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TicketMaster Complaint - TicketMaster Offers No Help
Complaint
In August 19, 2009 I took my family to the Paul McCartney concert in Dallas, a long awaited event that my children (9 and 12 years-old) were very excited to be attending. I purchased 4 floor tickets. As was to be expected, it was very crowded. My 9 year old son had been the most excited of all to get to see Paul play. A lot of people brought their kids to the concert.
However, the pleasure was short lived. A couple seated behind us, drinking the whole time, took all the pleasure out of the event. When Paul started to play all the other kids were standing on their seats in order to see. My 9 year old son, who is only about 3-3/4 ft. tall, asked my permission to stand on his seat, and I let him. The woman behind us complained even though she was sitting directly behind me and to the left of my son. She and her boyfriend complained that they would get security. I took it upon myself to talk to security as well and was told it was okay for him to stand on his seat.
After a few minutes the woman went to get another beer and returned, followed by security. Without a word to me, security abruptly pointed to my son and made him sit down. He started crying, curled up in his seat and eventually cried himself to sleep. He missed the entire concert because of a very disagreeable drunk. This event security person took it upon himself to make my son sit down even though hundreds of kids remained standing on their seats throughout the performance and no security person approached them. I could not explain to my son why all the other kids were allowed to get up on their seats but not him. I was very uncomfortable having this couple directly behind me holding beer bottles in their hands for the remainder of the concert since they had been very hostile toward us from the moment they sat down.
The ‘event security’ had a communication problem since they did not even agree among themselves whether children should be allowed to stand on their seats. There was no general communication that controlled this situation and it was not applied equally throughout the audience. My point is, security handled this incorrectly, they should first have gotten my attention before abruptly correcting my son. Next, the correction should have been equally applied to all. We were singled out among many to be the exception to the rule and it was my whole family that suffered. What was to have been a high point in our vacation was turned into a disaster.
Now I'm requesting Ticketmaster to reimburse me for the price of only me and my son’s tickets ($390.10). I feel it is only fair that I pay for my other son’s and wife’s tickets. I feel that TicketMaster, as the vendor providing the service should be responsible for this decision. I expect a contractor to be accountable for all subcontractors who render the services purchased. We were denied the right to enjoy the service provided even though others doing exactly the same thing were allowed to continue and enjoy the concert.
American Express has contacted TicketMaster several times and they have refused to give me a refund. They have even refused to a 3 way conference call with American Express and me, in order to resolve this issue.
Also, American Express does NOT protect their customers when they don’t receive the services their customers pay for. I contacted their legal department on this issue, and I was basically told that they will not interfere with TicketMaster’s decision.
Let this be a warning to those people that charge their concert tickets on American Express.
I should have charged the tickets on Visa, because I know they will protect their customers.
However, the pleasure was short lived. A couple seated behind us, drinking the whole time, took all the pleasure out of the event. When Paul started to play all the other kids were standing on their seats in order to see. My 9 year old son, who is only about 3-3/4 ft. tall, asked my permission to stand on his seat, and I let him. The woman behind us complained even though she was sitting directly behind me and to the left of my son. She and her boyfriend complained that they would get security. I took it upon myself to talk to security as well and was told it was okay for him to stand on his seat.
After a few minutes the woman went to get another beer and returned, followed by security. Without a word to me, security abruptly pointed to my son and made him sit down. He started crying, curled up in his seat and eventually cried himself to sleep. He missed the entire concert because of a very disagreeable drunk. This event security person took it upon himself to make my son sit down even though hundreds of kids remained standing on their seats throughout the performance and no security person approached them. I could not explain to my son why all the other kids were allowed to get up on their seats but not him. I was very uncomfortable having this couple directly behind me holding beer bottles in their hands for the remainder of the concert since they had been very hostile toward us from the moment they sat down.
The ‘event security’ had a communication problem since they did not even agree among themselves whether children should be allowed to stand on their seats. There was no general communication that controlled this situation and it was not applied equally throughout the audience. My point is, security handled this incorrectly, they should first have gotten my attention before abruptly correcting my son. Next, the correction should have been equally applied to all. We were singled out among many to be the exception to the rule and it was my whole family that suffered. What was to have been a high point in our vacation was turned into a disaster.
