My luck with show tickets latest has been 0 for 2! Seriously the next time I even think about buying tickets for some kind of show or concert, I will remember this past month and think twice. I have never had such problems before to be honest. WTH !?!?!
About two weeks ago we were supposed to go see Lady Gaga in concert. Well as you may have heard, due to an injury, she had to cancel all upcoming performances. I got a refund on my tickets, minus all those service fees they love to tack on. Why is there a service fee for me to print my own tickets off at home? What the hell is that about? Frankly I don’t see how it’s legal for a venue to make money off a concert that never happened. Said venue then sold new tickets to a screening of a Lady Gaga concert on tape they were showing the same nights on their big screen in place of the concert . . . SHADY!
Tonight we were supposed to go see “Pricilla Queen of the Desert” in Philly. Hopefully we still are! But again, more ticket drama! Part of this was my own doing. I always consider myself a careful buyer of things online and don’t use shady sellers. Well it seems I thought I was buying tickets through the actual venue, when in fact it was a cleverly crafted fake front site who used multiple ticket brokers. I bought tickets at one price level, only to get a call this morning with this very lame excuse that something was wrong with my initial tickets (which I got in the mail) and they had to re-issue them. Because it was so late, they emailed them to me, and again it was all these excuses that “They were sorry” and “The vendor just contacted them about the ticket problems this morning.” Shocker . . . the new tickets were at a much reduced price level and crummy seats! Call after call, nothing could be done, “so sorry, this was the events doing not ours.” Yeah right! I talked to the actual place putting on the show, which is where I learned I had not actually bought it through them, and they said this happens with these companies, and I should dispute the charges with my credit card company as they couldn’t do anything. So I put in a dispute with my credit card.
However as the day went on, this whole thing smelled of a scam. I grew more and more angry . . . how do you issue me tickets then have to reissue them? It sounds to me like they sold my original tickets to someone else for MORE money and stiffed me! I made a lot of calls, the scam got deeper. Multiple companies seemed to be involved. I finally am supposedly getting SOME of my money refunded. I wanted it all back, as the show is NOT sold out and I probably could have gotten better tickets AND at a cheaper price. Actually I KNOW I can. However at this point, the initial tickets were bought so long ago, and my bank said they would attempt to get a refund but it wasn’t guaranteed. This company got their money long ago as is. I basically had to cut my losses and get whatever money back I could and hope the tickets they gave me work. Oh I have not cancelled the dispute with my credit card and them mind you, so if the tickets aren’t good, or I don’t get the exact amount refunded back I was promised (not enough in my opinion mind you) then I will still go through with it. I don’t know how these companies get away with this either. I plan to also follow up with a better business bureau filing as well.
Lesson learned, a hard lesson, and one I thought I was careful enough not to get duped by in the first place!