A mum has vowed to never visit future events put on by M&K Imaginarium after their North Pole experience left her young daughter on the verge of tears - as she left without seeing Santa.
Jennifer and Mark Thomson, from the south side, had booked to take their three-year-old daughter Millie to the Christmas Imaginarium event on Saturday, December 10.
They went with Jennifer’s sister, brother-in-law and their three boys aged two, five and seven. The family collectively paid £136.60 and were excited to treat their little ones to the festive extravaganza.
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The four-part experience included: singing and dancing with the elves, Mrs Claus reading tales of the north, a visit to the North Pole owlery and the main attraction which was visiting Santa Claus in his office.
Jennifer arrived with her family just before 4pm, but by 6pm the children had still not seen Santa - who was supposed to provide them with a parting gift.
The family had leave the event, without seeing the most important attraction so they could make a dinner reservation at 7pm.
Jennifer, aged 40, told Glasgow Live: “We were waiting outside for around 25 minutes and when we went through to the first room, there were two tables with pens and blank paper.
“The next room had Mrs Claus reading a story. We left there and went back outside in the dark to somewhere where there were owls and my nephew waited 45 minutes to see them.
“We were there for three hours and still hadn't seen Santa so we had to leave to get to our evening meal. The children were really sad and disappointed, my wee girl didn’t want to leave, but we couldn’t wait any longer.
“It was very chaotic and I felt really upset for the children.
“It looked like it was going to be a really good experience for the children. They made it out like it’s going to be this North Pole experience.”
The children were heartbroken because they didn’t get to see Santa, so Jennifer took them to see him - at a different location - the following day which cost another £25 a head.
She claims: “It was supposed to be a two hour experience with half an hour in each room.
“It was Millie’s first experience seeing Santa this year so she was really excited and looking forward to it. She was almost crying at the end when we had to leave.
“It cost a fortune and I was hoping for something really good, but it turned out to be really bad.
“I think it’s disgraceful and I am disgusted. Their customer service is non-existent.
“I haven’t been to their events in the past and I won’t be going again. It was so far from what they made out it was going to be.”
Jenna Givens, the Creative Director behind M&K Imaginarium, confirmed that they received complaints from some customers following the event and has apologised to the families who had longer waiting times.
She said: "It was due to measures beyond our control including staffing and sickness within our experience. We have also acknowledged what the mitigations need to be in future.
"To those families in that session in particular we offer the deepest of apologies as their wait was longer. We did advise that they would be best to nip away, toilet, food and browse the market.
"Two such families that had went away came back to be just at the very front of the queue. Some decided to not heed the suggestion at all and chose to sit and waited in excess of 90 mins.
"Families with red wristbands were children with additional support needs, wheelchair using children, heavily pregnant women and finally all babes in arms that were not in pushchairs. We made it abundantly clear in all written and video format with advertising that these families would be the first six to see Santa.
"We had a family who said they missed a birthday party and another who had dinner reservations, but we politely apologised and told them we could not prioritise their needs over that of our red back pack or red category families."
She added: "We appreciate that not everyone got the experience they hoped for. We are deeply apologetic for those teething problems as it was our first event.
"We attempted to handle everything with care and respect. My staff continue to have the highest praise after dealing with very disgruntled and understandably upset customers.
"Absolutely no customer was refused to see Santa Claus. M&K Imaginarium reminds customers that if they came into the experience and had any part of it they would not be entitled to a full refund."
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