Over the past week I had been posting stuff about my friend Tyson's submission wrestling event that took place last Friday. I had bought a number of tickets to go watch it with some friends, but then my cat Larry experienced kidney failure on Thursday. He is back home now and is recuperating, but I went through a rough, anxious stretch of days last week as I agonized over his illness and prayed that he would get better. I had purchased seven tickets to Tyson's event, but I ended up going there with just my friend Tim at the last minute because I never invited anyone else to come along. Larry had been too sick for me to bother about making any plans ahead of time. The event was well underway when Tim and I arrived. I gave my name to the woman at the "will call" booth and she told me she could not find my tickets. She shrugged her shoulders and stared insolently at me through the plexiglass screen. My emotions were already fried because of Larry's illness and I just turned and stomped away after a few minutes of trying to reason with her. I returned a short while later to vent my spleen over the situation. She just stared at me dumbly throughout my tirade. Tim alternately watched me, looked at her, and looked away. I knew he was wishing that he was someplace else.
Tim and I never went into the venue. The next day I told Tyson about how fucked up I thought the situation was. At first he just laughed. Later, after he heard similar comments from other people, he asked me to write him an e-mail describing my experience. This is what I wrote to him:
Tyson,
I became extremely upset by the cavalier attitude of the personnel in the ticket booth at your event. As you know I had paid for over $500 worth of tickets and arrived to discover that the woman in the ticket booth could not find them. She did a cursory search for them, smiled, uttered an insincere apology, smiled again, and waited for me to leave. It was readily apparent that she could care less that I had paid for tickets that were unavailable to me. Common sense dictates that I'm probably not the only person to whom she behaved so rudely. Initially I stormed off in disgust. How many other people did that? The only reason you are hearing about this is because I know you personally. The only reason I approached the ticket booth a second time is because I know you.
On my return visit to the ticket booth either my friend Tim or I revealed that I was your friend. Perhaps one of us had said it during our first visit. I don't remember and it does not really matter. My anger was due to the fact that the woman in the booth had initially treated us with such disregard and had not even bothered to try and figure out why the tickets were missing. In the end I found myself imploring her to understand that it was completely absurd for a paying customer to arrive at an event and be greeted with such utter indifference. She stared at me blankly for an extended period of time. One of the event coordinators had appeared in the booth at some point and the insipid woman had informed her that I was "Tyson's friend." This event coordinator offered to take me into the venue.
What happened to the people who did not happen to be one of your personal friends? The ones who paid for tickets and had to deal with that type of careless attitude? I had not arrived there expecting special treatment from anyone. I had paid for tickets to support your show and so I could sit and watch people wrestle. It should not have been necessary for me to become angry or mention that I had a connection to you. My attitude that night would have been completely different if the woman in the ticket booth had initially behaved in a respectful manner when she could not locate the tickets. She did not. I mention all this because I really think you should be aware of it.
People often pay for a membership to one of my websites and cannot get in for various reasons (lost password, technical snafu, etc.) I'd want to know about it if my webmaster did not deal with their situation in an effective, diplomatic manner.
On my return visit to the ticket booth either my friend Tim or I revealed that I was your friend. Perhaps one of us had said it during our first visit. I don't remember and it does not really matter. My anger was due to the fact that the woman in the booth had initially treated us with such disregard and had not even bothered to try and figure out why the tickets were missing. In the end I found myself imploring her to understand that it was completely absurd for a paying customer to arrive at an event and be greeted with such utter indifference. She stared at me blankly for an extended period of time. One of the event coordinators had appeared in the booth at some point and the insipid woman had informed her that I was "Tyson's friend." This event coordinator offered to take me into the venue.
What happened to the people who did not happen to be one of your personal friends? The ones who paid for tickets and had to deal with that type of careless attitude? I had not arrived there expecting special treatment from anyone. I had paid for tickets to support your show and so I could sit and watch people wrestle. It should not have been necessary for me to become angry or mention that I had a connection to you. My attitude that night would have been completely different if the woman in the ticket booth had initially behaved in a respectful manner when she could not locate the tickets. She did not. I mention all this because I really think you should be aware of it.
People often pay for a membership to one of my websites and cannot get in for various reasons (lost password, technical snafu, etc.) I'd want to know about it if my webmaster did not deal with their situation in an effective, diplomatic manner.
Tanya
So there it is. Lately I've felt the need to express my emotions. I've had a gag in my mouth on plenty of other occasions.
- XXOO Tanya
No comments:
Post a Comment