The View from The Shard Reviews 77

A deeply unpleasant experience

My recent visit to Shangri-La The Shard London, located within The Shard, proved to be a deeply unpleasant experience.

Upon arrival, I was approached by a young staff member who proceeded to question me repeatedly about my destination within the building. Rather unexpectedly, he followed me towards the lifts while continuing to inquire about which floor I intended to visit. Such behaviour felt intrusive, unnecessary and entirely inconsistent with the level of discretion and professionalism one would reasonably expect in an establishment of this standing.

As someone who has visited this venue on numerous occasions since its opening, and who has consistently supported the businesses operating within the building, I found this interaction both surprising and disappointing.

The matter was subsequently raised with reception, and after reviewing the CCTV footage, management acknowledged that the individual involved was a temporary staff member whose conduct reflected an excess of zeal combined with a lack of professional judgement.

Regrettably, the situation had already created a level of discomfort significant enough that the Metropolitan Police Service was contacted, and the incident was logged under reference CAD 6784/11Mar26.

One would naturally expect a location as prestigious as The Shard to uphold the highest standards of hospitality and discretion. Sadly, on this occasion, the experience fell considerably short of those expectations.

I trust that management will take the necessary steps to ensure that all guests are treated with the professionalism, courtesy and respect befitting such an establishment.

DON'T BOTHER BOOKING!! THEY WILL CANCEL YOUR BOOKING IF SOMETHING BETTER COMES ALONG. OUR TICKETS HAVE JUST BEEN CANCELLED with 2 WEEKS before OUR BOOKING DUE TO THEM TAKING A PRIVATE PARTY?! WE HAVE A HOTEL AND OTHER Experiences BOOKED AND PAID FOR SO UNABLE TO CANCEL THE REMAINDER OF OUR TRIP. PRETTY DISGUSTING BEHAVIOUR PUTTING YOUR BOTTOM LINE BEFORE YOUR BOOKED CUSTOMERS.

We were given the gift of the Shard experience & we had a fabulous time. Ignore the photo session as it is all rushed, the photos are not good & an unnecessary expense. Enjoy the lifts up to the top, enjoy the sensation of being so high & enjoy the views - amazing to recognise London highlights from above. Chris, one of the experts, was very knowledgeable on London & gave us a lot of information. Everyone was so nice.

Me & my husband booked this as an anniversary gift & it was wonderful. The staff are very friendly & attentive considering all the people they have to attend to!! Amazing views from the top over London. Would definitely do it all again x

Really enjoyed it. Fantastic views and nice and relaxed atmosphere. Could really take our time. Had a cocktail while chatting to 3 dapper members of staff. Very friendly and informative.

DON'T BOTHER BOOKING!! THEY WILL CANCEL YOUR BOOKING IF SOMETHING BETTER COMES ALONG. OUR TICKETS HAVE JUST BEEN CANCELLED LESS THAN 2 WEEKS BEFORE OUR BOOKING DUE TO THEM TAKING A PRIVATE PARTY?! WE HAVE A HOTEL AND OTHER EXPEREINCES BOOKED AND PAID FOR SO UNABLE TO CANCEL THE REMAINDER OF OUR TRIP. PRETTY DISGUSTING BEHAVIOUR PUTTING YOUR BOTTOM LINE BEFORE YOUR BOOKED CUSTOMERS.

Absolutely horrendous, they hide the fact that you have to be accompanied by a 16 year olds or over after 1000 words of the terms and conditions that you don't have to read. My 14 year old boy and his friend travelled for 3 hours both ways for them to be let down and payed £50 for train tickets. My son was able to pay with his debit card for a 14 year old but wasn't allowed inside. £60 wasted. WHY COULD HE PAY BUT HE COULD NOT GO IN?
The man at the door that rejected them gave them a phone number that charges 65p per minute without telling them, so when I went home to call it I wasted another £17. Never go here. It is not worth it.

We went on a school trip and there were 55 of us students and we travelled 3 hours from Leicestershire. When we got there they told us they had double booked and although we had pre booked and done it all the way back in January the event was more important. So we got rejected, which is an absolute disgrace to London and I never want to visit again it is not ok (we waited half an hour in a queue to try and get it sorted out). They need to sort themselves out.

Great experience from start to finish. We were greeted by Michael who kept us entertained with his knowledge, courtesy and fabulous sense of humour. Advising us on the cocktails and securing a table for us, a perfect host.
The bar staff were also amazing, helpful and very efficient.

Shanice (From Jamaica) at The Shard was just fantastic! She took her time to understand exactly what we needed, helped and supported us in getting tickets, and did it all with a friendly smile. Nothing was too much trouble for her. Shanice truly made our experience memorable!

Went to the “Ting” resturant in the shard, just one of 6 in this building. Anyway worst experience going to Ting as one particular staff was so rude she should not be working with the public ! An Eastern European woman her attitude just stinks as she was not happy working here and should be dismissed as she spoil our evening with her hospitality. The shard should get the right staff. Her approach was negative from the start. We told her we paid a lot of money for this experience, her attitude was so what !! Horrible woman , the TING should not employ staff like this ! Will not recommend this place for an evening meal.

Overpriced !
I remember just a while back the pics where optional and the ticket was cheaper ! Now they increased the price and the pics are part of the shenanigan now of corse to download them cuz if you want to have them printed you pay another 25-30££ this London is so overpriced and you don’t get much for your money !

