For as long as I have known my husband, he has dreamed of seeing Paul McCartney. We watched every one of Paul's appearances. We watched him on numerous talk shows and even read the behind-the-scenes story of his big appearance with James Cordon during which the talk show host actually drove the former Beatle to his childhood home.
Bill watched wide-eyed as Cordon was called to the stage to take part in a performance of "Hey Jude," a song that always sparks emotion in my tender-hearted hubby. "Oh my God! Imagine getting called to that stage."
On February 24, we excitedly hit the purchase button on tickets to see Sir Paul on May 13 at SoFi Stadium. We were in section 522, row nine, seats one, two and three. This was going to be our son's first concert.
"Just know that I am going to be sobbing all the way through 'Hey Jude'" Bill told me the night we made the purchase.
Flash forward to May 5. Ticketmaster informed us we would not be going.
Here's the backstory:
Late on Sunday April 24 Bill and I got into a joyful discussion about the tickets. Where will we park, I asked. He wasn't sure. So, he thought he should check on that and on the tickets. Within seconds, he jumped. "NO!" he yelled. "Our tickets were stolen." We have no idea how thieves were able to access our account. But someone had gotten into our Ticketmaster account and easily transferred the tickets where they were quickly sold.
We raced to try and find our way back to the concert. After all this was Paul McCartney. One of the greatest and most influential singers, song writers and (we believe) poets of our time. It took a day and a half just to find a number for the Ticketmaster Fraud Division. When we finally got the number, it would take upwards of an hour and a half to get ahold of anyone. I say an hour and a half because at exactly 90 minutes, the phone system automatically kicks you over to voicemail. Throughout the wait for a representative, a recorded message encourages callers to click 2 to leave a voicemail. We left many. None were ever returned. Instead, we hung in there listening to the message and the generic and repetitive hold music for an hour and a half at a time.
All of the customer service representatives were very polite. And for a while there, two of them assured us that it did indeed appear as if they had gotten us replacement tickets. "It looks like they have got you tickets," one of them told my husband as I listened in. "You'll probably get an email tomorrow."
That email never came.
My husband called back. "Don't worry," another rep told my husband adding that they would get it done; That it shouldn't be a problem and that the tickets would likely come to us closer to the time of the concert. We left it alone for a few days, but it was never far from our thoughts. Finally, an email came on May 5th hours after we spent three hours trying to contact their reps again. "We've been trying to reach you ..." the email read. This was news. We'd not heard from them. But it directed us right back to the same Fraud Division phone number. This time we waited about an hour before someone answered.
"Looking at the notes on the file, we are unable to replace the tickets," the Ticketmaster representative told my husband. He buried his face in his hands. "We're just not able to pull any so we have to give you your money back," she added.
It had already been a very tough week. Her words cut to the bone. As we sank into sadness, echoes of the woman apologizing and wishing us a good rest of the evening sounded hollow and scripted. Bill hesitantly hung up and sat in silence.
Are we done?
There are always resale tickets, what we used to call "scalping." There are tickets available. But we saved and scrimped to buy the first ones. While we can use the money being refunded, we will pay more for seats that are farther away. Add to this that we have no clear clue when our money will be refunded, and it looks likely that we are out of luck.
The very least we can do is warn others: Check on the E-tickets regularly. Don't assume they will be there. BUY THE INSURANCE! I'm not 100 percent sure that we would have gotten offered our money back had it not been for that. And if you haven't already done so, freshen up your password.
This is so absolutely crushing. For me, it's not only a loss of opportunity to see a great performer, but it is also profoundly saddening to see my husband so crushed. And it is stunning that the juggernaut that is Ticketmaster presents itself as so helpless. While thieves made victims of us, it feels like Ticketmaster made fools of us.
Maybe this is not the end of the story. Maybe we can find the strength to keep trying. But the clock is ticking.
I can't even imagine the countless other nameless and faceless people who have fallen victim to this terrible ticketing system. Just know that if I could, I would climb to a high point and scream out the stories.
I am angry.
No comments:
Post a Comment