Wax Hall scraps fee for photos with stars
(Shanghai Daily)
2008-08-28 09:17
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A wax figure of Hong Kong star Andy Lau at the Madame Tussauds Shanghai. The wax hall will dump its extra charge to pose with the wax figures of Andy Lau and Jackie Chan after consumer complaints. [File Photo: newssc.org]
Madame Tussauds Shanghai will dump its extra charge to pose with the wax figures of Hong Kong stars Jackie Chan and Andy Lau after consumer complaints.
The admission fee to the wax hall is 135 yuan (US$19.7). Once inside, however, visitors are informed they are banned from taking photos with the Jackie Chan or Andy Lau figures with their own cameras. Instead, hall officials take pictures for them, turn the picture into a souvenir such as a key ring and then charge the visitor 40 to 50 yuan.
"Most branches of Madame Tussauds carry out such business," said Zhou Bin, an official with Madame Tussauds' public relations firm, Ogilvy Shanghai. "Now that consumers are not satisfied with it, we'll make a change."
University student Yang Yang, who went to the hall last week, said she was furious officials wouldn't allow her to pose with the two stars.
"I paid for the tickets just to pose with my idols, but they wanted to charge me an extra fee for no reason," said Yang. "I believe it's forcing consuming," she said.
The Shanghai Commission of Consumers' Rights and Interests Protection welcomed the improvement.
Tang Jiansheng, deputy director of the commission's law department, said consumers were not told of the photo ban when buying the admission ticket, as the ticket said it was "effective all around the hall," he said.
"If the hall has some service which needs an extra fee, they should tell consumers at the entrance," Tang said. "Otherwise, it is a violation of consumer rights."