Hamilton Tix Horror Story -

[bwaybri2]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:17pm

Well - I might lose my job over this - I'm a public school teacher in the midwest and once ever two years we bring a group of 25-35 honors HS students to the City for a cultural excursion - when the most recent block of seats went on sale on February 3rd I had three colleagues/parents meet in my office at 9:30 am EST - prior to them arriving we all had created our own ticketmaster accounts, we all were using own private credit cards, etc - FOUR SEPARATE ACCOUNTS - and we got our 35 tickets - 

We then reserved and paid for our airfare, put a deposit down on our hotel rooms - we had 35 HAPPY HAPPY kids  - until yesterday morning when I received an e-mail from Ticketmaster saying they had cancelled all but 10 of our tickets - I called them right away and asked, "What is up with this"  - I told them we used separate accounts, with separate cards etc - and they said "Well,  your IP address was the same for all the orders" ????   

So now what do I do?  I tried to follow the rules - I had three different people with their own accounts, with their own credit cards, I never read anything about having to use separate IP addresses - 

I'm open to suggestions - 

 

Signed, Frustrated in Minnesota - 

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:18pm

Should have done group sales. 

[bwaybri2]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:20pm

They don't do group sales for Hamilton - I called group sales and they said the box office hadn't been filling any group orders for months - 

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:22pm

Wasn't aware of that. Unfortunately those tickets are now gone, so I feel like your only option is to sell the tickets you have and choose a new show. I understand the disappointment but there is other great theatre to see. Best of luck. 

[Broadway_Boy]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:22pm

I'm so sorry this happened.  I don't think there is anything you can do, maybe call back ticketmaster and ask to speak to a manager.  Possibly and hopefully someone involved with the show will see this and be willing to help you out.  Good luck!

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:23pm

This sounds terrible, I'm so sorry. You definitely need to ream Ticketmaster out.

[jdra]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:33pm

Sadly Ticketmaster's attempt to claw back scalper tickets is catching honest people in the net.

[bwaybri2]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:35pm

I just spoke with someone in group sales, and they had heard of TM canceling orders due to IP similarities - what a sad deal - 

[macnyc]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:40pm

I don't know if anyone involved in the production would help you, but at this point, one would have to assume the tickets are all gone.

 

If you want to salvage your trip, as BroadwayNYC2 suggested, people here can suggest a different show. Let us know the time of year and the ages of the students.

 

 

[Jallenc32]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:42pm

You tried to use the same workarounds that scalpers use to break the rules.  You got caught.  I feel bad for the kids, but not for you.  The very fact that you knew you weren't supposed to buy 35 tickets at a time to the show is evidenced by the fact that you had people help you make the purchases.  How is what you did any different than if a scalper had ten accounts under 10 names with separate credit cards and purchased tickets under each of them?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:44pm

Coincidentally (or not), this was posted today as well:

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/allthatchat_new/d.php?id=2333715

[ChiTheaterFan]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:48pm

I'm so sorry this happened to you. I'm sure this is an attempt to crack down on scalpers. Unfortunately this just shows how hard it is to do without harming legitimate buyers. 

[oncemorewithfeeling2]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:48pm

If you're set on Hamilton, seeing it in Chicago is another option. As others have said I doubt there is any way to come up with 20+ tickets for that date and the same price range at this point. You may just have to chalk it up as a loss and sell the tickets.

But by selling 10 Hamilton tickets, you may make enough to purchase tickets to two shows.

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:50pm

While the end result is stinky... there are published ticket limits and it looks like you got caught in that net. I don't think Ticketmaster did anything wrong here. 

[bwaylyric]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:53pm

Would you consider selling all the tickets you still have?  Imagine the profit you'd make.  You may be able to see more than one show during your class trip. 

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:53pm

From the thread on ATC, this is Ticketmaster's note on ticket limits: "Please adhere to published ticket limits. Persons who exceed the ticket limit may have any or all of their orders and tickets cancelled without notice by Ticketmaster in its discretion. This includes orders associated with the same name, e-mail address, billing address, credit card number or other information."

