Ticketmaster...W T effing F?

ikiT

So...For shits and giggles, I clicked through on the tour page to see how many tickets were avail for a few shows this tour. I'm going to Memphis 10C reserved, but you never know, right?
I get to the Ticketmaster site and I'm looking at my Memphis show, and I see the upper bowl has some empty seats. I go to look at Milwaukee and I get hit with the "security checkpoint" "type in the phrase below to prevent scalpers" pop up.

This is what I was faced with....



WTF?

JWPearl

lol hahahahaahaha

ikiT

Here's my pretty cheerful response....

Hello Jay,

We’re sorry you saw an offensive word/phrase during the security check on Ticketmaster.com – we promise you won’t see it again! Wondering how it appeared in the first place? Let us explain, from the beginning:

The security check is there to block automated programs (“bots”) that try to tie up our system and buy up our tickets. We use CAPTCHA because no computer program can read distorted text like a human, so when you type those warped random words we know you’re a real live fan and not a bot being used by the bad guys.

CAPTCHA is provided by reCAPTCHA, a project from the smart people at the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. All the words come from old texts they’re scanning and storing in digital format, and sometimes an offensive word or word combination sneaks into the CAPTCHA database despite their best efforts.

Thanks to you, we’ve alerted them to the offensive word/phrase and they’ll erase it from their database. Poof! Gone.

If you need anything else, just reply to this email or visit Help on Ticketmaster.com!
Got a minute? Tell us how we're doing.
Sincerely,
Jennifer E.
Ticketmaster Fan Support
World Class Service - Every Customer, Every Day!

I like the condescending way they explain CAPTCHA, and then how they say that they've alerted "them" about the offensive phrase, even though I didn't tell them what the offensive phrase even was. "Poof! Gone."

still dicks.

ikiT

I asked them if they were serious, and attached the jpg that's shown above.
No response. Zero. Nothing. Perhaps I needed more exclamation points. !
Ticketbastard indeed.

ikiT

Sent this morning....

So, that’s the extent of your responsibility for offending my sensibilities or perhaps the sensibilities of any person who has been a victim of sexual assault? Again, the Captcha phrase that I got was “no means no” which, if you are unaware, is an anti RAPE slogan. That’s beyond inappropriate, and is pretty close to the worst corporate behavior that I personally have ever witnessed. Totally unacceptable.

http://www.clotheslineproject.org/No_Means_No.htm

As for the cheerful “we’re sorry you saw an offensive word…” email? Protecting me from “bad guys” and then shirking the responsibility of the word combination “sneaking in” off on “smart people” “-we promise you won’t see it again!” and then alerting them to the offensive word (before I told you what it was, mind you…) so they could “Poof”! erase it from their database? That, and the tone of that, offends my intelligence.


Being a long time Pearl Jam fan, I already don't like you. Hey, I don’t have a twitter account or a Facebook account, (although I may get one just because of this incident) but I’ll be sure to tell every person who mentions the word “Ticketmaster” to me, just what my experience with your awful company has been.


Thanks for nothing.

JM55546

Are you really that outraged? Their response was fine. They apologized, said it won't happen again and explained why the system is in place, which is 100% accurate. They're using a 3rd party CAPTCHA environment so that's out of their control and their description of the captch process is correct technically. They have automated techniques that scan for bad words etc, but in this case "No means no" is not offensive in itself, it was inappropriately used and they apologized for it.

What'd you want them to do? Call you personally and apologize? Give you free tickets? Fire an employee?

DewieCox

I've never got anything that made any sense on those and thought that was kinda what those captchas are going for, but I think you're really making too much of it. An email to say "hey, you might wanna get rid of this"? Sure. But I wouldn't take it so personally as you have. They seem pretty random and that randomness is gonna result in stuff like the above from time to time.

ikiT

Douchy corporate behavior as a whole is wrong.
Scripted customer service responses are wrong.

Outraged is your word, not mine. Offended was the word I used.

Perhaps it's just me, but I felt the response from "Ticketmaster Fan Support", (offering World Class Service - Every Customer, Every Day!) concerning the 3rd party software was canned and quite disingenuous. I hadn't told them what the phrase even was, I certainly didn't type it into the Captcha box when I saw it, and then they preemptively told me they had the phrase removed from the database...

I don't want them to do anything for me or give me anything....all I want for that particular company is to know that I see them for what they are, big business trying to act like they're my friend, while they lie right to my face.

lowbudgetlush

Am I reading the picture correctly? All it says is "no means no". Who in the world would take offense to that. I understand what it is referring to but I would have just typed the phrase and went on purchasing the tickets. Would not have thought twice about it let alone take the 5 minutes to write to ticketmaster.

I hate to use a blanket statement but people are to easily offended now.

