I Clicked “Redeem Voucher.”
While the kids were at camp, I had lots of time to myself. One day, I got an email that said – thanks to a settlement on some Ticketmaster court case – I had earned the right to:
TRADE YOUR VOUCHERS FOR UNFORGETTABLE LIVE CONCERTS NOW!
I had a vague recollection of putting my name out there, eons ago, so that a “Ticketmaster settlement” could be shared with me, whenever it came to fruition. I didn’t think it would be in the form of free concerts, but hey – that sounded good!
I discovered that I had not one or two “vouchers,” but seventeen vouchers, each good for two tickets to any eligible event. So I was eligible to get 34 free tickets!
I spent almost an hour searching through the “eligible events.” The concerts near us may have been good for the kids, but the venue is far from home and not a particularly nice place to see a concert. Plus, Dylan works – a lot – and he works at a concert venue. So he’s already seeing a ton of concerts this summer.
So I started searching out of our area – at places where we might be traveling through for college visits or vacations. And sure enough, eventually, I found one: a concert we could see on our way home from vacation. All four of us would enjoy it, and we wouldn’t be able to see that group at any other time or place – at least not anytime soon.
So I thought, hey, I have seventeen vouchers! I will use two of them for tickets to this great concert, and we will get to see this great group for free! Plus we can extend our vacation by one day, which the kids will love.
I clicked, “Redeem Voucher.” The website very happily put me on hold for a second … (Searching for Tickets…) and then it provided me with all of my options for that event:
FAST LANE ACCESS
PREMIER PARKING
VIP CLUB ACCESS
RESERVED LAWN ACCESS
LAWN CHAIR RENTAL
OVERSIZED VEHICLE PARKING
Every single one of these great options had one caveat:
THIS IS NOT A CONCERT TICKET.
I went and checked another “eligible event,” just in case.
VIP CLUB UPGRADE
PREMIER PARKING
LOUNGE ACCESS
And again, there was the warning attached to each one:
THIS IS NOT A CONCERT TICKET.
In other words, for my “settlement,” all I can get is a lawn chair rental or a place to park my oversized vehicle outside the venue.
I can’t actually get any concert tickets.
Like I said, I had lots of time on my hands during camp week. But geez, what a waste.