of tickets and tomfoolery

Ever try to order tickets? It's a pain in the ass.

Purchasing "Disabled seating" = jumping through hoops, guaranteed!

Baseball tix? Sure. Just submit an email request on the website. Someone will email you or call you - you don't know who, and you don't know when.

My experience with purchasing SF Giants tix v my Mets baby! through their site that uses tickets.com has been something like this:

1. log on to SF giants tix site, click on "request disabled seating" & fill out form with my name, address, phone, email; then i submit form
2. i immediately get a confirmation email that they are "processing your request and will contact you shortly"
3. I usually hear back within 48 hours. i don't know when they'll call or from what number. I always let it go to voicemail cuz I don't recognize the #, just that it's from a diff area code.
4. i have to call them back during their business hours (most often my work hours) to purchase tix. to avoid trudging through the slush of touch-tone options ("press 1 to check on an order... 2 to make an order... 3 for disabled seating"), i push "0" for an operator or yell "ggRRAARRR" to get immediate assistance.
5. i have the Giants seat map open in my browser, and the sales rep tells me what seats she (usually a she - only 1x i had a dude) has available. if/when i decide on seats i like, then i order 'em.

This is the easy way, believe it or not.

Now, for the ticketmaster debacle...

I wanted to order tix for an upcoming concert in June. Reik. son tan chevere! Pop musica at its best, no doubt!

I was exctied to see that ticketmaster was selling their tix. Excited *only* cuz I have a ticketmaster gift card - chaa-ching! that i haven't spent in over a year. i finally get to use my Christmas '08 gift!

On the ticketmaster site, there's no form to request disabled seating (see step #3 above). instead, when i click the beautiful blue Wheelchair icon, it tells me i need to call the concert box office directly. great. being that it was saturday night and i was quite carefree (read: patient) I called them up. club nokia at 8pm on a saturday is not the best place to call. it's *loud*. the sales rep had to chat in a loud voice just so i could hear her, and vice versa. she found me great VIP tix, and when i gave her my gift card #, she stopped all of a sudden, and told me i couldn't use it to purchase VIP tix. no, you can use the gift card only at ticketmaster, not here at the club. but they (ticketmaster) can only sell you general admission tix, not VIP tix. ah, the disabled can't be VIP.

A) am I S.O.L.?

or

B) Shittily Outlandish Losers @ticketmaster

(raises hand) "I know! I know! "B!" it's "B" it's "B!"

Bingo! Ticketmaster blows. hard.

***Sidebar: The Solution***
I might beeyotch and groan and moan and sloan about purchasing disabled seats, but I also provide a solution. These are my main gripes:

• we aren't allowed to have more than 1 parent/friend

Sales Rep: "I'm sorry sir, only 1 wheelchair and companion is allowed. Company policy"
Me: "But i have a mother AND a father! for crying out loud!"

• we pay the same for *always* worse service. you have to wait longer to purchase ur tix, you are very limited on your selection.

Ah, dear Watson, I have found a solution! and yes, it is *tech* related.


Here goes:

• Every permanently disabled person uses a placard, and thus has a record with the State of California. We can use a similar identifier linked to our SSN that will state "yes, this individiual has a permanent disability." If you have a permanent disabled parking placard, then you qualify.
  
• Ticket venues like Ticketmaster, Tickets.com, StubHub will have access to this database. on their websites, there will be a "disability" section where you can use your SSN to verify your disability status. then, you can purchase tix right off the website, just like everyone else.

that's not really hard at all. the main obstacle i see is that banks use your SSN, but people might not be comfortable with businesses using it.

if this won't work, then why can't ticket agencies just let you purchase tix on their websites? they never bother *verifying* any disability anyway. WTF!


i hope this clears up soon. http://www.ada.gov/ticketmaster.htm

Update: *just found something juicy*

http://www.ada.gov/ticketmaster.htm

This agreement was reached back in 2005, with 6 month check-ins proposed and supposed enforcement if TicketMaster didn't hold its end of the bargain. We still cannot purchase tix on the TicketMaster website! This is over 3 years after the "agreement."

hmmmm more on this soon...