Playoff Ticket Lottery Fiasco

by Neo8234 on Sep 19, 2007 12:36 PM PDT

So, I was fortunate enough to get an email yesterday stating that I had won the lottery and am allowed to buy tickets for the ALDS... The exact wording of the email:

"CONGRATULATIONS!
You have been selected for the opportunity to purchase tickets to a potential 2007 Division Series game at Angel Stadium of Anaheim!

You may purchase up to four (4) tickets to each potential game of the Division Series, on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to availability by game. Use your Passcode (shown below) to begin the purchase process.

Note: If you purchase more than four (4) tickets to a single game, your ticket orders will be voided without notification."

-----
So, this morning I clicked on the link at 10am, opened up the first game, and bought the best 4 tickets I could. I then went to the second game and did the same thing.

Upon trying to go buy for the third game, I was greeted with a message saying "We're sorry, there are no more tickets available for this promotion." I knew that the game couldn't be sold out yet because I did all of this within about 3 minutes. So I go back to the first page on the Angels website that I was taken to from the email.

The page on their website states:
"You may purchase up to up to four (4) tickets to one (1) potential game of the American League Division Series, on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to availability by game. This purchase opportunity will be online on this page only, starting at 10 a.m. PT on Wednesday, September 19 and continuing through 10:00 p.m. PT on Thursday, September 20.

Note: If you purchase more than four tickets to a single game, your ticket orders will be voided without notification."

This is more than a misunderstanding, they completely changed the policy. Now I'm not that upset that I only got tickets to the first 2 games, but if there is any way my tickets are getting revoked then I'm going to have to have a word with Arte.

Sidenote: I'm assuming since I got my tickets e-mailed to me by ticketfast that the order was successful and is not void. Unless they decide to void the tickets they already sent out and not even tell anybody about it.

Anybody else have problems like this?

This Fan-Post is authored by an independent fan. Tell us what you think and how you feel.

Tweet Comment 27 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

I'm sure there were alot of people

(like me) that registered for the ticket lottery and did'nt get picked to buy tickets. They got zero, nothing, nada. Now what were you complaining about?

by 44FAN on Sep 19, 2007 12:36 PM PDT reply actions

Sounds like lawyers

They wanted to hold you to only 4 tickets max, and would let you buy 1 tik for each of 4 games, or 4 tix for 1 games, etc.

Bad wording.

Remember the Red Moon Massacre!

by Stirrups on Sep 19, 2007 12:37 PM PDT reply actions

Yes, I was lucky

and I understand that. direct quote from my diary:
"I'm not that upset that I only got tickets to the first 2 games"

The only reason I'm even posting is because the email said I could buy to all 3 games. I want to see whether or not everybody else had the same problem.

Besides, you're still in the same lottery for the ALCS and WS.

by Neo8234 on Sep 19, 2007 12:38 PM PDT reply actions

The website and the email said 2 different things

The website made it clear it was 4 tickets each round.

I got shit btw. I hate this lottery.

I should be working right now...

by thrill000 on Sep 19, 2007 1:24 PM PDT reply actions

Oddly confusing - why the policy change?

Neo8234 - I am in your same situation. Read the email, followed the directions. Was able to get tickets to both games one and two, which was pleasing given that this is morphing into my family vacation (we're travling rather far to come to this game).

And now this email arrives more than 2 hours after the ticket purchase window opens?

Does this mean that people will lose the tickets and money? Are the e-tickets that were emailed and printed out now voided?

by Grich4mvp on Sep 19, 2007 1:38 PM PDT reply actions

Grateful I bought season tix then

Wow, what a fiasco.

Hoping Ervin Santana turns it around in Salt Lake. Go, Ervin!

by scareduck on Sep 19, 2007 2:36 PM PDT reply actions

I still have yet to snag playoff tix direct.

It doesn't matter WHAT the format has been.

Back to the wording. I am sure that they meant was:

you could buy up to four tickets total
you could choose your mix of 4 from each potential game
if you try to buy more than 4 total, your order is void.

