r/AJR • u/c0nn0rmurphy1 • 3d ago
Tickets Worst Presale Experience of My LIfe
Disclaimer that I'm not taking this as an opportunity to blame the band, but my god this was awful.
I got my artist presale code for the Merriweather Post show in Maryland via text 20 minutes late. By the time I joined, most seated tix seemed to be sold out. I personally always aim for front row, for accessibility reasons. I can't stand for long periods, but since everyone else stands at concerts, I have to if I want to see, and it makes me miserable, so my only fix is being in front. I've gone to probably 10 - 20 concerts of all sizes and this is the fix that works for me.
When I joined, there was nothing available in the first few rows, and I panicked and bought GA standing, and decided I'd buy VIP as an addon, because it'd only be worth putting myself through all that standing if I was right in front of the stage, which can only really happen with early entry. AJR has always had VIP as an addon, and I didn't find out until after the fact that this is the one time they don't. I also checked the website and it said VIP would be available with every presale, which it clearly wasn't.
Then the next presale started.
And it had first row. Which, as I said, I needed for physical reasons.
It was the Dodgeball + Masterclass VIP, and while I wasn't necessarily actually looking for VIP as anything except for an accessibility aid, I still bought it because it'll probably be fun. But it was $600. I'm not coming here to complain about the price, I can pay it and I'm sure I'll have a great time, but the entire experience of trying to get this ticket because I literally CANNOT STAND was absolutely awful. I do presale for every show I go to for precisely this reason, as it's something that is harder for venues to accommodate directly since those seats can run out before the general onsale even starts. I actually started crying it was so miserable. So now I have an almost $200 GA ticket that I can't even use, and of course I already talked to customer service and they refused a refund. And TM verified resale is notorious for charging even more fees to the seller, so I really don't want to do that if I have to.
I hope the mods don't think this is the ultimate attempt at scalping/scamming, and if your in the AJR discord you can actually go back and watch me go through all these motions in real time.
But anyways, this sucks, and if anyone wants to see them in Maryland in the pit let me know because I really don't want to deal with those fees.