'Can you please resend?': Theater patron repeatedly demands tickets from an automated reply email, employee sends her back plenty of replies

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  • 01
    Font - 'At this point I'm just assuming that she... has no idea how to work technology'
  • 02
    Font - "Please Resend My Tickets" L OC tl;dr at bottom This past weekend the dance company I do box office work for had it's final show run of our season. We do a few runs a year, always renting out a large theatre for them, which is separate from our main office building. This means we don't have free access to the physical box office at the theatre, we have time frames we can be in there. Fairly standard, but it limits our availability on show days.
  • 03
    Font - So my manager set up an automated email for incoming inquiries just saying "we're busy, we may be unable to get back to you right away." Again, very standard for our organization
  • 04
    Font - On Saturday, early afternoon, I'm still at home and I check ticket sales and the inbox, just to see if there are any super outstanding issues. A woman named Cynthia has sent an email saying she never received her tickets for the show that evening.
  • 05
    Font - I roll my eyes, but it's not a real problem. I look her up, see she made a purchase earlier that day, and had selected that she wanted her tickets emailed.
  • 06
    Font - So I just send her a reply saying "the tickets should be attached to your order confirmation, but the email may have wound up in your spam folder, so be sure to check there."
  • 07
    Font - An hour or so later I get a response saying that there's "only a receipt, no confirmation email, and can you just resend the tickets?" At this point I'm just assuming that she is likely just a senior aged patron, and has no idea how to work technology. That's fine, happens a lot so I do just resend the tickets. That'll be the end of it I figure. An hour or so later I leave for the theatre, not thinking of it anymore.
  • 08
    Font - When I arrive and open up my email though, I had five new emails in my inbox that weren't there since I last checked. Four from Cynthia, and one from my manager.
  • 09
    Font - The first email she sent said "No, I don't want that ticket. That was just the test order I did to check to see if I was getting emails. I want the tickets I initially ordered." Six minutes after that email she said "Can you please resend." Three minutes later "Resend please"
  • 10
    Font - Eight minutes later "Please resend my tickets, and stop responding saying it may take some time to get back to me!"
  • 11
    Font - The email from my manager said that Cynthia emailed her twice, requesting her tickets be resend, all in that seventeen minute time span I listed above.
  • 12
    Font - Again, I roll my eyes and sigh in frustration. Because this woman never specified that she had multiple orders, and that instead of trying to contact us first she just bought another ticket to test things, and then went on to be unclear in her communications. Plus she clearly doesn't understand what an automatic reply is.
  • 13
    Font - But I figured if she wanted to get snippy about it, I'd just be petty in return. I found her "real" tickets, and sent her an email with them. Half an hour later, and no response from her, I resent them again. Fifteen minutes later, I sent them again.
  • 14
    Font - I resent the tickets a total of seven times, I figured at least one for each time she asked for them to be sent, right up until about fifteen minutes before the show began. When a woman in her mid-forties or so approached the Box Office, waving her smart phone with her tickets visible on them.
  • 15
    Font - "Hi, I'm Cynthia, I just wanted to know what was wrong with your email and ticket system today?" "Oh nothing was wrong Ma'am." "Well I kept trying to get my tickets sent, and I just kept getting the same message over and over."
  • 16
    Font - "Oh, that was our generic, automated reply. We set it up for show days in case we can't help someone out on time." She looks sheepish for a moment, but recovers, "Oh right, that makes sense. But why did it take so long to find the right tickets?"
  • 17
    Font - "Well you had multiple orders, and never specified which order it was. I just assumed it was the order made earlier today, and didn't really consider the one made back in March. I apologize for not making that connection."
  • 18
    Font - Again a sheepish look comes across her face, but she presses on, "But when you did find the right order, why did the tickets keep sending? I got several emails with the tickets, one just a couple of minutes ago!"
  • 19
    Font - "Oh well you were so eager in emailing earlier. But when I did send the tickets you never responded, so I wasn't sure if they were getting to you or not. So I just wanted to make sure that you were, in fact, getting your tickets."
  • 20
    Font - By this point, she's made all the connections in her head. If she had just been clear and patient with her request, she could have gotten her tickets right away, saved money (she never asked for a refund on the 'test' order) and not gotten bombarded with so many emails.
  • 21
    Font - She thanked me for the assistance, and went to enjoy the show. While my manager and I just looked at each other and chuckled. tl;dr - Patron bombarded me with emails, so I bombarded her right back
  • 22
    Font - Roguefem-76 At least she realized her mistakes and didn't try to keep arguing about it. Some of the nastiest callers I've ever dealt with were the ones who kept trying to make their problems someone else's fault even after they clearly realized their own screwups.
  • 23
    Font - SBrB8 OP I have a feeling that the situation being resolved in person helped out a lot. It can be harder for many people to complain right to your face if you're proving unflappable, rather than the bit of anonymity being faceless the phone gives you. Plus I think her actually seeing how busy we were probably put things in perspective for her more.
  • 24
    Font - But yeah, a lot of people will just rail on you for no reason. Like many people in customer service, I've got more stories than I'll ever have time to tell. Thankfully with most of them, I was able to get some MC in.

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