My daughter works in the customer experience business, so I’ve become more aware of others who work in that field. In cases where they’ve given me unexpected assistance or gone above and beyond to solve a problem, I try to remember to praise them and, if possible, let their supervisors know they’ve made me a satisfied customer. That’s why I’m posting this story.
Several weeks ago, I saw that two classic rock acts, Grand Funk Railroad and Dave Mason, had been booked for a date at The Factory, the new live music venue in Chesterfield, MO. I had been there to see Buddy Guy and thought the place was fabulous, with the most comfortable chairs I’ve ever sat on for a concert. When tickets went on sale for GFR/Mason, I snagged a couple of good seats and put it on my calendar.
But a week or two later, I noticed that the billing had been changed to Grand Funk Railroad and Foghat. I was disappointed because I really wanted to see Dave Mason. He had played another venue in the area while we were on vacation in Florida, so I’d missed him and was looking forward to this opportunity. But I have no interest in seeing Foghat and only a slight desire to see Grand Funk Railroad.
I felt like the victim of a bait-and-switch, and said so on Twitter, expecting nothing to change because Ticketmaster has a no-refund policy. But within an hour, I got a tweet reply from The Factory’s account asking me to email its box office for assistance. I did, explaining my problem, and quickly heard from a woman named Sarah, who told me:
No bait and switch was intended. Dave Mason was on the bill until he was not able to make that date anymore. We can definitely put through a refund request for you. Please send me your order number and I will get that request submitted this week.
I sent her the info and again got an almost-immediate response:
I will get this submitted. Your order will be cancelled within 24 hours but then it may take an average of 2 weeks before the money is back on your credit card statement. That’s the time frame I’ve been seeing lately so wanted to warn you there have been delays lately.
Sure enough, the credit showed up in my account about ten days later. I sent Sarah a note thanking her for the prompt attention to my problem. And for making me like The Factory even more.
This is the part of this piece in which I come up with some witty way to end it, like “Now that I have my money back, I’m feeling all right.” And then every reader under fifty wonders what the hell that’s a reference to. Let me bring in some guys of Dave’s generation to explain: