PIRATE.COM - Rehearsal Studios Reviews 817

The idea of having somewhere to be able to hone your skills is brilliant , but I feel that this greenwich site will end up closing which is such a big shame and will be gutting . So many people go here and are very respectful but , for months the place is being allowed to be destroyed by others that just wanna party and get out of there nut and ruin it for musicians that use there place. The amount of damage happening is shocking. I feel pirate have used a few excuses to address this issue over the last few months.
Now personally would it hurt to employ a small amount of staff to rotate on shift to actually keep a eye on the greenwich studio ? It's not a big cost and it means less outlay on equipment that's damaged etc. Really need to get a grip of this studio location. Need permanent staff there to rid the rot out

I booked three hours in their Sheffield studio to use the DJ room. On arriving the equipment was filthy - thick with dust and stains. After spending a few minutes cleaning it we set and got going…to find that the mixer didn’t work properly. The cross fader was completely gone on it and the colour knobs had no effect on the sound. So it meant the session was a waste as I was planning to record a mix.
On reporting it to Pirate two days later they offered me 10% off my next booking. Erm thanks but no thanks.
My advise don’t use them there are better equipped studios out there.

As a band we rehearsed in room 7 at ‘ ‘Notting Hill ‘ ie Latimer rd W10. All the amps/pa had been turned up right to 10 then switched off by the last people, consequently as we switched on everything was screaming. The snare drum stand was broken, snare skin broken. Tom holders broken. No info on pa at all. No care, Soulless.

Been going here for years, it’s a great creative space for studio time and DJ practice but quite expensive these days, the prices have shot up!

Pirates do not care about their customers. They lack empathy and will do whatever they can to charge you unnecessarily.

I booked Pirate studio at the 'Tottenham' location on Friday, Jan 6, 2023, and received an email about being charged for tampering with the CCTV equipment (this was against their terms and conditions, as expected). This was very strange as no equipment was messed with or damaged and the room was left in a better condition than it was met. After seeing this email I decided to reply to get more information as I disagreed with the charges.

I messaged their security team as stated on their website and they replied the following day with an email stating 'We have investigated and checked our CCTV cameras. We can confirm that your responsible for tampering with our cameras'. After doing some research I found out that this email was a default email they send to everyone who they charge. This meant that they did not consider anything I said and did not bother to resolve this situation. After realising this I messaged again asking for the CCTV footage as they are charging me with no evidence of me breaking their terms and conditions. They then replied 'Unfortunately we cannot provide you with any CCTV footage without a case number from the police station'. I found this odd as on their website it states 'you have the right to access your CCTV data at any time and free of charge'. When I challenged them about this, they decided to stop responding to my emails.

Since then I have sent 3 follow-up emails and have not received a response. I have also contacted them via live chat on WhatsApp for 6 days and they have told me 'I will escalate this to security and get a response for you'. No one has gotten back to me yet and I started this dispute more than 14 days ago.

The reason I am more shocked at this experience is due to me being a regular at Pirate. I even became a Pirate ambassador to refer people to them and the way I have been treated is upsetting.

In Conclusion, Pirate has taken my hard-earned money out of my account unfairly, stopped replying to emails, and will not provide evidence to support their claims. I will be careful booking with them as it shouldn't be this difficult to solve an issue like this.

Edit: Pirate ignored me until I wrote this review. They then decided to contact me after writing this review 5 days later, whilst ignoring me days prior. They phoned me and told me they will not be reversing the charge and repeatedly told me information that was not fitting to my matter. As a result, I have claimed a chargeback through my bank and received the money through them. It's sad to see that after being a customer for so long this is how they treat you.

Got fined 200 quid on Christmas Day for overstaying and them not turning off equipment’s automatically as they usually do

Me and my band used to use the studios every week, we had no issues, This place is a great space for creativity and rehearsals for the price. yeah sometimes the equipment can look a bit worn out and the aircon can be hit and miss, but we didn’t really expect it to be a 5 star hotel.

Unfortunately one of our band members experienced a tragic family loss and it was decided that we would go on a hiatus for a while. At this time I cancelled all the booked sessions we had and had £63 worth of credit on my account that was our own money. We decided not to cash out as we would eventually need it again.

