The good news came around 5 p.m., but it left questions: Do we buy the same seats for all potential games in one click, or buy a game at a time? The e-mail said “no refunds,” but surely if I bought tickets to a Game 5 that didn’t happen, I’d get my money back, right?
The questions wouldn’t have been as pressing if not for the note that said my online password would work only one time, leaving no room for error. Call No. 2 to the operator resolved “different seats for each game” and “yes, you’d get your money back.”
I hit the button at precisely 9 a.m. and sat in the “virtual waiting room” for 14 minutes. From 9:14 until 9:33, I hit “submit” for different types of ticket orders about 150 times, and got 150 error messages citing “high transaction volumes.”
That led to call No. 3. The operator said the Reds were getting a ton of calls just like mine, and urged me to keep trying.
Then at 9:33, the floodgates opened, and I got tickets to all three potential games in three clicks. By then the best seats were gone, but for my first in-person Reds playoff games in 20 years, I’ll take it.
Now let’s just clinch that playoff berth.
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