- Report: #154429
Complaint Review: Tweeter Center - Tinley Park Illinois
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Tweeter Center
19100 S. Ridgeland Ave. Tinley Park, 60477 Illinois, U.S.A.
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708-614-1616
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Tweeter Center Oversells venue and herds customers like pigs Tinley Park Illinois
I apologize ahead of time for the length of this report. To anyone who has the time to read this, I think you will find it quite amusing. These are the e-mails I have had with customer support regarding the Tweeter Center and their gross neglect of the safety and enjoyment of their customers, who in this case were fans of Tom Petty. They even spell my first name wrong, which just illustrates off the bat that they don't care at all about me or my complaints. To say they were oversold is an understatement, and the people who got there late were herded around like pigs by the staff. I tried to get my money back on the spot, but they told me to talk to customer service, and they would take care of it. I'll let you read these letters though, as they illustrate, in detail, the rip-off and Tweeter's cavalier attitued towards my legitimate greivances. Thank you and enjoy......
Date: 7/19/2005
To: TCCCS
Subject: The Tom Petty Debacle
I live in Milwaukee and I didn't purchase tickets in time to see Tom Petty at the Marcus Ampetheatre during Summerfest, so needless to say I had been very excited about going to see them at the Tweeter Center on the 15th of July. The best concert experience I had ever had was at The World Music Theatre about five years ago to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Sadly it seems, that was a different era of concert-going experiences.
Five years ago, we put our blankets out on the lawn we could spread our feet out and we could just enjoy the
music. We paid $3.00 a beer and enjoyed a perfect, laid back concert experience that will remember for the rest of my
life.
Now comes Tom Petty 2005 at the "Tweeter Center"... and all I can say is it was terrible. I'm disgusted with the concert and the fact that my group paid $272.90 to go see less than an hour of it. There must have been 3 times as many people crammed into the venue this time. To better illustrate what a waste of money this concert was, here's a little time table of how we spent this horrible evening:
6:15 - We leave my friend's house in Oak Forest, which
is only 15 minutes away from the venue.
7:15 - The concert starts, and we're still 2 miles away in gridlock traffic. Apparently nobody at the tweeter center has been properly trained to park three times as many cars in an acceptably efficient manner.
8:45 - We're finally parked. My thinking was that since we had to be close to the last people making it to the concert, we would at least be in the back so we could be one of the first to leave.... WRONG!!! They parked us in the middle so we were guaranteed to have to go through this nightmare again when we
left.
9:00 - We finally make it in the gates to the concert. Sadly, the Black Crowes have already finished playing. My girlfriend is very upset because she never saw them live and she was looking forward to seeing them preform "Talks to Angels". To my further disgust, I realize that the blanket that I brought in with me was useless unless I was going to put it over the sea of
people crammed in the Lawn like sardines and sit on their heads. You couldn't even move on the walkways, and there was no way that we were going to even try to go on the lawn so we could be trampled.
After purchasing our $8.00 beers, we just stood in the walkway like everybody else who wan't going to brave the sea of people in the lawn and started to watch the show, trying not to let how bad this situation was ruin the rest of the concert. Just when we thought that this might be possible we began to be harassed by the Tweeter Center security guards. We were systematically herded away from where we were standing like cattle and told that we couldn't stand in the walkway. I certainly didn't want to stand in the walkway, and neither did any of my group, but we had no choice. They shouldn't have sold 10,000 tickets beyond their capacity. I am currently working to figure out which authorities I need to contact about their grossly unsafe concert conditions. Who knows how many easily unavoidable injuries and deaths would have been caused due to the obscene over-crowding if a fire broke out or, god forbid, a terrorist attack took place.
When I showed a guard my ticket and asked him to lead me up to my seat, he just laughed at me and said "You're in the lawn buddy. That's standing room only." Now it may have been a few years since I've been to a concert at this venue, but when it was known as "The World", the lawn was never standing room only. People always had their blankets out and though it could get a little tricky, you were always able to find a path to walk through, kind of like a crowded beach. Nothing like this elbow to elbow garbage. Save that for a hip-hop concert where everybody wants to stand anyways. Definately not for a Tom Petty Concert. There's old people and little kids here for crying out loud.
