I have had an extremely disappointing experience with my tickets, and an even more disappointing one with the ROH customer service.Quick moral of the story if you don't have time for details: if you book restricted-view seats, make sure that you know whether or not in order to get the view, restricted though it may be, you need to be leaning forward and craning your neck all throughout the performance, and prepare accordingly!Now for the detailed version:On the website, you can book restricted view seats on the side-balconies. These are by no means cheap, as they go for about £50. On the website, there is a photo of the alleged view from these seats, which is, of course, restricted, but still allows you to see just over half the stage. We considered this a somewhat decent price-quality balance, and booked two of those seats for a much-awaited performance of La Traviata, which we were extremely excited about seeing.The show sounded great, because LISTEN TO IT IS PRETTY MUCH ALL WE COULD DO from those seats. Turns out, you only get the restricted view if you lean forward and crane your neck to the side all throughout the performance, otherwise you see absolutely nothing, not even the surtitles. While I sacrificed my physical comfort for some scenes which I desperately wanted to see, my partner (whom I was hoping this trip would convert to being an opera lover), could see nothing, as he has issues with his back. Let me be absolutely clear again: WE KNEW WE HAD BOOKED RESTRICTED-VIEW SEATS - this was not the issue! The issue is that the view advertised could only be obtained by sitting in a terribly uncomfortable position, otherwise there was NO VIEW AT ALL! This was NOT MENTIONED on the website.I gets worse.At certain KEY POINTS in the performance, I mean key plot-advancing lines that were spoken, not sung, and never repeated themselves (not long passages or choruses that were sung for the fifth time), the surtitles were simply not there, and I had to explain to my partner what I remembered the lines to be, from having watched the opera a while ago on TV.Now for the horrible Customer Service experience.I wrote to them explaining all of the above in as detailed a manner as I could. I received what I could only assume was a copy+pasted response from their handy database of "use this for crazy people who don't like restricted view seats" and "use this for stupid people who don't understand how surtitles work". I was reminded that I had booked restricted view seats, which mean that you don't get a full view of the stage (I KNEW THAT ALREADY AND HAD EXPLAINED THAT THE ISSUE WAS NOT THE RESTRICTED VIEW, IT WAS HAVING NO VIEW AT ALL IF SAT PROPERLY), and that sometimes certain opera passages are long and repeat themselves, therefore surtitles are turned off to let people enjoy the music (I HAD ALL BUT QUOTED THE LINES THAT WERE MISSING, AND THEY WERE SHORT, NON-REPETITIVE, SPOKEN, KEY PLOT POINTS).Having felt ignored and gaslit by this response, I replied explaining (again) roughly the above, and telling them to not bother replying if they're only going o come back with more generic, infantilising attempts at placating me without even having read my complaint, AND SO THEY DID. I received no more reply.The worse thing is that they ruined La Traviata for me, which used to be my favourite opera. Now, every time I try to listen to songs from it, I remember this experience and feel angry and frustrated at this injustice and this missed opportunity for my partner to enjoy an opera show, and for myself to see a performance that I'd been dying to see. We don't have unlimited funds, so a £50 opera ticket is not something we can frequently afford, and in addition to the experience being ruined by the constant physical pain, the ROH added insult to injury by dismissing my complaint without having even read it.Long story short, go elsewhere unless you are rich and can afford the best seats.
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