A CARE home manager has hit out after her residents weren't able to be refunded for their theatre tickets due to Covid.

Sue Lowe, manager at Contemplation Care Ltd tried to cancel tickets to see Grease at the Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre on behalf of five of her residents.

The care home have been advised by PHE to close for 14 days due to a Covid outbreak so the three residents and two members of staff were unable to attend.

Sue filled out the online form explaining this and was informed that tickets are non-refundable unless the event cancels or reschedules and that it was advisable to purchase ticket protection in future.

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She was told that they could either resell the tickets or pass them on to someone else.

Sue said: "These individuals are on a tight budget and love going to the theatre and have several shows booked over the coming months at the Pavilion. Being told that they require to pay extra for insurance is unacceptable.

"We haven't had problems from Southampton, the Mayflower have been absolutely amazing during the pandemic and so was the Regent Centre because we had something booked with them this week and they just cancelled and refunded us. We gave them lots of notice so I don't quite understand what the issue is with BH Live.

"I contacted BH Live by phone to see if there was any movement on the situation and the receptionist spoke to a supervisor after I explained our situation and then told me that was the policy.

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"I am now trying to find other wheelchair users who can make use of these tickets."

A spokesperson from BH Live, the organisation which runs BCP Council's entertainment venues in Bournemouth, said: "BH Live sell tickets of behalf of promoters. As per our terms and conditions, tickets are non-refundable unless a show is cancelled or rescheduled. These terms are accepted via the booking process at the time of purchasing tickets.

"We do understand that customer circumstances may change without warning, so at the time of booking we offer Ticket Protection, provided by Secure My Booking, which can be purchased for an extra fee and covers customers for situations such as ill-health and travel disruption. A number of customers have already benefited from this service, particularly in relation to COVID-19.

"The past two years have been extremely difficult for everyone, especially the entertainment industry, and we are very happy that we are now in a position to welcome back full capacity audiences to our venues.

"We are in conversation with the promoter for Grease regarding options for the customer and will communicate with them in due course."