Last weekend my FB wall was clogged, literally! Aamir Khan's latest movie Delhi Belly had stormed everyone’s mind, making it a must watch movie for Gen Next. So we decided to watch it in theatre here in London. And this is where our story began.
As me and my friends were waiting in the cinema hall to see what this fuzz is about, a technician informed us about possible delay of 10 mins due to a technical problems. Ten minutes stretched to 20, and we were told the problem should be detected in next 5 mins. This 30 mins delay lead to the obvious fear of not been able to watch Delhi Belly today. The general manager came just in time with the bad news and a compensation of one free ticket for any movie at any of the theatre chain’s branches in England. My friend’s first reaction was – Galti kar raha hai, Indians ko free ticket de raha hai. Yes, mistake it was. One woman mentioned about spending on food too, and the one free ticket offer was extended to 2 free tickets to each person present in that hall.
Happy to have got two free tickets each, we walked out of the hall thinking how can we catch Delhi Belly today itself. We thought of watching it at another branch of the same theatre chain at Feltham. That meant we had to travelling for at least 1 hr from Wandsworth in South London to Feltham in West London. Meanwhile enquiry with the theatre staff gave some hopes of movie been screened if the problem is solved. Now another option was to wait and hope the movie will be screened. My friend approached the general manager again who was curious to know why we wanted to watch the movie so badly when others were ‘ready to swindle me’. This persuasion helped as the problem was solved, manager ready to screen the movie. But Alas! No screen was available. There fades our hope again.
As we were about to pack off here comes the manager, again with an offer to reserve tickets for us at Feltham provided we reach there on time. With barely 1 hr to go for the show, no idea how we were supposed to reach Feltham from Wandsworth, we three set off to watch Delhi Belly again. Mind you London is not like Mumbai where you travel on three main railway lines and know station names and their order by heart. Frantic calls to friends to locate route map on TFL (Transport For London website –our all-time saviour), hoping into a bus headed on wrong direction, catching the national rail just in time, we managed to reach the Feltham branch merely 15 minutes before the show. Out trail from Wandsworth to Feltham was perhaps crooning the famous song Bhag D K Bose Bhag!
Once at Feltham we met a rude customer service executive on the ticket counter, his face saying ‘you free loaders don’t bother, my show is full’. Not willing to understand, we asked him to check with his manager. A smiling manager apologising to us with envelope of reserved tickets us made our day. It was an apt example of how good customer service can work miracles. He ensured we got the preference when the screen opened and choose the best seats. Finally we were entering the cinema hall ushered by the manager as 150 people standing in the line were wondering what the fuzz is all about!!
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