10:00 - After about an hour of this I was tired of having big bouncer intimidators grab my shoulder and tell me to move, so I asked my group if they wanted to go, so we could leave before. This proposition was answered with a resounding and unanimous "YES!". So we fought our way back out of the crowd got back in our cars and sadly reflected on our wasted money and the most miserable concert experience of our lives.
I'm looking to Tweeter Center for satisfaction. My immediate goal is to be refunded the cost of the concert for my friends and I, but my long term goal is to make sure that the venues cannot go on doing this. It completely ruins the concert experience and it's just flat out dangerous.
I believe that customer satisfaction should be as important when it comes to concerts as when it comes to any other product. If I bought a Playstation 2 and I took it home and it didn't work, I'd get a refund. No questions asked. I organized this outing and quite frankly I am embarassed after hyping it so much and I feel guilty about collecting the money for the tickets.
Thanks for your time, and I'll be awaiting your reply.
Sincerely,
xxxxxxxx
--------------------------------
Date: 7/21/2005
From: TCCCS
Subject: RE: The Tom Petty Debacle
Marc,
First off, let me apologize for the experience you had at our venue. We strive to make each concert goers experience a memorable one, and it is disappointing when we do not live up to your expectations. As far as the traffic goes, unfortunately during sold out shows, we get backed up. We have Tinley Park Police directing traffic up until you hit our roads, and then our parking staff takes over. Our staff is more than capable of parking a sold out show, and did it as efficiently as possible at the Tom Petty concert. They park the lot as the cars arrive, so we have no control over where you end up when you get here.
As for the amount of people here, the concert was not over sold by any means. We were sold out, which means we are at capacity, which is around 28,000 people. In one area, this seems like a lot, but we had only as many people as we can safely accomodate. The lawn is a general admission area, and we do apologize for the security guard misleading you as to the accomodations for the lawn.
We do try to keep the crosswalk area where you were standing clear for safety reasons. As you mentioned, if there were a fire or an emergency, that area would need to be clear in order for people to safely exit. I apologize for the manner in which they asked you to leave, however we did need to keep that area clear.
Please know that we have our guests safety as our utmost prioity. We want all of our guests to feel comfortable and strive to provide them with quality entertainment. I would be more than happy to discuss your experience further, and please let me know if you have any questions about the information that i have given you.
Courtney Rourke
Tweeter Center
Chicago
------------------------------
Date: 8/03/2005
To: TCCCS
Subject: RE: The Tom Petty Debacle
Courtney,
First off let me say that I understand that is your job to diplomatically dismiss anyone who goes out of their way to complain about a miserable concert experience in hopes that they will just lose interest in the struggle and give up. I'm sure that usually this is a tactic that works very well and that you are extremely capable of handling those duties. I want to let you know, however, that I have no intention of dropping this matter and if we're still going back and fourth about it ten years from now, this will be your choice.....
Regarding your reply, I have read it several times and I feel I need to calmly express my feelings about this matter now:
You said: We strive to make each concertgoers experience a memorable one, and it is disappointing when we do not live up to your expectations.
It sure is disappointing Courtney.... It sure is.
You said: As far as the traffic goes, unfortunately during sold out shows, we get backed up. We have Tinley Park Police directing traffic up until you hit our roads, and then our parking staff takes over. Our staff is more than capable of parking a sold out show, and did it as efficiently as possible at the Tom Petty concert. They park the lot as the cars arrive, so we have no control over where you end up when you get here.