What they did NOT mean was that you could buy 4 tickets for every game, up to 16 tickets total.

Sloppy wording = communications breakdown = angry customers.

Remember the Red Moon Massacre!

by Stirrups on Sep 19, 2007 2:58 PM PDT reply actions

Stupid Lottery = angry fans

at least the sore losers like me!

I should be working right now...

by thrill000 on Sep 19, 2007 3:06 PM PDT up reply actions

See, the strange thing about it

Is that it let me buy 4 tickets to each of the first 2 games, but then it didn't let me buy any to the third game b/c it said no more were available for me.

If it was going to stop me after 2 * 4, why didn't it stop me after 1*4 if that's what they intended?

by Neo8234 on Sep 19, 2007 3:18 PM PDT up reply actions

When I read your narrative,

it sounded like it let you buy 4 for one game, and then 4 for a second game, but when you went tot he third game that game was already sold out and they had none available. Otherwise they would have let you process 4 for that game too.

By my reasononing, you could have purchased the tickets for those three games in reverse order and maybe gotten all 12. Maybe that third game is the one that was most in demand.

The danger for you, in my mind, is that it let you process 4 tickets for the first game, but then let you process 4 tickets to the second game. By their own rules, they might now void your order and you have zero tickets for zero games. And you might not even know that yet.

Remember the Red Moon Massacre!

by Stirrups on Sep 19, 2007 3:28 PM PDT up reply actions

Exactly... but...

The tickets have been paid for (Credit card charged) and they've been printed out.

How could the club, without telling the consumer, void the tickets and not return the money?

by Grich4mvp on Sep 19, 2007 3:55 PM PDT up reply actions

They could do those thing easily,

they could send a follow-up email warning that the tickets have been cancelled, and refund the money electronically (although I would bet that they would wait until after the playoffs, sports teams being what they are.)

The real fiasco would then come on the day of the game, when folks show up at the gate with e-tickets that they printed out themselves, and when they present them to the usher the scanner declares them void. That would be HUGE.

Remember the Red Moon Massacre!

by Stirrups on Sep 19, 2007 4:02 PM PDT up reply actions

"i've yet to snag playoff tix direct."

then you didn't try in 2004.

we were 3 back with 9 to play. Playoff tickets were easily obtainable when they went on sale that year direct thru TM.

i didn't get picked for the ALDS this year but i can't complain - i got two great seats for Springsteen when they went on sale minutes after 10 am Monday for Oakland- Oct 26th.

I look forward to the road trip.

And also taking a picture of the Oakland Colisseum across the parking lot that evening - dark and empty. hehe.

by rbrianc on Sep 19, 2007 3:55 PM PDT up reply actions

Ebay here I come!

by LosAngel on Sep 19, 2007 3:34 PM PDT reply actions

so...

if you dont get chosen by the lottery you cant get tickets? thats stupid.

by costdrew147 on Sep 19, 2007 5:43 PM PDT reply actions

You're kidding, right?

Google Angels Playoff Tickets. Then spend the rest of your week reading up on all your options.

Remember the Red Moon Massacre!

by Stirrups on Sep 19, 2007 5:56 PM PDT up reply actions

i meant

without having to pay 3 times face value.

by costdrew147 on Sep 19, 2007 6:38 PM PDT reply actions

oh, you mean

like if we had a cool stadium that could expand and contract instantly on demand. You need 300,000 seats, no problem!

by LosAngel on Sep 19, 2007 8:40 PM PDT up reply actions

Ticketmaster is Crap

I logged on exactly at 10:00 am as well, and asked for 2 tix to Game 1 "Best Available" and the piece of shit site came back "There are no tickets available matching your request".

The very same thing happened in last year's playoffs. After 4 more tries, the POS website offered me 2 tix in section 538 row J. I told them to keep them.

by SocalAngelFaninOC on Sep 20, 2007 7:07 AM PDT reply actions

There weren't any great seats available...

