Dean L.

(For a little bit of context here, it's helpful to know that most sites that offer online ticketing and seat selection for concerts and other shows have a map that displays not only the seats, but also the stage or screen. Fandango's map only shows the seats.)

I booked a pair of theater seats that were horizontally dead center according to their map. Unfortunately, their map didn't account for the fact that the horizontal center of the seating area did not align with the horizontal center of the screen. As a result, our "dead center" seats provided a view equivalent to sitting on the left aisle. Meanwhile, walk-in customers who did not pay a service charge to Fandango wound up with much better seats than we had. I got off the phone with Fandango a few minutes ago, having called because I felt they had not earned their $3 service charge. I explained the situation to the customer service rep, and the rest of the conversation went something like this:

Rep: So are you asking for a refund on the tickets or just the service fee?
Me: Just the service fee.
Rep: I'm sorry, we can't refund the service fee.
Me: Then how about a $3 refund on the tickets?
Rep: I'm sorry, we can't refund that either.
Me: The why did you ask me if I want a refund on the tickets or the service fee?
Rep: I don't know. Sorry.
Me: May I speak to your supervisor?
Rep: No
Me: Why not?
Rep: Why do you want to speak to my supervisor?
Me: Because I'm about to cost your company thousands of dollars on social media. I thought maybe your supervisor would be smart enough to just issue a $3 refund, especially since your company did not really provide a service to me.
Rep: I'll get him.

> Supervisor got on the line and I expressed the same concerns to him. I also added:

Me: You understand that I'm just going to ask my credit card company to block the $3 service charge, right? Since you're not getting my money either way, the best move for you is to just issue the refund. At least that way, you don't get shredded on social media.
Supv: Sorry, I can't help you.
Me: Has Fandango ever issued a refund for anything?
Supv: You can get a ticket refund before the show. We're not set up for anything else. Have a nice evening.