CoSport Olympic Ticket Pick-Up Hassle
Saturday marked the beginning of the last stage of ticket pick-ups for the Olympics. This is for tickets bought through the official American channel, Co-Sport. All I have to say is that picking up at the Bank of China was 1000 times easier. That’s right, the Chinese outlet was far superior to the foreign one.
At Bank of China, the people were friendly, logical and helpful. Everything I’ve come to expect from the Chinese service sector (except the exact opposite). It was such a pleasant experience that I whistled the rest of the day. Well, I was happy anyway. The CoSport pick-up, which was in the hideously poorly designed Jianwai SoHo (I’m still waiting for a well-designed Beijing SoHo facility), was completely infuriating.
The Australian guy out front asked for the e-mail that I was sent. I gave him the order number and my passport. He informed me that I needed to give him the e-mail itself. I informed him that an e-mail is an electronic piece of information that cannot be handed over. He was not amused.
It was in the 90s (Celsius that’s, um, hot) Saturday and extremely humid, which was putting me in a bad mood to begin with. I had just biked about three miles through the thick smog that will doom the Games (for the sole purpose of trying to cut back smog emissions) and was looking forward to picking up my beautiful tickets.
Then I met this irritating fellow. I asked him what information was in the e-mail that I had not written down on the piece of paper in my hand. Indignantly, he asked me, “Now how can we possibly confirm that you are the right person without the e-mail?”
I explained the magic of matching my order number with the order number in their computers, which undoubtedly would have a name that matched mine and the passport that I was holding. In other words, the e-mail would have exactly the same information I was giving him, which could be verified instantaneously. It was a process so difficult that the Bank of China people were able to complete the entire process in about 150 seconds.
Not so for my Australian friend, who insisted that these procedures I suggested were impossibly confusing. At that point I asked, “Can’t you just verify this all on the computer inside? You do have computers in there, don’t you?”
I suspected that my sarcasm was beginning to come through, as he wasn’t actually the dumbest man in the world. At this point I began to yell at him. It seemed like the most dignified thing I could think of. The 12-year old guard started to look really nervous at he had no idea what I was saying, but was quite certain that I was mad. I could see that this useless bureaucrat was not the type of go-getting problem solvers they have at Bank of China.
As I walked away I loudly yelled an expletive followed by the word “idiot,” which I might have regretted except that he threatened to “cancel my tickets,” which made it all worth while and confirmed my belief that those who have no power, threaten to use tiny amounts of power that they clearly don’t have. You know what, thinking about that guy makes me so mad that I’m going to repeat my insult. Australian guy in the blue shirt in front of the CoSport office in Jianwai SoHo: you are an [expletive] idiot. And you will have to live with the fact that my entire readership (thanks mom!) knows it!
So I hopped in a cab (yes, blame me for the pollution) and headed back home, printed out the e-mail, which was identical to what I wrote down and could have been forged in 20 seconds and returned (by cab) to the hideous Jianwai SoHo complex. Time lost: one hour.
Upon return the Australian guy condescendingly asked if, “everything was in order now.” At which point I took out an iron pipe and went Tonya Harding on him. The Olympics baby! Of course, in reality I just gave him stink eye and went inside where I very nice woman helped me. I suspect she was from Bank of China.
Cup of Cha would like to thank new sponsor Bank of China for inspiration. Or should I say “highly logical potential partner”?
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L responds:
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 8:46 am →
I totally disagree… I went and picked up my tickets this weekend from there and the whole process took ten minutes. I was even missing one of the Proxy forms because I was not the original purchaser and the woman (not the guy so perhaps he was the actual problem) informed me that I didn’t need to go back to get it because the other papers had just repeated th same information (of course the logical answer). I left thinking how much easier this was than dealing with the overly confuse people at the bank of China.
Amy responds:
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 11:10 am →
I’m sorry you had a terrible experience with CoSport and obviously you are certainly not a man of good temper.
Well, sometimes an email is an email. Didn’t they specify that you need to print the email and bring it with you when picking up the tickets? Hey man, don’t always try to walk over the rule/regulation…
Josh responds:
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 12:20 pm →
@Amy,
Didn’t I just change the settings on my site for you? Thanks for stabbing me in the back!