All of my tickets were upper or lower view. They had already sold playoff tickets to all of the ~30,000 season ticket holders as well as all of the partial season package owners... The raffle was for all of the remaining seats.

by Neo8234 on Sep 20, 2007 10:43 AM PDT up reply actions

Not counting, of course,

all of the primo seats that Major League Baseball chews up first for every game, so that they can hand over scalper bonanzas to the corporate elite of their advertising partners, who turn around and have you and me subsidize that reward by writing off those same ducets as business expenses for their company, and deduct their indivdual expenses from their personal tax returns.

Season ticket holders get the best of what is left. The lottery buyers compete for those remaining seats squeezed into the far corners of the stadium. If you don't like this time-honored tradition, MLB will gladly sell you seats to home games for the Florida Marlins.

You cannot beat the system. Your only real choices are:

support your team by purchasing season tickets of your own and avoid the lottery, or
pay the market rate on the street, and enjoy the privilege of sitting next to the original ticket holders, knowing that you paid for your seats AND their seats AND their parking AND their beer AND their food
stay home and watch on TV, drinking better beer and sitting next to better baseball fans.

Remember the Red Moon Massacre!

by Stirrups on Sep 20, 2007 10:56 AM PDT up reply actions

REally?

stay home and watch on TV, drinking better beer and sitting next to better baseball fans

SO season ticket holders are not good fans?

I'm giving Figgins a big F U. Seattle isn't winning 90. I am not worried.

by hauldog on Sep 20, 2007 11:09 AM PDT up reply actions

To sit next to season ticket holders,

you choose option #1 and buy season tickets.

"Staying home and sitting next to better baseball fans" is in comparison to those corporate wonks, and/or those television personalities that are being promoted by the broadcast channel, all of whom you see filling the background in the infield shots on TV, and few of whom could recite the infield fly rule.

If you pay scalper prices and snag infield tickets, your neighbor knows all about hedge funds, but knows nothing about any hedge in Wrigley Field.

Remember the Red Moon Massacre!

by Stirrups on Sep 20, 2007 11:39 AM PDT up reply actions

Bold over simplification

Do the Angels play in Yankee stadium? Because that is where I saw all the kids from that 70's show on TV.

My Dad has those tickets and I sat there on three occasions during the World Series alone, and I hate to break it to you but it is not like that. I really dount you even have sat next to "these corporate wonks" during a world series game.

I'm giving Figgins a big F U. Seattle isn't winning 90. I am not worried.

by hauldog on Sep 20, 2007 12:43 PM PDT up reply actions

You are right.

I have never sat next to corporate wonks during a WS game.

I have had two chances to see a WS game in my life. Back in the 70's, my brother was a season ticket holder with the Dodgers and he chose to take his friends and not his brothers to the WS (justice was served when his friends failed to catch a Reggie Jackson HR ball). His seats got pushed out to the bleachers.

And in 2002, I was gifted a pair of tix to game 2. I WAS the corporate wonk. One of my multi-billion dollar a year vendors gave me, a multi-million dollar a year customer, two tickets. I have two sons. Being the father that I am, I sent the boys and stayed home and watched on TV with their mom. My boys sat next to the corporate wonks, not me.

As for your example, are you telling me that your dad was displaced from his season ticket location in Yankee Stadium on one of the games because MLB gave those seats to FOX so that FOX could showcase a new TV series?

Remember the Red Moon Massacre!

by Stirrups on Sep 20, 2007 2:41 PM PDT up reply actions

I applaud you sending your sons

They will be forever grateful, and I mean that.

As to your other question, generally when I see retards from TV shows in the stands it is during a Yank/Sux playoff game.

My father bought postseason tickets for seats he is a season ticket holder of and was not displaced. The same seat I sat in the opener was the same seat I sat in for the WS.

I'm giving Figgins a big F U. Seattle isn't winning 90. I am not worried.

by hauldog on Sep 20, 2007 3:08 PM PDT up reply actions

Any resolution

to this fiasco? Anyone heard anything else from the team? Or are there going to be plenty of Angel fans who show up at the gates with tickets and reciepts in hand, only to be turned away?

by Grich4mvp on Sep 20, 2007 1:42 PM PDT reply actions