Ticketmaster.com - cancellation without notice - "customer support" a joke

# 29 for April 16, 2003

Complaints.com received the following on April 15, 2003:

From: crystal hutchinson [Email User]

RE: Ticketmaster.com - cancellation without notice - "customer support" a joke On March 31,2003, a friend and I ordered "pre-sale" tickets from Ticketmaster.com for a concert on April 29. We went through a lot of trouble to be among the first buyers, and we got great seats in the fifth row. We paid using a debit card, we received a confirmation e-mail, and the money was taken from the account. We assumed everything was going as planned.

Some time later, we received an email saying that the billing address on the card was different from the mailing address that we gave them. This email had come about a week earlier; we're pretty much broke college students, and we didn't have Internet access in either of our homes at the time. We began calling and e-mailing Ticketmaster to try and rectify the problem. We soon realized that we had been ripped off. Ticketmaster had voided our tickets with no notification (Watch out! The "fine print" on their "policies" page allows for this!). They claimed that the bank would not verify the address for them. When we called the bank, however, to find out what address they had (we were baffled because there is only one address where we receive mail), we found out that the bank had the exact same billing address that we gave Ticketmaster.

When I called their customer service line, I very nicely explained that I was dissatisfied with the fact that we had lost our tickets. I asked them if there was any way that we could be placed in similar seats or if we could be notified if any similar seats went on sale(by this time the only seats available are on the second balcony, about sixty rows behind the ones we originally had). I was (very rudely) told in several different ways that this was all my fault, that they weren't liable for it, and that they didn't have to do anything to make it right. It seems that the main function of their "customer support" is to explain to the customer that they are wrong.

They told me that this policy is in place to protect the customer; if the addresses don't match, they assume that it is fraud. Why then, if they assumed that our order was fraudulent, did they take the payment out of the bank account? And why, if they care so much about protecting their customers, do they care so little about making the same customers happy?

They have promised to refund our money in ten days. Strangely enough, it only took them 15 hours to charge the account. But even if they could give us the money immediately, I would be unsatisfied. If we had wanted the money, we would have kept it in the first place. and if we had wanted nosebleed seats, we wouldn't have scrambled like maniacs to get pre-sale tickets. Ticketmaster has a monopoly over ticket sales in our area. They obviously don't feel the need to honor their promises or to please their customers; After all, what choice do we have? In fact, We have already ordered a second set of tickets...approximately fifty rows behind our first set. Of course, We had to order them from ticketmaster. There is no second option.

I have sent this complaint to several consumer-based web sites. In the process, I have discovered that I am not the only dissatisfied Ticketmaster customer. In fact, I believe thatr there are hundreds, if not thousands of customers who are just as dissatisfied as I am. I don't know what to do; I'm just about out of ideas. WHY ARE THEY ALLOWED TO DO THIS? And wouldn't they be considered a monopoly? Aren't monopolies illegal?

All I want at this point is to recieve some sort of fair treatment; I'm tired of being jerked around. I would be willing to volunteer for any project that could possibly force them to satisfy all of these disappointed consumers. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please contact me as soon as possible.

thanks,

Crystal Hutchinson

Email User

PO Box 84

Springfield,LA 70462