They Stole My Dignity

Oh boy. This is a fun one.

So some of you know I have a bad back and because of this I often walk with a cane.

When things are good they are ok but when they are bad I can’t stand for long periods of time. Most of the time I am in some form of pain. This makes certain things in life difficult – one of them is going to rock concerts.

I’ve had my share of aggravations in the past and I have learned that it is possible to get accessible seating – usually in the front row of a section where there is only a rail in front of you and you can sit for the entire concert without your view blocked. Usually this is a balcony – sometimes they even set up folding chairs next to where they put the wheelchairs.

Previous horror stories abound.

Fleetwood Mac is coming to town and I really wanted to see them. I missed them once a few years ago and Lindsey Buckingham is one of my favorite performers (I got to see him a few years ago and it was great – seating troubles at that one too).

So I go online to ticketmaster and I click the accessible seats box – fill out the form – explain my need for limited mobility seating (walk with a cane – can’t stand for long periods) and hit submit.

I get a reply saying they will work on it and get back to me.

An hour later I get a reply saying I need a prerelease code.

So I reply with one.

Then they ask me for a prerelease code.

So I reply with one.

Then they ask me for a prerelease code.

So I reply with one.

This is not a cut and paste error – this is the actual back and forth.

Then they tell me that they are all out of accessible prerelease tickets and that I need to email them again in the morning.

In the morning they get back to me with an offer of two seats and the ability to purchase them within 2 days. So far so good. Problem is – you can’t see on the map exactly where the seats are just what section (very far from the stage BTW) and I have been placed behind people before and still told it was ‘accessible’.

So I emailed them asking if they could clarify what is in front of me. Since the website only was general could they tell me more about the location of the seats.

They emailed me back telling me that they don’t have a better map and that I need to go in person to a sales office where they might have one.

Now I admit I got angry at this point. Because

1) If you don’t know where these seats are then how do you know that they meet my accessibility needs? (Which were clear in the email)

2) Did you really just email someone who has been identified as limited mobility and tell them they had to physically go somewhere for more information?

They emailed me back saying they could be of no further assistance and to call the arena.

I emailed them back asking who I registered a complaint with and …. no emails anymore.

So I called the arena and they were very nice and told me that the section ‘should’ have a clear view if I was sitting. I then asked about the sections that I normally sat it – the balcony near the stage – and she told me that she couldn’t help me there and to talk to ticketmaster.

So I emailed Ticketmaster again – no reply.

So I called Ticketmaster and the guy told me he could only talk about the tickets that were available and only those. I asked if they had every been available. He said he couldn’t say. At this point I wanted to know if during the whole send your code – here is your code – send your code fiasco I lost out on better accessible seating. He said he couldn’t tell me.

So he sent me to a supervisor – who had the entire transcript in front of her – and I tried to ask her about it and she started to yell at me.

She told me that Ticketmaster had more than one concert to deal with, that she couldn’t comment on online customer service because it was a separate division, that it was the promoters fault for not providing enough ticket and at one point said:

“Listen, I’m sorry that your in a wheelchair but this all we can do for you.”

Nice. I told her I didn’t expect much from them – that Ticketmaster had always been a pain in the ass – that I knew it was bad before I had my accessibility problems but I expected them to be able to at least answer my concern:

Did I lose out on better seats because of the screw up from the online customer service that is documented on THEIR server in an email transcript?

She told me that it was none of my business.

So I emailed the promoter – LiveNation. I have to say that even though they were useless they were very nice. They listed to my entire story – offered a kind apology and then pointed their finger back at Ticketmaster, The Arena, and the band’s management.

With everyone having no authority – its amazing these concerts even go on!

At the end of the day – I have tickets – I paid good money for a distant view that in theory is unblocked.

If you got this far and wonder why I go through the aggravation – it is simply that I would rather be aggravated now and be sure I had good seats – then show up to the concert and have some guy stand in front of me for two hours who got his seats somewhere else.

The supervisor’s attitude was so angry and her words were so rude and wrong.

I have since found out that the ONLY way to complain to Ticketmaster is in a letter.

Trust me its coming….