The circus was in town during the last month and on a whim I bought tickets for JJ and myself. A bit of an expensive whim mind you, and I didn’t even get the most expensive tickets.
It was JJ’s first ever circus and about my third Cirque du Soleil.
It was a 42 degree day when we went but luckily the tent was air conditioned. I’d had a quick glance at the website that informed me the two acts went for an hour each with a half hour intermission.
However, when the first half finished we were only about 35-40 minutes into the show. Bit weird I thought.
At the end of it I felt a bit underwhelmed and JJ wondered why we hadn’t seen any trapeze acts.
I didn’t think too much more about it until the next evening when a friend rang me and asked what I’d thought of the show as she’d been at the same one.
I told her I felt a bit underwhelmed with it all and she told me that they’d cut quite a few acts. She’d spoken to others who’d been and she’d had a look at the website and realised that we’d missed out on some of the really good acts.
She’d rung up the head office in Montreal and was trying to sort out some sort of compensation for not seeing the show. She thought as we lived closer that we could go in if we wanted to see what we could sort out.
There had been no communication whatsoever to us that the show was being cut short. That annoyed the both of us. They’d cancelled the matinee show the day after hours when it was around 45 degrees. I think they perhaps should have cancelled ours. I can understand they’ve got to consider the welfare of the performers but….
So, the next day JJ and I went back to the circus and explained that we weren’t happy with missing out on a chunky proportion of the show and was there anything they could do for us?
I’m not comfortable complaining about bad customer service or about something not meeting my expectations but my main motivation for this was the amount of money we paid and not getting our money’s worth. Also, I felt cheated and I don’t like that feeling.
We ended up getting tickets for that afternoon’s matinee. At the beginning of the show we were informed that the show may be modified. If it was I didn’t notice as we saw the trapeze act – spectacular. And the trampolining – really bloody excellent.
So getting tickets for another show at such late notice worked for us because there were seats available in the same price range as we’d previously had. For those with more expensive seats probably not so much.
And after seeing the show again, JJ and I both felt totally satisfied.
Luckily my friend has got tickets to see any Cirque du Soleil show under the big tent anywhere in the world to make up for their lacklustre experience.
So we were much happier customers afterwards. We even spent $15 on two drinks, $11 on two icecreams and JJ bought the CD – well he chipped in a few bucks and me the rest.
