January 26, 1998

Frederick Rosen
President & CEO
Ticketmaster Holdings Group, Ltd.
3701 Wilshire Blvd. 7th Floor
Los Angeles, CA
90010-2804

I am writing in regards to a completely aggravating and frustrating situation regarding your company. I am truly in desperation; the fact that it has required a letter to you, President & CEO, should exemplify that. I have never bef ore encountered such a lack of customer service and unwillingness to redress a case of error on the part of a company. I have been an avid concertgoer, and therefore a patron of Ticketmaster, for many years now. However, this incident is disgusting enough for me to seriously consider discontinuing doing any business with your company and abandoning the concert industry as a whole. Lower management has so far been immovable in taking action to sufficiently redress this matter, so I am turning to you.

For the sake of brevity, I will only briefly describe the situation. However I have enclosed a copy of my original letter of complaint, which provides a full description. Basically, an error on the part of a Ticketmaster representative caused my evening on November 15^th to be ruined. The tickets I was told I purchased were not what I received when I arrived at the venue box office.

This should be a plain and simple matter of a full refund. This could have been handled quickly without wasting time and causing aggravation for both of us. But the way things are being run at your company, this has apparently not been possible.

I recently read an article in which you shared the secrets to your success. I found it especially interesting that your third rule was, "Admit when you're wrong. Learn from your mistakes. Wrong decisions can be fixed--people want answer s." I think this perfectly characterizes this situation. Now why hasn’t there been a resolution in the spirit of that rule? I think it’s time that Ticketmaster’s policies fell in line with your own views.

Managers at Customer Service at the Virginia Beach office have given me lame excuses for why Ticketmaster cannot refund the full price of my purchase. First of all, they have claimed that the sales agent made the best possible reservati on available and confirmed the location with me as general admission Mezzanine. This is completely untrue. I have contacted others who attended the same event, ordered tickets from you at least a week later than I did, and somehow were able got Floor tick ets. These were also given to them arbitrarily; they were not informed of any distinction in tickets. Also, the sales agent most definitely told me I would be getting general admission standing room only. Another excuse I have gotten involves Ticketmaster ’s contractual obligations, stating that funds are not available for refund. This is along the lines of a mail-order distributor sending me a product that was defective or otherwise not what I ordered and then telling me that my money could not be refunde d because they had already paid the manufacturer the cost of the item. Details regarding Ticketmaster’s accounting are not of my concern. It is your duty to make good for this mistake and juggle your money afterwards.

I understand that mistakes can be made. We are all human. But if the best effort is made to rectify them, then I have no qualms. I myself work in customer service, taking calls over telephone. Therefore I have a unique perspective on th is situation. However demanding I may come off as a disgruntled patron, speaking as a customer service representative, I can definitely say that this should be handled in a more satisfactory manner. At my place of work, such situations must be rectified w ithout restraint. The name of our company, and our survival, depends on it.

At this point, you stand to lose my three friends and I as customers in the future. If this matters to you or not, I do not know. If it doesn’t, then that truly saddens me. Please make good on this.