I've been to sold out concerts at this venue before. Admittedly most of these were when Tweeter was known as The World Music Theatre. Unfortunately is seems that with the passing of the old name, so went the days of superior service that was offered then as opposed to now. There were never any back-ups like this
before. It took nearly three hours to travel little more than five miles to the venue. Blame the cops, blame the Tweeter Staff, blame chance, blame whatever you want, this is completely unacceptable... somebody dropped the ball. We missed the Black Crows entire performance because of this. Nowhere ever were we warned that we needed to leave at 4:00 in the afternoon, five miles away from the venue, if we expected to make it to the show on time at 7:15PM. That is completely absurd, and had I known this was the case , we would not have bought the tickets in the first place. As for where we ended up in the lot.... we were parked, as I stated in my first letter, in the middle of the parking lot. We passed thousands of cars that were there before us, ensuring that if we stayed the duration of the concert that we would be treated to a second round of a 2 to 3 hour, five-mile drive.
You Said: As for the amount of people here, the concert was not over sold by any means. We were sold out, which means we are at capacity, which is around 28,000 people. In one area, this seems like a lot, but we had only as many people as we can safely accommodate. The lawn is a general admission area, and we do apologize for the security guard misleading you as to the accommodations for the lawn.
I really do not care for, nor do I have any patience for numbers and statistics and what somebody might have bribed somebody else to decide how many people was deemed "safe" in an environment such as this. I'm not a politician; I don't want to be a politician. Like I said in my previous letter, and a point you seemed to skip over completely in your reply, is that when I went to see Tom Petty five years ago, we were sitting on blankets and there was room to move between the seated people so you could go to the bathroom or get some food or drink and have a prayer of finding your group when you got back. When we went on the fifteenth of July, people were standing elbow to elbow in an unmanageable sea of people. I don't' enjoy being forced to step on peoples shoes or getting pushed all around. I wish I had a camera at both events (Before Tweeter and After Tweeter) so I could have pictures of how ridiculously different both experiences were. And Tom Petty is no more famous today than he was five years ago, so I am not interested in hearing anything along the lines of "well maybe he didn't sell out the venue last time". The truth is, he sold the venue out then too. The difference is, your capacity is much larger now than it used to be and the venue is not a single inch bigger. More money for the big guys at the expense of the consumer I suppose. Such is life....
You said: We do try to keep the crosswalk area where you were standing clear for safety reasons. As you mentioned, if there were a fire or an emergency, that area would need to be clear in order for people to safely exit. I apologize for the manner in which they asked you to leave, however we did need to keep that area clear.
It seems we agree on something. I have no problem with the security guards or the fact that the middle area needs to be cleared out for safety reasons. I, unlike my brother, even have no problem with the way the staff member Joe was treating us. He doesn't know me from anybody, he is a huge guy, and he was doing exactly what Tweeter hired him on to do. I actually feel sorry for him... his job sucks, due mostly to the Tweeter's policy of packing as many people as they can into the venue. It reminded me of when you see those videos of college kids trying to get 15 people into a phone booth back in the 70's. So as for the safety, and keeping the middle area clear, I agree with you one hundred percent. The safety of the people in the venue should be paramount, especially in the timorous times we as American's are all facing together. That being said, I would hope that you have already been able to infer from my letters that I am not a punk and I do not stand in the aisle to make trouble for you or your staff.
I despised standing down there. I hated standing period. As I said before, I brought a blanket so we could all relax like my group did at the last Tom Petty concert, but there was nowhere else to go. I cannot put enough emphasis on this, and please realize that it is not my intention to offend you but THERE WAS NO WHERE ELSE FOR US TO GO!!!. <----------- This is the most important message I'm trying to convey to you today. This is my one point that was completely skipped over in your reply to my first letter. There was nowhere else for us to go. There was nothing else for us to do. We simply were herded around the walkway for the hour we were there until my brother was about to snap. I'm standing there feeling awful about having asked everybody if they wanted to go in the first place. Before a situation developed between my brother and a member of the Tweeter staff, I asked everybody else if they wanted to leave and they all said yes. They know how much I love Tom Petty and I knew that they weren't enjoying themselves either and they were just staying there for me.
