I made the big mistake of booking tickets through Ticketmaster.

I realised just before the gig that the tickets were e-tickets only so I transferred my booking to my husband's smartphone. I don't own a smartphone so I had no other option but to transfer to him, otherwise we would not have been able to get in to see the band.

I had paid an extra £2.95 for a paper souvenir ticket. When after the event I realised I hadn't received this ticket, I asked on the band's Facebook page whether anyone else had received their tickets. A fellow fan on the Facebook page confirmed it should have been posted out to my home address.

Five weeks down the line, I still hadn't received anything in the post so chased it up.

I was informed that because I transferred my tickets, they were no longer in my account and I would not receive the paper ticket I had paid for. I explained that I love to collect real tickets as keepsakes and my memorabilia collection is important to me. The failure to provide a paper ticket would make my ticket collection incomplete.

I asked if they could still print my ticket and send it to me, but got this copy-and-paste answer.
"I am sorry but the moment you transferred the tickets, you're no longer able to receive them. As we cannot issue reprint your souvenir tickets, we can only be advised to refund them. Also, transferring the tickets to someone is solely the choice of the fan, as we do not receive any notification that you've transferred your tickets to someone while having souvenir tickets added, we are unable to tell fans directly about not getting souvenir tickets once the tickets no longer in their account." Er, what?

As I was getting nowhere, I escalated my query up the line.

All I received was a further guff-load of copied and pasted corporate rubbish.

Throughout our various communications, I queried several things:

-In the real world, do Ticketmaster honestly expect customers to read the pages and pages of Terms & Conditions before the purchasing page times out? It's their way, or NO way!
-What services do they offer for customers who do not own smartphones? (Going by this review page - NOTHING!)
-Would they have kept my souvenir ticket money had I not contacted them?

Ticketmaster didn't and still haven't answered ANY of these questions. Instead, they just said, "The cost of the Souvenir Ticket has been refunded and we have explained the reasons behind this (referring to their copy-and-paste responses, as there were no direct answers to my questions).

The terms and conditions of purchase were excepted (not accepted) at the time of reservation as were the terms and conditions of using the free Ticket Transfer service."

In conclusion:
If you don't have a smartphone, you won't be accommodated. Ticketmaster only cater for the smartphone generation these days as apparently, these are the only type of people who go to gigs it seems.
If you have paid extra for a paper ticket, make sure you have received it, otherwise they will keep your money.
As an aside, they must still have access to printers somewhere. Why else would they be offering souvenir paper tickets?

Please avoid Ticketmaster wherever possible!

I had paid for 2 VIP "HOT WHEELS LEGENDARY PACKAGE" for the HOT WHEELS MONSTER LIVE UK Tour at the Glasgow OVO Hydro through Ticketmaster.

My 4 year old son and I were looking forward to the experience. As per the email I received from VIP Nation, we were expecting a day to remember for a long time.

The e-mail stated:

Timings

08.00 - VIP Package registration begins
08.45 – VIP Package registration closes
09.00 – Tour and exclusive M+G / Crash Zone
10.00 – Main show doors open
11.30 – Hot Wheels Monster Truck Live

Your HOT WHEELS LEGENDARY PACKAGE Includes:

- Front Row ticket in the lower bowl to see Hot Wheels Monster Truck Live
- Access to the Hot Wheel Monster Truck Crash Zone
- Backstage Tour and exclusive Meet and Greet with a Hot Wheels Monster Truck and Driver
- A Hot Wheels Monster truck in exclusive VIP presentation Box
- Exclusive Hot Wheels Monster Truck laminate and lanyard
- On site event staff and merchandise collection point

This all sounded great and my son and I were looking forward to it. Even more so after being rescheduled from January.

This is what happened.

08.00 – arrived for registration and doors opened at 08.10

Received Exclusive Hot Wheels Monster Truck laminate and lanyard.

As there wasn't any seating area or seats available, my son and I had to sit on a concrete floor for 60 minutes as we waited for the "Backstage Tour and exclusive Meet and Greet with a Hot Wheels Monster Truck and Driver"

09.15 – 15 minutes later than scheduled, we were escorted into the crash zone area and received a 3 min summary of the Monster Trucks on display. We were then told we were going "behind the curtain" for a special preview no-one else would see.

We were then taken into a corridor, upstairs, along a corridor past changing rooms, downstairs, along a corridor in the direction back to where we first entered the corridor.

We then had a further 15 minute wait within the corridor before being allowed in groups of 10 or so to see Mega Wrex and MegaSaurus for 90 seconds.

When my son and I then left to go and receive what I thought was the "exclusive Meet and Greet with a Hot Wheels Monster Truck and Driver" I discovered that while we were waiting in the back corridor to see Mega Wrex and MegaSaurus, the Monster Truck Crash Zone had been opened up 15 - 20 minutes already and there were around 200 people now in the area and now a further 15 – 20 minute waiting lines to meet any drivers.

To summarize, the VIP experience my son and I had was:

Arrive at 08.00 on Sat morning for the doors to open late and receive a lanyard and both the same Monster Truck (surely there could have been a few variants)

A 60 minute wait on a concrete floor until the door opened 15 minutes late

A 3 minute explanation of Monster Trucks

A 20 minute tour of a corridor and wait to see Mega Wrex and MegaSaurus lasting 90 seconds.

Access to the Monster Truck Crash Zone where we were faced with a further 15 – 20min waiting line to see any drivers.

I have never heard of VIP experience where the "VIP" had to spend waiting for 1 hour and 50 minutes over a period of 2 hours and 30 minute event.

To say the VIP "HOT WHEELS LEGENDARY PACKAGE" was a disappointment would be a huge understatement.

The main selling point for the VIP experience was always going to be the Backstage Tour and exclusive Meet and Greet with a Hot Wheels Monster Truck and Driver but this did not happen and my disappointment was shared by others within the "VIP" group.

Following discussions with other parties within the "VIP" group, we did feel that there was a lack of effort in the planning and execution of the "VIP" experience and it did dampen my enthusiasm for the main show.

Opportunities for improvement:

At registration - give waiting "VIPs" entertainment, seating, videos of past events to watch, carry out recorded interviews with families etc

- Access to the Hot Wheel Monster Truck Crash Zone - Give "VIPs" opportunity to enjoy before opening doors up.

- Backstage Tour and exclusive Meet and Greet with a Hot Wheels Monster Truck and Driver - Allow the "VIP" parties to meet with drivers prior to opening up Crash Zone to others. Especially opening doors 20 minutes earlier than scheduled. They've paid for the experience of being treated like a "VIP".

- A Hot Wheels Monster truck in exclusive VIP presentation Box - Give 2 or 3 options. It's a HOT WHEELS event, how hard would it be to get HOT WHEELS Merchandise. (There were families of 4 all with same Monster Truck!)

Despite several e-mails to "VIP Nation" Customer Service, they have not had the decency or professionalism to respond.

Disappointed that a venue such as the SEC would allow this to happen without first checking what the event organisers were actually offering.

Even more disappointed that a global brand like HOT WHEELS would allow for such a poorly planned and executed experience.

Customer service is non-existent.

I would never use Ticketmaster VIP Nation again and even think twice on attending the SEC for another event.

Fast and easy.

Printed tickets there and then!