TM Auction Surprise

Anne Forrest recently paid a visit to the Ticketmaster website after hearing Bublé would be coming to the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., in December.

She told the Chicago Tribune that while tickets hadn’t gone on sale yet, she saw a link to an online auction for two front-row seats and decided to bid $460 for the pair.

The show went on sale the following week and because Forrest hadn’t heard anything about the auction, she purchased four tickets for $432.

But a few days later, she claims she received a call from Ticketmaster explaining she’d won the front-row seats. Upon calling back TM, an agent allegedly refused to give Forrest any information about her winnings until she’d given payment information.

“I called and tried asking questions,” she told the Tribune. “They said ‘Give me your credit card number and we’ll answer those questions.’”

That was when she discovered she’d purchased two seats to Bublé’s concert at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pa., and could pick them up an hour before the show.

“I said, ‘The bid I placed was for Allstate Arena,’” Forrest said. “She said, ‘No, it’s the Giant Center.’”

Forrest allegedly was told she couldn’t cancel the tickets, and over the next few weeks, her pleas to be sent the tickets in the mail were also denied.

That was when she contacted the Trib’s “Problem Partner” Kristin Samuelson, who contacted TM.

Through conversations with a TM representative, Samuelson discovered Forrest had been sent an e-mail from the company when she won the auction that alerted her the tickets were for a Pennsylvania show, but she’d failed to open it prior to making the purchase over the phone.

“In this case it was user error,” the rep told the paper.

Still, after discussing the matter, TM and the Giant Center were able to “make an exception,” refunding the entire amount of the auction.

Forrest still plans to attend the concert in Illinois.

Click here to read the complete Chicago Tribune article.