Please understand Courtney, if I come off offensively in this letter that it is not a personal attack on you. My frustration comes simply from the fact that I purchased a product that didn't work, and I feel that I have no way of getting refunded for it. I don't want to get third parties involved. It's a pain for you; it's a pain for me. But I was jacked for those tickets, and I will find satisfaction. The $275 that I wasted on these tickets is going to bother me for years to come and I regret the fact that after the fifteenth, I feel that I have lost my faith in the Tweeter's ability to put on a quality show. It seems that the bottom line has become more important than the entertainment and in the end it's the fan that loses. I love Tom, and I will never forgive Tweeter for making his concert one of the greatest disasters of my life.
I truly appreciate your time Courtney. I'm not looking to try to ruin anyone's day or dump on them. Just as Tweeter security Joe, I know that you are only doing your job. I hope your next reply will be more satisfactory than the last, and perhaps you can help restore my ability to believe that Tweeter is still about the fan as well as the green.
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXX
--------------------------------------
Date: 8/05/2005
From: TCCCS
Subject: RE: The Tom Petty Debacle
Mark,
First off, it is not my job to diplomatically dismiss guests that have complaints. It is my job to resolve complaints of guests who have not had a satisfactory experience with us. The traffic situation that you are upset about is very much out of our control. It was a Friday night and we had 28,000 people all trying to get to the same place at the same time. I do not believe anyone dropped the ball, as you stated in your email. The population of this area has increased 3-fold in the past five years, which also contributes to the traffic in this area. Being right off of a major interstate doesnt help our situation either.
We did have a problem with the "log jam" that occurred at the show, which caused you and your friends to be in the crosswalk. However, this problem was resolved before Tom Petty came on stage, and there was more than enough room for guests to move around. As soon as this was clear, you should have had no problem going up to the lawn with your party. I know this because i was up there, and we were working to get the area cleared, and we did not leave until it was completed.The crosswalk was crowded for the 20 minute intermission between the
two bands, not an hour.
The lawn was sold to our designated capacity, which may have made it difficult to have a lot of room, but there was room. I apologize that there was not enough room for you to put your blanket down like you had in past years, but there was room for you to go on the lawn. The Tom Petty show that you attended five years ago was nowhere near sold out. I understand you dont want to hear that, but that is the truth.
We have not grown in the past five years, and neither has our capacity. We are issued a capacity by the village, and we have people that enforce that capacity. We are not able to allow more people in than is safe. I know it may be hard to believe but the "big guys" that you referred to are paid to be concerned for your safety, and they take that very seriously.
I understand your frustration, and i will continue to answer your emails for as long as you continue to send them. The situation at Tom Petty was simply a sold-out show. There was room for you and your friends to go and stand or sit on the lawn. The choice to leave was yours and your friends.
Sincerely,
Courtney
Tweeter Center
Chicago
-----------------------------------
Date: 8/5/2005
To: TCCCS
Subject: RE: The Tom Petty Debacle
"First off, it is not my job to diplomatically dismiss guests that have complaints. It is my job to resolve complaints of guests who have not had a satisfactory experience with us."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but all I have been witness to so far is a big dismissal. I am still a guest that has had an unsatasfactory experience with you, and I haven't heard anything so far to change that. So please Courtney... resolve away.
Thanks,
XXXXXXXXXX
-----------------------------------
Date: 08/05/2005
From: TCCCS
Subject: RE: The Tom Petty Debacle
Mark,
I am sorry that you considered my previous response a dismissal. The complaints that you have were addressed, and we fulfilled our part of the transaction that you paid for. The show went on and the congestion that you were concerned about was cleared before Tom Petty took the stage. We provided the concert which you paid for, and therefore there is no reason for us to issue a refund.
