Ticket Problem

[rupprath]

One more thing... I wish I had seen that cell phone number earlier today. It would have come in really handy, but in my haste I must have glazed over it when reading their site.

I didn't want to waste any more of our vacation so I bought the one day ticket for this evening and will use the Universal passes tomorrow morning and a one day ticket for tomorrow evening.

In other news, crowds are surprisingly good here this week. The lines were much less than I expected, but this is my first trip in about 15 years so I have nothing to compare it to. We did the E-Ticket deal on Friday night and it was great. There were still lines for the first thirty minutes of E-Ticket in Tomorrowland so we went to The Haunted Mansion and the train type roller coaster. When we returned there were very few people in line and we rode everything we wanted until 1:00 AM!

 

[KJMAX1]

Ruppath,

Have a ton of fun and enjoy. Sounds like we will have good crowds in a couple of weeks. Hopefully the weather isnt too bad is it?!

 

[SnackyStacky]

BamaTigger:

1.) Breathe.
2.) Relax.



Before you start getting into COMPLETE panic, look at the back of the ticket when they arrive. There is a date printed on it.

It should read something like this: WTS:006 06/03/02

That date is the date that the pass was printed on. The original poster stated that the dates his passes were used was a year ago, if I remember correctly.

Then, take a look at your receipt. It will tell you the day that you placed your order.

For one of my passes, the order was placed on 6/8/02, and the pass was printed on 5/29/02. For the other, the order was placed on 7/3/02, and the pass was printed on 7/1/02.

There's no way that anybody could have used them in that short time span. If there's a HUGE difference in date, then I would just E-Mail Ticketmania.

This, coupled with all of the GREAT reviews of Ticketmania have put me at ease.


For one order, the tickets arrived less than a week from when I placed the order. The other arrived a week and a day after I placed the order. If you've waited more than a week and a half, then E-Mail them.

 

[GoofysPrincess]

Does anyone know where ticketmania gets their tickets? I can't imagine WDW sells to them at a discount. Just curious...

 

[hulabird]

Hey guys--
When I was first purchasing my tickets from connections last summer, I was very paranoid and so I wrote Disney an email asking about connections, they said they were not familiar with the company but maybe just not with the name "connections", that maybe they buy from disney under another name (which they do as their parent company is Member Works) Anyway, the way Disney answered my question was weird, like they didn't want to admit that they do indeed sell tickets to outside companies that sell for less than Disney does. Now last year I was so paranoid when we got to the gates and had to use our tickets, in fact each time I was paranoid, through the whole trip. But we had no problems at wdw or at US/IOA....but yet this year that paranoia returned, but I did order from connections again...this time I got 4 day php's since we have 1 day and a plus left from last years tickets, now I am paranoid about using last years tickets....I think next year I am just gonna buy through disney with DC and not have to go through all this anxiety! I too, will be worried, even though i didn't buy through ticketmania (which I almost did) ..I am always worried Disney is going to pull the plug on these outside vendors and not let anyone know til we get to the gate and get turned away. I just pray for all of us to be ok with all our non disney ticket purchases.....

 

[CarolMN]

Originally posted by rupprath
Don't panic just yet! Let's be fair here... Ticketmania probably doesn't even know about the problem yet, and won't until they get into the office tomorrow. It's unfortunate this happened on a weekend when they weren't open.

I'll try to work it out with Ticketmania first, and dispute the charges on my credit card if need be. I'm going to ask that the park hopper portion of my purchase be refunded (Not usable, and wasting one day of my vacation). I'm going to pay for the Disney Quest tickets and Universal Tickets. Does this seem fair?

Right now I'm the only one in trouble with my significant other for getting these "Deals" let's try to keep it that way!

I'm signing off to enjoy the rest of my vacation. I'll send an update on Tuesday or Wednesday when I get back and let everyone know how Ticketmania handled the situation.

It sounds more than fair to me. Hope Ticketmania does the right thing and has a good explanation for selling you partially used tickets.

Looking forward to hearing how this works out for you. Thanks for sharing with us. Best wishes - Carol

 

[WDW2002]

This is why I will ONLY buy my tickets from AAA (for disneyland) and direct from disney when we go to WDW. Sorry I am not taking any chances.

 

[SnackyStacky]

Originally posted by GoofysPrincess
Does anyone know where ticketmania gets their tickets? I can't imagine WDW sells to them at a discount. Just curious...

The retailers do get them at a discount. If you read through Ticketmania's site it explains that they purchase the tickets wholesale from Disney, and thus they get a reduced rate, and then they sell them at those rates.

Hope that helps!

 

[WDW2002]

Originally posted by SnackyStacky

they purchase the tickets wholesale from Disney, and thus they get a reduced rate, and then they sell them at those rates.

Are you saying the ticket mania does not make a profit on the sales?? How does it make it worth it to them to sell the tickets if they do not make a profit?

 

[hulabird]

I THINK SnackyStacky meant that they get the tickets wholesale and then sell at the prices you see on the website....which I am sure gives them some kind of profit otherwise, .like u said, whats the point?

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

SnackyStacky,
You are the voice of reason here, thank you. The hopper I purchased for my daughter reads 8/1/02 . I ordered it on 8/3/02 and received it on 8/7/02.
Ticketmania has been in business for a very long time and I doubt greatly that they would intentionally bilk anyone.
I am sure this will be resolved to the original poster's benefit.

