Note: The following in an opinion piece based upon actual events.  All images taken were posted publicly in a public forum.

When one is providing a service, whether it be performing a surgical operation or digging a ditch, it is incumbent upon one to take all necessary steps to make sure that the service is provided with the highest professionalism and standards.  If the service involves services for children, then the pre-planning involved in order to provide that service is effectively delivered should be considered of even greater importance.  One could assume that this kind of thinking pervades every right-minded person in society.

Well apparently not.  Not when it comes to the Panthers Penrith Leagues Club anyway.

In what could only be described as a colossal cock-up, Panthers Penrith failed to deliver on a Transformers Interactive Stage-Show, disappointing hundreds of kids and their families who had paid substantial amounts months in advance to see the performance.

Their excuse – bad weather.

To clarify, this show was not outside, it was inside the venue in a theater.  The reason the bad weather stopped the show was that the ‘artists’ (D-grade actors in Transformer costumes) were unable to fly in to perform due to grounded planes on Saturday morning.

‘Oh OK’ you might think “Well sometimes these things cannot be helped.  It’s nobody’s fault’.

Only thing is, the bad weather had been forecast a week in advance, and in an extreme example of penny-pinching, Penrith Panthers had inexplicably still decided to try and fly the actors in that morning of the show rather than the night before, which would have resulted in them shelling out for a nights accommodation at their on-site hotel.

Of course, this meant that many families who had booked a hotel so they could bring their kids to the show, were now out of pocket for nothing.

For our family personally, this was all a gigantic disappointment!  We had booked months in advance and even booked a hotel room.  Then on the day driven 2 ½ hours over the Blue Mountains, only for the cancellation to be announced on social media a mere 90 minute before the show was due to start.  My son, who loves Transformers almost as much as I do, was incredibly upset.  All that build up and travelling just to have his show whisked away at the very last minute… it was probably the biggest disappointment he has experienced in his 6 years of life.

Panthers Penrith handling of the situation was deplorable, in fact one might say the term ‘bungling incompetence’ is an apt phrase to use.  First they announced the 11am show was cancelled.

Then 2 hours later announced ALL shows were cancelled.

Then they rang some people to tell them of the cancellations, but certainly not all:

The outrage on Facebook was palpable:

While it was allowed to last:

In pure damage control, first Panthers Penrith kept going through their Facebook ‘All Shows Cancelled’ post and deleting every negative comment, which meant pretty much all of them.  In fact  when talking to Lisamaree the next day, she mentioned how surprised she was by all the positive ‘It’s not your fault, you guys are great’ comments.  Panthers Penrith not only left all the positive comments up, but also rather startlingly all the troll comments that made fun of the upset parents.

By Monday, Panthers Penrith Leauges Club must have realized how suspicious that looked so simply started deleting everything anybody posted:

So not only did Panthers Penrith disappoint a lot of families with their idiotic decisions, but even denied families the right to vent their very valid frustrations.

Thankfully here at bigangrytrev.com we engage in no such censorship, so granted Jason, another parent who was bringing his family, his chance to vent here:

When you recieved the call saying the show was cancelled, how did you feel?

‘Annoyed. Our eldest son had been looking forward to this for almost 2 months, we had accommodation booked, we were on our way out to Penrith and we find out that the actors didn’t have the forethought to look at a weather map in advance (or listen to the news) and realise that flying in on the morning of the shows was not a good idea.’

What were your children’s reactions when you told them the show was off?

‘Our youngest was ambivalent, mostly due to his age. Our eldest was upset, until we bribed him with playing at Timezone for a few hours instead.’

So yes, in all, one could say this was a complete cock-up.  While even the angriest of parents (a group which included myself) agree that in no way did Panthers Penrith Leagues Club or the actors wish for this to happen, it is a situation that could have easily been avoided with even a modicum of forethought and preparation.  The equipment was already at the venue and there wasn’t a show the previous few nights in Melbourne where the actors were flying from.  So really, besides the Leagues Club saving a few bucks, there was no reason the actors could not have flown in earlier, especially with the bad weather known about so far in advance.  Thus when Panthers Penrith gives their ‘it’s nobody’s fault’ speech, it doesn’t ring true, not one bit.  Next time they make such a mistake they should own it.  Admit ‘Yes we f*cked up – we are really sorry!  We will try to make it up to you all!’.  It would garner them a lot more respect than weaselly excuses and deleting negative facebook comments.

But personally I wont know next time it happens as I plan on  never trying to attend a show at their venue again.  Maybe they should just stick to being the overgrown pokies parlour that everyone considers them to be – because a kids entertainment venue they certainly are not.

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