I am still waiting to hear back from Ticketmaster after they double booked the Katherine Jenkins concert tickets I purchased several weeks ago as a Christmas present for my music loving pa–in-law.
I had an email from them last week offering an upgrade, so I wasn’t too concerned. However, when the tickets arrived, I noted that they were inferior seats at the back of the stalls and actually cost less than the circle seats in row D which I had carefully selected to have the best possible view.
This is what Ticketmaster said in their email: “Due to an allocation error on behalf of the venue, the seats originally confirmed to you at the time of booking are no longer available. Therefore, we have upgraded you to seats in the stalls, the details of which will be printed on your tickets, which have been dispatched.”
I have no idea who double booked my tickets, whether it was Ticketmaster or the Ipswich Regent Theatre, but as my booking and payment was with Ticketmaster, I have asked them to allocate us better seats as the replacement seats are too far back for pa-in-law, and am still waiting to hear back. We really wanted this to be a very special evening for him.
I have purchased many tickets from Ticketmaster before and this is the first time I have had a problem. And, “as the world’s leading live entertainment ticketing and marketing company,” this kind of thing must happen from time to time, I can understand that mistakes happen.
What I object to is being offered inferior seats which cost cost than my original booking, albeit by a small amount. We have been downgraded instead of having the promised upgrade.
Ticketmaster’s Facebook site does not welcome tricky questions from clients, it is purely there for fans to say how wonderful the company is and encourages customers with difficulties to contact their customers services department.
I thought I would first try its Twitter site, and found that other customers were having problems too. Like me, they were asked to DM Ticketmaaster so they could come directly back. I did that three days ago and included my phone number, and haven’t heard a peep from them since.
I am now waiting to hear back from Ticketmasters’ customers services department where someone called Phil last Thursday fired off an email about this on my behalf – I cannot understand why he could not resolve the problem himself – and he has phoned me twice to say nobody has replied. Meanwhile, the countdown to Christmas is getting closer and closer…
In tweetspeak #ticketmasterfail #ipswichregentfail
Ah I remember those days gone by, those much ridiculed days, when you could phone a business and speak to a real person who would actually deal with your problem in a manner of courteous helpfulness. I’m surprised you didn’t speak to someone for whom english is not their 1st language as they are in fact in India or S.Africa. Best luck, Ellee x
PS: can I just add that when I have spoken to staff based in India and S.Africa they were lovely; polite, apologetic and as helpful as they could be.
Pip, not only is it horrendously difficult, but you also have to pay premium telephone rates.
I will keep you posted. They did email me within 3 hours of this post being published yesterday, but I have heard nothing since.
Premium phone rates!! I hope you hear from Ticketmaster soon. Yes please keep us posted, Ellee.
I hope you sort it out in time so the present is not spoiled…
Good luck with that – terrible service
I’m hoping I have a result, but not without considerable difficulty, and only after I pulled strings as a last resort. I subscribe to a database which lists the management contact details for celebrities so I contacted Katherine Jenkins’ management company and had emails from 3 different people in response; I did copy a few in.
I was told that I could expect a call from the Ipswich theatre to resolve the “haphazard” way my problem had been handled. The call came and I reached an agreement after we were offered a box – which includes an extra free place for an additional guest – plus a bottle of champagne for the interval.
It shows it’s not what you know, but who you know, and it makes me wonder how others manage when they don’t have the same resources available to them. It shouldn’t have to be that to reach a fair conclusion.
Katherine Jenkins has an ace team behind her and I am grateful for their support. Thanks too to the theatre, though they failed to respond until prodded.
I’m afraid that Ticketmaster gets no stars from me, it’s far too corporate and impersonal and cares nothing about customer satisfaction. I got the feeling they were just ticking boxes in their approach.
Ticketmaster seems to be very autonomous, Ellee. Their word for ‘upgraded actually meant ‘moved to somewhere nobody had wanted to be seated’.
Merry Christmas Ellee, from a wet and cold Blue Mountains!