The Bruery Customer Service :(

What a dumbass.

 

Wow, they must be really hurting for cash if they can't do the right thing and make an exception here, that's pretty crummy.

Also, looking at the email I received:

"Reserve and Hoarders Society members who have attended all Society Member Monday events through 10/2/2017 (and have eight stamps in their member passport) will receive early entry for themselves and their guests. Ticket purchase required. All guests must checkin together. Those who qualify will receive confimation emails in advance of the event.

GET TICKETS TODAY!
While you're allocated tickets to both sessions in your allocations, please only purchase tickets to one session. Tickets are available first-come, first-served - limit 4 per Hoarders Society member and 2 per Reserve Society member ($74.99, discount already included). "

It's not really clear, only early access states that all guests must check in together. I'd call VISA and ask about initiating a dispute on the charge.

 

The Anniversary Parties have always been the same way. Your guests have to check in with the member. We'll see if that changes this year with the being able to share your discount and privileges with named persons attached to the membership, but it's always been the same drill up until this point.

 

If that's the copy on the email, it does not make it explicitly clear that members need to attend with guests. Maybe there is additional messaging along those lines somewhere before purchasing? Or most of you are familiar with this policy from previous events? If this is the first time for someone out of town, it seems shitty that the Bruery wouldn't make any effort to make their customer feel better about this transaction. But they have a history of poor customer service -- look at how cavalier they were about the contaminated early batches of their Offshoot beers.

 

I missed this, what were they contaminated with?

 

I don't think they were "contaminated" with anything. They just weren't very good to start and I think it was mentioned that they had fairly high levels of dissolved oxygen that gave the beers some off-putting vegetal qualities in addition to the lackluster beer itself.

 

Definitely call your credit card company.

 

I guarantee that the purchase details on the website stated that the member needed to be present. That has always been the case.

 

@BruerJoel

 

There's nothing to do right now. They said that towards the end of this year they'll e-mail everyone and ask for names we want to include. Then those people get to be hoarders in the taproom (society discount & pours).

 

Whether or not there is an explicit statement about it, it is, or should be common sense that you cannot purchase something with a specialty discount or a membership that is meant for you only and then just let anybody have it. Not in the way of an event anyway. Most beer releases are non transferable as well as concerts or tickets to a venue. There are some that are if it's a public release or available to everyone but anything that is specially set up for a limited group only is rarely ever going to be available for anybody not in that group.

 

Most beer releases are non-transferable? What's the difference between transferring and designating a proxy or trustee?

Anyway, I don't know much about the event. Is it billed as a 'member's only event'? I would say he's SOL then. But if I were to purchase "American Express Member Only' tickets and then transfer or give them to someone else, I'd say that's within my rights.

 

Contracts, terms of service, and other such explicit statements exist solely for the purpose of outlining what a vendor will and will not allow. There's no need to even argue what should or should not be common sense for tickets to a beer event, either the Bruery clearly spelled it out at some point during the purchase process - in which case they're well within their rights to tell BBA to go piss up a rope - or they didn't, and BBA can file a dispute with his card provider, the Bruery won't be able to mount a valid defense, and BBA will end up with a refund.

Then again, if BBA disputes the charge, The Bruery is also within their rights to tell BBA he's no longer a Hoarders member, refund him for a prorated portion of the yearly fee, and be done with him completely.

 

Presence........!

 

Honestly, fuck that. All of these breweries refusing reasonable refunds (i.e. several days before an event refusing to offer a simple chargeback) are likely breaking the law, getting away with it because it would cost more to fight it than it is to just swallow the bitter pill.

At the very least, that's incredibly shitty customer service for an honest mistake discovered well in advance for it not to not be an inconvenience to set right.

There's no moral or ethical way The Bruery is in the right, here, and it's certainly not a physical impossibility for them to take care of the situation.

 

Maybe I'm in the wrong here but I've never heard of a concert venue or sporting event where I can return the ticket for a full refund if I can't make it. This happens with all sorts of events every single day. Sure, can the Bruery be a little more lenient? Yeah. Is it shitty customer service to deny it if it was in writing? Absolutely not.