Woman struggles to get money back after concert seats abruptly changed

By Jessica Guay

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    PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Fans are getting excited to see country music star Jelly Roll perform at PPG Paints Arena this weekend, but one woman from South Fayette Township said she is not OK because her seats were changed just days before the concert.

Lakayla Andreis’ husband loves Jelly Roll. So, when she heard the Grammy-nominated singer was bringing his “Beautifully Broken Tour” to Pittsburgh, she bought two front-row tickets for $1,600 during the pre-sale in February.

“I had the email. I have it right here of when I bought them, and that I got section floor 1, row A, seats 5 and 6,” Andreis said.

Andreis said she received an email last week that said she could add her tickets to her Apple Wallet, which showed they still had row A seats for Saturday’s show.

“My husband works all the time. He’s a small business owner. We never get to go out. We have three boys. I had my mother-in-law lined up. I have my outfit picked out,” she said.

That excitement quickly went away on Wednesday.

“I wouldn’t even have known. Thank God Apple Wallet gave me the notification that my ticket status has changed. I go onto my Apple ticket to see my tickets there, and they say invalid,” Andreis said.

She went to check her Ticketmaster account, and her seats weren’t in row A anymore. They were moved to row Z.

“Floor 1, row Z, seats 5 through 6. I’m like, what? I didn’t purchase row Z for how much I paid for them,” she said.

Andreis said she reached out to Ticketmaster several times by phone and on social media, but she wasn’t having any luck getting her original seats or her money back.

“How are they not refundable? I agreed to pay for something that I don’t even have. Where is my money?” she said.

“It’s sickening and it’s sad. … I’m not going to any more concerts anymore because I’m afraid it’s gonna happen again,” she added.

Andreis needed somebody to save her. She reached out to KDKA-TV, and before our interview, she received an email from Ticketmaster saying her tickets were changed due to production changes, and that she had a certain amount of time to take them, resell them or take a survey on an unfamiliar website for a refund.

“At the bottom, real little, it said if you want a refund, you have to submit this survey by Saturday, by 5 p.m.,” Andreis said.

KDKA-TV reached out to Ticketmaster and asked why her tickets were changed. The representative asked us for more information about the customer so they could look into it. Less than two hours later, Andreis received word that a refund had been issued. She is relieved but frustrated with how the company handled things.

“I’m just glad that they did the right thing. … Hopefully issues in the future are handled a lot better. Just kept getting the runaround and unfortunately I had to reach out just to make my voice heard to get someone to take care of it,” Andreis said.

Even though the Andreis are going to miss out on seeing Jelly Roll for a third time together, they’ve decided to donate their refunded money to help Hurricane Helene victims.

KDKA-TV is waiting for Ticketmaster to explain how concert seats can be changed like that and what the production changes were.

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