Courtney
Tweeter Center Chicago
-----------------------------------
As you can see, this is going nowhere fast. I cannot get any names or numbers through repeated attempts on my part to call the office numbers. I'm being blocked and I cannot express my opinions to anybody who matters at Tweeter Center. I just want my money back. I paid for a product which they failed to deliver. The only thing that I was party to that night was a riot waiting to happen. I want my money back and I want these venues to have to lower their max-capacity significantly for the safety of everyone who attends. I'm tired of being screwed by large companies with infinite resources who are concerned about nothing else but the bottom line. IF YOU'RE READING THIS, HELP ME OUT HERE! WE NEED TO COME TOGETHER AND TELL THE BIG GUYS THAT WE WON'T BE WALKED ALL OVER ANYMORE.
Mark
New Berlin, Wisconsin
U.S.A.
Date: 7/19/2005
To: TCCCS
Subject: The Tom Petty Debacle
I live in Milwaukee and I didn't purchase tickets in time to see Tom Petty at the Marcus Ampetheatre during Summerfest, so needless to say I had been very excited about going to see them at the Tweeter Center on the 15th of July. The best concert experience I had ever had was at The World Music Theatre about five years ago to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Sadly it seems, that was a different era of concert-going experiences.
Five years ago, we put our blankets out on the lawn we could spread our feet out and we could just enjoy the
music. We paid $3.00 a beer and enjoyed a perfect, laid back concert experience that will remember for the rest of my
life.
Now comes Tom Petty 2005 at the "Tweeter Center"... and all I can say is it was terrible. I'm disgusted with the concert and the fact that my group paid $272.90 to go see less than an hour of it. There must have been 3 times as many people crammed into the venue this time. To better illustrate what a waste of money this concert was, here's a little time table of how we spent this horrible evening:
6:15 - We leave my friend's house in Oak Forest, which
is only 15 minutes away from the venue.
7:15 - The concert starts, and we're still 2 miles away in gridlock traffic. Apparently nobody at the tweeter center has been properly trained to park three times as many cars in an acceptably efficient manner.
8:45 - We're finally parked. My thinking was that since we had to be close to the last people making it to the concert, we would at least be in the back so we could be one of the first to leave.... WRONG!!! They parked us in the middle so we were guaranteed to have to go through this nightmare again when we
left.
9:00 - We finally make it in the gates to the concert. Sadly, the Black Crowes have already finished playing. My girlfriend is very upset because she never saw them live and she was looking forward to seeing them preform "Talks to Angels". To my further disgust, I realize that the blanket that I brought in with me was useless unless I was going to put it over the sea of
people crammed in the Lawn like sardines and sit on their heads. You couldn't even move on the walkways, and there was no way that we were going to even try to go on the lawn so we could be trampled.
After purchasing our $8.00 beers, we just stood in the walkway like everybody else who wan't going to brave the sea of people in the lawn and started to watch the show, trying not to let how bad this situation was ruin the rest of the concert. Just when we thought that this might be possible we began to be harassed by the Tweeter Center security guards. We were systematically herded away from where we were standing like cattle and told that we couldn't stand in the walkway. I certainly didn't want to stand in the walkway, and neither did any of my group, but we had no choice. They shouldn't have sold 10,000 tickets beyond their capacity. I am currently working to figure out which authorities I need to contact about their grossly unsafe concert conditions. Who knows how many easily unavoidable injuries and deaths would have been caused due to the obscene over-crowding if a fire broke out or, god forbid, a terrorist attack took place.
When I showed a guard my ticket and asked him to lead me up to my seat, he just laughed at me and said "You're in the lawn buddy. That's standing room only." Now it may have been a few years since I've been to a concert at this venue, but when it was known as "The World", the lawn was never standing room only. People always had their blankets out and though it could get a little tricky, you were always able to find a path to walk through, kind of like a crowded beach. Nothing like this elbow to elbow garbage. Save that for a hip-hop concert where everybody wants to stand anyways. Definately not for a Tom Petty Concert. There's old people and little kids here for crying out loud.
10:00 - After about an hour of this I was tired of having big bouncer intimidators grab my shoulder and tell me to move, so I asked my group if they wanted to go, so we could leave before. This proposition was answered with a resounding and unanimous "YES!". So we fought our way back out of the crowd got back in our cars and sadly reflected on our wasted money and the most miserable concert experience of our lives.
