Adding to the Spider-Man Controversy

[billyboyA]

Posted: 1/2/11 at 11:53am

As if Spider-Man doesn't have ENOUGH controversy, Ticketmaster is now SCAMMING ticket buyers with bogus promo codes.

There are two published promo codes for discount tickets to Spider-Man. When you go to their website and input either code, you get the message "Offer Code Accepted!", and then a prompt to click to see the available seats.

Then the seating chart comes up and there are some nice seats available at the discounted price. So you choose your seat (for me this is a lengthy process of "do I want to see the actors faces up close, or a wider visual perspective"). Once you choose your seat, Ticketmaster then confirms the seat and the price, and you think you're about to pay. But first you have to put in one of those wiggly looking nonsensical code words, and then the system pauses and follows with a LENGTHY (I'll quote it below) pop up box starting with the words "Uh Oh", to tell you that you can't GET the ticket you chose.

I thought this was perhaps a glitch on the seat that I wanted. So I tried a different seat. Same lengthy process, same bad result. So I changed dates (I live in NYC and can see it whenever I want). Same problem.

Ticketmaster TELLS you that there are these awesome seats and then WASTES your time going through the process, only to yank it out from you before you can pay.

I wasted literally a couple of HOURS trying to get it work during ANY date during January for one of the good seats it was showing. No luck. Only wasted time.

So I CALLED these idiots. Got a nice guy on the phone and told him what was going on. Gave him both codes. He said "yes, the codes are good", and then offered me a rear side orchestra seat. But I told him that the WEBSITE was showing front orchestra seats - and I told him which seats exactly. He looked at those seats and said that his system ALSO said those seats were available with the code, but only for the FULL price.

WTF?

Why do you need a CODE to buy a Full Price Seat?

That was last Wednesday. I asked him to please tell his superiors about the problem and about the AGGRAVATION of having your time wasted like that. He said he would.

Today, I thought I'd try again.

Same freaking problem.

GREAT seats showing available. But can you PURCHASE them? Nope! You can only waste time going through the steps...

Why even SHOW these seats as available? Why waste our time?

I guess Ticketmaster just feels that there isn't yet ENOUGH controversy over Spider-Man and that they should do THEIR share to piss off people too.

Idiots.

[billyboyA]

Posted: 1/2/11 at 11:55am

I forgot to post the message that comes up when you try to buy the ticket. This is an exact quote/copy/paste from their site:

Uh-oh!

Sorry, your selected seats are about to be removed for one of two reasons:

* Another fan beat you to ‘em. Seats you select aren’t officially reserved until you click “Checkout” and pass the security check, which means another fan can still purchase them. Please try again.
* We couldn’t fulfill your order on this map. Please try different seats, or different ticket options for the same seats. If that doesn’t work, please click “Choose Seats for Me” (top right) and we’ll search best available based on your input.

So, Ticketmaster, you're telling me that for two HOURS there were other fans successfully buying ALL of those seats ahead of me? Yet, you never show that those seats are purchased on your seating map?

Again... idiots!!