A couple Fridays ago was the #Offline Festival hosted by Pitchfork at Brooklyn Bowl (awesome venue). I had two tickets but couldn't go because my parents were in town. I also didn't realize it was 21+, and I decided to take that angle when trying to get a refund for that $20 I never picked up from will call. The festival wasn't sold out or anything, and I started the e-mail thread before the concert, so I felt I might as well just go all out for the refund by e-mailing the ticket provider (which is what the Brooklyn Bowl guy advised me to do.) Anyways, here's the interesting thread that followed. I was quite forceful. Commentary in italics.
From: ajayumehta@gmail.com
To: customersupport@ticketfly.com
Subject: #Offline Festival Ticket Refund
Hi,
I bought two tickets to the Offline festival in Brooklyn today not realizing that it was a 21+ event. Unfortunately, I'm 18. My tickets would still be at Will Call.
Is there any way I can get a full or partial refund for the tickets? It is fine if you need to keep the service charge or whatever.
Thank you so much,
Ajay
From: customersupport@ticketfly.com
Subject: Re: #Offline Festival Ticket Refund
Thanks for using Ticketfly! I am looking into your situation and will get back to you as soon as I have an answer for your request.
Thank You,
---
Carla Deasy
Ticketfly Customer Support
A few hours later, Carla emailed me back saying:
Hi Ajay, Your refund request has been denied as the age limitations were posted on the website where you purchased the tickets.
---
Carla Deasy
So I decide to get a bit indignant:
To: customersupport@ticketfly.com
I don't think the age restrictions were stated clearly. Also, I never picked up the tickets.
As I said, you can hold on to the service charge. Honestly, that last message was awful customer service. You should know to never be so curt, rude, and unhelpful. Hopefully you can help me out in this matter, or I will bring it up with both the venue and your supervisor.
Thank you for your prompt response,
Ajay
They wait a few days to respond, then I get this in my inbox:
From: customersupport@ticketfly.com
Hello Ajay,My name is Jamal Mahone and I am the Customer Support Supervisor for Ticketfly. I was made aware of your exchange with Carla Deasy, the Customer Support representative who handled your case. I wanted to let you know that we sincerely regret the brevity of the response. Although I assure you that we did our best to make the case for the refund, the actual response was not the level of customer service that we pride ourselves on here at Ticketfly. In your particular situation, we do have a firm all sales are final policy. The fact is that the show was 21 and over as most shows at the Brooklyn Bowl are. This was listed on the purchase page as a result an exception could not be made. As near as I can tell you were a first time customer and to have this be your first and only experience with Ticketfly is truly unfortunate. My hope is that in the future when you have the opportunity to purchase tickets through Ticketfly, it will not be met with reluctance and it will be a positive experience.--
Jamal Mahone
Ticketfly Customer Support Supervisor
That's not bad customer service. But I decided I was still right, and I sent off one more self-righteous email - after checking to see if Ticketfly had a twitter. They do.
To: customersupport@ticketfly.com
Thanks for the reply Jamal.
You mention that most shows at the Brooklyn Bowl are 21+ so it should be understood that I wouldn't get a refund, but I actually emailed the Brooklyn Bowl customer service first and this is what Noah, one of their promoters, said: "For any orders that were processed online, you can call or shoot an email to Ticketfly's customer service for refunds. They can be reached at (877) 435-9849 or customersupport@ticketfly.com. If you explain your dilemma to them, they should be able to refund your ticket. If you have any additional questions, feel free to hit me back." You can be assured that I will contact him again soon about this experience.
It's an unfortunate decision, so I've decided to post about it on Twitter. Here's the link:
You might have gotten this $20, but that's the last you're getting from me. It's not about the money, it's about the principle of it.
Ajay
About an hour after I sent that email (and this is days after the concert), I got receipt of a full refund of the tickets and service charge, which I didn't even ask for. It's scary, but also really cool, to think about how much power the Internet gives us that we never had before over companies. But we should use it wisely...