In March, I wrote an article in Yorkton This Week explaining my displeasure over my purchasing experience of paperless tickets through the Ticketmaster website for the Iron Maiden concert to be held on June 29th.
The article didn't go over well with the folks at Ticketmaster and I found myself on the telephone with a representative from Toronto as well as one from Los Angeles as they better explained that Ticketmaster is merely an agent and doesn't determine the method on how to sell tickets.
Either way, I quickly discovered that I don't like paperless tickets as it really handicaps one's ability to buy tickets as a gift for someone, which is what I had done. I should point out I take full responsibility for not reading the fine print as I assumed closer to concert time I would be able to make arrangements so that the person the gift was intended for could go to the show without me. However, I soon realized that would not be the case. When you buy paperless tickets, the only way you can get into the show is to bring the credit card used at the time of purchase as well as photo ID. No exceptions.
I belly ached about this to an agent in Saskatoon through an email and was informed via email in March from the CUC Message Centre stating (this is word for word) :
If you have tickets in the PAPERLESS section, the
credit card holder is the only person who can
access the tickets at the door. If you cannot
attend, for a fee of 45.00 per ticket, you can
change your order to another credit card and a new
name. Please contact 938-7800 to make this
happen.
Thanks.
I got a subsequent email that states:
Oops - my apologies. The cost is $5.00 per ticket
- TYPO!!!
In June, when I was ready to have the tickets moved to my friend's name, I made the phone call to the number given and explained the situation. The particular agent on the other end of the phone was excellent as far as manners and overall customer service is concerned, but I could tell this was foreign to her pretty much right away. After a few minutes she deferred to her superior, the individual that wrote me the email, and I was told by that person there would be no way of exchanging the tickets at all. The reason being was that in my original email in March, I didn't specify that I had used a fan club password to get the seats. My response was a question that was along the lines of, "So you mean I have to come close to having a law degree just to buy tickets for a concert?" She said, "Yes, pretty much as you have to understand all the fine print and I won't be able to do anything for you because you never told me these tickets were bought through the fan club password."
So, I was pretty choked as I had received an email saying they'd make the switch (not happy about the extra $5 per ticket charge either, but oh well) and now they are saying they won't, even though I have an email that says otherwise.
I think my saving grace was the woman in Toronto, who I had talked to originally about the Yorkton This Week article. I emailed her seeing if there was anything that could be done and within minutes it was fixed. I am, eternally, grateful to her.
The story doesn't end there, though. When it came time to go to the concert, my friend showed his card and ID at the door and guess what? It didn't work. As a back-up plan, I sent him to the show with a record of my purchase as well as my credit card used at the time of the original sale in March. Without that record of my purchase, he and his family would not have been able to see the concert. Then, when our credit card statements came at the end of the month, we realized the gift ($400) was charged to his card. So, an act of kindness on my behalf (purchase four tickets to Iron Maiden and sending him to the show) has now become his headache as his card was billed for the full price of the tickets, plus the $20 to have the tickets changed from my name to his name so he could get in (which he almost wasn't able to do).
What a disaster.
I guess, at the end of the day, I understand the need for coming up with ways to circumvent the ticket scalper. I get it. But, the Iron Maiden concert was only partially paperless. What good is a concert that is partially paperless? If there are actual tickets available, then you are going to get scalpers. For fun, I checked EBay prior to the show and sure enough, they were on there going for twice the face value.
I learned a fair bit from this experience. I don't have Ticketmaster as high on my list of 'bad guy businesses' as I once did despite the huge screw up at the gate and the attempted renege on the March email that said they'd move the tickets out of my name and into my friend's. The higher ups in Toronto and Los Angeles were straight forward, honest, and easy to understand.
However, I won't do a paperless ticket. I don't need to see a concert that bad. Even if I buy it and it stays in my name (I will never do the gift thing, EVER again).
I get the feeling Ticketmaster is not totally gung ho on paperless tickets; but if the band and their agents insist on it, then there isn't a whole lot they can do.
The thing is, I don't really have an alternative suggestion either. I just think if airlines (air security is as tight as you get) allow you to print your ticket at home then there must be a way to do this in a way that still reduces scalping. I'm wondering without giving this a whole lot of thought, but what if tickets were personalized and there was a limit of 4 tickets per house-hold and if people who have a habit of moving tickets around into other names are somehow 'flagged' and then given warnings to quit this practice or else they will not be issued tickets......
Feel free to post thoughts and suggestions.
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