I'm looking to Tweeter Center for satisfaction. My immediate goal is to be refunded the cost of the concert for my friends and I, but my long term goal is to make sure that the venues cannot go on doing this. It completely ruins the concert experience and it's just flat out dangerous.
I believe that customer satisfaction should be as important when it comes to concerts as when it comes to any other product. If I bought a Playstation 2 and I took it home and it didn't work, I'd get a refund. No questions asked. I organized this outing and quite frankly I am embarassed after hyping it so much and I feel guilty about collecting the money for the tickets.
Thanks for your time, and I'll be awaiting your reply.
Sincerely,
xxxxxxxx
--------------------------------
Date: 7/21/2005
From: TCCCS
Subject: RE: The Tom Petty Debacle
Marc,
First off, let me apologize for the experience you had at our venue. We strive to make each concert goers experience a memorable one, and it is disappointing when we do not live up to your expectations. As far as the traffic goes, unfortunately during sold out shows, we get backed up. We have Tinley Park Police directing traffic up until you hit our roads, and then our parking staff takes over. Our staff is more than capable of parking a sold out show, and did it as efficiently as possible at the Tom Petty concert. They park the lot as the cars arrive, so we have no control over where you end up when you get here.
As for the amount of people here, the concert was not over sold by any means. We were sold out, which means we are at capacity, which is around 28,000 people. In one area, this seems like a lot, but we had only as many people as we can safely accomodate. The lawn is a general admission area, and we do apologize for the security guard misleading you as to the accomodations for the lawn.
We do try to keep the crosswalk area where you were standing clear for safety reasons. As you mentioned, if there were a fire or an emergency, that area would need to be clear in order for people to safely exit. I apologize for the manner in which they asked you to leave, however we did need to keep that area clear.
Please know that we have our guests safety as our utmost prioity. We want all of our guests to feel comfortable and strive to provide them with quality entertainment. I would be more than happy to discuss your experience further, and please let me know if you have any questions about the information that i have given you.
Courtney Rourke
Tweeter Center
Chicago
------------------------------
Date: 8/03/2005
To: TCCCS
Subject: RE: The Tom Petty Debacle
Courtney,
First off let me say that I understand that is your job to diplomatically dismiss anyone who goes out of their way to complain about a miserable concert experience in hopes that they will just lose interest in the struggle and give up. I'm sure that usually this is a tactic that works very well and that you are extremely capable of handling those duties. I want to let you know, however, that I have no intention of dropping this matter and if we're still going back and fourth about it ten years from now, this will be your choice.....
Regarding your reply, I have read it several times and I feel I need to calmly express my feelings about this matter now:
You said: We strive to make each concertgoers experience a memorable one, and it is disappointing when we do not live up to your expectations.
It sure is disappointing Courtney.... It sure is.
You said: As far as the traffic goes, unfortunately during sold out shows, we get backed up. We have Tinley Park Police directing traffic up until you hit our roads, and then our parking staff takes over. Our staff is more than capable of parking a sold out show, and did it as efficiently as possible at the Tom Petty concert. They park the lot as the cars arrive, so we have no control over where you end up when you get here.
I've been to sold out concerts at this venue before. Admittedly most of these were when Tweeter was known as The World Music Theatre. Unfortunately is seems that with the passing of the old name, so went the days of superior service that was offered then as opposed to now. There were never any back-ups like this
before. It took nearly three hours to travel little more than five miles to the venue. Blame the cops, blame the Tweeter Staff, blame chance, blame whatever you want, this is completely unacceptable... somebody dropped the ball. We missed the Black Crows entire performance because of this. Nowhere ever were we warned that we needed to leave at 4:00 in the afternoon, five miles away from the venue, if we expected to make it to the show on time at 7:15PM. That is completely absurd, and had I known this was the case , we would not have bought the tickets in the first place. As for where we ended up in the lot.... we were parked, as I stated in my first letter, in the middle of the parking lot. We passed thousands of cars that were there before us, ensuring that if we stayed the duration of the concert that we would be treated to a second round of a 2 to 3 hour, five-mile drive.
