Little Lies

We remain this week firmly in the land of Fleetwood and it's Mac.

It's funny how we can go from the excitement and anticipation of an event, to the acrid disappointment of failure.

Last week I was poised to join the thronged masses in collective appreciation of the forthcoming NZ tour by the seventies superstars< Fleetwood Mac.

This week I am somewhat disillusioned...

Not with the group, but with the bizarre and complex ticketing system.

The event is being staged at the Auckland Vector Arena, and tickets sold online via Ticketmaster

So far so good.

Now Ticketmaster use a system of "pre selling" whereby certain groups of people can buy tickets before the event is released for general sale. Added to this an even earlier pre-sale is offered before the Ticketmaster subscribers offer, if you hold a Visa card. Occasionally Ticketmaster switch and the pre pre sale is offered to Mastercard customers.

As a holder of both a Mastercard and a Visa, as well as being a Ticketmaster subscriber, I felt quite confident of my chances at securing a couple of tickets for one of the 6 shows.

That was until I received an email inviting me to the pre pre pre sale using an Amex card!

But I don't have an Amex card, never have, and never will.

I tried to login and fool the system, but I was thwarted each time by the card selection type, which insisted on my non-existent American Express card. I had to give up amd wait.for the next pre sale....

Of course there was then no pre pre sale for Visa and Mastercard, only a pre sale for TM subscribers, by which time, all seats had been snapped up by aged hippy Amex holders.

And so the chain was broken.

Now each time I get reminded by an email from Ticketmaster that seats are on general sale for Fleetwood Mac, I tut out loud at their gall, to still be offering seats, when there are none. That used to be called "lying" when I was younger......