MICHIGAN, USA — After a southwest Michigan family had their NFL tickets taken from their account in October and worked for weeks to get them back through Ticketmaster, the 13 Help Team helped to finish the job.
In August, Terah Howell's husband bought her and their son tickets to the Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings game in Chicago on Sunday, Nov. 24 as a big birthday gift.
Howell and her son just celebrated their actual birthdays this month, right before the game. She's never been to an NFL game and has been looking forward to this experience for months.
On Oct. 7, however, Howell said the three tickets they purchased on Ticketmaster's website were transferred out of her account and claimed by someone she doesn't know.
"Two days later, I could see them for sale on the NFL site, and it said, verified resale tickets. How can they be verified when I just called two days before?" asked Howell.
Since then, she said she's called Ticketmaster again and again. She's spent hours on the phone with the company.
"If Justin Jefferson, for some reason, like, doesn't play after this season, and I don't get to go to this game, like, it's something that's not replaceable."
After Howell reached out to 13 ON YOUR SIDE, the 13 Help Team emailed Ticketmaster on the night of Tuesday, Nov. 19. We then called Ticketmaster twice on Wednesday, Nov. 20, spending more than an hour on the phone.
One person from Ticketmaster said the family would hear something back Wednesday night. Another person said to email the address we already reached out to on Tuesday. We emailed again.
On Thursday morning, 13 ON YOUR SIDE heard back from Ticketmaster. Within hours, the family was sent three tickets for the game on Sunday.
Ticketmaster also sent 13 ON YOUR SIDE this statement:
“Overall, our digital ticketing innovations have greatly reduced fraud compared to the days of paper tickets and duplicated PDFs. Having that digital history is also how we are able to investigate the situation and restore fans’ tickets in nearly every case, with most getting confirmation that their tickets were recovered within 48 hours. The top way fans can protect themselves is setting a strong and unique password that isn’t used elsewhere for all accounts – especially for their personal email which is where we often see security issues originate. Scammers are looking for new cheats across every industry, and tickets will always be a target because they are valuable, so Ticketmaster is constantly investing in new security enhancements to safeguard fans.”
Howell and her family are thrilled to once again be able to go to the game.
