It was to be a simple thing. Buy three tickets to an event at the big arena downtown. Went to the arena's website and found no tickets there. Have to go to ticketmaster.com.
I find three seats together for $15 each. But then Ticketmaster, as if by a wave of King Midas' hand, turns the tickets into $22 each. Why? Because they can. They're a monopoly. Oh well. What can be done?
Resigned to the inevitable, I dejectedly give Ticketmaster my credit card information. They have to verify it. Fine. Then VISA has to verify the same card all over again... like I would really be scalping $15 tickets to a "Sesame Street Elmo's Superheroes" show. (Scalpers were practically killing each other in the street for them.)
So after these corporate verifications and a sudden interruption by another corporation -- Adobe -- about some sort of supporting upgrade they wanted me to get right now, Ticketmaster finally produced my overpriced tickets.
But Ticketmaster was not through with me. The final blow came after I actually owned the tickets. I had to print them out. Three tickets, about 2x4 inches each. Each ticket on a separate page and each page filled with full-color ads I do not care about. Turns out I have to waste a TON of my printer's ink just to put MY TICKETS in my hands.
As I watched them print, I felt serially abused.
SPOILER ALERT. The mission of the Superheroes? "Old Macdonald Had a Lunch" but couldn't find it. You can imagine the sing-along.
