AmericanaramA Credit Card Entry - Take THAT, Ticketbastard!

[APR]

Good call by ericm on resorting to cheap lawn tix and then making your way to your real seats with the print out.  Also good suggestion by Woldie.

It can't hurt to have the actual credit card on you.  I don't think your boyfriend's dad would accuse him of credit card fraud or whatever thing TM said you would doing illegally if you possessed that credit card. 

My Radiohead tickets were paperless (in my name with my credit card).  But my point is that he people at the venue were in such a rush they just swiped my credit card and let me in.  They didn't ask for ID or even look at the credit card I handed to them to check my name, etc.  Of course that is one example, but if the people are busy they might just blow by the details of checking everything.  What a supervisor says at a 800 number might not be what occurs at the venue when thousands of people are arriving at about the same time.

[tdb810]

Never give up! EVER!

[johnnYYac]

I had 4 tickets to a sold-out aftershow for Newport Folk Fest weekend.  I can't go so I arranged to transfer them to another forum member, despite them being will call and NO TRANSFERS being the policy.  I gave her this letter and the email confirmation to take to the box office. 



I should think having the person who bought your tickets do the same (use my letter as a template), and include the line that you already arranged this with someone from Ticketmaster customer service ("we were told by TM customer service to present this letter in order to get the tickets we got as a gift"), should do the trick.  The key is be confident and be respectful.  Act like its all set.  Good luck!

[ericm]

That might work John, but the big problem I see for the OP is these aren't tix held at will call. They're "paperless" which means instead of tix being scanned at entry, you need the CC to be swiped at entry, the seat info gets printed out in a small,receipt like stub, and in you go.

It would be great if their family member could somehow get that CC to them, and then they'd be all set. I don't ever think I had to show ID at any paperless show, unless there was a problem. That  happened once when the swipe thing ran out of paper after printing out the 1st of my two stubs. The usher walked me to a table with a laptop, they looked up my order, checked the CC and ID, and gave me two hard tix for my seats. Every other time I only needed the CC.

Like Apr said, the people working doors are too busy to check. They don't check ID when scanning tix, and they don't when swiping CC's either. Here's hoping the OP can get a hold of the purchaser's CC.

[rolliefingers]

my buddy who lived up north had a ticket for the west palm show in his name.  a few days before he couldnt make it down b/c of an emergency.  he got on the phone and bitched his face off until they sent him a emailed copy of his ticket.  he bought the ticket with a NY address and NY had a class action suit against livenation over the whole paperless ticket thing.  he basically just mentioned the lawsuit to them and how he had a ny address and they were bending over backwards to accodate him.  just bring up the lawsuit and the supervisor should make it happen for you. hope this helps

http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/lawsuit/TicketMaster-paperless-ticketing-lawsuit.html?opt=b&utm_expid=3607522-2.QRdCdW42SWGLZa0nRc6K3w.1&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CD0QFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.lawyersandsettlements.com%252Flawsuit%252FTicketMaster-paperless-ticketing-lawsuit.html%26ei%3D827oUYvPKZPM9gT_t4GQCg%26usg%3DAFQjCNGseJV1GhbW1Wkd90jsdD9ZX1vrzQ%26bvm%3Dbv.49478099%2Cd.eWU#.UehvVZVgtEc

[finagler]

my buddy who lived up north had a ticket for the west palm show in his name.  a few days before he couldnt make it down b/c of an emergency.  he got on the phone and bitched his face off until they sent him a emailed copy of his ticket.  he bought the ticket with a NY address and NY had a class action suit against livenation over the whole paperless ticket thing.  he basically just mentioned the lawsuit to them and how he had a ny address and they were bending over backwards to accodate him.  just bring up the lawsuit and the supervisor should make it happen for you. hope this helps

http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/lawsuit/TicketMaster-paperless-ticketing-lawsuit.html?opt=b&utm_expid=3607522-2.QRdCdW42SWGLZa0nRc6K3w.1&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CD0QFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.lawyersandsettlements.com%252Flawsuit%252FTicketMaster-paperless-ticketing-lawsuit.html%26ei%3D827oUYvPKZPM9gT_t4GQCg%26usg%3DAFQjCNGseJV1GhbW1Wkd90jsdD9ZX1vrzQ%26bvm%3Dbv.49478099%2Cd.eWU#.UehvVZVgtEc

MEOW YOU'RE TALKIN. thanks much to everyone...hope to update soon with any news but you all have reminded me of the power of community against corporations. LOVE Y'ALL.

