General Etiquette > Life...in general

Lying won't help you...

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stanthedevil:
I work at a small community theatre and we're having a very popular national touring show for fourteen performances.  All of the performances except on afternoon matinee are now completely sold out.

When we opened this morning we had almost 100 tickets remaining for one evening performance.  In less than an hour they were all gone.  At about 4:30 this afternoon a woman walked in the to the box office, credit card in hand.  "I need to pick up tickets for Liar Pantzfyre."  I asked when she had ordered the tickets and she said that she called in right at noon.    I looked through the tickets for the performance, I looked through the unfiled tickets, and I looked through the tickets that hadn't been charged yet.  I see no tickets for Pantzfyre.  I look her name up in the computer.  I see one record for her back at a production in May.  I ask her if someone else order the tickets.  She was adament that she had ordered the tickets at noon and talked to a "girl".  While, there are only three of us in the office, two women and a man, and neither of us remembered taking an order from Pantzfyre (or an order for eight tickets).

I looked her order up by phone number in case we had misspelled her name.  No sale under either of her phone numbers.  In the entry for her name, there is no phone number listed which means that in May she purchased tickets in person.  That sounds a little warning bell in my mind.  If she had called and ordered tickets, we would have taken a day time phone number.

I ask her if we took a credit card and she said that we had.  I carefully look through the orders we took one more time.  All the while she is insisting that talked to a girl at noon and ordered eight tickets.

I ask if perhaps she ordered tickets at the wrong theatre (a more common occurance than I would like to think about).  No, she insisted that she called our box office and rattled off our phone number from memory.  Another little warning bell went off.

In the end she left (in tears) without tickets because we literally do not have a single ticket left.  My co-workers and I have a theory:

She told her group of friends that she would get tickets for the show.  Then, she waited and din't order the tickets and/or the group didn't get their act together on time.  Then, she either called and were told we are sold out or when she drove up she saw the sold out signs.  When she realized that she couldn't get tickets, she figured she'd bluff her way into getting tickets by pretending that it is our fault.

Too bad it didn't work...

Ko-Ko:
Well, I suppose that is the price she has to pay for procrastination. While it might be possible for her to have actually ordered the tickets, it seems unlikely. It sounds like you thought about everything that might have happened. And shame on her for trying to lie.

Ko-Ko

Rose2Bear:
Like Ko-Ko said, you definetly did all you could to try to find a record of her ordering tickets.  I'd say you are most likely correct in your assertion that she was trying to scam some tickets by placing the blame on you.

Question though - people really call the wrong theatre company to order tickets? Don't they realize this mistake right away and call the correct company, or do people accidently order tickets for plays they dont really want to see?

stanthedevil:

--- Quote from: Rose2Bear on January 05, 2007, 07:30:53 PM ---Question though - people really call the wrong theatre company to order tickets? Don't they realize this mistake right away and call the correct company, or do people accidently order tickets for plays they dont really want to see?

--- End quote ---

Oh yeah, more frequently than most people would believe.

There are five community theatre organizations.  Three share the same facility and two have similar names.  People will often call my theatre for tickets at the one with the similar name.  Many people have poor listening skills and don't listen when I answer the phone, "Community theatre box office, this is Stan, how can I help you?"  They also don't listen to the show name when you ask them, "Two tickets on January 10th for Popular Musical, right?"  They usually catch it by "You're all set for two tickets to Popular Musical on January 10th at 7:30pm.  We recommend that you arrive..."  By that time most people cut me off and say, "Wait, I wanted tickets for Comedy/Drama.  Isn't this Community Theatre II????"

We also get people arriving at our facility for shows at other theatres.  They usually realized when they get inside that they are at the wrong theatre.  However, I had one woman stand in the will call line and throw a fit when I couldn't find her ticket.  After several minutes, I happened to mention the name of the show and she finally realized she was at the wrong building.  In many people's minds, all five organizations are the same even though we are all separate organizations.

blue_bunny_paz:
I used to have things like this at work. People seem to think you can magically put in more seats if they kick up a fuss. You have to wonder whether she thought her name might magically appear if she insisted hard enough.

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