Hurrikane
Slayer
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2006
- Posts
- 8,358
- Location
- Bristol
- Society
- GloryHound Irregulars
- Avatar Name
- Oscar Hurrikane SkyQuake
Another thread prompted me to write down the details of a RL incident 3 years ago, in order to depict my feelings towards resellers in-game and otherwise. I apologise for the long post.
A story:
My wife-to-be's 30th birthday was coming. I was working in London and saw an advert for a west-end play starring none other than Kevin Spacey. I was in Piccadilly Circus where I saw several vendors selling tickets to west-end shows, so I looked and asked a few of them and found the Play was sold out that saturday (this was 2 weeks before). Passing by the guys in mobile kiosks, I saw one that looked a little more legitimate; a small shop yes, but the address was 1 Piccadilly, and they had a sign and everything. The friendly chap behind the desk phoned someone and told me they could get me tickets for the night I wanted, 3 rows back from the front and in the centre. The cost would be twice the original price, making them £90 each. I'd heard of people paying lots more for a sold out west-end show, and I was earning enough to make £180 seem a good price for the smile my g/f was gonna have on the day.
First warning should have been the guy saying I would pay up front but collect the tickets on the day, 2 hours before the performance. I took a receipt but still worried they wouldn't be there.
The day of the show, we drove into London (125 miles), and made our way to Piccadilly to get the tickets, dead on time.
The friendly guy was there, our tickets were there, but there'd been a problem; they couldn't get the tickets I paid for. They got ones higher up in the theatre. I mentioned he'd phoned and confirmed the better tickets 2 weeks before. He told me as they were harder to get than he thought, they should be even more money, but he was letting me have them at the same price I'd paid because "we'd driven all that way". Nice guy. I really didn't notice at the time that he took the envelope with my receipt and kept it.
We jumped on the tube towards the theatre. As we walked the last part, I got the envelope out and had a look at the tickets. They said a couple of things I didn't like the look of; "Restricted View" and "£10". I started to get a bit annoyed.
We got to the theatre and I went to the lady on the desk and asked her what she could tell us about the tickets; how restricted was the view?
She then told us that the tickets were bought that morning, on the door for £10 each. The show had never sold out, despite 4 different touts in Piccadilly telling me it was. She told me as I was leaving that they would help with any complaint against the Tout in question, but they didn't hold out much hope of us getting anything done about it. That didn't bother me as much as it should have. I'd already given up on the idea of watching the play and was steaming towards the tube to try for some drama of a different sort.
On reaching the booth the guy read the look on my face and took a step backwards from the desk. I fought to not call him all the names under the sun and demanded a refund for wrecking my g/f's birthday. I told him I was aware that tickets cost more for sold out shows, but I was not going to pay someone £160 for getting a tube to a theatre and back. I demanded my receipt from him too, which he pretended to look for for so long I threatened to jump the counter and find it myself. Then I did call him all the names under the sun.
After a good half hour of shouting at him and turning everyone who came to the shop away as politely as possible, he phoned his boss. I gulped a bit. These guys were basically organised crime, right? Who the hell was going to show up? What had I got myself into?
Ten minutes later a skinny frenchman in his twenties showed up. Tossing a huge bunch of keys in his hand, he told me and my wife that we were suckers, this is what they did, there was no refund, no way of getting the money back, this is how it works in the city. His shirt looked more expensive than my car. My g/f went away to try and find a policeman while I argued some more.
The french guy got tired of bragging and announced to his employee he was leaving, at which point I snapped a little and reached out an arm which succeeded in throwing the guy back into his shop, ripping his shirt in the process. He tried to leave a few more times, but was met with a wall of me. He then announced he was going to charge me with assault, and phoned the police himself. I told him if I was going to get done for assault then I might have to assault him. All the while telling me, there is no money for me, no play for me, I am wasting his time and my own.
He tried to leave one last time and I put the palm of my hand up. I was very surprised when my hand touched his chest and I felt how fast his heart was going. It was racing. I hadn't a clue, but I'd scared him. I didn't really feel like doing anything particularly violent but he evidently thought I did.
It was then I got some new confidence in the situation. I would win somehow. Just before my g/f turned up after not being able to find a policeman herself, I lunged out and swiped the big bunch of keys from his hand.
The look on his face told me so much. Those keys were important.
