ArcaMax

When you contact a company, you should really remind it of the commitments it makes to customers in the large print. That's often enough to prod it to change its tune, or its game plan, or whatever sports or music metaphor you would prefer to use.

I see lots of emails between you and the company, but none of them contain the email in which Vivid Seats gave you seven days to decide between a credit and a refund. Maybe it exists, maybe it doesn't.

But let's say it does exist. Vivid Seats says it gave you seven days to decide between a refund and credit. Not replying means you accepted the credit. That's an example of negative option opt-in, which is highly unethical.

I mean, I could say: If you don't click off this site, you have agreed to transfer all the money in your bank to me. That's a negative option opt-in. Vivid Seats said, if you don't respond to this email, you agree to accept a credit.

I think you could have appealed this to a manager at Vivid Seats. Maybe one of the customer service managers would have been more responsive. (I followed up with you, and you say you did, but no one responded.) Or you could have taken this directly to the founders, Eric Vassilatos and Jerry Bednyak. Contacting anyone at Vivid Seats is easy. Email addresses follow the firstname.lastname@vividseats.com format.

You could have also disputed the charge on your credit card. I think your bank would have sided with you.

Fortunately, none of that was necessary. I contacted Vivid Seats on your behalf. You received a full refund.

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Christopher Elliott's latest book is “How To Be The World’s Smartest Traveler” (National Geographic). Get help by contacting him at http://www.elliott.org/help

© 2020 Christopher Elliott.