 

[andychris14]

Ok Panic does not describe the state that I am in right now!!!!
Over the weekend I too ordered a 7day park hopper pass for my son. My friend ordered 2 7 day children passes and 4 passes for 3 days for ioa/us. Her bill was $900. Here I am telling her to buy them at tickemania.
I am in a panic. We leave next Wed. The tickets are supposed to be at the hotel upon check in.
Can we check the tickets before actually going into the park. Does the hotel have some type of scanner to see how many days are left???
Lets all keep our fingers crossed that we all get good tickets.

 

[Traveliz]

Can we check the tickets before actually going into the park. Does the hotel have some type of scanner to see how many days are left???

Assuming you are staying at a Disney hotel - yes when you check in just have them check the tickets for you - otherwise you can do it at a guest services.

Liz

 

[Kallison]

How much money do you save on these passes? Is the stress and aggravation worth it? Just wondering, I always get mine at WDW with the DC discount.

 

[BamaTigger]

Thank you SnackyStacky. I feel a little bit better now. Just a little.

I will be on pins and needles until I get my tickets. Maybe it was just a one time thing or a glich or something. **BAMATIGGER TRYING TO REASSURE HERSELF**

Andychris14--IM WITH YA! Just think to yourself it will be ok. IT WILL BE OK.

Is a couple dollars worth the aggravation? NO WAY Kallison. Not to me. I only saved 7.00 a person buying these passes on ticketmania. I thought it would be nice to go ahead and have my passes paid for when I got to WDW, but next time I will buy at my resort like I always do. Less stress.

 

[BrianBWV]

Whether or not the savings are worth it can depend on the type of pass purchased. I normally don't buy through an outside vendor, but Ticketmania's recent deal of a Park-Hopper Plus 5-day pass with four options for the price of the same pass with only two options was too good to pass up. The positive experiences of past DIS posters with Ticketmania put my mind at ease.

FYI: my tickets arrived the first week in August and were date stamped 7/25/02 and 7/30/02 (kids and adults tickets).

BrianBWV

 

[Tesabat]

I would say - if anything - you might be dealing with one or two employees at their company who ran a scam. With so many positive experiences with this company, it's likely this is a reflection of isolated incidents and not the company norm.

If one worked for a company like that - and was of the mindset - one could probably figure out a way to switch used hoppers for new hoppers and make money on it somehow, or simply, always have tickets to the park by recycling hoppers. I've learned anything is possible if someone has the mindset to steal.

Either the employee has been caught - so when they are contacted about this they are going to apologize and immediately make reparation...or they are still going to make amends and begin an internal investigation.

Taking SnackyStacky's advice and checking the print date on the tickets will assure you they are OK in the meantime, and think positive that the OP might have just caught someone in the act and saved many future purchasers a lot of problems, and if the company proves reputable, saved the business from a lot of damage due to lost consumer confidence.

Having deal with a lot of internal and external retail theft situations, I just wanted to point out that this could be one bad employee and not a bad company.

 

[seashoreCM]

So long as WDW security doesn't give you a hard time (other than denying you entry to the park) they can get valuable information from you to track down the source of the bad passes. If they get lots of reports of the bad apsses coming from Ticketmania, they will narrow down their investigation in taht direction.

If your tickets were bad, you have to buy more tickest at the gate exactly as if you never bought any in advance in the first place. Usually you have to wait for the credit card bill to arrive before disputing the payment with them but you can write to Ticketmania immediately after you get home if not sooner.

I probably wouldn't go through the trouble of driving to Ticketmania's offices in person.

Save your receipts even when buying tickets directly from Disney. It is easy for a dishonest employee to slip a used pass into somebody's mail order or even a ticket booth transaction and pocket a brand new pass for personal use.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[SnackyStacky]

I E-Mailed Ticketmania to ask what would happen if anybody was issued a bad ticket. Here is their reply:

"Hello

We purchase tickets diretly from the parks, and all of our tickets are 100% guaranteed and completely %100 genuine. Over the years we have had a few tickets coded wrong from the parks, and we either supplied repalacment tickets or refunded the customer. This has happend to a total of 10 tickets in 6 years...

...thanks

Andrew

www.ticketmania.com"

So BamaTigger, andychris14....relax. If there's a problem, give them a call and they will refund or replace your tickets! It'll be okee doke!!!!

 

[CarolMN]

Copied this post by msprite from another thread. Didn't want anyone here to miss it!

Just spoke with Ticket Mania
The lady that I spoke with this morning was really nice. She was also very frank in saying that she has no idea what happened because she has not spoken with the individual that had the problem with his tickets. She said that this is the first time anyone has ever had a problem like this. She also said that they buy their tickets from businesses that have contracts directly with Disney. If what happened is true she said that not only will they refund the purchase price of the tickets but any out-of-pocket expenses that one may incur as a result. She really put my mind at ease. I haven't been to Disney in years and I would hate to have a problem with the Tickets I ordered from them.

p.s. I called them about 9:30 this morning and they called back less than thirty minutes later.




Here's a link to the thread for those interested:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=247143

Based on this post and the email that SnackyStacky received, it sure looks like Ticketmania will resolve the original poster's problem in a satisfactory manner. There doesn't appear to be any reason for anyone else to believe there will be a problem with the tickets they have purchased from this company. Those of you who are in the panic mode can take a deep breath and try to relax!