PROBLEM SOLVED

One minute, Adam Edikauskas has tickets to a Vegas Golden Knights hockey game. The next moment, the tickets vanished from his account. Why won't Ticketmaster refund his money?

I bought seven tickets to a recent Vegas Golden Knights game through Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster confirmed my order, and my tickets were in my account an hour later.

When game time rolled around, I pulled up my account to scan my tickets, and they were no longer there.

I went to the box office for help. They explained these tickets had changed hands over eight times. I have contacted Ticketmaster, and they have submitted a request for a refund.

This was over a month ago. A follow-up has yielded nothing. I disputed the purchase with my credit card, but my bank sided with Ticketmaster. I will have to submit an appeal by next week. I am hoping to get help getting a full refund of the $504 I spent. Can you help me?

Adam Edikauskas, Vancouver, Wash.

Talk about a doubleheader of disappointment! You not only missed the game, but Ticketmaster decided to keep your money.

But I can see a problem with your case right off the bat (sorry for mixing my sports metaphors, but "right off the stick" didn't have quite the same ring to it). You gave Ticketmaster only a few weeks to process the refund before going to a credit card dispute.

As I explain in my complete guide to credit card disputes, a chargeback is your last option when you have a problem with a company. I would have given Ticketmaster a little more time to send your refund. Refunds can sometimes take six to eight weeks.

If you run out of patience, you could always contact the Ticketmaster executives that I list on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org. A brief, polite email to one of them might light a fire under the refunds department and lead to quicker action. Ticketmaster has the lowest possible customer responsiveness score, according to our own rating, which is based on our cases.

You kept an excellent paper trail between Ticketmaster and yourself, which allowed me to review the problem quickly. It appears you had electronic tickets that someone removed from your account, after which the tickets changed hands several times, even though you had paid for them. Ticketmasters should have safeguards in place to prevent tickets from being removed from a customer's account without their authorization. Even after reviewing the lengthy thread between you and Ticketmaster, I have no idea how this could have happened.

I contacted Ticketmaster on your behalf. But you also proceeded with the appeal of your dispute. A few weeks later, you contacted me with good news: Your credit card company reviewed your case and sided with you, refunding your $504.

"I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for taking this on with Ticketmaster and spending the time you did helping me out," you said. "While we did not get Ticketmaster to admit their fault, we were still able to get the credit card company to side with me, which I think is a win in itself."

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy (https://elliottadvocacy.org), a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at [email protected] or get help by contacting him at https://elliottadvocacy.org/help/

© 2023 Christopher Elliott