This weekend I took my kids to see The Hard Nut at BAM. It’s a great version of the Nutcracker and we all enjoyed it. I recommend seeing it.
I also strongly recommend never using StubHub to buy tickets. That’s where we bought our tickets. The seats were listed in a section we were excited about, but when we received them on the day of the show, they were in a different section than advertised. When we got to the venue, one of the tickets had already been scanned by someone else. Fortunately, we finagled our way in, and someone was sitting in one of our seats. She had been sold the same ticket on StubHub and was similarly duped into a bait-and-switch section.
We were lucky enough to all get in and have seats and enjoy the show so don't cry for me. But when we got home, I called StubHub customer support to let them know that all of this had happened. They said they would try to understand why two different customers received the same ticket but that they'd do nothing about it. There was nothing I could do about it either.
I hate when companies treat their customers like shit just because they can. That’s what StubHub did. That's what a lot of companies do. And I’d bet against every single one of them. It’s a sign of a garbage culture, an abuse of market power, and a harbinger of its gradual and inevitable demise. Many brands in the banking, travel, and healthcare industries are notorious for this. They assume a market position that enables them to take advantage of customers, and they do this to maximize short-term rewards over long-term growth and customer satisfaction.
The whole experience was infuriating. But it did make me appreciate that startups and companies that stand out and thrive over the long term differentiate with customer experience. And when you’re up against competitors who treat people like trash just because they can, you’re fighting the good fight. That’s the team I root for and want to support. You may not always win in the short term, but you’re still on the winning team.
