So, What Happens When...

[WhiteTiger]

...you show up for your annual Flames Date Night with your wife at the Saddledome...and the ticket reader refuses to read your tickets, telling you they are no good?

Well...Now I have an answer to that question.

First, I have been buying tickets from this Season Ticket Holder for at least 5 years now, and have NEVER had a problem. Not once did I think or suspect that that was where the problem was. He is good people, and I knew he'd never double-sell his tickets


I go through the first line, and get the red X. I had him try a second time, then on a different barcode, and got the X again.

Thinking perhaps it was his machine, and never having had this problem ever before, I went to a different line, and tried that. Same thing. We stepped out of line and went to the ticket office that was right there. They said that was a ‘sales only’ office, and I needed to go to the main ticket office.

On the way to the main ticket office, I called the STH to ask for his thoughts and/or advice. At that time, he advised he’d do what he could.

After a bit of an adventure finding it, we get to the main ticket office and explain what happened. That I bought the tickets from a STH, like I have many times before. That I downloaded them onto my phone, like I have many times before. But this time, they didn’t scan. The lady takes my phone (since my tix were on it) and looks at them and types a bunch of stuff into her computer.

“These tickets have been printed already, and they’ve already been activated today. The persons who have them are already inside.”

I raise my brows, and am thinking less-than-kind thoughts about going to the seats and seeing what’s what myself if they’ll let me in for 5 minutes. She asks me my name, and the name of the STH. I provide both, and she heads off.

She comes back in a couple minutes, and tells me that she has contacted the STH and he’s vouched that myself and my wife are the people he sold the tix to, and we are and should be the rightful holders of the tickets.

She tells me that they will now have an usher/security go to the seats and have a talk with the people sitting there, to let them explain themselves. There is nothing we can do but wait. Thankfully, they have big screens with the game on at the desk.

We never do see her again, but about 20 minutes later, a fellow comes walking out from the back, approaches another fellow at the counter, and asks him “Are you [WhiteTiger]?” I lean over, and catch his attention. “I am.” He comes over to me.

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience. We have printed off two good tickets for you and hope that the rest of your evening is a pleasant one.”

I thank him and my wife and I set off quickly. The tickets were basically the same ones we’d had. They were one section over and one row down. I knew I’d be able to see ‘my’ seats from my new seats and thought that this would be pretty interesting.

We ended up missing about 15 minutes of the first period with all the muss and fuss. The couple sitting in ‘my’ seats appeared to be at least in their late 60’s. They also seemed very chummy with the fellow sitting beside them.

I was impressed with how the Saddledome staff handled it. It was probably the easiest solution for them, to print off 2 seats they knew weren’t sold that were pretty much equal to what I’d lost. I imagine that the couple sitting in ‘my’ seats were likely the victims of scammers, too. I hold no ill will towards them.

Made ‘date night’ a bit more...interesting...than I’d wanted, though.

I wrote this up, as I've been wondering what happened if you bought tickets and showed up and they didn't work. I'd even, during some of the downtime while waiting for an answer, surfed CP for an answer and didn't find it here. So I'm kinda hoping that if this happens to someone else, and they turn to CP for answers, they'll find some.

If this doesn't belong here, mods can delete it.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Who is the scammer? Not your buddy I assume. But how did the older couple get tickets that scanned as your seats?

[KipperFaNaTic]

Solution: Buy Season Tickets yourself.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Who is the scammer? Not your buddy I assume. But how did the older couple get tickets that scanned as your seats?

I honestly have no idea. I'd like to, but I don't know their systems well enough to hazard a guess as to how it could have worked. But I'm really curious about it, honestly.

[calgarywinning]

That was a very cool story. Flames staff handled that perfectly!

I mostly get people sitting in my season tickets from a different section, who really, really believe they are in the right seats. I love it, because of how much they believe they are in the right place.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by KipperFaNaTic

Solution: Buy Season Tickets yourself.

It's something I've given some thought to, but with my schedule, I'd be selling way, way more than I'd ever get to. This way, I get to help a good friend cover the cost of his season tickets. Works for both of us.

