hmv (UK) - Birmingham Vault Reviews 478

We went to the recent in-store event at your Birmingham location featuring Jack Savoretti (very lovely).

While the opportunity to hear Jack perform songs from his new album and attend the signing was greatly appreciated, the overall experience was unfortunately overshadowed by poor event management.

From the outset, there was a lack of clear direction. Attendees were not told where to go upon arrival, and many of us ended up simply following the crowd, unsure if we were in the correct place. After Jack’s set, there was again no guidance on how to proceed to the signing area. It took approximately 20 minutes before any direction was given, by which point confusion had already set in.

During this time, the queue became disorganised. A barrier had been moved, allowing a number of people from the back to bypass others and move ahead unfairly. This caused understandable frustration among those who had been waiting patiently.

After around 30 minutes of queuing (at approximately 3:25pm), a member of staff (wearing a red tie and grey waistcoat) began shouting at those near the back of the queue to “hurry up” because Jack needed to leave at 4pm. This was both unhelpful and inappropriate. Those at the back had no control over the pace of the queue, and when this was pointed out, the staff member continued to raise their voice and instruct us to move closer together.

This approach did nothing to improve the situation and instead made attendees feel uncomfortable and pressured. It also demonstrated a lack of understanding of the situation on the ground.

Ultimately, the issues experienced could have been avoided with better planning and communication. HMV would have known how many tickets were sold and could have organised the event accordingly—whether through clearer signage, structured queuing systems, or better staff coordination.

This should have been an enjoyable and memorable experience for fans, but instead it became unnecessarily stressful and poorly handled.

I hope you will take this feedback seriously and ensure that future events are managed in a more organised, respectful, and customer-focused manner.

My partner and I attended the Live session with Jack Savoretti last Sunday.

Jack himself was very good, but as he started late, that put pressure on the signing afterwards.

Jack was, as normal spending time having photos taken and chatting with his fans but at 3.40 we were told by a female member of the 'security staff' he had to leave to catch a flight at 4pm which put huge pressure to get everyone through who wanted signatures.
For some reason this member of staff thought by us moving closer together, the queue was going to move more quickly. The queue was only going to move as quickly as Jack completed the signings.

The staff employed were very abrupt, terse and certainly did not engage with those of us waiting patiently in the queue.

There was also an element of confusion created by the layout of the barriers and reinforced by the 'security staff' who changed the way were asked to move along to meet Jack.

To be honest, I would think twice about returning for a future event as it felt rushed as we approached the 4pm timeline.

Jack Savoretti

Getting to have a meet and greet with the artist

The service and the products were all excellent. Great venue easy location and the live music events was excellent. Well managed and organised.

Buying and obtaining cd was fine. But the live experience as a disabled person was awful couldn't see Jack savoretti as too many people in the way. This venue needs to be looked at and things have to change!!!

Extremely polite stuff at the venue, however stage was quite low. Everyone struggled to see the artist as there was no chairs prepared for the audience to sit so everyone gathered around standing. Poor organisation of Q&A event in my opinion.

Staff at HMV The Vault, Birmingham were brilliant, friendly and helpful even though time was tight.

Easy venue to get to by train. Just a short walk from New Street.
Collecting our album and wristband was quick and easy.

Excellent- very professional service.
Collected pre-ordered CD plus seen Jack Savoretti!

Friendly staff

Staff are always helpful and friendly. They can order what isn't in stock and have things within a few days. competes favourably with Internet prices. That is for both Birmingham Vault and The Bullring.

Attended the Jack Savoretti event yesterday and although I really enjoyed his performance, I thought the organisation for the signing was poor. Lots of people from right at the back pushed in front and I was one of the ones towards the end. We were rushed through and if it had been better organised at the start of the signing, nobody would have felt compromised because of the time factor.

Good live event at The Vault, Birmingham.
Very well organised with helpful staff & security team.

Brilliant - well organised and enjoyed the event.

Great service

Got everything I needed by release dates excellent delivery updates and really quick

Always good service from HMV Vault Birmingham and using click and collect makes it easy to pick up bulky items that wouldn't fit into my letterbox!