Using Your Actual Name Is The Ticket

(I work in a local theatre that has a lot of repeat customers. We keep their information on file for future bookings and our system prints their tickets with the last name we have on file. As such, we get a lot of people who get confused about which name the tickets are under if they’ve since changed their name or booked under a larger group. One night, a group comes up to the box office looking mightily pissed off and dragging our house manager behind them.)

House Manager: “Can you help find these people’s tickets? They aren’t at the theatre doors.”

Me: *to guest* “Okay, what last name were they booked under?”

Guest #1: “Yeah, we’ve already been up there and they didn’t have our tickets.”

Me: “I understand, ma’am, but which last name were they booked under? Or were they booked under a larger group?”

Guest #2: “No way. I already paid for my tickets and they should be under my name.”

Me: “So you made the reservation?”

Guest #1: “No, I did.”

Me: “All right, so what’s your last name?”

Guest #1: “It’s probably under [Last Name #1] or [Last Name #2].”

Me: “Did you try both those last names at the theatre doors already?”

Guest #1: “I told you; they didn’t have our tickets!”

(I look through our system, but as both last name are extremely common, I get too many results to narrow it down.)

Me: “What was the first name?”

Guest #2: “Mine or hers?”

Me: “The full name the tickets would’ve been booked under.”

Guest #1: “[First Name] [Last Name #1].”

(I look through the system and find the proper amount of tickets under that name with an icon saying they’ve already been printed.)

Me: “Okay, so the tickets have already been printed and they should be waiting at the theatre doors.”

Guest #1: “We already tried that! They didn’t have our tickets!”

Me: “Did you try both last names, [Last Name #1] and [Last Name #2]? They should be under the last name, [Last Name #1].”

Guest #1: “You go over there and ask; we’ve already been!”

Guest #2: “Fine, I’ll go check!”

([Guest #1] stayed behind to fume while [Guest #2] went to ask at the doors. Not ten seconds later, she called over that they had the tickets under [Last Name #1]. [Guest #1] stormed off in a huff back to the doors without another word. Guess they didn’t think to try their own last name.)