A slight deviation during this post to share a frustrating experience that has elements of humor in the “What Could Possibly Go Wrong Next” category. The new Harry Potter movie came out last week and my husband and I along with two of our daughters and their husbands decided to go see it this coming Saturday. I thought I would save time waiting in line and order tickets online at a theater that allows you to buy tickets for specific seats. I thought this is a great idea because then we don’t have to wait in line for hours hoping we will all get seats together. So Monday after dinner I search for the theater and it comes up on a web page with all of the chain's theaters. I click on locations and get a page with all the theaters listed. Next I am SURE I clicked on the theater location north of us and under it were the showtimes. I selected the noon show after conferring with everyone and bought 6 seats with my credit card. I submitted the order and it gave me a page to print out to take to the theater location far South of us to pick up the tickets when I went on Saturday.
So I read the information trying to find out how to change the location and it says no refunds, no exchanges, no transfers. Aaaack! There is a customer service number so I call it and tell the girl how I’m sure I clicked on the north location but the receipt says the south location. She says they can’t do any changes over the phone but all I have to do is drive to the theater in the sourth and they can refund my credit card. I tell her where I live. Well, then she explains I can drive to the theater in the north (30 minutes away) and give them the receipt I printed out and the credit card and they can call the south location and those people can then refund the ticket cost to my credit card. I’m irritated at having to waste the gas and time to go to theater and I’m SURE (I think) that I pushed the correct icon in the first place but I decide, okay, I will make a quick trip to the theater and get it taken care of. My husband offers to go with me and we will be back in plenty of time to take our grandson to lap swimming at 9:00 pm to practice for his scout swim test.
We are driving north on the freeway with google map to the theater in hand; traffic is light- this won’t be so bad. My husband asks what exit we take and I realize- the one we just passed. No problem. Just exit at the next one and get back on the freeway southbound and try again. Okay- that worked. We got off the freeway at the right exit and followed the map and started to turn onto Grant Street which was BLOCKED OFF. What? Oh- a parade- horses- lots of horses, carriages, ponies, horses as far down the street as we could see. So we turned the other way to go around the parade but, unfortunately, Grant Street was the staging area and the parade went around the corner onto the main street, completely encircling the block where the theater was. So-- we turned around again and went block buy block trying to find a place to park so we could walk to the theater. No luck. Besides the Parade there was an semi-pro baseball game starting and cars were parked everywhere. Finally we saw a car pull out of a space in a parking lot next to a brick building so we grabbed that spot, walked to Grant street and ran across between horses, through the block and finally to the theater. Waited in line, explained the problem to the nice girl who took us to another computer and called the south theater. Tried another number. Tried a third number. No one answered. Finally called the manager who got her transferred to someone who answered the phone. Explained the problem several times. She gave them my credit card number. Waited. Credit card failed. What do you mean failed? It worked an hour ago when I bought the tickets and all you need to do now is refund the ticket money. They checked the expiration date- 10/2010. Tried again- it worked. FINALLY. Okay- refund will be credited to our account in 5-7 business days. Now back to the ticket computer. After a couple tries found a 12:25 show time with 6 good seat together- good! Wait---- the printer jammed---- the girl pulls the printer out of the counter, tries several things. Can’t get it to work. Calls manager. The two of them finally get the printer working but it can’t print the merchant receipt for me to sign because the computer already sent one. So they print a customer copy for me to sign and we’re FINISHED! The parade is ended to we run back to our car, passing the front of the building where we are parked I notice it is an alcohol & drug clinic. Interesting. Hurry home, pick up the grandson and arrive for lap swimming just after 9:00 pm BUT- (of course) no lap swimming tonight even though the brochure we received when we bought the yearly pass says lap swimming in the summer from 9-10:00 pm. Sorry. No lap swimming in the evenings during the summer. It’s a private party. Sorry, grandson-- We’ll try tomorrow morning. (That didn’t work either- High School Swim Team and elderly ladies water aerobics.)
Sometimes the harder I try to save time, the more time it takes. Not the most serene experience but nothing more than a bother in the eternal scheme of things.