Now I'm no trained fighter or bodybuilder or anything but one thing my job had given me is a good grip. The french guy had a go at prying my fingers open but I was able to laugh back at his fruitless attempt. Taking the initiative I marched from the shop threatening to throw them over the roof or down a drain.
The last thing I heard him say before the police arrived was to his employee; "Ok, give him the f@cking money".
The first thing the policeman said was "Give me the bunch of keys."
I was a bit dismayed at this point. I had him, I'd got the result I wanted; nearly. Now all my bargaining powers were being handed to the policeman and back to the french guy as his employee kindly informed the policewoman also there that I'd threatened to do everything short of bury them in Hyde Park. With no receipt, I couldn't even prove I'd given them any money. My g/f was calmly explaining to the cop what had happened while I shouted the odd defence statement towards the spiralling tale of chaos the touts were telling the other cop.
After questioning us all for a few minutes, the cop had a quiet chat with the touts, then came back to us.
"How about this", he started.
"The money back; and the tickets. If you run you can still catch it."
I looked at my watch and he was right; the curtain went up in about 20 minutes and the theatre was exactly 12 minutes on the tube (we'd timed it on the way in). I contemplated kissing the policeman, but kissed my g/f instead. Then I had the supremely satisfying moment of the french guy counting out £180 for me. I slapped him on the shoulder (as hard as you can when the cops are there) and said "Worked out all right, didn't it?" with as big a smile as I'd ever smiled.
We blustered back to the theatre, waved the wad at the lady on the desk (who was amazed) and found our seats; they were restricted view, but nothing leaning forward couldn't solve. It mattered little; as the curtain went up we were both so elated it wouldn't have mattered if we got the wrong theatre entirely.
I'd like to apologise to Kevin Spacey for my mobile phone going off just as he took the stage (the ringtone was Ethan Supplee's AAAAGGGHHH at the magic eye picture in Mallrats) and also compliment the man on being a master of his craft. I'd never seen a play I enjoyed as much as that one.
My advice is this: Always phone the VENUE for tickets. If they're sold out, stay home. If it was that important to go, you'd have joined the fan club/mailing list and got the tickets in time.
Ticket Touts buy up tickets, charge huge amounts above retail price and decieve and rob the public. Never ever use one. Ever. Find dog poo and throw it at them and their stinking shops yes, buy tickets from them no.
And that is why I hate resellers
Hurrikane
A story:
My wife-to-be's 30th birthday was coming. I was working in London and saw an advert for a west-end play starring none other than Kevin Spacey. I was in Piccadilly Circus where I saw several vendors selling tickets to west-end shows, so I looked and asked a few of them and found the Play was sold out that saturday (this was 2 weeks before). Passing by the guys in mobile kiosks, I saw one that looked a little more legitimate; a small shop yes, but the address was 1 Piccadilly, and they had a sign and everything. The friendly chap behind the desk phoned someone and told me they could get me tickets for the night I wanted, 3 rows back from the front and in the centre. The cost would be twice the original price, making them £90 each. I'd heard of people paying lots more for a sold out west-end show, and I was earning enough to make £180 seem a good price for the smile my g/f was gonna have on the day.
First warning should have been the guy saying I would pay up front but collect the tickets on the day, 2 hours before the performance. I took a receipt but still worried they wouldn't be there.
The day of the show, we drove into London (125 miles), and made our way to Piccadilly to get the tickets, dead on time.
The friendly guy was there, our tickets were there, but there'd been a problem; they couldn't get the tickets I paid for. They got ones higher up in the theatre. I mentioned he'd phoned and confirmed the better tickets 2 weeks before. He told me as they were harder to get than he thought, they should be even more money, but he was letting me have them at the same price I'd paid because "we'd driven all that way". Nice guy. I really didn't notice at the time that he took the envelope with my receipt and kept it.
We jumped on the tube towards the theatre. As we walked the last part, I got the envelope out and had a look at the tickets. They said a couple of things I didn't like the look of; "Restricted View" and "£10". I started to get a bit annoyed.
We got to the theatre and I went to the lady on the desk and asked her what she could tell us about the tickets; how restricted was the view?
She then told us that the tickets were bought that morning, on the door for £10 each. The show had never sold out, despite 4 different touts in Piccadilly telling me it was. She told me as I was leaving that they would help with any complaint against the Tout in question, but they didn't hold out much hope of us getting anything done about it. That didn't bother me as much as it should have. I'd already given up on the idea of watching the play and was steaming towards the tube to try for some drama of a different sort.
