Complaint Review: TICKETMASTER - Nationwide

On 10/28/2002 I ordered 6 tickets from Ticketmaster for the 1/12/03 Rolling Stones Boston concert. These tickets were ordered as two separate orders....1) 4 tickets for $663, Order # 27-47531/NY2 and 2) 2 tickets for $327, Order # 27-47531/NY2. I selected US Mail delivery on the order.

In mid-Nov I checked online and noticed that the status of the tickets was "printed". I called Ticketmaster to find out when the tickets would be mailed and was told they were mailed on 10/30/02. When I informed them that I had not received them yet I was told to just "wait". I specifically asked how they knew they were actually mailed. Ticketmaster responded that they had no record of mailing...only printing.

A week later and the tickets were not still not received. I called Ticketmaster to inform them that I had not received any tickets and asked for a replacement set. They informed me that they would not issue a replacement set but would issue a lost ticket voucher that I would have to personally pick up the day of the show in Boston.

I informed Ticketmaster that I did not live in Boston (I live in Dallas) and that I would not be in Boston for the show to pick the tickets up. (I had ordered the tickets as gifts). I told Ticketmaster that I placed the ordered to be delivered to me....not for me to go pick them up. I informed Ticketmaster that if that was the only alternative that I wanted a credit back to my AMEX and that they could resell the tickets. The person on the phone said that they could not do that. I asked to talk to a supervisor and was put on hold. Twenty minutes later I hung up after no supervisor would pick up the phone.

I then sent two different emails to Ticketmaster customer service via their own website requesting replacement tickets. One email was responded to with a computer generated email that did not even address the topic, the other was never responded to.

By the first week of December I still had not received responses from Ticketmaster so I refuted the charges with AMEX. On Jan 8th, I received a phone call from "Sharon" at Ticketmaster. Sharon had called me to question AMEX's contact regarding the refuted charge. When I called Sharon back and tried to explain the situation to her she was extremely rude and did nothing but spew out the "company line" that I would have to go pick up the "lost ticket voucher in Boston".

I specifically asked for documentation from Ticketmaster that they had even mailed the tickets in the first place. Sharon said that they had no such documentation. I told her that I could maybe understand how "1" set would be lost but that I had "2" different sets lost which led me to believe that they were never mailed in the first place.

Now here's the clencher.....Sharon's reponse was "they may not have been mailed. They may have been lost within Ticketmaster". I told her again that I needed documentation that they were mailed. She stated that her documentation was that I placed the order. I said, my placing the order and Ticketmaster actually mailing the tickets were two separate events. Bottom line is, I fulfilled my end of the contract by paying $990 and Ticketmaster did not provide the tickets purchased.

I continue to refute the charges with AMEX. I give up hope of any ethical response from Ticketmaster in terms of a refund for the tickets that I purchased but will go unused. I will write the BBB and Attorney General's office in every state that Ticketmaster does business in and report their fruadulent activities. I will also write every Congressman and ask that the laws be changed to protect the consumer of these unethical business practices. I am also investigating legal recourse.

Lisa

Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.