Concert Tickets Nearly Skip Town

Though they might be closer to the Bob Dylan generation, parents of Harvard students were never meant to get tickets to Sunday’s concert by the folk legend.

The concert is open only to Harvard students and affiliates, but confusion about where tickets for the event would be mailed nearly landed about 100 in the laps of aging baby boomers.

The matter is being resolved promptly, according to representatives of the Harvard Box Office and Harvard Concert Commission.

The complication began with errors in online ordering and affected students with credit cards from out-of-state banks. Because the ticket order form only allowed space for the billing addresses of credit cards, not buyers’ mailing addresses, some tickets were designated to be mailed to addresses outside of the state rather than to Harvard mailboxes.

Some students figured out the problem on their own.

“I called immediately and asked to change my address,” said Victor D. Ban ’05.

But the box office also took measures to prevent tickets from flying home before students do.

“We realized the error, so it was only a handful of students that were affected,” said Tina Smith, manager of the Harvard Box Office. “Tickets are now being held at the box office.”

“We did make an effort to contact a number of students,” she said.

By evening the issue was straightened out, according to Harvard Concert Commission Chair Justin Haan ’05, who said “all students have been spoken to directly, or a message has been left notifying them.”

Haan estimated that fewer than one in 40 ticket-buying students were affected by the confusion.

“I’m not entirely sure where to get my tickets,” said Anjali Lohani ’08. “When I bought tickets online before I was told to pick them up at the venue itself so that’s what I’m assuming.”

“I was called and asked if I really wanted to have my tickets sent to my home in New Jersey,” said Lewis Z. Liu ’08. “I said no, so they mailed them to my Harvard mailbox.”

It’s Harvard Box Office policy to send tickets to the billing address of the credit card as a means of preventing fraud, Smith said.

Smith also said that alternate addresses have not been a problem in the past because student tickets sold online are generally held at the box office rather than mailed.

Although the event at the Gordon Track and Tennis Center is sold out, a limited number of tickets will be released for sale at the Bright Hockey Center box office beginning at 5 p.m. Sunday. The available tickets were originally held to avoid overselling the event.

Students who ordered tickets online may pick them up at the Harvard Box Office or have them reprinted if necessary. Tickets will also be available at the box office of the Bright Hockey Center Sunday night.