Pittsburgh Penguins

Review: Pittsburgh Penguins organization has ignored my complaint about the locations of my seats at Consol Energy since they moved to Mellon Arena in 2011.Our Full Season seats at Mellon Arena were in Section * the last row in Seats numbered 3, 4, 5 and 6. Although the number started with number 3 they were isle seats. They were numbered incorrectly due to the curve of the arena. When they were assigning seats, I called the Penguins organization several times to confirm that these were isle seats to ensure that the new seats would be isle seats. I called every two weeks as this was explained to me to be the schedule they were using to assign seats. No one called me back, I had to call them. Each off season, I went through the process for requesting seat re-assignment in my Section for which I pay a premium. They claimed that they would put a note about my request in case future tickets became available. I have no evidence of this and no one ever contacted me with an offer. I consistently called over the years with no assistance. In year three, they offered me seats in a different Section that was not the Premium seating. This was not the product I had paid and I did not consider it an even exchange.Earlier this year, I learned that the seats next to ours, on the isle became available and another season ticket holder switch to those tickets. Apparently the note meant nothing. After years of frustration, I am forced to submit my complaint in a more formal manner.Desired Settlement: Isle seats in my Premium Section

Business

Response:

In response to this complaint, we understand that we were unable to keep all season ticket holders that previously occupied an aisle seat in Mellon Arena on an aisle seat location in CONSOL Energy Center. Due to larger sections in CONSOL Energy Center, we have fewer aisle seats and unfortunately could not accommodate everyone. In the locations that did not have enough aisles, we assigned aisle seats based off of seniority. Although they were displaced from an aisle, we kept them near an aisle by placing them only two seats over in the double attack end zone. Since then, we have offered them aisle seats in other areas to attempt to accommodate their request, but they have declined.

Last summer we partnered with a company called [redacted] who enabled us to move our season ticket holder relocation process online. This allowed Season Ticket Holders to see ALL of our available inventory in real time. Previously, if you submitted a request to relocate, we would only contact you if we found something similar to what you had requested. Therefore, this process is much more transparent for our Season Ticket Holders and allows them the flexibility to choose their own seats. We were excited to offer this new benefit to them. Prior to us starting this process, we sent a detailed letter to all Season Ticket Holders explaining how the process would work. In the letter we explained that even if you had previously submitted a request to move your seats, we encouraged you to login and view available inventory, as new locations would continuously open based on other season ticket holder relocations. I have attached the letter we sent to all Season Ticket Holders. We tried to stress, as one ticket holder moves their seats to a new location, their old seats immediately become available for everyone else to see. Because of this, we allowed season ticket holders to log in as many times as they’d like until the deadline. We received several positive comments on this new process and will continue offering this tool during each off-season. We understand it is still a new product, so we are always happy to assist season ticket holders to ensure they can find the best available seats.

Director of Ticket Sales

Pittsburgh Penguins