Just kidding, but what I seriously don’t like is dumb rules based on no logic or unfriendly people who don’t like taking my money happily. What information was in the e-mail that I didn’t provide? No one even looked at the e-mail when I brought it!
DamnFoolMonkey responds:
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 1:42 pm →
Couldn’t you just have opened the email on your phone and showed them that? Or did they insist on the actual physical piece of paper?
Nick responds:
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 8:36 pm →
I would have reacted exactly the same way. I’m glad airline check in staff aren’t this retarded.
chriswaugh_bj responds:
Posted: July 29th, 2008 at 11:06 am →
You didn’t demand to see his manager? I hope you at least told somebody more senior what that idiot was doing to damage their business.
Gabriel responds:
Posted: August 3rd, 2008 at 9:30 am →
I think Bank of China was much worse. I was one of those people that filled in my online ticketing account as required with my first and last name (no space for middle name, nor did they ask for it). When I went to the BoC they refused to give me my tickets since my passport had my middle name but the ticketing account didn’t. It didn’t matter that the name and the passport number was exactly the same. Eventually I went home and called the ticketing hotline directly. They told me to go back the next day and when I did, it seemed like a whole bunch of foreigners were in the same boat. I got the tickets.
At least with CoSport they do specify in the e-mail that the purchase confirmation is needed. I probably wouldn’t have brought it either, but 3 seconds ago I found the confirmation e-mail and printed it out. Thanks Josh.
Vince responds:
Posted: August 9th, 2008 at 1:47 am →
Josh,
You sound like a whiney little Bi^ch. You’re lucky someone didn’t pick you up by the nape of your scrawny little neck a throw your a$$ to the curb (after smacking you around a little first). Have a little understanding and compassion for these people at this company…they have to deal with F***ing idiots like you on a daily basis (enough to drive a saint to drink).
Love your blog site. What’s your real job?
Sephoraqueen responds:
Posted: August 26th, 2008 at 9:28 am →
Re: Cosport.
I atteneded the olympics via an att sponsored event. So cosport provided as hospitality and tour guides. I felt they were not attentive, def not conciderate of the older guest and those with health conditions. It was a lot of walking involved, and some of the older guest fell behind and were lost. I noticed the cosport employees busy on their cells, or trying to trade even tickets, or just to busy to be bothered with their jobs. i was very disapoointed.
Now on to Bank of china. i wanted to make a simple currancy excahnge and not from a atm. i was rudely told by 3 dif branches to go to the next bank of china before someone actually helped me.
Chris responds:
Posted: September 17th, 2008 at 4:59 pm →
I was with a collegue working in Beijing for 3 weeks during the Olympics, we wanted to go and see just one event at the Birds Nest. It turned out that Cosport were the best (and probably only) option for last minute tickets. After quite a bit of hassle on their internet site which said nothing was available I gave them a call, they said that a block of tickets will be launched shortly and to just keep trying. About 2 hours later I had a quick surf on their site and low and behold tickets were available (although only the most expensive). They charged around US$ 177.00 each (with a face valie of RMB 800), plus a booking fee of US$ 30.00. This, I thought, was just a crazy mark-up on the currency, but was still much better than the black market. There were many ticket touts in Beijing, which may account for all the reports of empty seats at many of the venues. Like you I had no access to a printer for the confirmation, but I did have the confirmation e-mail on my BlackBerry. The process of pick-up was painless. The office was not busy (only one other customer) and the Chinese staff were exemplary, very polite and they took the time to show me a map of the Stadium so I knew which gate to go through to get to my seats.
Morgan responds:
Posted: September 18th, 2008 at 3:42 am →
HA! Awesome blog, dude. I was in tears for the entire games because I couldn’t go (i had planned on it for the past two years, but my plans fell apart). I just got the bright idea to read blogs about peoples’ experiences at the games and came across yours (I’m also enjoying the rest of your blog, i was just looking for this sort of stuff especially). Totally made my day. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over having missed out. Thanks for making me feel like i have my own little memory of Beijing.