The Mets Police

In the email they ask for your phone number and e-mail address. Now I figured it would be a few days before I received a form letter e-mail saying they were sorry yadda yadda yadda. 

To my surprise, the head of the parking department called me up two hours afterI sent the complaint. He asked for all the info about which lot it happened in, the description of the worker, and what was said to me. 

I was offered his cell phone number to call him the next game I was at for VIP parking to make up for

the incident. I said thank you to him but also that I would never use it because I didn't e-mail for the sake of a freebie.  I just wanted to let the Mets know what kind of people they hired.

In the mail, I received my renewal invoice for the seats I had at Cit Field last year. I was in left field and I couldn't see the left fielder at all. That did not bother me too much believe it or not. I was actually pretty happy with my seats. I decided though that I wanted to treat myself to an upgrade. But alas, on the renewal invoice there are no options to upgrade. So I went and contacted the Mets through e-mail again. Two hours later I got a phone call. 

A cheery woman from the ticket office called me to let me know that she put in a request for me to have an upgrade for my seats but can not upgrade me until after December 18th. She said best thing for me to do is re-up my seats and then call them again after the 18th about the upgrade or someone from the office would call me up.If i get the upgrade they will charge me for the difference in ticketprices.

For me that works out pretty good. I am not displeased with my seats, so if i happen not to get the upgrade I will still be ok with the seats I already have.

Maybe if fans start to email the Mets about the things that are wrong with the ball park or jerseys things might actually get changed. I am going to e-mail the Mets to see if they can go really retro with their jerseys. Maybe turn the black jerseys to an ashen grey with orange piping. Yeah I know. That makes as much sense as the new "natural" colored home jersey with the retro black drop shading.

Here is the letter that went out with regard to my experience with the Mets ticket office earlier today.  Please feel free to share with all other fellow Mets fans.  The sad part is that I didn't even get a chance to talk about sad the state of the roster or the obstructed views.  

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read.  Happy Holidays to all!

Thanks,

Al

Dear Mr. Wilpon, Mr. Ianniciello, and the entire Mets Organization,

I am writing this letter to inform you of my recent dealings with your ticket office.  I have been a plan/pack holder since 2005 (account # XXXXXX) and my wife also had a pack in 2007 and 2008, but due to a multitude of reasons, I have chosen not to renew my plan this year.  It is unfortunate because I do love to go to watch the Mets, but I do not see how purchasing a plan this year would be a wise investment for me or my family.

This morning, at approximately 10 am, I was contacted by one of your agents inquiring about Friday Plan renewal. (I am including the date/time because if there is any question about the details of this letter, I urge you to pull the recorded call logs and listen for yourself).  Upon receiving the call, I asked the agent to hold while I left my office so that I may speak freely and be as honest as possible.  Your agent complied and proceeded to inquire about my decision of not renewing my tickets.  My initial response was the following:

The organization is a disgrace, from top to bottom. Also, a big reason for me is that I despise, capital letters, bold print, underline, DESPISE the new stadium. I mean, there isn’t even blue in it, (chuckling) and the sepia pictures drive me nuts.

The agents response was “And you’re a Mets fan?” To which I answered that I indeed was. I also added that my family was trying to see all the MLB stadiums and we had seen 14 already.  Moreover, of the “new” ones, which excludes Wrigley and Fenway, this one is the worst or, at best, 2^ndworst next to Washington.  At that point, I was told that my opinion was that of “only 1 fan and that it didn’t make a difference”.  I responded that he must not have read the papers or blogs because there were indeed many others that felt the same way as I did.  It indeed was a shocker that my opinion was dismissed since I thought that the Mets were supposed to be a first-class organization who cared about their fans and their opinions.

After this exchange, he stated that if I was a fan, then I was a “bad fan”.  I explained to him how I had travelled to Florida every year to see the team. In addition, I had taken numerous road trips to watch the team, and I had even driven 6 hours to Pittsburgh with my 6-week old daughter to watch them clinch in 2006.  Therefore, I do not consider myself a bad fan, but rather a fan who wants to see some change and promise. 

After a little more dialogue, he ended the call by telling me that “obviously you are not the type of fan we want in the stadium”.  I agreed and said that “obviously this is why I am not renewing my tickets, but would I would like to speak with your supervisor.”  At this point the call was disconnected. 

After a few minutes, I called back and spoke with a supervisor.  Mr. Luis Morales attended me and was very cordial.  He said he would look into the call logs, and assured me that this would not happen to anyone else.  He acknowledged that the whole conversation had been handled poorly and that the agent’s statements were not the beliefs of the organization.  I did inform him that while I accepted his apology, I would be writing this letter to inform others of the poor treatment of fans.

Although I was not going to renew my package, I had planned to attend numerous games via the single game ticket sales.  After this conversation, I must say that I will be revisiting that decision.  If I am not the type of fan that the Mets want in the building, then maybe the Mets should realize that they are not the type of organization that many fans want to root for anymore.  We, the fans, are treated too often as sheep who will follow without a voice, and that is not the foundation to a good relationship. Perhaps, you will revisit that approach in the future.  Having an opinion does not make me a bad fan; it makes me a passionate one. In the end, I will continue to support my team because they are my team, but I will no longer support them financially in any respect.

                                                                       

 Sincerely,

                                                                            

Albert (I'm withholding his last name)