Avoid at all costs.
I wish to complain, in the strongest possible terms, about the shockingly rude and disgraceful customer service I recently had the misfortune of enduring on a night out at The Edge.
I'll set the scene; I was with a group of friends celebrating a birthday, where the birthday girl understandably wanted to visit you as a fixture of the gay scene in Southampton. We agreed - the Edge has an excellent reputation. However, the treatment I and several other members of the birthday party we endured is, frankly, completely unacceptable. The door staff you employ, or contract, are disgustingly rude.
Unaware that a picture ID system was in place (I've not been to a club since Covid), I was unaware that I needed to bring a form of photo ID with me. Fair enough - I was happy to show the woman at the door a copy of my credit card and my Facebook profile picture as proof that I am who I say I am.
However, the manner and way in which she proceeded to extremely patronisingly demand "well why don't you have any photo ID", visibly sighing and rather dismissively inferring that I was stupid for not knowing this. Rather than politely saying "oh that's ok, we can use Facebook and a credit card" or words to that effect, she essentially demanding that I needed photo ID and that " as your [The Edge's] photo-ID systems had been installed for four years" and that I should "get with the times". As if my mere presence insulted her and that I, single-handedly, was making her job ten times harder than it needed be. Then visibly annoyed while waiting for me to sign in to Facebook and provide evidence of my ID, she snatched my credit card away from me and presented it to the man at the responsible for entering ID systems, saying that I should apologise to her for holding the queue up. By this point I had decided that if this was representative of the "service" at your establishment that I was not comfortable patronising your bar, and that I wanted to leave. I then requested my credit card back from the man at the door, at which point I overheard her say words to the effect of "are you being serious? That's a f***ing waste of time". As if patrons, your valued customers, are little more than cattle to be herded, with no regard for either my safety, or the feelings of your clients. Extreme words, perhaps, but that's honestly the feeling I got from her.
The door staff member in question is what I would describe as an older lady, with peroxide blonde or very light brown hair, working in a black T-shirt that says "security". Because I just wanted to get out of there I didn't get her name, unfortunately, but she was working around 11:30 pm on Saturday 12th September. While I understand that being door staff is hardly rocket science, I nevertheless expect a certain level of professionalism and modicum of both decency and respect as a possible customer at your bar - she is 'security', but I hardly felt 'secure' with her. My entire experience, and in particular the abysmal and deeply offensive level of service provided by the member of staff in question is, frankly, disgusting, and completely unacceptable.
This whole unfortunate experience has completely ruined a perfectly good night out, and I am still, over an hour later, visibly shaken (and, indeed, shaking). If this is standard of customer "service" I can expect from The Edge, it paints what I am sorry to say is a level of service far below that which can be reasonably expected from one of Southampton's premiere LGBT+ clubs. What a disgusting end to a great night out. read more
