I’m going to vent about my terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad experience with the /u/baltimoreravens today. It was our first ever game at M&T. They had the opportunity to gain a fan for life, but instead I am now not inclined to ever buy tickets to another event. For what it’s worth, I love Baltimore. It’s my favorite city I’ve ever lived in. The Ravens just really dropped the ball here and I’m very disappointed.

From top to bottom, this was one of the worst customer service failures I’ve ever encountered. Not only at the several hundred college and professional sporting events I’ve attended, but in general. From phone customer support, to window ticket agents, to ushers outside, to Baltimore Police and the scalpers working the stadium. All of them completely ineffective at solving problems.

Because the Ravens official ticket site is SeatGeek, I am holding them responsible for some of SeatGeek’s failures, too. If you put a company’s name above a gate at your stadium, and direct fans to buy tickets through them at your official website, it’s an endorsement of the company. In light of SeatGeek’s inscrutable customer service approach, the Ravens ought to be able to help with the official provider’s tickets.

~

I purchased two tickets for around $275 (after fees) through SeatGeek three times before the game. Each time, they would “pend” for a few minutes, then get canceled. No reason, no explanation – just canceled. I called my credit card company and asked them if it had been blocked for fraud. They told me to try it again and there were no issues on their end. Still, pending then canceled. I called the box office and explained the situation and the very nice woman said they would honor them with the confirmation I’d received if I walked over to the stadium and I went to will call. I live one mile from the stadium so I headed over an hour and a half before kickoff. When I arrived at the stadium, I asked three people standing there for information (with the lanyards and uniforms and all) where will call was and none of them knew. I found it myself and waited in line.

After seeing my confirmation emails, the woman at the ticket office said it was no big deal and they’d manually send my tickets in a few minutes. I waited nearby for fifteen minutes and when I didn’t get the tickets, I went back to the window and asked if she could print me paper ones instead of using SeatGeek. This time, she flatly told me that they weren’t going to honor the tickets and I would have to buy new tickets at window 5. I went to window 5 and waited in line there. A scalper was aggressively hounding two Australians who were in a similar situation to me: their tickets had also been canceled after they’d come to the stadium. The scalper repeatedly was touching the guy and asking what his budget was. After a few minutes, I told him “hey, it seems like he’s not interested in buying tickets from you” and the scalper immediately stuck his finger in my face and started yelling about minding my business. He called me a f****t numerous times in front of the cop who was watching this unfold, and the BPD officer, A. Nunez, asked me to walk away. I did, and apologized to the Australians for the hassle since most people don’t act like that here. Nunez and the scalper talked for a few minutes and the scalper came and stood right next to us again, while Nunez walked out of sight. Baltimore doesn’t exactly have the greatest reputation in the world for foreigners, so it’s frustrating that someone’s experience might be getting hassled aggressively and then hearing slurs directed at someone who intervenes. If you’re going to let scalpers operate outside your stadium, maybe it would be a good idea to not let them hurl slurs at people and go right back to scalping.

~

Anyway, once I talked to someone at window 5 about buying new tickets, they informed me that they weren’t going to honor my original purchase or purchase price, but I was welcome to buy similar but worse tickets for $179 each, which is more than twice what I provably paid per ticket through SeatGeek (again, the official ticket provider of the Ravens). At this point, I just started to walk home, and called the box office customer service again to see if there were any other options.

Turns out, because we just moved to Baltimore, our saved credit card’s billing address on SeatGeek (which I have used before with no issues) was still at our old address. People travel for football games, that shouldn’t be a big deal right? No, they canceled the order for fraud prevention and there is nothing they can do. Instead of using any critical thinking or problem solving skills at all, apparently it is the Ravens policy to not sell tickets to someone for 24 hours after this occurs. The woman on the phone suggested that I create a new SeatGeek account and try to purchase tickets again. By this time, the first quarter was well underway. I declined and she ended the call.

I simply cannot believe that this is the only solution for an NFL box office. People come from all over to watch games. The people in front of us in line had driven two hours to the stadium only for their tickets to be canceled. If we are forced to buy tickets through a third party, god forbid one that the team officially endorses, there has to be some recourse other than “just buy more tickets, bro”. I could’ve used another card if they’d given me the option. I could’ve proven my address. Anything other than, “sorry, no”.

We were so excited to go to our first Ravens game. I’ve been watching the season intently, I’m crazy about the marching band, and I wanted to see the players that played at my college team again. I love Baltimore. It’s my favorite city I’ve ever lived in. This was a pathetic experience. Just really bummed out.