[Hey Connor, It's Mess]

Something's not quite adding up...

[aiy_yah]

I was given tickets from a vendor I deal with at work once. Went with my wife and someone was sitting in our seats. Went to usher to make sure we had the right section and seats. Turns out that vendor gave us the seats, forgot about it, and let his wife give the tickets to her friends.

The Saddledome staff were great. Realized it was an honest mistake and gave us tickets in similar area. Enjoyed the game.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

[Manhattanboy]

So they did not have an explanation as to how those folks obtained tickets to your STH’s seats? Am I missing something?

I am an STH and have sold my tix on the CP exchange before and am curious as to what happened.

[FireGilbert]

I like that this ticket scam thread has a vague title like the other ticket scam thread. I was hoping they were related but alas. Nice to see no one was scammed though.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

So they did not have an explanation as to how those folks obtained tickets to your STH’s seats? Am I missing something?

I am an STH and have sold my tix on the CP exchange before and am curious as to what happened.

Well, they did not have/provide an explanation to ME. I asked my buddy about it afterwards, and he said that during their contact with him, they stated that they'd be following up with him. He can choose to post here, if he wishes, or he can let me know and I can update if there is a shareable update.

[FiveSeven]

Make sure the STH changes his passwords, you should too just incase, since you cant be certain. Would be my best guess besides a 1/1000000 glitch.

[SmoggyFlamesFan]

I had exactly this same scenario happen one night. The owner of where I work rewarded me with some lower bowl seats one night. We had to go to the main ticket office just like yourselves to determine what the problem was. My fiancee and I were ticked, but thankfully the Saddledome staff rectified it and got us second bowl suite seats. We beat the Caps 2-1 that night, and I wasn't about to complain for free seats! I can definitely relate, OP.

[DeluxeMoustache]

I had a situation one time where I tried to buy tickets on stubhub.

The site crapped out mid transaction, and said try again.

My buddy got tickets elsewhere. I didn’t think about it again until I got home, looked at my email and saw that I had a receipt for having bought tickets ... that we did not use

Stubhub was good, I lodged a complaint, they went through their records, and notified me that they validated that it was a glitch on their site and refunded my tickets.

So in this case, perhaps it was the converse and somehow a ticket brokering site allowed for sold/transferred tickets to be sold / transferred again

[Yrebmi]

Boo to the cliffhanger thread title.... but glad I opened the thread anyway. Good read. Thanks for contributing.

[flamesfever]

Sometimes I think society is regressing with all these computer glitches, hacking, stolen data, etc. Oh, for a return to the old days, when we got the actual printed tickets.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by aiy_yah

I was given tickets from a vendor I deal with at work once. Went with my wife and someone was sitting in our seats. Went to usher to make sure we had the right section and seats. Turns out that vendor gave us the seats, forgot about it, and let his wife give the tickets to her friends.

The Saddledome staff were great. Realized it was an honest mistake and gave us tickets in similar area. Enjoyed the game.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

Did they explain how you both got in with the same tickets?

[IslandFlamesFan]

Not here, but when I was in Toronto I was the point of contact for the company Blue Jay tickets. I would allocate all the tickets to the Sales teams at the beginning of the season and send them the digital copies of the tickets. On one occasion the team called me and said they had a customer that couldn’t get in as the tickets were already used, so one of the sales team had allocated their seat of tickets twice. This was in 2015 when the Jays were selling out every game, and we had great seats behind the plate, but the team still had a pair of primo seats located close to our seat and sold me the second pair on the spot. I simply send the extra charge to the offending sales team and the problem was solved.

[The Cobra]

I once bought tickets for my sons on Stubhub and when they got heir, they were allowed in but then security came to talk to them as the tickets had been reported stolen. I am a ST holder and was there. They ended up talking to me.

I, of course, got a complete refund from StubHub, and my sons were given other seats in the Saddledome for free.

Win-win, the Flames were great about it the whole time.

In your situation, I'm not sure why they allowed that couple to stay in their seats, and how they got tickets in the first place. Curious about that for sure.

[bizaro86]

Did you friend transfer the tickets from his STH account or email PDFs?