Blackpool comedy club slam woman who uses Ukraine war as excuse for refund

The Comedy Station Comedy Club in Blackpool said they received an email from an “entitled” woman which stated the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine made it unsafe to travel from Hull to Lancashire.

The email said: “Due to the events in Russia and Ukraine it is not safe for us to travel from Hull as we are both retired… it’s safer that we stay nearer to home until it is sorted.

“I do not want to move tickets to another date because I don’t know how long this will go on for.

“We have already lost money on train tickets and our bed and breakfast booking as they say we have just chosen not to go... this is probably just everyone in Blackpool sticking together to scam people during a war. Disgusting.”

Posting to Facebook, The Comedy Station Comedy Club in Blackpool shared email screenshots of the woman’s conversation and said: “We genuinely didn’t think we’d need to say this, but Russia moving troops into Ukraine does not entitle you to a refund, no matter how abusive you are to our Box Office staff.

“As far as we’re aware, Russia hasn’t invaded Hull yet.”

Since creating the Facebook post last week it has amassed over 900 likes and been shared more than 760 times.

Ryan Gleeson, owner of the comedy club, said the customer had been trying to get a refund just weeks before after saying she was unable to attend after her husband contracted Covid.

The company offered to move her tickets, which were initially booked for 'Saturday Night Laughs', to a later date -  but the customer continued to insist for a refund.

Ryan said the team “thought she would come back with a better excuse perhaps saying she had Covid” and didn’t expect her to bring up the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

He only posted about the “entitled” customer after she threatened to post negative reviews about the business to social media and threatened to "follow staff members home".

He said: “She was threatening to bombard the business with negative reviews on TripAdvisor and Facebook.

“We are a holiday town and survive on reviews like this, so we needed to get the first ‘strike’ to protect ourself and explain a potential future barrage of  negative reviews.”

Ryan said he wasn’t expecting the company's Facebook post to get the reaction it did.

Ryan Gleeson, owner of The Comedy Station Comedy Club in Blackpool (Photo: Andy Hollingworth)

He said: “We had absolutely no idea the post would go as far as it did.

“All weekend I’ve been receiving links from people around the country, it’s been in the national press and even picked up in Serbia.

“A lot of people thought we made it up – I wish we were that good at marketing and we never would have used the conflict in Ukraine to our benefit."

Ryan said the company would be happy to “work something out” with customers who are unable to attend shows – but say the Ukraine conflict will not be used as a valid excuse at present.

He said: “If you genuinely can’t attend please do get in touch and we will sort something out for you. We’re not trying to rob you blind. We’re a family-run business, not a faceless corporation who doesn’t care about customers.”