[finagler]

UPDATE:

Boyfriend's mom (cardholder) called Ticketmaster and they were also rude to her and offered her the same shi++y solution: put yourself at risk so the company is free of responsibility, and too bad.

Ticketbastard = 

Also, I filed a complaint with the BBB, which TM is registered with, and they let me know they forwarded my complaint on to the company. I expect nothing to come of this...but I couldn't let it go.

[bartel]

ok so now I have another ticket issue.. my wife who bought the tickets may not be able to attend which leaves me stranded without a solution. brilliant!

[ericm]

ok so now I have another ticket issue.. my wife who bought the tickets may not be able to attend which leaves me stranded without a solution. brilliant!

If she can't go, I'm sure your wife will let you take her CC to the show.  As I said earlier, almost every single show I had "paperless" tix for, they never asked for ID. They just need the CC to swipe at entry. Hard tix left at Will Call however, almost always ask for a photo ID and the CC.

[ericm]

UPDATE:

Boyfriend's mom (cardholder) called Ticketmaster and they were also rude to her and offered her the same shi++y solution: put yourself at risk so the company is free of responsibility, and too bad.

Ticketbastard = 

Also, I filed a complaint with the BBB, which TM is registered with, and they let me know they forwarded my complaint on to the company. I expect nothing to come of this...but I couldn't let it go.

I totally get your frustration, but frankly I don't get filing a complaint with the BBB unless it was about their rudeness.  I'm no fan of TicketBastard, but their "paperless" policy is clearly spelled out. If they changed to "paperless" after the sale, when you were expecting hard tix to be mailed to you,then I would agree that you would have a gripe, and a BBB complaint has merit. However, I don't see how TM did anything wrong here, unless again your complaint is about their rudeness.

The entrance, and non- transferring is why there are paperless tix to begin with. It was an attempt to keep the best tix away from scalpers. Every show at a LN venue has this policy for the tour as far as I know.

[finagler]

FINAL UPDATE:

Submitting a complaint to the BBB was successful. A very nice woman called my boyfriend's mother to verify that as the cardholder she is aware of this issue, and to let her know TM would be issuing a full refund and also re-releasing the tickets online, which my boyfriend repurchased with his local credit card.

Interestingly, my boyfriend paid very close attention to the notifications  of this overly strict policy throughout the purchase process, and I would disagree this policy is "clearly spelled out" prior to purchase, especially if you are working within the standard timeframes of pre-sales as we were for the original purchase. See screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/Ko13e.The "Notes" and "Warnings" are either not relevant to the policy or cut off and not made blatantly clear that there is "NO ACCESS WITHOUT ORIGINAL PURCHASING CREDIT CARD" without having to maneuver the different pages and info categories to seek this information. I've made "Paperless Ticket Entry Only" purchases before, never to the point that the purchasing card must be presented, ruling out any kind of gift option.

Thanks again, everyone, for your support and advice. I am very happy that we reached an appropriate resolution, but disappointed that I can no longer be a customer of TM.

[ericm]

I'm glad everything worked out for you. Enjoy the show.

We'll just have to agree to disagree on their paperless policy being made clear. Even your screenshot shows it as an "important note" right on the buy page. Once you click on that, the whole explanation of the policy comes up,  That info is on every paperless buy page, and available as soon as the page is up. It's not just there during the few minutes of buying while the clock is ticking to buy. It's up there with onsale times, ticket price range, ticket limits,etc, as soon as the show is listed, well in advance of the onsale. You have to click on those things too in order to get that info.

[bartel]

ok so now I have another ticket issue.. my wife who bought the tickets may not be able to attend which leaves me stranded without a solution. brilliant!

If she can't go, I'm sure your wife will let you take her CC to the show.  As I said earlier, almost every single show I had "paperless" tix for, they never asked for ID. They just need the CC to swipe at entry. Hard tix left at Will Call however, almost always ask for a photo ID and the CC.

yeah the OTHER issue is her CC expired which was fine if she could go.

[bartel]

TM were actually very helpful and offered a refund so crisis averted. I can go ahead and book the tickets on my CC and all systems go.

[ericm]

TM were actually very helpful and offered a refund so crisis averted. I can go ahead and book the tickets on my CC and all systems go.

Glad to hear.

[roffrs]

Way to finagle, finagler!