We’d Like The Entitlement Tickets, Please
I work at a local science centre. It’s a not-for-profit organisation, and a lot of tourists come in. We have a brand new exhibit space that costs extra to enter. It’s pretty cool in there, and it’s very popular with the tourists who come from all over the state to see it.
We get pretty slammed when it’s busy. We present shows in the exhibit space and run three sessions a day. We can only seat about forty to fifty people in there as a maximum, and the tickets can sell out pretty quickly. Some people get really cranky about the unavailability of tickets when they just expect to be able to walk in through the door five minutes before the session starts and get tickets even though people have been booking online and calling us up for days beforehand.
An older lady walks in with her family. The second session of the day is about to start, but it’s completely booked out.
Me: “Hi! How are you today?”
Customer: “Hello, my family and I would like tickets to the 1:00 pm exhibit session.”
Me: “Oh, I see. I’m afraid we have sold out all of our tickets for that session; however, I do have many tickets available for the 3:00 pm session!”
The customer stares at me blankly.
Customer: “Oh, really? That’s so disappointing. We’ve literally come all this way just to see the exhibit show. Can you just fit us in there?”
Me: “I’m afraid we only have enough room in there for a certain number of people, and we have sold all of our available tickets for that session. If you want to catch the 3:00 pm session, we still have lots of stuff to do around our centre while you wait.”
The customer looks annoyed and disappointed.
Customer: “So, there’s nothing you can do? You can’t fit us in? We came here just for this. I don’t understand why we can’t just join that session.”
She’s looking at me expectantly, clearly waiting for me to bend the rules for her.
Me: “I’m very sorry, but we do have a limit on the number of tickets that we sell because it is a small, dark space and we want all of our customers to be safe in there.”
Customer: “Don’t worry about it. We don’t want to wait that long. These tickets should have been available to us.”
They walked out the door, and I was left wondering where the f*** people get their entitlement from. They seriously act like they’re the only family coming to visit us, and they should be able to get whatever they want.