Now I'm requesting Ticketmaster to reimburse me for the price of only me and my son’s tickets ($390.10). I feel it is only fair that I pay for my other son’s and wife’s tickets. I feel that TicketMaster, as the vendor providing the service should be responsible for this decision. I expect a contractor to be accountable for all subcontractors who render the services purchased. We were denied the right to enjoy the service provided even though others doing exactly the same thing were allowed to continue and enjoy the concert.
American Express has contacted TicketMaster several times and they have refused to give me a refund. They have even refused to a 3 way conference call with American Express and me, in order to resolve this issue.
Also, American Express does NOT protect their customers when they don’t receive the services their customers pay for. I contacted their legal department on this issue, and I was basically told that they will not interfere with TicketMaster’s decision.
Let this be a warning to those people that charge their concert tickets on American Express.
I should have charged the tickets on Visa, because I know they will protect their customers.
Comments:
Posted by SteveWiginowski on 2010-01-31:
This would be an issue with the security at the arena where the event was held. Your son and you had a seat, which you paid for. Ticketmaster can not control that your child is unable to see over people in front of him. Ticketmaster can also not control the people who are located around you.
Posted by ndrulez on 2010-01-31:
why didn't you switch seats with the people behind you? They would have upgraded 1 row and it would have been over. Sorry but I beleive you'll never get your money back.
Posted by Skye on 2010-01-31:
Why should you get a refund?? You got the benefit of the concert. It may not have been the best conditions that you enjoyed, by you still got to hear the concert.
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-01-31:
Ticketmaster has nothing to do with this. Your beef is with arena security. I would probably be filing a suit against the arena AND the security. And before I left, made sure to accidentally trip the rude drunk. Or at the least, complained to security yourself about their drunken antics.
One more question: WHY didn't you or your husband trade seats with your son? Two of the drunks and 4 of ya'll would have left two seats he could have watched the show in...
One more question: WHY didn't you or your husband trade seats with your son? Two of the drunks and 4 of ya'll would have left two seats he could have watched the show in...
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-01-31:
You're complaining about a concert that happened half a year a go? Anyway, I dont know why this complaint is about Ticketmaster. They just sell tickets. You should be writing this complaint about the jerks behind you. you can;t make everyone happy in the world. SOmeone has to make sacrifices, unfortunately it was at you and your son's expense. I'm sorry your son ended up having a lousy time, but there is really no one to blame here. The rules are the rules. Maybe you should blame Paul Mcartney for playing at that arena. If he never played there, you never would have bought the tickets and had a bad time. good greif. It happened 6 months a go. Get over it and let it go.
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-02-01:
While I believe the OP was excited to go to this concert, I'm having a tough time believing that a nine year old was excited about seeing someone whose career peaked twenty five years vefore he was born. I think the fact that he fell asleep in his seat says it all.
Posted by goduke on 2010-02-01:
The other kids may have been standing on their seats because no one was complaining about them. Aside from the potential liability issue of allowing kids to stand on chairs and possibly fall (you'd think that would be a concern), the venue is typically only going to have security deal with people when there is a complaint. That's just kind of how it goes. I myself am one of those "always stand up at concert" types of folks, but I can see why someone who paid a lot for a ticket would want to be able to see the whole show, and if someone in front of them is standing on a seat, it would be annoying. If I had kids who are young enough not to be able to see over folks, I'd probably think about getting seats off the floor, where the slope allows them to see over folks without blocking someone else's view.
Posted by goduke on 2010-02-01:
BTW...Ticketmaster is not the contractor. Ticketmaster is the subcontractor. The venue is the contractor of the event. They sub out the selling of the tix to Ticketmaster.
Posted by Inat on 2010-02-01:
i'm surprised the venue allowed beer bottles - most dont. Did you think the 'drunks' were going to hit you with them? Anyway, I would have jsut traded seats with them... concerts suck, to be honest - especially the cheap tickets. I'll only go if I can get the best seats aboce general admissions
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-02-01:
Inat, our local amphitheater sells beer in bottles, they are just plastic ones.
