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81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

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Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#321

From my quick research online, it seems they've gone digital-only for season tickets because they don't want people just reselling them to turn a profit. They want actual season-long fans, so now if you transfer too many games they can track it and ban you. This is essentially anti-scalping. There's a legit justification. You can still buy paper tickets at the stadium for a single game. But not for season passes anym…

There's an amusement park we like to go to. We get season passes, which normally means renewing the small plastic card we got the first year. They've switched to app only this year, with the option of getting a card, if for some reason you cannot or will not use the app. I believe there's a small fee for issuing the card. I believe their reasoning is much the same. They have some types of tickets, which can technical…

> They have some types of tickets, which can technically be handed over to others and abused.

Disney World had this trouble with their "Florida Residents Pass" - which was a lower cost annual pass just for Florida Residents. So they introduced face scanning technology to stop that. Other people would swap multi=park and multi-day passes to friends. So they introduced fingerprint scanning to stop that.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I feel like phone tickets are anti-convenience because they rely on terrible apps like TicketMaster. Case in point: I traveled from St. Louis to Houston for a concert a few years ago. Before I left home to catch my flight, I installed the Ticketmaster app on a phone and verified that I could bring up the tickets. When I tried it again in my hotel an hour before the conference, it no longer worked because the fraud…

Why would you sign into Ticketmaster with an email address you don't have access to and use it to buy tickets? Don't do that. Create a new account with the email address you have access to. Apps require you to sign in again all the time , and send a verification code to your e-mail to do so. Changing locations is, yes, a reason to require sign in. Sorry, but that one's on you.

Don't victim-blame.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't give the app any permissions, it doesn't spy on you either. It doesn't have any more information than the info you give it to buy the tickets in the first place.

> It doesn't have any more information than the info you give it to buy the tickets in the first place. Many apps ask for permission to use your GPS position and other sensor data, even though they don't need it. Most non-technical people don't understand what that means and will just allow it.

> Many apps ask for permission to use your GPS position and other sensor data, even though they don't need it.

What on earth are you talking about? I've installed hundreds of apps in my life and literally never seen that.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If this guy has the money for a season pass (!) he has the money for a smartphone. Maybe it's not about the money. Maybe he does not want the negative consequences that come along with having a smartphone. Maybe he has dexterity issues that make using a smartphone difficult. Maybe he doesn't want to install their invasive app. Maybe he finds that paper tickets are easier to manage. Maybe he recognizes that the vend…

He shouldn't even need a reason. "I don't want a smartphone" should be sufficient and should not lock one out of commerce, events, and other cultural experiences. In 50 years, everyone's going to have an advertisement-injecting brain implant, and stores are going to require you to have one in order to purchase anything, and they'll lock you out of commerce as a filthy Luddite if you don't get one. And, 50 years from…

I do worry how smart phones have become mandatory for a lot of services. Viscerally, I don't like it, because of the monthly payment aspect. I don't have an elaborate theology that is not self-contradictory, it just seems wrong to me.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can set location to only while you're using the app. And when you open it to scan the ticket, they already know where you are . You're at the entrance to the stadium where they scan your tickets.

And that's when you find out the app considers this usage pattern as a signal of fraud, so then you can't get into the event and have no recourse. Their app, their rules, your loss.

Sorry but you've made that up. That's not a thing.

I saw your other comment, and that was your fault for not having access to your own e-mail account. Asking you to sign in with a verification code isn't blocking your ticket with "no recourse".

Not to mention, you can usually just go to the ticket office and they can look up your ticket if your app isn't working. Obviously they don't advertise this because they don't have enough people to handle if everybody did that. But they're not trying to lock you out from your own ticket.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#326

From my quick research online, it seems they've gone digital-only for season tickets because they don't want people just reselling them to turn a profit. They want actual season-long fans, so now if you transfer too many games they can track it and ban you. This is essentially anti-scalping. There's a legit justification. You can still buy paper tickets at the stadium for a single game. But not for season passes anym…

> If this guy has the money for a season pass (!) he has the money for a smartphone. This misses the point. The question is: why would a smartphone be required, to watch a local game?

> The question is: why would a smartphone be required, to watch a local game?

It's not. You can still buy physical tickets in person to watch a local game.

This is a requirement specifically for a season pass. If you don't want a season pass, you can still buy individual tickets.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I feel like phone tickets are anti-convenience because they rely on terrible apps like TicketMaster. Case in point: I traveled from St. Louis to Houston for a concert a few years ago. Before I left home to catch my flight, I installed the Ticketmaster app on a phone and verified that I could bring up the tickets. When I tried it again in my hotel an hour before the conference, it no longer worked because the fraud…

Why would you sign into Ticketmaster with an email address you don't have access to and use it to buy tickets? Don't do that. Create a new account with the email address you have access to. Apps require you to sign in again all the time , and send a verification code to your e-mail to do so. Changing locations is, yes, a reason to require sign in. Sorry, but that one's on you.

Ticketmaster failing to recognize that someone might want to use a ticket in physical proximity to the event is not the user's fault.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think this policy would pass muster under the ADA though. The guy might not be sufficiently disabled to qualify - but for example if you have a blind person without a smartphone, you can’t tell them they’re out of luck - because you can clearly reasonably accommodate them without causing “undue financial hardship” by giving them tickets at will-call.

I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a blind person / person with low vision without a smartphone these days: they’re a near-essential window into services that aren’t accessible though plain paper.

If they're 81yo, you definitely will.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#330
post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We all took our time to learn how to use a smartphone Were you 65 years old when smartphones came around? My grandparents had 8 years of formal education, they never figured out how to use computers when they were alive, not because they didn't want to but because it was too complicated. In a society where human dignity and respect matter you don't ignore people who can't keep up, you don't treat the elderly like ob…

You are stating that someone with no formal education or who is 65 years old can’t learn to use a smartphone. That is demonstrably false.

No it isn't. In the US 45 million people are functionally illiterate. That is defined as someone who cannot read or follow instructions, fill out a basic form, or understand a bank statement. My 77 year old uncle is unable to use a smartphone and to this day I help him even with his email. He doesn't understand what a web browser is, and believe me my younger relatives and I have tried many times.

People who post here in general have no idea what life is like for people without the upbringing or cognitive skills to deal with the complexity of the modern world and technology.

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