Ticket-price mix-up angers some buyers

Several ticket holders for the Orange County New Year’s Eve 2007 event, scheduled for Sunday at the Orange County Fair & Exposition Center, were upset last week to find they paid more than they had to for admittance.

Costa Mesa resident Robert Tighe purchased a VIP ticket to the event for $200 shortly after they went on sale, believing he was getting a bargain with ticket prices set to rise in the days prior to the event.

But after receiving an e-mail from event organizers on Friday, he thought otherwise. The message highlighted a four-day promotion set to run through Christmas Eve that offered two VIP tickets for $250. Feeling cheated, he replied with several e-mails.

“I would feel foolish standing in line to buy a beer knowing the guy behind me paid only a hundred and a quarter for his ticket,” Tighe said. “That’s not right to have a vendor for local people charging one price when another price is being offered.”

Rich Goodwin, the event’s executive director, said that due to an inputting error, promotional e-mails like the one Tighe received were sent out to the wrong databases last week, leading to e-mails from about 25 dissatisfied customers like Tighe. The entire concert e-mail list incudes approximately 3,000 recipients.

Such promotions were intended for specific demographic groups, such as younger patrons or those traveling farther to get to the event, whose transportation and lodging costs would be considerably higher than locals’.

“If I thought people from Japan would come, I would sell them tickets for a dollar because I know what it costs to get here,” Goodwin said.

Organizers are taking grievances from event patrons on a case-by-case basis and are offering free upgrades or additional tickets to those with legitimate complaints. Response to the remedy has been very positive, Goodwin said.

“Of course we are going to give them that remedy in a way bigger way than the promotion event calls for,” he said.

Goodwin emphasized that promotions are part and parcel to the marketing business and should be expected.

“Every event and almost every product does some sort of marketing like this,” he said. “It’s not uncommon at all.”

For New Year’s Eve events, Goodwin said, it is especially difficult to sell tickets in advance. As such, he will do whatever he can to sell as many tickets as possible with the event steadily approaching.

Tighe received a call Wednesday evening from a concert organizer, offering him two complimentary tickets to the New Year’s Eve event in response to his complaints.

He is satisfied with the deal, though he thinks the best promotions should go to people purchasing tickets when they initially go on sale.

In the future, organizers plan to target promotions in a different way, which could mean no discounts.

As for the day of the event, when ticket prices were initially set to escalate, Goodwin was unsure Tuesday what the price of admission would be at the door, though he was poised to keep prices as they are — $125 for general admission and $250 for VIP.