Over 12 months past and we are now ready to get back to it, however when I looked on my account and my credit had been removed... looking at the handy credit activity page on my account I could see that the credit was removed on the 15th of December, still with no reason stated.
I contacted their customer service to find out why and was told that after 3 months of inactivity credit is removed, regardless of its origin, I received no notifications or warning regarding this or account inactivity and it took quite a while scanning through the T&Cs to find where this was stated.
Something didn’t quite add up as like I said, it had been over 12 months since we last used the studios and the credit was removed on the 15th of December 2022, now I maybe a musician but I know how time and dates work and do feel like I have been treated very unfairly here.
Unfortunately I could get nowhere with customer service and was unable to get our £63 back in any form despite the circumstances or the fact it had only been 14 days since the credit was removed, It is a shame that this experience has now negatively affected the overall outlook I have on PIRATE and the services they provide.

Hello,
DJ Chapta here. Wanted to say how much I’m loving pirate studios since I’ve moved to London! My only issue is why isn’t there more!!!!
My hometown (now city) is a thriving place for upcoming DJs and I truly believe that it would benefit massively from a pirate studio, as well as pirate studios benefitting from the DJs who would book regularly. Please Pirate, Give Colchester a thought! Very great little city!

Horrible experience, studio was filthy the bin was overflowing when we got there toilet was clogged all the way up and in the other toilet there was no toilet roll and no light in there and there was sick in the hallway that didn’t get cleaned up all night it’s located in a very dangerous place as locals told me not to stand out side as it dangerous the rooms was very small and no air conditioning. I would definitely not recommend pirate studios half the equipment wasn’t working and the room could only fit about 4 people in it. Also not very safe as when we was about to leave the studio two random men entered who had no session booked these could of done anything to any of us in there and made me feel very uncomfortable the whole time I was there.

£60 parking charge notice for booking a rehearsal in Leeds. Now are details have been passed to a 3rd party notorious for selling people's details on. Shameful behaviour from Pirate, we won't be back.

*Response to Pirate's reply*

There are 4 people in our band. One of us makes the booking meaning that the other three of us don't get that information and there is no option to enter more than one car reg. Also, only allowing a 2 hour period given the amount of time people usually rehearse for is rediculous. I've just received my second ticket for over staying by 3 minutes on a separate occasion. The parking terms are making rehearsing at Pirate prohibitive.

*further reply*

Your solution is that we car pool!? Are you serious? I have a better solution, we'll find somewhere else. The tail does not wag the dog.

DJ studio in Chelt is an awesome place to be and dab our hands at dj'ing.

However the equipment seriously needs to be maintained properly, fixed or replaced, as multiple times me and my friends go there, there seems to be issues with equipment. One speaker has either blown or broke down; whilst the mixer/decks do work, some buttons or sliders are broken or have completely malfunctioned.

Issues have been raised by friends and probably other customers, but I can't see us booking room again until its fixed, plus there isn't anyway of finding out whether it has!

Some of the mac's weren't good and they refused to give me a refund after they took money from my account for a booking that I had to do a verification for but the verification didn't have a UK option

crazy. they can just cancel your booking anytime they like without providing you a replacement, completely f*cked up our preparations for an upcoming gig.

fire in da booth, sick vibez did a sick cover of Tame Impala

I booked a recording studio for the wrong dates and I was put into contact with customer support within minutes.
New booking was sorted under 10 minutes.

I had a few mishaps with the place at first (my fault entirely) I went to the Dalston studios instead of Tottenham studios (Dalston is on Tottenham road hence the confusion) however the helpline was really understanding and refunded me the money I paid for the booking and let me book in Dalston , then in that room the fader was slightly broken so they gave me an extra hour and booked me a different room so that I could carry on my experience at no extra cost and also made the maintenance aware of the issue so it could be fixed for others. The response I received was extremely professional and compassionate aswell as helpful and quick. Very happy with my experience and will definitely be back.

Yogi at Abidale Road Wembley was 11/10 amazing!

Had an account issue, Amanda when above and beyond to get the issue rectified and it is all now sorted! Thanks so much.