Posted by PepperElf on 2010-02-01:
i don't know about locally, but when i was in virginia beach i know the local amphitheater sold beer in plastic cups.
i know cos they don't actually pay the beer-servers at the concession stand. instead, organizations volunteer to man the stations & a percentage of the proceeds goes to your organization.
i still remember the rules...
no more than 2 beers a person, none for anyone who looks drunk, water bottles caps are removed before handing them over (so they don't litter the lawn with the caps), signs to look for with fake IDs etc.
personally, i wouldn't want to be drinking during a concert ... except maybe a jimmy buffet one. i'm usually there to hear the music not to drink overpriced crap beer
i know cos they don't actually pay the beer-servers at the concession stand. instead, organizations volunteer to man the stations & a percentage of the proceeds goes to your organization.
i still remember the rules...
no more than 2 beers a person, none for anyone who looks drunk, water bottles caps are removed before handing them over (so they don't litter the lawn with the caps), signs to look for with fake IDs etc.
personally, i wouldn't want to be drinking during a concert ... except maybe a jimmy buffet one. i'm usually there to hear the music not to drink overpriced crap beer
Posted by goduke on 2010-02-01:
Actually, Pepper, most of the drinking at Buffett events is before the concert......
Posted by redmx3racer on 2010-02-01:
All I can say is I would not be very happy if I had my view blocked by having someone, kid or adult, standing on a chair in front of me.
At best Security should have made the other "chair standers" sit down.
At best Security should have made the other "chair standers" sit down.
Posted by PepperElf on 2010-02-01:
hmm. don't sure if id wanna be drunk before he came on stage cos he does a long show.
story was that in the va beach concert he didn't want to stop playing, having too much fun
but the cops showed up i guess and asked him to stop cos the law prohibits concerts after 2300. (poo!)
story was that in the va beach concert he didn't want to stop playing, having too much fun
but the cops showed up i guess and asked him to stop cos the law prohibits concerts after 2300. (poo!)
Posted by goduke on 2010-02-01:
His shows nowadays are only a couple of hours. Jimmy's getting up there in entertainer years. Still does a pretty good show, though. He's in Florida and SC this month.
Posted by FlShopper on 2010-02-01:
You DID receive the services for which you paid Ticketmaster. You got the tickets and you went to the concert. They have no reason to issue a refund for any of the tickets.
Your beef is with the arena/security personnel. If you feel you should be reimbursed, speak to them about it.
Your beef is with the arena/security personnel. If you feel you should be reimbursed, speak to them about it.
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-02-01:
Ken, I have to disagree. I have a 16 year old daughter who has been rocking to Eric Clapton and Genesis/Phil Collins since she was 3-4 years old. Good music, or well our perception of it, is timeless.
Posted by goduke on 2010-02-01:
Can you really rock to Phil Collins?
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-02-01:
No.
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-02-01:
I saw genesis in the 80's. It was a yawner from the word go but then took an ugly turn when Phil Collins took off his shirt and started jiggling his man-boobs across stage. Take a look at me now -- I don't think so Buster.
MissMarple, When you say 'No' do you really mean 'Yes'?
MissMarple, When you say 'No' do you really mean 'Yes'?
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-02-01:
Well, we like them lol. And rocking is relative. Perhaps I should have said jammin. The point is, young children don't always like only Britney Spears or Backstreet Boys.
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-02-01:
People still listen to Britney Spears?
Posted by jktshff1 on 2010-02-01:
+10 mm on both comments
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-02-01:
Stew, would you like it NOW? And, I'm not talking about Phil Collins, pumpkin.
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-02-01:
I might use Phil Collins music to clean with, but to rock out to? *thinks*
Not so much.
*vomits to Britney Spears* I didn't like her even when she was popular.
Buttcrack Boys... the only boy band for me was New Kids on the Block. :-)
Not so much.
*vomits to Britney Spears* I didn't like her even when she was popular.
Buttcrack Boys... the only boy band for me was New Kids on the Block. :-)
Posted by goduke on 2010-02-01:
If you want to rock, listen to Cheap Trick. That's rock.
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-02-01:
LS, there is a huge difference in attention span between a 16 year old and a nine year old. To a nine year old, great rock music is Phineas and Ferb singing Chicka-chicka-boom
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-02-01:
When I was 9, my parents took me to the opera and to ballets and symphonies. I was really into all of it and could sit through it with no problems
Posted by Anonymous on 2010-02-01:
Ken, you missed the part where I said my daughter is NOW 16, but has listened to that music since she was a toddler. We took our 20 year old to see Billy Ray Cyrus when she was 5, her favorite at the time, and she had a blast.
Her attention span was just fine for that whole show, even when she got to meet him. THEN she turned shy, but still met him.
Her attention span was just fine for that whole show, even when she got to meet him. THEN she turned shy, but still met him.
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