[charmed59]

About a month ago we purchased tickets for the charter high school production of the show “Into the Woods” scheduled for yesterday at the Sharon. The big reason we purchased the tickets was we found good seats available, and bought tickets in the first few rows that would allow us see well.

We got an email and a phone call before the show yesterday saying that they were changing all tickets to general admission, so we should probably show up early if we want close in seats.

The tickets weren’t very expensive, so we instead chose not to go. But I was wondering if anyone else ever had this happen at the Sharon? I could ‘t tell if it was The Sharon itself that had issues or it was due to the charter high school running the show.

[rjm1cc]

Originally Posted by charmed59

About a month ago we purchased tickets for the charter high school production of the show “Into the Woods” scheduled for yesterday at the Sharon. The big reason we purchased the tickets was we found good seats available, and bought tickets in the first few rows that would allow us see well.

We got an email and a phone call before the show yesterday saying that they were changing all tickets to general admission, so we should probably show up early if we want close in seats.

The tickets weren’t very expensive, so we instead chose not to go. But I was wondering if anyone else ever had this happen at the Sharon? I could ‘t tell if it was The Sharon itself that had issues or it was due to the charter high school running the show.

No. I would not like this at all if it was done without a good reason given to the public. As we age a few of us might find it desirable to get an end of row seat, seat close to the rest room etc. so they feel confrontable in going to events. In short being able to pick your seat may be important for a number of reasons.

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by charmed59

About a month ago we purchased tickets for the charter high school production of the show “Into the Woods” scheduled for yesterday at the Sharon. The big reason we purchased the tickets was we found good seats available, and bought tickets in the first few rows that would allow us see well.

We got an email and a phone call before the show yesterday saying that they were changing all tickets to general admission, so we should probably show up early if we want close in seats.

The tickets weren’t very expensive, so we instead chose not to go. But I was wondering if anyone else ever had this happen at the Sharon? I could ‘t tell if it was The Sharon itself that had issues or it was due to the charter high school running the show.

Why not give The Sharon a chance to respond to your concern?

Customer Relations
Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center
Spanish Springs Town Square
1051 Main St.
The Villages, FL 32159

352-751-7789

Customer Relations at The Sharon:
Monday: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Wednesday thru Friday: 9:00am - 5:00pm

The Sharon | The Villages Sharon L. Morse Peforming Arts Center

[mixsonci]

Just a possibility, but I know the Villages Entertainment box offices are having trouble with their new system and can't print tickets, all tickets are sent to "will call" or pick up at the theatre. Was told even if they email it to you, it doesn't print correctly. Don't know if that was the issue or not.

[billethkid]

The ticketing/reservation system was found to have double booked several seats.

[retiredguy123]

What they did is unacceptable. Obviously, they should have at least offered to refund your money because they did not honor their commitment. If possible, I would have paid with a credit card, and then disputed the charge.

[bandsdavis]

Having been involved in "standardizing" many business platforms from one system to another (specifically from an acquired busines platform to the platform of the acquiring company) I am very sympathetic to the difficulties this transition will undoubtedly cause for the Entertainment Dept and us, it's customers. Not only must they make sure the "new" system works as desired, but it requires that the data for tickets sold using the "old" system are transitioned to the new system for shows that are still in the tickets sales process. Having worked with Brian Russo and the rest of the Entertainment Dept/Box Office team for many years, I know they are putting in a tremendous anount of work to get this transition to work, but I also know from expereince that there is no way to avoid problems in a task this large. From what I understand, the old vendor has not been very cooperative in terms of helping this data move over to the new vendor. That could well be because the amount of programming necessary to send data in a format the new vendor could accept was not
something they could do. I do think Brian and his team will do all they can to make it work correctly, and I expect they will be willing to rectify specific customer issues as best they can, including refunds if necessary. Hopefully the problems will be discovered early in the process and fixed quickly.

[retiredguy123]

To notify ticket holders on the day of the show that their reserved seat ticket had been changed to a general admission ticket, and to come early, without offering a refund, is absolutely ridiculous. Whoever made that decision should not be managing anything that involves customer service.

[Dan9871]

I've implemented and managed a number of computer system transitions including a couple where the previous vendor wouldn't help. All I can say is "stuff happens" sometimes and regardless of how well things are managed the things you find out you have to fix at the last minute sometimes go awry... even things like neglecting to offer a refund. We've been to The Sharon many times and things seem to run very smoothy there. We were there a few weeks ago and they could not scan tickets, they were just tearing the ends off, old school style, so it sounds like they are still having transition pains.

[PennBF]

If you are developing a new software or a new Computer System or a new release, one of the worse things you can do is to release it/them before being completely tested. Once it gets into the general public it is both much more costly to support and a much higher risk of lost of business. As an example, Programmers hate to document code/software. They like to code but not document. Not hard to understand if the Ticket Booths
are having problems with new software. Most common problem when changing, updating, creating code.

[New Englander]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

To notify ticket holders on the day of the show that their reserved seat ticket had been changed to a general admission ticket, and to come early, without offering a refund, is absolutely ridiculous. Whoever made that decision should not be managing anything that involves customer service.

[charmed59]

Ah, it’s old versus new tickets. I’ll check if we have anymore outstanding tickets to Sharon and see if I can resolve it now, before they run outa of seats. If these were expensive tickets I would have requested a refund. Given the price, I think the Sharon may have gifted the use of the venue to the Charter school, so I don’t want to take money from that program.

[Marathon Man]

Do we know that refunds were not available? The OP does not mention being offered or asking for one. But perhaps one could have been had.

[theorem painter]

It was discovered at the Friday night performance that duplicate tickets had been issued. The decision was made by management to make Saturday night general admission. Ticket holder received an email on the morning of the performance and everyone was offered a refund.