T r u e C olors: Our ailing economy truly brings out the corporate avarice and greed, not that it wasn't already there..
To a monopoly like Ticket Bastards (not my invention--see http://consumerist.com/5062273/ticketmaster-is-evil-and-must-die), $96.75 is loose change. To me, it's the money I spent on a birthday gift for my son. And Ticketmaster, along with its minion FYE, flushed it down the corporate rat hole.
It was March 6. The Yankees were playing that evening at Steinbrenner Field. I 'd bought 3 tickets to that game--for my son, his wife, and their kid. That afternoon he told me something was wrong with their cat Mittens. She was suddenly acting really sick-- lying around, not eating or drinking. His wife brought the cat to a vet, but the vet couldn't find the cause and referred them to another veterinarian down the street. At 5:20 PM the poor cat was in a oxygen tank. She had fluid on her chest and lungs, said the vet. While the vet worked on Mittens, my son left work, picked up his toddler, and raced to the vet's office, easily an hour away from Steinbrenner Field in rush hour traffic.
Knowing how they felt about Mittens, I got on the phone with FYE, where I'd bought the tickets, and asked to speak with a manager, expecting to be in communication with an actual human being. What I got instead was a woman who first tried to deny that FYE sells tickets for Ticketmaster. I'm looking at Ticketmaster's website, I told her, and yes--you do. I bought the tickets from you, in your store. I have the receipt. I explained about the cat, told her this family was not going to make it to the game at 7PM and asked her to change the tickets for another date. She refused; said only Ticketmaster could do that. I called Ticketmaster. Their rep told me because I'd bought the tickets at FYE, only FYE could exchange the tickets. I called FYE again. Manager #2 was even ruder than Manager #1. She said I had to come into her store, and before 7PM. It was after 6:00 by then. Told her I do not own a car. Told her I did not have the tickets, only the receipt. Told her I bought the tickets for a gift and the people I gave them to had the tickets, and they were at an animal hospital watching their cat slip away. This FYE manager was as warm as a January wind blowing off Lake Erie.
Twice more I tried to reason with the robots at Ticketmaster. I sent emails. The emails were answered by robots: understanding nothing, resolving nothing.
I wrote a letter to the Ticketmaster Customer--Who Cares? at 1000 Corporate Landing in Charleston, West Virginia. I got a robot letter back. It said : "Ticketmaster serves only as a ticket seller for the venue. (Could you be more specific?) The promoters (who are...) and the facility(would that be Steinbrenner Field?) involved make all decisions regarding an event. Based on the (what?) instructions and (which?) information from our clients, (who are?) you are not eligible for a refund because the event took place as scheduled. " ( I did not request a refund. I requested an EXCHANGE OF DATES on the tickets because of a family emergency.)
It goes on..
"It is important to understand that Ticketmaster collects no part of the price per ticket sold through our service. (Interesting--my bank statement shows charges from Ticketmaster) As contractually agreed, all monies have been remitted directly to our clients, thus making refunds unavailable. Ticketmaster can no longer authorize credit action."
Masters of corporate doubletalk, they are.
There you have it. Ticketmaster collects no part of the ticket price. It all goes to the artists, athletes, entertainers, and TicketscalpersNow.
Poor Ticketmaster: even monopolies are getting tossed around on these stormy economic seas.
Congratulations, Ticketmaster. You made the rip off report. http://www.ripoffreport.com/
Again.
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