Wednesday, October 19, 2011
LESSONS IN CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM THE METS TICKET OFFICE.
If you’ve just arrived, please see the Update to this post.
The phone rings. I don’t recognize the number, I Google it and see it’s from the Mets. I answer.
“Hi, Caryn, this is Josh from the New York Mets. I wanted to see if you’d heard about some of the changes we’ve made to ticketing plans, and see if you had any questions.”
“Why, yes, I do have a question.”
“Great!”
“Are the Mets going to re-sign Jose Reyes?”
“Well (laughing), you know, I don’t control that, we certainly do want him back…”
“Right, but that’s what I want to know, and I don’t think we’re going to commit to a ticket plan yet without knowing that.”
“So you don’t think that the Mets can win without Jose Reyes?”
“That’s not the point.”
“So if we don’t sign Jose Reyes, you’re not going to be here. I get it. Goodbye.” *click*
He hung up on me.
HE HUNG UP.
A representative of the Mets organization hung up on me.
In a million, trillion years, I did not expect that reaction.
Now, of course I know very well that Josh in the ticketing office has nothing to do with whether or not the Mets re-sign Jose Reyes. But, as we have discussed in the Metsgrrl household as recently as this past weekend, the fact of whether or not the Mets re-sign Jose Reyes has a direct impact on how many games we go to next year. Sure, you could say that the Mets might get someone else at that level (maybe), but it still won’t be the same as watching Jose Reyes play baseball. Furthermore, the Mets’ ability to open up their wallets and do what it takes to keep Jose Reyes means something. It says something. It’s the Wilpons showing a commitment to the team and to the fans.
It is a perfectly reasonable question, and it’s one that I am pretty sure a lot of other fans are asking. And yet, it is a question that I got hung up on for, by someone in the Mets organization.
There are a lot of other ways Josh could have handled that situation. Instead of getting defensive, he could have laughed and said, “Gosh, me too! But do you have any other concerns that I can help you with?” He could have asked me how many games I went to last year, and he would have learned that I still made it to 25 or so games even without a ticket plan. He could have asked me how I was buying my tickets. He should have somewhere in my record that the reason I didn’t renew last year was because I didn’t like my seating location, and asked me if I was interested in coming out for a tour to see the new locations.
He could have tried to ask for the sale in any number of ways, continue the conversation, engage me, find out what my other objections were. Instead, he hung up on me.
This isn’t the first, second or third time someone in the Mets ticket office has been obnoxious to me for giving them an answer that was outside of the script. Last year I got attitude for explaining how we weren’t renewing our plan because we wanted a 25 game plan in a better location, and instead of being interested in that information (because maybe it would point to something the Mets could/should do differently if they wanted to sell more plans, because there were an awful lot of Tuesday-Friday planholders at Shea that loved their plans who have dropped out of being season ticket holders because they hate the 15 game plans and liked being able to see one game in every series), he got defensive and derisive and actually laughed at me. I don’t know if it was the same guy; it doesn’t even matter if it was. I’ve also had conversations where I tried and failed to explain to the ticket rep that just because I could afford 40 games in the Promenade Reserved Infield didn’t mean I could afford 40 games in the Left Field Landing, where the seats cost twice as much. He just didn’t get why, if I would pay for 40 games upstairs, I couldn’t pay for them downstairs.
We are Mets fans. We like giving the Mets money. We like going to ballgames. We go to ballgames because they are ballgames whether the team is winning or losing. As our disposable income increases, we always imagined we’d be spending more on baseball tickets. Instead, each year, we spend less and less. (And we spend more money on road games, where we can get better seats for less money and be treated like valued customers.)
We are not the people the ticket office should be alienating. I know, we’re not buying seats in the Sterling Club and we’re not buying a full season (but WE WOULD BUY A 40 GAME PLAN IF YOU OFFERED IT IN THE PROMENADE RESERVED INFIELD), and plenty of people are giving them their money so we don’t matter.
But we should.
Addendum: COMMENTS ARE CLOSED. There are 37 comments already, either agreeing with me or disagreeing with me, but not breaking any new ground either way. Sorry, but I have to work and can’t keep up with this. I had no idea that this was going to be such a flashpoint. I’ve written probably half a dozen posts about the ticket office before and no one gave a damn. I would remind you of the site’s Comment Policy and suggest that if you feel strongly about continuing the conversation, that you do so on your own forum.
