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08/25/2009 04:28 PM

NY1 For You: Concertgoer Gets Refund Over Switched Seats

By: Susan Jhun

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One Paul McCartney concertgoer turned to NY1 For You for help when he did not get the seat that he paid for. NY1's Susan Jhun filed the following NY1 For You report.

When Roger Scholl bought two tickets to Paul McCartney's third and final concert at Citi Field, he thought he knew where his seats were.

"I went to show my wife where the seating chart was and logged back on the website and noticed that the section that we had bought our seats in had been shifted off to the side," says Scholl.

He purchased the tickets for $190 each in the field's B6 section, which was originally next to one of the center sections in front of the stage. After the transaction, however, his seats were moved.

"What they did was they took where B6 was supposed to be, where the seats were that we had bought, and on the new seating chart there was a section called B5-1 that had physically taken the location where B6 had originally been," says Scholl.

When Scholl called the Mets to complain, he was first told that his seats had been moved and that AEG Live, the concert promoter, was responsible.

Unable to reach someone at AEG Live who could help him, Scholl called the Mets again and this time was told that his seats hadn't been moved, and that the new seating chart was not to scale.

When Scholl showed up at the concert, however, he found that wasn't the case.

"They literally took a section and said 'Yeah, when we sold you the ticket we told you it was here on the seating chart and now it's here,'" says Scholl.

He took photos that illustrate his section, B6, was not directly behind section A6 as advertised in the original seating chart.

When NY1 first learned of Scholl's situation, the station called the Mets and AEG Live to get an explanation.

The Mets said in a statement, "The seating plans for the Paul McCartney shows underwent some late adjustments due to changes in the staging and production that affected a small number of seats. The Mets worked diligently with concert promoters and Paul McCartney's management to relocate customers whose views in their estimation were compromised. The section in reference underwent a slight adjustment because of the reconfiguration, and the sightlines remained consistent with similarly priced sections."

At the time, a spokesman for AEG Live gave NY1 the same explanation. Since the first story aired, the company agreed out of fairness to refund Scholl his tickets.

He says it's only fair, since he didn't get what he paid for.

If you'd like "NY1 For You" to look into a problem, call our 24-hour helpline at 212-379-3599 or send an email to ny1foryou@ny1.com.