Old man stuck in his ways vent

[GaryPassamonte]

To many of you this will sound like no big deal. It will just be the experience of an old man not willing to keep up with the times. To me it is kind of a big deal because of the impact it has on the way of life I have had for almost seventy years. I will start out by saying I don't have a smart phone. This is a personal choice I have been content with for a number of years. My flip phone is satisfactory for what I need to use it for. Now for my experience. I am going to the National tomorrow. A couple weeks ago I decided to buy tickets for the Thursday night game between the Tigers and Guardians. I purchased the tickets using Seat Geek which I had done a number of times in the past. They had always sent me an email with printable tickets. I printed the tickets and presented them at the game and all was well. Imagine my dilemma when the email I received only provided an app for the tickets. I am and choose to remain "appless". I went to the Seat Geek home page and eventually got into a "chat" with Luis. Luis basically told me that Seat Geek no longer used paper tickets and, since refunds were not given, I was SOL. I prodded him for a phone number which he provided. The customer service number he gave me sent my to Frederico who is based in El Salvador. Frederico said he would check into my problem and get back to me in two hours. I'm still waiting. I called customer service back later in the day and was told by the customer service rep to just bring a copy of the email Seat Geek originally sent me to the game and I would be admitted. After what had transpired the past two to three hours with this ticket transaction, I was skeptical about her proposed resolution. I then called the Cleveland Guardians and spoke to three people over the next two days. At first I was basically told that since I didn't get my tickets through MLB, I could again be SOL. I persisted and was told by the representative that he would look into this further. I called back a couple hours later and eureka. I was told that the Guardians would accommodate me. However, there would be a $5 charge per ticket to have them printed. I accepted this resolution. I was told to find a stadium employee when I get to the game and they would direct me to someplace behind left field where, apparently, a temporary ticket office is now located. We'll see how this plays out tomorrow. What used to take me two minutes had taken me about four hours over two days.
Today I received a generic email from the Guardians telling me among other things that Progressive Field does not accept paper tickets. See above, we'll see tomorrow. And on top of this to make my game experience enjoyable, the email said that Progressive Field is cashless with only credit and debit cards accepted. I guess that is just another nail in the coffin of the fun experiences I have had for many years going to baseball games. I hate to say it, but this will probably be my last major league game. By the way doesn't our paper money say that it is good for all debts public and private. Maybe I'll bring that up tomorrow IF I get into the game.