For some reason, I've recently begun to have trouble with online ticket merchants. Most small theaters contract with an online company to sell their seats. That makes sense but it means that when you get to the theater and discover there's a problem with your tickets, they say, "We can't do anything to correct this situation. You'll have to discuss that with the online company." And there are two things wrong with that from the customer's position, one being that Customer Service at the online company is usually closed in the evening — you know, just when you're at the theater and you discover a problem with your tickets.
And the other thing wrong with that is that when you get in touch with them the next day, the online company says, "We're sorry but we can't do anything to correct this situation after the event has transpired." In other words, "You should have contacted us when you didn't know something was wrong." If you press the matter further, all you get is "We can't do anything to correct that. You'll have to take that up with the theater." All the companies I've checked that sell tickets on the web have a policy statement somewhere on their site that basically says they will never give you a refund for any reason — no way, no how — especially after the event has taken place.
That's not exactly true. I have persuaded some sellers and theaters to correct mistakes but they kind of reserve the right to not fix them and they do not make it easy to fix them. At times, the back-and-forth between theater and ticket seller remind me of when I worked for Hanna-Barbera…
If I had a problem with something the studio did, I'd go to Joe Barbera and tell him and he'd say, "I'm not in charge of that. You'll have to take it up with Bill." So I'd go to Bill Hanna, tell him and hear him say, "I'm not in charge of that. You'll have to take it up with Joe." It took me a while to realize that even if they hadn't planned it that way deliberately, they still weren't about to change it. Neither are online merchants who've discovered that being an online merchant makes it possible to configure a Customer Service department that never has to service any customers.