Usually I am a very tolerant person and understand that certain things cannot be avoided especially at a venue as large as Madison Square Garden. My experience at the Garden during the Rammstein concert on Saturday, December 11 unfortunately was not one of these instances.
My husband and I arrived at the concert and took our seats (Gate 70, Section 334, Seats 9 and 10). About 10 minutes after we arrived, a gentleman sits in the seat adjacent to me and proceeds to take out a marijuana joint, light it up, and smoke it next to me. Please note that he is doing this WHILE the house lights are still on and the usher (I will get to him and his behavior later) is standing RIGHT behind us. I get the attention of the usher and point out this man and all the usher does is simply go up to the smoking man, makes a "cut it out" hand gesture and walks off. As soon as he leaves, the man proceeds to light up again. At this point I can see that the usher is going to do nothing about the situation so I go to the Guest Relations desk and speak to a young woman about my situation. She promises to send security to the gate. I go back to the gate and security is there but apparently because this man is not smoking now they tell us they can do nothing about it. Mind you, this is all happening BEFORE the concert even starts. Security leaves, the light go down for the concert to start, and this man lights up again. Security did tell us that we were welcome to stand in the gate against the wall as not to block the flow of "traffic". As soon as they left the usher (same one who was doing nothing about the smoking) very rudely tells us that we are not allowed to stand there and if we do not take our seats he will have us escorted out. I have been to many concerts at your arena and never have I been spoken to so rudely or with such disrespect. Again I speak to the Guest Relations woman, told her the man is smoking yet again, that I am becoming sick from the smell, and cannot sit there. Not once was I offered to be moved, not once was this man who was ILLEGALLY smoking an ILLEGAL substance removed from the premises. We basically walked from gate to gate, stood against the wall and watched the concert until another one of your ushers forced us to move again, and then we left exactly 40 minutes after it started. Needless to to say, our concert experience was ruined.
We work hard for our money and expect that the rules so clearly stated on your website will be enforced when we purchase tickets for MSG. I should not have to leave a concert early because I am getting sick from the smell of marijuana smoke in a non-smoking facility. I should not have to leave my seats that we paid for and I should not have been spoken to in the manner that I was by your usher.
I hope some measure of action will be taken to resolve this issue.
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