I am writing this because I think the management should be aware of this incident:

I paid $250.00 for Coldplay tickets as a Christmas gift for my wife. Last night we attended this concert and the following situation occurred:

Our seats were Col 10, Section 10, Row 28. We got up to our seats, only to find that Seat #10 was broken. The bottom was completely off and touching the ground on one side. So, my wife stayed and I went to one of the staff people who told me to talk to Roger, the manager on duty. So, I explained the broken seat to Roger, and he told me to go to guest services and they would handle it. So, I went to my nearest guest service booth, only to be told that I had to walk completely to the other side (Col 29) of the forum and talk to that guest service booth. At this time, although my wife and I arrived at 7:45, Fiona Apple had started performing. In any case, I made my way there, and was told that I needed both tickets, and that we would probably be reassigned. Would have been nice if I was told this originally. So, I had to walk back to where my wife was (remember, this was way up high) and get her. So, we made our way back to guest service booth at Col 29. When we got there, the story changed. I was then told that we would not be reassigned, that they would send someone to go fix the seat. At this point I became very frustrated. The concert had started, we were missing it, and this was due to the Forum not making sure there seats were ALL in working order. So, because of this we had to do a LOT of walking and waiting. Finally, after telling this person that I needed to speak to the person in charge and that this was not acceptable, they radioed someone. Then, we were told to follow them to a little section that appeared to be set-up to accommodate handicapped people. This was at Col 34, and stand alone chairs were set-up. This was fine and we were given an apology for our inconvenience, etc. So, at this time I asked the person (I forgot her name, young African-American woman who was actually pleasant to deal with considering the situation) if I should get our tickets marked in some way so if we were asked we could simply show the ticket without having to explain the entire situation over again. She said if there was any problem to go ahead and direct the staff who was asking to guest services booth at Col 29. Anyway, sure enough, my wife and I had to explain the situation to 7 staff members. One of them (I think it was the third person who came by and asked to see our tickets) was named Denise, who said if there was any problem to just have them talk to her, that she was in charge of the section. Well, this didn't work because the next three staff members who came by, one with security, didn't seem to believe me at first. Luckily, a couple sitting next to us had a similar problem and chimed in, which seemed to convince this staff member that we were on the up and up. Finally, when Coldplay started, we were not harassed about our ticket situation anymore. I think by that time we had been introduced to every staff member on duty that evening so they could all identify us.

In any case, the point is, we should not have had to go through all this, and it put a crimp in our evening that we had planned for quite some time. $250.00 plus $20.00 for parking plus another $40.00 for drinks and food (we needed a couple drinks after all this) is a lot of money to hard working middle class people like my wife and I, and I think you would agree that this situation was absolutely unacceptable, deplorable, and unnecessary. What would have prevented the whole thing was to simply make sure your seats were all in good working order. My wife and I have agreed NEVER to return to the forum again for any event and to wait for it at Arrowhead Pond or Staples or whatever, but anything besides the Forum. You can be sure that we will advise everyone we come into contact with the same.

Also, I brought a back pack in from where we parked and was told when I got to the door that they don't allow backpacks. Again, some thought ahead on this would help out your patrons who have paid a lot to see your shows so they wouldn't have to walk back to the car. Maybe a sign or something. You guys need to work out some procedures for dealing with things, because I ran into some other pretty disgruntled people who also had problems of one kind or another. One Staff member, Denise, told me someone had been issues two tickets for seats that were non-existent, well I ran into the guy at guest services and he was more pissed about the way it was handled then the original mix up. Pretty bad folks!