Ticket Buyer Beware

By Eilene Lyon

I like to tell myself that my life experiences and trips around the sun have taught me well how to avoid being scammed. But we are all vulnerable in certain circumstances. I’m no exception.

In this case, a few days before Christmas I stopped in at the Durango Visitor Center where they used to sell tickets for local music events. They no longer do. I need to purchase online. I’ve done it before and had no trouble. This time I wasn’t so lucky.

I searched for tickets for the San Juan Symphony at the Durango Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. Unfortunately, I failed to notice the “sponsored” links at the top of the Google results (normally I scroll right by these).

A couple clues during the purchasing process to get two tickets for the San Juan Symphony’s “The Life and Music of Claude Debussy” at the concert hall gave me pause. First, was the fact that the map of the concert hall was just a blank, instead of the usual “select your seats” page. Second was that the PayPal link didn’t work. But I blundered ahead with the purchase anyway, charging the tickets to my credit card.

There was a comment box on the purchase page where I remarked that the fees being charged were outrageous; my third overlooked clue that this wasn’t the place I should be buying my tickets. I did not think that $59 per ticket was out of line for a symphony—and it isn’t. I now have legitimate tickets for the symphony that cost exactly that amount.

This site, however, added a $12 fee per ticket for no apparent reason, then another $15 “delivery fee” on top of that, for a grand total of $156.95. I would have been okay with the overcharge, IF in fact I had purchased tickets to a symphony.

Here’s the rub: The vendor did NOT deliver any tickets, despite the $15 delivery fee. Instead they sent me an email telling me to pick up the tickets at “will call” on the day of the concert.

Yesterday morning, I read my friend Judith’s article in the Durango Herald about the upcoming “Life and Music of Claude Debussy” performances. NOT the San Juan Symphony. NOT at the Durango Community Concert Hall. Rather, it is a chamber music lecture/recital at a local church. Tickets cost $25.

There are no tickets at “will call” at the concert hall, because there is no performance there at all.

Judith, outraged on my behalf, contacted the concert hall and we were told that this is a national problem and a growing concern here in li’l ol’ Durango. Current state and federal laws are ineffective to combat this.

Credit card companies often do not resolve in the cardholder’s favor, because these scam sites actually deliver usable tickets some of the time (at highly inflated prices). That is not true in my case, so I’m hopeful I will obtain the full refund when all is said and done.

Before filing a dispute, I did my due diligence and contacted the ticket seller for a refund. A real person actually got on the line, but instead of responding to my request, she kept repeating some scripted remarks that had nothing to do with what I was asking. I finally hung up in disgust.

I don’t buy many concert tickets, but feel I’m not likely to fall for this again. Unfortunately, ever-slicker scams will pop up and I will have to be forever vigilant. Please do likewise.