the doors open and asked if I could be let him a few minutes early to be settled in where we would be seated and she explained that Security would take care of it but if we dined at the restaurant that we’d get express entry. So I had info, a plan, and she encouraged me to book and I did.

Fast forward to the next day, the day of the show. I’m nervous as the restaurant shows sold out, so my plan isn’t going to play out as I thought and it takes a Herculean event for me to get in van and travel there, so I didn’t want to arrive to be turned around or be humiliated in person if it didn’t work out. So I decide to call and ask more about the “overflow” area and what kind of path I’d need to navigate and could I arrive 2-4 minutes earlier then GA would be seated, etc. I was met with pure disgust and dismissal by an employee in the Box Office named Scott. He refused to answer any of my questions, he kept repeating to me like I was a small child, “we cannot promise you anything”, just over and over when I just asked where the overflow section was and if I’d need to travel through any doorways as my wheelchair is oversized. He kept saying just ask security and they’ll do what they can to accommodate you but we cannot promise anything. Be was cold, rude, loudly speaking at me, admonishing me, and had zero empathy for my special needs. He treated me like I was trash and said he was busy and he already answered my question and he cannot promise anything. At this point I didn’t feel safe or comfortable to attend but was still trying to think of a solution.

I then call back an hour later and get Scott again, much to his very audible dismay. He started right away with the “we can’t promise anything” before I could even speak. I was simply calling to explain that I thought maybe instead of going for getting seated early, maybe we arrive once GA find their positions and then we get seated in overflow. I simply wanted to know if that would be a good solution and/ir would we have to part crowds to get through to that area. It was as if he couldn’t even hear my words and just kept repeating over and over “we can’t promise anything”.

At this point, I’m crying in frustration as I can’t seem to get any answers to assure my comfort and to procure confidence that I could actually attend. So I ask to speak to someone else, to which he openly laughs and says sure and I can hear him laughing in the background to another box office employee as he hands the phone over.

This next person, who I forget the hand over, started in explaining “we can’t promise anything” and when I tried to stop him to tell him that Scott explained all of those, but I had a couple of questions. He said rudely, “can I finish?” and I said yes, but he kept on repeating things I already knew, so I tried to stop him twice more and both times, louder and with insult, “will you let me finish!”. So like I was a student who needed to be sternly advised of rules or whatever, he went on. I then explained the late entry question and where the overflow is located and he just repeated that “we can’t promise anything” and I said I understood that and it didn’t pertain to my question and he said you’ll have to ask security and I said may I be transferred to one or could I call later or was there a number to them and again, “lady, what did you not understand when I said we cannot promise anything!”. I was in pure shock by this point, upset crying silently to not give him the pleasure of knowing he’s affecting me, and sad as I feel the opportunity slip out...

Worst experience at a venue I’ve ever gotten! Everyone needs to know this, please read it! I Bought ticket with friends who were excited for the show and passed the entrance by accident and the guy who recieves the tickets said that they were clearly intoxicated. He demanded my friends to let him smell their breath but they had drank a beer before the show started. Since they drank a beer and their breath smelled like it, they were cancelled for the night and had no way to get in for the rest of the night. Even if they “waited it out”. 2 $50 tickets down the drain because of an accusation that didn’t even make sense. They were in front of me and the rest of the group of friends because they were the actual fans and were the most excited, the rest of us just liked the music but weren’t heart and soul fans like them and were just there for a good time. They only passed the entrance because they had never been to that venue before and they were distracted talking about how much fun it was going to be. Later, the rest of us went in without them as they asked us to. The guard tried to not let us in for being WITH THEM EARLIER! We said they couldn’t pull that on us because we did absolutely nothing wrong and they weren’t even with us anymore and some fake cop they had at the door started trying to act hard on us for absolutely no reason. Just because we were defending our right to go in. Finally, we went in and at the end of the show, we were by the stairs talking about buying a poster for our friends who didn’t go in and one of the guards told us to leave while there were still a lot of people in the venue and people buying things so a friend said we’re just going to buy a poster hold on. We started walking towards the poster line and we got (I kid you not) about 10 security guys surrounding him telling him he had to go and that fake cop (didn’t even have a single badge or belt or radio, nothing) that fake cop was following him telling him he had spoke to him already and he started telling me to make sure he made the right decisions and I was honestly so confused because there were no wrong decisions being made, just wanted to buy a poster like the rest of the people buying them. Later he was being told that he back talked a “cop” and all of these things that he clearly did not because he stayed quiet as they all surrounded him all crazy talking randomness and about showing respect to the ticket guy because he was GENEROUS ENOUGH to ALLOW US to go in. ABOUT 10 SECURITY GUARDS for a small 5’6 person (Note: the venue was not even half empty yet) so in summary: the house of blues did not let 2 of my friends in Because of made up intoxication and we ended up getting kicked out like we did something wrong and weren’t even able to buy a poster. A fun night we had planned for about a month turned into such a sad night, I had never experienced being treated that way and the fact that we knew our friends were outside made it even worse. Getting surrounded like you’re a criminal over trying to buy a poster for your friends is so sad. Note that none of us were threatening looking, we are all 21 and small people from 5’2-5’7 we actually look 16 so there was no reason to bring that much force over trying to buy a poster like the rest...

Last night a big group of us went to go see Pertinence 2/5/24. The experience my party and I had yesterday with the House of Blues staff was the worst customer service experience I have ever ran into in my entire life. I was attending a birthday party and not only did the birthday girl cry because of how everyone was being treated but 2 of our guests were wrongly denied entry which led to multiple other people of the group to head home with them. They accused two of our party members, who were minors, of drinking, solely because we all got off of a party bus. They accused them of having alcohol in their hands when one of the accused had absolutely nothing, while the other was holding a Celsius energy drink. The first “greeting” our group received from the venue was finger pointing and false allegations. When we tried to see if there was anything we could do about the misunderstanding the only solution the team offered was that every single one of us could leave and join the two who were denied entry, which is extremely rude and unprofessional. We even tried talking to a higher up to work things out and he met us with the same rude and dismissive tone. Not even a refund offered or anything, mind you their accusations were 100% wrong. The man accusing us was tall with brown hair and glasses, he worked the front of house security, that man also harassed our group the rest of the night, mind you most of us were ladies. He followed three of them to the bathroom just to accuse more minors of drinking (again when they were not, we had literal teens attending the show with us, we would not and did not give them any alcohol, especially at the show what the heck!) he followed by ripping a 21+ wristband off of one of my friends causing a minor bruise. She’s was originally trying to hand the wristband over herself but he took it upon his own hands of taking it off her. Harassment is not something to play around with and I would never drop that word if it wasn’t warranted. The same security guard did not allow my boyfriend and I to leave the venue because I had a water cup in hand. I understand rules, however, this security was extremely rude the entire night, and there were multiple occasions with this same man where the ladies of our group felt super disrespected and downright uncomfortable. Genuinely he was so rude. Mind you water was free and they had it out on a table for anyone to grab, I don’t understand why it was such a huge deal that I couldn’t leave with the cup (I had to throw it away). With our 20 person group, this was most of our first experiences at the House of Blues in San Diego and for most of us it will be our last. I personally talked to the manager as well and told him I understand he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do, but to genuinely check his team because that security guard with the glasses had it all wrong, even took it upon himself to make sure we didn’t enjoy the rest of out...