Ugh!

It's August 27th, my birthday. I, along with my fiance and some best friends, went to the Blink 182 concert at Rexall Place. We watched Against Me and Rancid do an excellent couple of sets on stage and patiently awaited for a band that we call our favorite to hit the stage. The lights go down and Mark, Tom and Travis of Blink 182 hit the stage and the audience goes dicks up. We are about 8 feet from the stage. Shoulder to shoulder with people we don't know. Tiffany goes down and when she gets up her right shoe goes missing. She takes a look around but it is already gone. DAMN! It's only a $50 shoe, but the custom made orthodox that were in the shoe were $300. We decide not to be too upset because we will probably find it once the show is all done. An hour and a half of dancing and singing and GREAT FLUCKING TIME go by and we begin adventure. Ritchie & Tiffany in The Search For The Missing Right Shoe. We see giant sneaker, sandals, a 2GB Lexar memory card and tonnes of confetti... BUT NO SHOE! Now before I go any further into this story I want to stress that I know that these people that I'm going to talk about were just doing their jobs. I have worked in customer service for many years, and I have been in the position of having to tell people something they don't want to hear but I find a way to tell them that doesn't make them want to kill me. That's part of the job. KNOW HOW TO DO YOUR DAMN JOB, OR GET IN A DIFFERENT PROFESSION. The security guards, the guys in the red shirts that make sure no one jumps the rails, start to push us out of the area so that they can start to clean. I take a step back and explain that my fiance is missing a shoe and I am just looking for it. I get a hand on my chest that pushes me back and tells me to "Move now!". First of all, I know my rights. You have just assaulted me. I am not drunk. I am not trying to hurt anyone nor am I being belligerent in any way. So i walk around them to take a look at some shoes that are under the rails between crowd and band. The same security guard steps in front of me and once again pushes me back. If you know me, you know that I am not a fighter in the slightest but I was just assaulted twice for trying to find my fiance's shoe so she wouldn't have to walk around 118 Ave shoeless. So my hands come up and move his from me and I begin to push him back. Things are about to get very messy for me as the guy infront of me is easily a foot taller with 100lbs of muscle on me. Luckily for me, the father of a high school girlfriend of mine, who happens to also be one of these security guards steps between us and tells me to take a breath and step to the side. He tells me that everything gets swept up and put into a pile at the entrance and we can gladly wait over there to look through the pile when they are done. I thank Doug and head towards the entrance. This is when we are approached by more security guards that are telling us to go wait in the lobby. I advise him what I was told by Doug and he tells me that it doesn't matter. We have to wait out in the lobby until they are done, then we can come back in and take a look. Tiffany can see the anger growing in my face, so she grabs my hand and tells me to go with her to the lobby. As we stand there and wait for them to finish, we are approached by an actual security guard.
"Hey guys. You have to clear the area. You can't be standing around here."
IS WHAT SHE SHOULD HAVE SAID TO US. But because we are a young couple, apparently it's okay to talk to us like we are about to cause trouble.
"Time to go hit the bars!"
That's right. We are stereotyped into being drunk adolescents. Seems like a harmless thing to say, but you're in a position of authority and shouldn't talk to anyone without respect in your voice. I told her that we were told to wait there as we were going to find a missing shoe. She tells us that any missing shoes will be brought up to the lost and found. If we wait a few minutes it should be brought up here.
"But we were told by the security guards on the floor told us to wait here."
"Doesn't matter what they say. I am telling you the truth. You can not be here. Go to the lost and found."
FINE! We make our way upstairs to find the lost and found. Tiffany and I walk into this tiny office and are greeted by the first smile of the night.
"Looking for something?"
"Yes. Do you have this shoe, but in a right foot?" (I thought this line was hilarious but I was the only one to laugh.)

"Sorry guys. We don't keep shoes in the lost and found. Do you know how smelly it would be in here if we did?"

"What? Are you kidding me? Where do the shoes go?"
"They get thrown out at the end of the night."
"We were told, multiple times, in not very pleasant ways, that we would get a chance to find her shoe and we were just pushed up here to be told that her shoe would be thrown out?"
My veins in my neck and forehead begins to pop as my voice gets louder. Tiffany shoots me a "SHUT UP" look. The lady takes pity on us and takes Tiffany down to the floor to look through some areas to find her shoe. Unfortunately, the shoe and the very expensive custom orthodox are not found. Our mystery goes unsolved. Tiffany is not very upset about this as both the shoe and the orthodox can be replaced. This makes me not very upset about the missing items. But my blood is still boiling because of the way we were treated by numerous staff at Rexall Place. Northlands needs to train and handle their staff better. Once again, I get it. I've been there. You've had a bad day and some jerk of a customer is getting on your case about the most ridiculous stuff. You can say some things that you regret. But we were talked down to by no less than 6 staff members. SIX! Could they have all been in a bad mood. Maybe. But that is incredibly bad service. I was assaulted not once, but twice We were told incorrect information numerous times. I think its about time that Northlands looks into new contractors to hire to do their events. I wish I would have written down the names of the contracted companies to be able to list them here, but in the heat of the moment my thoughts were everywhere else. I plan to revise this blog post and send it to customer complaints at Northlands. I'm not sure what they can say or do to appease me, but I sure hope they try.


Thanks for listening to my rant.