I am writing in complete frustration over the lack of professionalism at Ticketmaster. I can honestly say that in all of my dealings with any customer service department or supervisors, Ticketmaster has far surpassed all others in lack of customer service. I will give the details of everything that transpired.
My husband and I called Ticketmaster on our way to Dodger Stadium in Arizona on Friday, March 16th. We had not received our tickets in the mail and called to have the tickets held at will-call for us to pick up. We were told this was no problem as long as we could verify who we were. The representative asked me for my order number, which I did not have with me. He then asked me for my credit card number to locate the order. At the time I was not sure whether I had used my debit card or my credit card, so I gave him my debit card numbers, and none of those were correct. I then realized that it was my credit card and I did not have that with me. He said he could look up the order using the venue and then my name, and then he could verify the last 4 digits of the credit card.
Once he found my order, he asked me for the last 4 digits of my credit card, which I provided. He said this was not correct. I kept telling him that it was correct and gave him my name and the last 4 digits again. He again said it was not correct. After being on the phone with him for over 30 minutes, I told him I would call my bank and call him back to verify once again. I called State Farm Bank, which is the provider of my credit card. State Farm verified that the last 4 digits of my credit card were correct and were the same ones I had been giving the Ticketmaster representative. State Farm could not provide me with the full credit card number, as that is against their policy, but they did verify that the last 4 digits I was providing to Ticketmaster were correct. They also verified the charges to my account for the tickets purchased and gave me the transaction ID number.
I then contacted Ticketmaster a second time and spoke to another representative. We went through the entire conversation once again, and I gave him the last 4 digits of my credit card. He too said it was incorrect. I explained that I had my license and other forms of ID on me, along with any information he needed to verify my Ticketmaster account. None of this was acceptable. After an hour of frustration, and the Ticketmaster representative refusing to release my tickets to me at the venue, I got the bank on my husband's cell phone at the same time as Ticketmaster so we could speak to both together. I told the Ticketmaster representative that I could provide him with the transaction ID number from the bank, but he would not accept that. So, after another hour of being on the phone and being very frustrated, Ticketmaster would not release my tickets to me.
At this point I asked the representative what to do because we were at the venue and I needed my tickets. He said there was nothing he could do and he needed to hang up if we could not get him the correct information. I told him I was giving him the correct information and that he had incorrect information on his end, but he was not willing to do anything at all for us. I then told him that I would deal with it when I got home from our vacation and that I was extremely upset, because I had never heard of not being able to get my tickets when I was giving him all of the information requested. I was so upset that I did not even want to go in and watch the game, which had already started. We had family with us and they were all inside the stadium. My sister came out very upset at the entire ordeal and purchased 2 tickets for us to get into the game, since you would not release my tickets to me.
We got back from our vacation and I did some more research on my credit card to verify once again that the tickets had been charged to my card and that I was giving correct information to the Ticketmaster representative. I also found my order confirmation and confirmed the same information. I went to work on March 29th and called Ticketmaster with all of the information and asked for a refund of the tickets that you would not give me the day of the event. The representative said she could not give a refund as the event had already passed. I had to explain the situation once again to her and asked to speak to a supervisor or manager.
Now here is an even crazier story than everything that happened to us at the event. I was given to a manager by the name of Gabriel, whose ID code is ZYS806. I had this entire conversation in my office with 3 of my co-workers as witnesses. I have to admit, they too were very surprised at the conversation and the outcome of this entire ordeal. I explained my situation to Gabriel, letting him know that Ticketmaster would not release my tickets to me on the day of the event and that I was requesting a refund. Once I explained everything to him, he asked me for the cell phone number I used to contact Ticketmaster, as he had to verify the conversation had taken place on that day. He said he was going to do some research and listen to the recorded conversation to prove that I had provided all of the correct information and this was all legitimate. At this point I was very pleased, as I knew he would be able to prove my story and issue me a refund. He said he would call me back that same day, so I gave him my work phone number along with my cell phone number. Needless to say, I did not get a return call from Gabriel.
Since I do not work on Friday and I had kept all of my notes at work from our previous conversation, I waited until Monday, April 4th to call Gabriel back. When I called, the representative who answered said that Gabriel was not working but she would take a message for him to call me back the next day, on Tuesday, April 5th. Once again, Gabriel did not call me back, so I called him on Tuesday. I again had my co-workers listen to the conversation, and this is where it gets absolutely crazy. When I asked Gabriel why he did not call me back, he said that I was not the person he talked to on March 29th. He said that he spoke to a Marsha. I asked him if maybe he got my conversation confused with another conversation he had that same day. He said no, he did not. He said he remembered the conversation he had and I was someone different, that he had spoken to Marsha and not Kelly.
I explained to him that I do not even know a Marsha and maybe he got confused when I used my husband's name, Michael, in the conversation, but I was the person he talked to, Kelly. He was actually being quite rude in his efforts to argue with me that he talked to Marsha and not Kelly. After getting very frustrated that I was dealing with an incompetent manager who was arguing with me, stating I was someone else, I found him absolutely rude, demeaning, and very unprofessional. The women in my office were even laughing when they heard me explaining to Gabriel that I was Kelly and not some Marsha that he was trying to say he spoke to about my situation.
Now that I am at this point of frustration in my dealings with Ticketmaster, I want to make myself very clear in stating that your company is very unprofessional and very rude when handling a customer complaint. I have never been so ridiculed by a representative in my entire life of dealing with a company. Your lack of training for your employees in teaching them how to be professional and courteous is absolutely unacceptable. I am sending you this letter to express this concern, but it will also be sent to the Better Business Bureau when I file my complaint, as well as to Channel 5 News, Channel 13 Action News, and possibly even YouTube. I will forward it to State Farm Bank when I dispute the charges on my credit card as well. I have no doubt that because of the size of Ticketmaster, you take advantage of patrons just like me, and that there are many, many more frustrated consumers.
To continue with my story, I told Gabriel that I was not Marsha and that he did talk to me, so let us just move forward and get to the point of my calling. I asked him why he did not call me back and he said that he called the number I gave him, but there was no option for a Marsha. I said, of course there is not, because there is no Marsha here, but there is a Kelly, and that would have been me. So I told him, can we move on. I wanted to know what he found out when he listened to the recorded conversations.
Now here is the real kicker! After going through all of this craziness with Ticketmaster, he tells me that he cannot disclose the findings to me. I really had to laugh at this point, because I was either going to go crazy or just laugh. I could not believe that he originally told me he would listen to the conversation and get back to me, and then he is saying he cannot tell me anything. So, once again, I asked him what to do next, as that conversation is what would get me my refund. He just told me to pursue it with my credit card company. How absolutely ridiculous is that! Without staying on the phone any longer and continuing to get ridiculous responses from your incompetent representative, I told Gabriel that I was very frustrated and upset at the entire dealings and outcome with Ticketmaster. I told Gabriel I would call my credit card company, but I also told him to have his manager call me so I could discuss this with someone higher up than him. I also told Gabriel to make sure his manager knew that my name was Kelly, and I again gave him my phone number. Guess what? I still have not received a return call from his manager.
Can you believe this? It just goes to show that I am completely correct in all of my statements about Ticketmaster and your lack of professionalism or concern for your customers. I will also say that I will never again purchase anything through Ticketmaster. I will go anywhere else and even pay more money to avoid any further dealings with your company.
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