You Said: As for the amount of people here, the concert was not over sold by any means. We were sold out, which means we are at capacity, which is around 28,000 people. In one area, this seems like a lot, but we had only as many people as we can safely accommodate. The lawn is a general admission area, and we do apologize for the security guard misleading you as to the accommodations for the lawn.
I really do not care for, nor do I have any patience for numbers and statistics and what somebody might have bribed somebody else to decide how many people was deemed "safe" in an environment such as this. I'm not a politician; I don't want to be a politician. Like I said in my previous letter, and a point you seemed to skip over completely in your reply, is that when I went to see Tom Petty five years ago, we were sitting on blankets and there was room to move between the seated people so you could go to the bathroom or get some food or drink and have a prayer of finding your group when you got back. When we went on the fifteenth of July, people were standing elbow to elbow in an unmanageable sea of people. I don't' enjoy being forced to step on peoples shoes or getting pushed all around. I wish I had a camera at both events (Before Tweeter and After Tweeter) so I could have pictures of how ridiculously different both experiences were. And Tom Petty is no more famous today than he was five years ago, so I am not interested in hearing anything along the lines of "well maybe he didn't sell out the venue last time". The truth is, he sold the venue out then too. The difference is, your capacity is much larger now than it used to be and the venue is not a single inch bigger. More money for the big guys at the expense of the consumer I suppose. Such is life....
You said: We do try to keep the crosswalk area where you were standing clear for safety reasons. As you mentioned, if there were a fire or an emergency, that area would need to be clear in order for people to safely exit. I apologize for the manner in which they asked you to leave, however we did need to keep that area clear.
It seems we agree on something. I have no problem with the security guards or the fact that the middle area needs to be cleared out for safety reasons. I, unlike my brother, even have no problem with the way the staff member Joe was treating us. He doesn't know me from anybody, he is a huge guy, and he was doing exactly what Tweeter hired him on to do. I actually feel sorry for him... his job sucks, due mostly to the Tweeter's policy of packing as many people as they can into the venue. It reminded me of when you see those videos of college kids trying to get 15 people into a phone booth back in the 70's. So as for the safety, and keeping the middle area clear, I agree with you one hundred percent. The safety of the people in the venue should be paramount, especially in the timorous times we as American's are all facing together. That being said, I would hope that you have already been able to infer from my letters that I am not a punk and I do not stand in the aisle to make trouble for you or your staff.
I despised standing down there. I hated standing period. As I said before, I brought a blanket so we could all relax like my group did at the last Tom Petty concert, but there was nowhere else to go. I cannot put enough emphasis on this, and please realize that it is not my intention to offend you but THERE WAS NO WHERE ELSE FOR US TO GO!!!. <----------- This is the most important message I'm trying to convey to you today. This is my one point that was completely skipped over in your reply to my first letter. There was nowhere else for us to go. There was nothing else for us to do. We simply were herded around the walkway for the hour we were there until my brother was about to snap. I'm standing there feeling awful about having asked everybody if they wanted to go in the first place. Before a situation developed between my brother and a member of the Tweeter staff, I asked everybody else if they wanted to leave and they all said yes. They know how much I love Tom Petty and I knew that they weren't enjoying themselves either and they were just staying there for me.
Please understand Courtney, if I come off offensively in this letter that it is not a personal attack on you. My frustration comes simply from the fact that I purchased a product that didn't work, and I feel that I have no way of getting refunded for it. I don't want to get third parties involved. It's a pain for you; it's a pain for me. But I was jacked for those tickets, and I will find satisfaction. The $275 that I wasted on these tickets is going to bother me for years to come and I regret the fact that after the fifteenth, I feel that I have lost my faith in the Tweeter's ability to put on a quality show. It seems that the bottom line has become more important than the entertainment and in the end it's the fan that loses. I love Tom, and I will never forgive Tweeter for making his concert one of the greatest disasters of my life.
