The View from The Shard Reviews 78

Placed order 2 days ago online and cannot get tickets out of them! After 2 phone calls and an hour of my life lost they said my order wasn't on their system so they rebooked it and sent me a link to the tickets twice but both times just sent a leaflet! Customer services couldn't explain why and said 'just turn up on day with ID you'll be fine'!! Not acceptable. This is a surprise treat for family so don't want an embarrasing situation on the day if we're refused entry. Think twice before placing an order online with them or you too could lose £200 as I probably have.

Be careful of the sales tactics used here. My two nephews visited last week and only wanted the tickets to go up, however they were sold the champagne deal and fast track as standard at a cost of £115. These are almost like a commission based sales tactics! I have contact the customer services but no response. I will try to escalate this further and report to the trading standards.

Very long queues in the cold outside. Queues to get into the elevators, queues for using the restroom. Overpriced drinks at the bar. A very expensive and not particularly worthwhile experience. I definitely don’t recommend and I would suggest booking the Sky Garden in advance for free and you get a similar view of the London skyline.

Horrible experience. Booked it at 18:45 or my partner birthday and they did not let us in, because apparently they changed the opening time, shortly after another couple had the same problem. I asked for a reimbursement and they could not give it to me because I booked a deal with a third party. The whole customer service was a joke. The rude blonde lady at the entrance and the Manager Jade were unprofessional and not very helpful. The view might be amazing, but if that's the treatment you have to receive it's definitely not worth it. Oh I then contacted the customer service email As useless as the previously mentioned member of staff. Well, at least they're keeping same standards in every department.

Visit to The View from the Shard and Three Course Champagne Celebration Dining with Sides at Marco Pierre White's London Steakhouse Co for Two.

This is part of a package booked via Virgin Experience Days. Be warned, and always read the small print!

Tourist Trap Alert: You are selling tourist, as well as locals, a Champagne deal for £28.00 pounds, saving £4.00 pounds, compared to prices at the top. PLEASE explain to your customers that the price is for 2 FLUTES or GLASSES!!! and not for a Bottle, to save embarrassment when asking for the drink, as experienced with your Cuban waiter, whose facial expression made me feel like I am stupid, and should not be allowed to enter the Shard. Don't reserve a table, unless you want to show off and pretend that you are minted, in front of everyone. The reason I say don't book a table, is because we felt that we were invading people's space when taking photographs. This is a tourist site converted into a money making bar on both floors. The views are amazing, and you can see a lot of places from up there. The fun is spoilt by your Bars, and the long queue of people trying to get a drink. You don't see this taking place in Tourist Buildings like NYC, Shanghai or Chicago. Have a separate space for those who enjoy paying "Sky High Prices" for a drink that costs next to nothing on the ground. There's a Tesco nearby, as well as bars where you can buy drink once your visit is done.
On the ground floor, I experience another tactic used at your counters, as I was waiting for a manager to authorized my refund (As Teresa was not going to refund me), I noticed that the next two customers only wanted the tickets to go up, however Teresa mentioned the champagne deal to this couple about 4 to 5 times, she was very pushy, almost like a commission based sales tactics! The commission on a daily basis must be out of this world, having said that, you need to stop damaging this buildings reputation. I am glad I got my money back, and I feel sorry for anyone that takes this offer up. London is a very expensive City to visit, and places like this should be taking care of our visitors, not ripping them off.

On a serous not though, it has been much disorganised from the onset. It doesn’t seem right how I’ve paid for a table and expected to sit by the wall when someone else hasn’t paid a penny and gets bird’s eye view by the window. I want an explanation as to why tables are not reserved and we been told to queue when we needn’t have to.
Been an absolute sham from the onset, and I want an explanation as to why a Princess from Taiwan Vists unexpectedly and gets preferential treatment whereas the rest of us who have paid get disregarded.
COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE AND UNPROFESSIONAL
3/11/21

Myself and my partner have visited your establishment this evening and are appalled at the fact we have been charged two different prices for the same alcohol purchased. On the 69th floor we were charged £24 per glass for white wine and downstairs £8 this is simply unacceptable and quite bizzare are far as pricing goes. We will not be visiting again due to the simple fact we feel fleeced by your establishment and will refuse to recommend the shard to any friends and family as this is completely unacceptable.

That was nothing to view and cost too much!also no refund not recommended to the shard view!!!

Worst customer service. Was charged £56 thinking we was getting food. To be told by the young girl on next gate that was just champagne. Asked for a refund. The manager took me to the till to do a refund only to then tell me she didn’t know what she was doing and I should wait until the way out. We then went to the bar to have my complementary cocktail which was part of the package. She then approached me and said you cannot have your cocktail. You either have the refund or the cocktail. Absolutely disgusting she completely ruined the experience. The views were amazing though.