Pearl Jam has used ticketmaster for at least the last 16 years. So if they have gotten over the issue I think it is time for to as well.

RS151862

.

JimmyV

I have heard parents say "no means no" to young children.

ikiT

Given the TM/PJ history, the fact that it happened when looking at PJ tickets is the random occurrence here as far as I'm concerned.
If faced with the same Captcha phrase while looking for Baltimore Orioles or Kanye West tickets, I would have had the exactly the same reaction.

ldent42

It is wildly inappropriate in that context. I could see victims of sexual assault as well as anyone who's been falsely accused of sexual assault being offended by seeing that phrase there like that. It's different when the phrase is being used as it should, to teach children (and too often young adults) to respect other's wishes, or follow orders.

Definitely agree it should be removed from the database.

ikiT

3 days later, no response from TM.

what dreams

JimmyV said:

I have heard parents say "no means no" to young children.

^^^^This exactly. I heard the phrase countless times from my own parents in my youth. When I read the Captcha, it never occurred to me that it was an anti-RAPE slogan until the OP spelled it out for us in capital letters. It's a common phrase in our language used in a wide variety of contexts, completely harmless in and of itself. Before anyone gets all up on me about my insensitivity . . . I am a survivor of sexual assault. Even if I did make the same association as the OP, I would have embraced the message featured as it was. It doesn't say "no really means yes," for goodness sakes. As a formerly mischievous child and as someone who knows the devastation of rape, I personally feel no offense.

What I do personally feel is a growing backlash against the postmodern language police. People who try to control language are far more frightening to me than offensive language itself. I cannot imagine -- and don't even want to imagine -- a world that has been stripped of all meaning because politically correct speech has sanitized the character out of our world. It is both a beautiful and an ugly planet, and our language will always reflect that. I prefer to keep it that way.
In the end, I've come to realize that words only have power if I give them power. When I start to feel offended by someone else's speech, I simply shrug my shoulders and refuse to give it any more than that.

ikiT

In all honesty, I never thought I'd run into so much acceptance of a corporate entities right to say whatever, (you know, they're not individual people....) especially when that corporate entity is Ticketmaster and were talking about checking on Pearl Jam tickets. Here, of all places.

what dreams

I'm sorry you're frustrated. My statement is not an acceptance of any corporate entity's rights. It's an expression of my complete inability to relate to your outrage. As you yourself insist, it's an ANTI-rape slogan. We should all rejoice when anti-rape slogans find their place anywhere and everywhere. I picture the poor IT guy or gal sitting at a computer having to come up with code for all the countless CAPTCHAs possible in the English language (now that could be a dreadfully boring job). Perhaps, I give the benefit of the doubt, this person went down a path and decided he/she was doing something positive by speaking out for women in the world. Who knows? In addition to "no means no," maybe there's a CAPTCHA that says "racists suck," or "stop bombing children," also created by this same techie. That's a story I like to imagine. It's a saner way for me to live than assuming the worst of people and writing complaint letters when all I really wanted to do was have a shit and a giggle at tickets that were left for Memphis. I'm sorry again that it doesn't conform to your liking. I'm not trying to upset you, just offering an alternative point of view.

BTW, on another note, I am so glad PJ sells tickets through Ticketmaster again. I hated their boycott. I couldn't get tickets to a single show for far too long with the self-styled system they ran themselves. Since Ticketmaster came back on board, I haven't missed a tour.

Jammalambo

This thread is ridiculous... some people on here have too much time in their hands..

RS151862

Jammalambo said:

This thread is ridiculous... some people on here have too much time in their hands..

Agreed, this thread is getting...

mookieb10

Liberal- He who expects forgiveness for his mistakes but is stunned that others make them.

ikiT

WTFF...

melissachun

the tiki bomb said:

In all honesty, I never thought I'd run into so much acceptance of a corporate entities right to say whatever, (you know, they're not individual people....) especially when that corporate entity is Ticketmaster and were talking about checking on Pearl Jam tickets. Here, of all places.

While I may not feel exactly the same as you, I can definitely empathize. We all have different things that push our buttons. Feelings aren't right or wrong, they just are. I for one am glad that you took action, and contacted Ticketmaster about your concern. Corporations like Ticketmaster couldn't care less about the customer. They know all too well that since they are still pretty much the only game in town, it's unlikely they will completely lose our business. What's really annoying to me is the dismissive cookie cutter response that assures you the phrase would be omitted, when you hadn't even told them what it was. I was glad Pearl Jam took a stand against Ticketmaster, and would support them if they did it again.

aq102290

Stumbled in here before buying a bootleg...amusing way to spend a few minutes reading all this.

Jason P

I'm surprised TM even made an initial response.