I truly appreciate your time Courtney. I'm not looking to try to ruin anyone's day or dump on them. Just as Tweeter security Joe, I know that you are only doing your job. I hope your next reply will be more satisfactory than the last, and perhaps you can help restore my ability to believe that Tweeter is still about the fan as well as the green.
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXX
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Date: 8/05/2005
From: TCCCS
Subject: RE: The Tom Petty Debacle
Mark,
First off, it is not my job to diplomatically dismiss guests that have complaints. It is my job to resolve complaints of guests who have not had a satisfactory experience with us. The traffic situation that you are upset about is very much out of our control. It was a Friday night and we had 28,000 people all trying to get to the same place at the same time. I do not believe anyone dropped the ball, as you stated in your email. The population of this area has increased 3-fold in the past five years, which also contributes to the traffic in this area. Being right off of a major interstate doesnt help our situation either.
We did have a problem with the "log jam" that occurred at the show, which caused you and your friends to be in the crosswalk. However, this problem was resolved before Tom Petty came on stage, and there was more than enough room for guests to move around. As soon as this was clear, you should have had no problem going up to the lawn with your party. I know this because i was up there, and we were working to get the area cleared, and we did not leave until it was completed.The crosswalk was crowded for the 20 minute intermission between the
two bands, not an hour.
The lawn was sold to our designated capacity, which may have made it difficult to have a lot of room, but there was room. I apologize that there was not enough room for you to put your blanket down like you had in past years, but there was room for you to go on the lawn. The Tom Petty show that you attended five years ago was nowhere near sold out. I understand you dont want to hear that, but that is the truth.
We have not grown in the past five years, and neither has our capacity. We are issued a capacity by the village, and we have people that enforce that capacity. We are not able to allow more people in than is safe. I know it may be hard to believe but the "big guys" that you referred to are paid to be concerned for your safety, and they take that very seriously.
I understand your frustration, and i will continue to answer your emails for as long as you continue to send them. The situation at Tom Petty was simply a sold-out show. There was room for you and your friends to go and stand or sit on the lawn. The choice to leave was yours and your friends.
Sincerely,
Courtney
Tweeter Center
Chicago
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Date: 8/5/2005
To: TCCCS
Subject: RE: The Tom Petty Debacle
"First off, it is not my job to diplomatically dismiss guests that have complaints. It is my job to resolve complaints of guests who have not had a satisfactory experience with us."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but all I have been witness to so far is a big dismissal. I am still a guest that has had an unsatasfactory experience with you, and I haven't heard anything so far to change that. So please Courtney... resolve away.
Thanks,
XXXXXXXXXX
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Date: 08/05/2005
From: TCCCS
Subject: RE: The Tom Petty Debacle
Mark,
I am sorry that you considered my previous response a dismissal. The complaints that you have were addressed, and we fulfilled our part of the transaction that you paid for. The show went on and the congestion that you were concerned about was cleared before Tom Petty took the stage. We provided the concert which you paid for, and therefore there is no reason for us to issue a refund.
Courtney
Tweeter Center Chicago
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As you can see, this is going nowhere fast. I cannot get any names or numbers through repeated attempts on my part to call the office numbers. I'm being blocked and I cannot express my opinions to anybody who matters at Tweeter Center. I just want my money back. I paid for a product which they failed to deliver. The only thing that I was party to that night was a riot waiting to happen. I want my money back and I want these venues to have to lower their max-capacity significantly for the safety of everyone who attends. I'm tired of being screwed by large companies with infinite resources who are concerned about nothing else but the bottom line. IF YOU'RE READING THIS, HELP ME OUT HERE! WE NEED TO COME TOGETHER AND TELL THE BIG GUYS THAT WE WON'T BE WALKED ALL OVER ANYMORE.
Mark
New Berlin, Wisconsin
U.S.A.