Ticket amendment process is a total pain! Called on Friday morning to move my booking on Sunday evening to Saturday evening, they took my booking and contact details and said they would call back to ask for payment details for the £15 amendment charge once the request is approved. It's Saturday evening now and no one has called back, even after I rang them again to remind. They don't seem to have a proper system in place to ensure that requests get properly dealt with. It's ridiculous that booking changes can't be made online and must be done over the phone. Very frustrating customer service experience.

The Deluxe package is not all it's made out to be. I paid the £49 per person charge for my family of five only to find that we could not order any cocktail from the menu and were restricted to a few watered-down cocktails. The organisers did not make that clear on the ticket - it states, "Your ticket includes a cocktail (or mocktail) or a glass of Moet & Chandon champagne." They are breaking trading standards laws here by mis-selling.

The views were great but with limited seating and too many people, it became a bit congested and claustrophobic.

The deluxe package also stated, "This ticket includes four souvenir digital photographs. Remember to collect these as you exit by showing this ticket to a member of our photography team." When we went down to collect the photos we were told to go home and print them off ourselves. Very disappointing end to the evening.

What should have been a wow evening ended up being an overpriced ok evening - not worth the £250 I paid. I wish I had just gone for the £25 per head bog-standard tickets now!

Buyer beware - I was charged twice and the Shard will not give me a refund! They basically have £192 of my money which they are clearly not wanting to return to me. We made a last minute decision to go up the shard and I tried to book tickets online but this didn’t go through (no email confirmation and no payment from my account) We phoned the shard to be told they were having problems with their system and to just turn up. We did that and paid at the door. I noticed the next day the online payment and the door payment were both showing on my bank account. I phoned immediately to be told someone would get back to me within 2 days - 2 days! I thought it would be a simple case of refunding me and apologising for my inconvenience but It is now 2 weeks since we were there and I have emailed 5 times and phoned 3 times (having to explain the whole story on every occasion) and had no response. This was expensive enough for what was a half hour experience to look at a view, which can be seen from various alternative locations! I would not recommend giving them any money.

I was very impressed with Richard the assistant manager at THE SHARD view today, he was very helpful in taking part in my proposal plan. The rest of the workers are quite nice and friendly. Thanks to the entire team for making my proposal go smoothly as planned.

30/05/2021

Took my daughter here, really lovely and enjoyed.

If I could give it a 0 rating, I would. My boyfriend and I bought the All-Inclusive tickets for 10th September to go up the Shard. We travelled all the way into London (which isn't cheap in itself) and had our evening planned around going up.

It wasn't until we got to the entrance, which was closed, that we had to ask some random security on the street what was happening. We were told the Shard had been booked for a private booking and we couldn't go up. We had no e-mail, phone call, no communication. We had then wasted our time and money.

I then decided to e-mail and ask for a refund and some compensation, something which should be a given considering we didn't get the service we paid for. After no reply to my first e-mail, I called customer service which was no help. I then sent a follow-up e-mail which still wasn't acknowledged.

I then called multiple times, none of which went through and was directed straight to an answering machine. I then escalated this, even more, nearly two months later with no reply by writing a formal letter.

It wasn't until then, I received my refund, only for the tickets, not for the travel expenses and to compensate for the inconvenience.

I think it's ridiculous how you have to go out of your way to get a refund when it should be a given. Don't visit here, go to Sky Garden, it's free, cheaper drinks and the view is the same.

I bought my mother a Virgin Experience Days voucher for Christmas 2019 - A visit to The Shard followed by a Thames river cruise with food & champagne.
Due to covid my mother eventually got to use the voucher on 8th August this year. My mother has been shielding due to health issues & has mobility problems so when the opportunity arose it was a welcome relief to get out of the house. I would like to praise Virgin Experience days for their handling of the experience during this time which must have been difficult. The Shard only opened on 1st August but Virgin managed to sort out the visit very quickly. Also due to covid experience vouchers were extended.
Well my mother has not stopped talking of her trip, everyone was so polite in The Shard & on City Cruises. London & the trains were empty making the visit enjoyable. The Shard is within easy walking distance from London Bridge station. My mother is a tee total but she did drink the champagne handed out by City cruises :)

Terrible customer service . My trip was cancelled as shard was closed due to unforeseen circumstances. This was a month ago now and still no refund. When I can they say that there is nobody there that can talk to me and they can only correspond via email !!!

The architecture of the building is impressive. However, there are two problems with The View. The first is that you are so high up on the 72nd floor that it is difficult to identify landmarks unless they are in the immediate vicinity, even on a clear sunny day. The second is the price. With tickets starting at £25 per person (at the time of writing), it's an expensive way to spend a relatively short part of a day.