Me and my Partner had such a lovely time here, the staff were so welcoming and friendly! One barmaid (Libby) really stood out to us as she was very polite and delivered top quality service, we hope she gets some recognition.
Thanks :)

The team did an excellent job setting up for our special day. Shadman made sure everything went smoothly by walking me through the process and making sure everything goes according to plan.10/10

Went with my nephew and we were treated appallingly by the security guards. My nephew has face tattoos and I should have realised when the guy who scanned our tickets gave him a dirty look. But we went on through to the scanners I went through the left and my nephew through the right. Should point out there was no one in the queue either ahead of us or after us. I put my bag and phone etc into the trays and got through perfectly well. All my nephew had was his phone – which he put in the tray and walked through the scanner – don’t forget he was the only person there – clearly the security guard thought “oh guy with face tattoos he’s bound to be a criminal” and refused to give him his phone back. He never explained it was policy to ask any customer who left their phone “unattended” to unlock the phone to prove it was theirs. All he kept saying was “you’re not getting your phone back until you unlock it”. He came over to me in a bit of a distressed state – I went over and the security guard was saying the same thing. It was not until another security guard came over who explained why it was needed. By this time my nephew understandably was upset. A third security guard came over and started shouting at my nephew who shouted back. We asked for his name and he said his name was “gangster” – seriously someone like that should not be a security guard. He was dragged away. That did not stop the guard with my nephew’s phone laying hands on him (we have the photos of the bruises on his wrists). All this time a manager was just sitting back watching doing nothing to support his staff or try to de-escalate. The best laugh was when we said give us the phone back and let us leave. They wouldn’t until they told us we were being denied access – like we would ever want to go in.
Then I contacted customer service and asked to speak to a manager. They way they operate is a manager does not get back to you directly. You email customer service, they contact the manager who reads the complaint and replies to the customer service eteam who then contact the customer. Perhaps the management team are scared of talking to customers…but more likely they just don’t care.
The manager who came back via the customer service desk, barely read my (admittedly lengthy) complaint. I wrote in a 2,181 word complaint and the reply I (11 days later) received was a whole 357 words (including the usual “Thanks for contacting us” and “please do get in touch again” type beginnings and endings). None of my questions were answered. In my complaint I asked about seeing the CCTV of the incident “I would be interested to see the CCTV to see exactly where my nephew went to have left his phone “unattended”. That was totally ignored. I replied to this paint by numbers we didn’t really read your complaint reply, asking if all my points could be answered and asking again about the CCTV. The same manager replied through the customer service desk (despite me asking to get in touch directly to cut down time) again 10 days later and after I had sent two chaser emails. She clearly did not have the time to read my email because all she spoke about was the CCTV. She said: “if your nephew would like to request any data, he (or his legal representative) can contact us directly, and we will be happy to guide him through the process”. Since I was impacted and there I went back to say I’d like to see the CCTV so could she help me do the SARS request. You can gues what happened – no reply so I had to send a few chasers. Finally, she replied (12 days later) to let me know that since we only made a “partial request” and they automatically deleted CCTV footage after 30 days they could not let us see it!! In fairness she finally addressed most of the issues in my original complaint…most but not all. I have since asked for a formal apology on how we were treated by the security team and the complaints manager who tried her best to palm us off…I doubt I will get it.
My point of this review is don’t give the View from the Shard your money – they are not worth it. Clearly all the care about are getting the money from the customer and care nothing for the customer experience. As an aside we went to Horizon 22 the following day and have a great time with no incident….and it was free!

The view is nice, but there are other free views that are as good, and free! I paid extra for photos and a drink. On exit, various photos are available, but you have to pay another 15 quid for the good ones, it is a tourist trap scam. They should be clear about what you get when you sign up

Amazing service and food. Libby looked after us and was amazing!
The view was stunning and whole trip was really good

Went with my nephew and we were treated appallingly by the security guards. My nephew has face tattoos and I should have realised when the guy who scanned our tickets gave him a dirty look. The security staff were incredibly rude - the one we spoke to refused to let me nephew have his phone back but never explained why. It is Shard policy to ask the ustomer to unlock their phone after it has been through the scanner. Totally understandable but it was never explained that way and things escalated unneccesarily. One securitt guard in paticular was aggressivly so. Needless to say we never went in.
Then I contacted customer service and asked to speak to a manager. They way they operate is a manager does not get back to you directly. You email customer service, they contact the manager who reads the complaint and replies to the customer service team who then contact the customer. A bit of a faff but Jade one of the Guest experience managers did phone me and we got everything sorted. She was incredibly u derstanding, gave a genuine apology for our experience and asked us to come back to have the experience we should have. She was excellent and changed this from a 1 star to a 3 star

What a rip off.
Tickets are not cheap and all you get is the view from a floor high up. It's not a platform or a gallery. The open gallery, or whatever they call it, is another floor with part of the ceiling missing. You can just aimlessly walk around on some fake grass, only one floor up from the 'indoor' floor.

Excellent customer service from start to finish. The viewing gallery is a must see experience, I'm nervous at height but this feels safe & the views are extradinary. Great service by the bar staff who took our order while we were busy photographing everything & then delivered our drinks to a table. The drinks were no more expensive than other London places of interest & there was a lovely ice cream bar too. Worth every penny but a word to anyone paying a visit to avoid the 'complimentary' photo by Magic Memories on entry because it's not complimentary at all. That said we took many of our own photos & I would visit again. Worth it