Culture Whisper - appalling waste of money
Culture Whisper is a listings and membership site for cultural activities in London. In terms of listings, it's not bad with a reasonable range of things to do; they also send a weekly email with recommendations.
However, the membership offer is appalling. The gold membership is £115/year and I have one which was a gift from friends for my 40th birthday. Once you register you are, in theory, able to go to one free event per month for a year, however, in practice, this is really difficult to achieve due to limited events and availability. At any one time there are about 13 events to choose from, however, I have only been able to actually book two events in 7 months of membership. Events are often only available at short notice, or at inconvenient times, other events are way over subscribed and so have waiting lists. Of the 14 events listed on the website today, 4 are 'coming soon', 6 have a waiting list and one is fully booked, leaving only 3 available to book. I've added myself to many waiting lists and never got a ticket.
I tried checking every day for new listings so that I could be the first to book but they seem to book up immediately. Also, they have a frustrating policy of not allowing you to book for next month if you've got an event booked in the current month i.e. no booking ahead.
To add to the pain, of the two events I've managed to book, one venue had never heard of Culture Whisper and we had to wait an hour in the coffee shop while the manager tried to contact them - there is no one available at the weekend. In the end he let us in, but not because it was confirmed by them, just out of goodwill.
Finally, they have absolutely terrible reviews on Glassdoor and if even half of what former staff say is true then it's a pretty terrible place to work and has a flawed business model.
I feel really sad for my friends who bought me a seemingly brilliant gift at considerable cost, which I've hardly been able to use. If the face value of events I manage to go to meets the annual cost of membership by the end of the year I think I'd be lucky and would be better off booking full price tickets directly for things I want to go to at times that suit me.