On reaching the booth the guy read the look on my face and took a step backwards from the desk. I fought to not call him all the names under the sun and demanded a refund for wrecking my g/f's birthday. I told him I was aware that tickets cost more for sold out shows, but I was not going to pay someone £160 for getting a tube to a theatre and back. I demanded my receipt from him too, which he pretended to look for for so long I threatened to jump the counter and find it myself. Then I did call him all the names under the sun.
After a good half hour of shouting at him and turning everyone who came to the shop away as politely as possible, he phoned his boss. I gulped a bit. These guys were basically organised crime, right? Who the hell was going to show up? What had I got myself into?
Ten minutes later a skinny frenchman in his twenties showed up. Tossing a huge bunch of keys in his hand, he told me and my wife that we were suckers, this is what they did, there was no refund, no way of getting the money back, this is how it works in the city. His shirt looked more expensive than my car. My g/f went away to try and find a policeman while I argued some more.
The french guy got tired of bragging and announced to his employee he was leaving, at which point I snapped a little and reached out an arm which succeeded in throwing the guy back into his shop, ripping his shirt in the process. He tried to leave a few more times, but was met with a wall of me. He then announced he was going to charge me with assault, and phoned the police himself. I told him if I was going to get done for assault then I might have to assault him. All the while telling me, there is no money for me, no play for me, I am wasting his time and my own.
He tried to leave one last time and I put the palm of my hand up. I was very surprised when my hand touched his chest and I felt how fast his heart was going. It was racing. I hadn't a clue, but I'd scared him. I didn't really feel like doing anything particularly violent but he evidently thought I did.
It was then I got some new confidence in the situation. I would win somehow. Just before my g/f turned up after not being able to find a policeman herself, I lunged out and swiped the big bunch of keys from his hand.
The look on his face told me so much. Those keys were important.
Now I'm no trained fighter or bodybuilder or anything but one thing my job had given me is a good grip. The french guy had a go at prying my fingers open but I was able to laugh back at his fruitless attempt. Taking the initiative I marched from the shop threatening to throw them over the roof or down a drain.
The last thing I heard him say before the police arrived was to his employee; "Ok, give him the f@cking money".
The first thing the policeman said was "Give me the bunch of keys."
I was a bit dismayed at this point. I had him, I'd got the result I wanted; nearly. Now all my bargaining powers were being handed to the policeman and back to the french guy as his employee kindly informed the policewoman also there that I'd threatened to do everything short of bury them in Hyde Park. With no receipt, I couldn't even prove I'd given them any money. My g/f was calmly explaining to the cop what had happened while I shouted the odd defence statement towards the spiralling tale of chaos the touts were telling the other cop.
After questioning us all for a few minutes, the cop had a quiet chat with the touts, then came back to us.
"How about this", he started.
"The money back; and the tickets. If you run you can still catch it."
I looked at my watch and he was right; the curtain went up in about 20 minutes and the theatre was exactly 12 minutes on the tube (we'd timed it on the way in). I contemplated kissing the policeman, but kissed my g/f instead. Then I had the supremely satisfying moment of the french guy counting out £180 for me. I slapped him on the shoulder (as hard as you can when the cops are there) and said "Worked out all right, didn't it?" with as big a smile as I'd ever smiled.
We blustered back to the theatre, waved the wad at the lady on the desk (who was amazed) and found our seats; they were restricted view, but nothing leaning forward couldn't solve. It mattered little; as the curtain went up we were both so elated it wouldn't have mattered if we got the wrong theatre entirely.
I'd like to apologise to Kevin Spacey for my mobile phone going off just as he took the stage (the ringtone was Ethan Supplee's AAAAGGGHHH at the magic eye picture in Mallrats) and also compliment the man on being a master of his craft. I'd never seen a play I enjoyed as much as that one.
My advice is this: Always phone the VENUE for tickets. If they're sold out, stay home. If it was that important to go, you'd have joined the fan club/mailing list and got the tickets in time.
Ticket Touts buy up tickets, charge huge amounts above retail price and decieve and rob the public. Never ever use one. Ever. Find dog poo and throw it at them and their stinking shops yes, buy tickets from them no.
And that is why I hate resellers
Hurrikane
