Tickets for sell-out performances at the Public

I’m in NYC from London for a couple of days next month celebrating a birthday. I’d booked a pair of seats for a Saturday matinee of Soft Power but, unbeknownst to me, a friend has booked something else for us that day.

I checked the Public’s website and the performance is sold out, as are the majority of dates in October. I emailed the box office and asked if it would be possible to put my seats up for resale, assuming that there’d be a fee for doing so but also reasoning that they would be of use to someone, given how heavily booked the show already is.

I received back a (admittedly very polite) email declaring that they don’t take returns but that for a $5 per ticket fee I can exchange to another performance subject to availability (there are no seats available for my entire visit) or that I could nominate a friend to go instead (all my NYC mates are either tied up with this birthday or already have Soft Power tickets).

The third option I was given was that I could “donate” them back to the Public for which I would receive a letter of thanks. (Er....YOU’RE WELCOME) I emailed back to ask if the Public WOULD then resell the tickets anyway but keep my money. They haven’t replied...

Is this normal practise in New York theatres? Genuine question. I have worked in West End theatre my whole adult life and have never heard of such a thing. Over here, if you give tickets back to resell and they are successful you get the cost, less admin fee, either credited back to the original card, or handed over in cash.

Refusing to even attempt to resell seats but being willing to take them back as a “donation” and presumably selling them on then strikes me of rotten customer service at the least, and really unfair. I know, I know ‘first world problems’ etc. Just wondering if anybody else has any experiences/thoughts around this?

I’ve put them up for resale over on the BBW Buying & Selling board in case anybody is after a pair.

ajh said: "The third option I was given was that I could “donate” them back to the Public for which I would receive a letter of thanks. (Er....YOU’RE WELCOME)I emailed back to ask if the Public WOULD then resell the tickets anyway but keep my money. They haven’t replied...

Is this normal practise in New York theatres? Genuine question. I have worked in West End theatre my whole adult life and have never heard of such a thing. Over here, if you give tickets back to resell and they are successful you get the cost, less admin fee, either credited back to the original card, or handed over in cash.

Refusing to even attempt to resell seats but being willing to take them back as a “donation” and presumably selling them on then strikes me of rotten customer service at the least, and really unfair. I know, I know ‘first world problems’ etc. Just wondering if anybody else has any experiences/thoughts around this?

I’ve put them up for resale over on the BBW Buying & Selling board in case anybody is after a pair."

It's usually non-profit theaters that do the "donate your ticket" practice. The Thank You letter is for tax purposes, which isn't helpful to you as you're from abroad. I've had that option given to me before at Roundabout as well as Arena Stage in DC. I ended up just trying to make it work (either going to that performance or exchanging for another date) nd yes, the return ticket is put back in their inventory for them to sell again. But as haterobics mentioned, check back closer to the dates of when you can go, tickets might become available for you to exchange into.

I don't know the current resell practice at commercial shows but I do remember buying a resell ticket from the Box Office at Matilda back in the day. I had to run to the ATM to get cash for it. That's a curious practice to me as I feel like the Box Office staff might be too busy to deal with all that but maybe not.

Genuine thanks to you all for the thoughtful and helpful responses. Might indeed check out the Stubhub option. I used to be so principled about using that but times is ‘ard, what with Brexit and everything

Updated On: 9/10/19 at 03:13 AM