I mean, it sucks that it took a few months to find this out, but from Ticketmaster's perspective, you cheated and went over the ticket limit. They have every right to rescind those tickets, especially for a show as prone to scalpers as this one. 

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:54pm

bwaylyric said: "Would you consider selling all the tickets you still have?  Imagine the profit you'd make.  You may be able to see more than one show during your class trip. "

And a shopping spree to the Drama Bookshop!

[NJ_BroadwayGirl]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:54pm

bwaylyric said: "Would you consider selling all the tickets you still have?  Imagine the profit you'd make.  You may be able to see more than one show during your class trip. "

Hell they could probably pay for the trip! 

 

[gypsy101]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:55pm

jdra said: "Sadly Ticketmaster's attempt to claw back scalper tickets is catching honest people in the net."

and yet the scalpers still win!

very sad for OP but I don't think you should get fired, it obviously wasn't your fault.

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:56pm

Unfortunately you violated the rules. With the amount of people getting tickets for this show for sketchy purposes, it's reasonable that they have these rules in place.

[NJ_BroadwayGirl]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 1:59pm

So have we established that one IP address/account/credit card can buy and possess a maximum of 10 tickets for the Nov- Jan dates, by could also hold tickets outside that time period? 

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 2:03pm

Fosse76 said: "The OP wasn't buying tickets to scalp; but genuinely needed 35 tickets. "

But how is Ticketmaster supposed to be able to tell this?

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 2:07pm

"If Hamilton is not selling group tickets, exactly what else can someone do?"

Well, for starters, they could go see another show. 

"Considering that tickets sold-out within a few hours AND almost as many are on the re-sale market just illustrates that they aren't really going to stop scalpers. But to blame legitimate ticket buyers, whose had an actual legitimate solution (which is obviously not illegal and clearly within TM's policies) illustrates more the type of person you are, as opposed to the OP. "

How exactly is Ticketmaster supposed to know that someone purchasing 35 tickets for the same performance isn't scalping them? And the solution may not be illegal (but neither is scalping) but it clearly violates Ticketmaster's policies. This individual situation sucks, but it looks to me like Ticketmaster is at least trying to do something about the scalping problem- you know, the thing everyone complains about on every Hamilton thread. I'm not a fan of theirs at all, but they don't deserve blame for this. 

[Jallenc32]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 2:07pm

Fosse76 said: "You're an idiot. The OP wasn't buying tickets to scalp; but genuinely needed 35 tickets. If Hamilton is not selling group tickets, exactly what else can someone do? Considering that tickets sold-out within a few hours AND almost as many are on the re-sale market just illustrates that they aren't really going to stop scalpers. But to blame legitimate ticket buyers, whose had an actual legitimate solution (which is obviously not illegal and clearly within TM's policies) illustrates more the type of person you are, as opposed to the OP.  "

Ah, but it didn't adhere to Ticketmaster's policies.  Since, as was mentioned upthread, "Please adhere to published ticket limits. Persons who exceed the ticket limit may have any or all of their orders and tickets cancelled without notice by Ticketmaster in its discretion. This includes orders associated with the same name, e-mail address, billing address, credit card number or other information."

Guess what?  That "other information" they list covers their using IP address as a unique identifier.  The funny thing is that they'd have probably gotten away with it if they didn't have all the buyers meet at the school to make the purchases.

[bwaybri2]

Posted: 5/13/16 at 2:14pm

The frustrating thing for me is that my first call is always to group sales - Anthony is the best, by the way - and I was told, "listen, we haven't placed a group order in months to Hamilton and we probably won't be able to place one for the next 6 months to a year".     Obviously, all bets are off when talking about a show like Hamilton (which I saw in October), but it breaks my heart that my students can't see this show.    And by the way our 35 seats were spread out over 4 different shows -