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Monday, October 8, 2012

Forgiving Michael Jackson

  
In 1984 Michael Jackson was flying high with Thriller, voted the most influential pop music video ever. I was managing a jewelry store in Oregon at the time and Jackie, one of my employees, approached to ask for a few days off.
      
“Why?” I asked.
     
 Jackie was one of my best salespeople when she wasn’t attending classes at the local college. She seldom asked for time off. “I want to buy tickets for the Michael Jackson Concert at the Tacoma Dome up near Seattle. The concert is in a few months and tickets go on sale in two days. I plan to camp on the sidewalk in front of Ticketmaster to have a crack at choice seats.”
      
Here was the solution to a problem I’d been struggling with; what to give Mrs. Chatterbox for her upcoming birthday. Mrs. C. was a big fan of the King of Pop. “Sure, I’ll give you time off,” I told Jackie. “And while you’re at it, pick up two tickets for me.”
      
Tickets were $35.00 and I handed over $70.00. Birthday problem solved. Two days later Jackie entered the store, dirty and disheveled but smiling. She handed over two tickets, dated the night before Halloween. “These are worth much more than you paid so be careful with them,” she said. “Scalpers will be selling them outside the gate on concert night for hundreds of dollars."
      
Two months later Mrs. C. was ecstatic when she opened her birthday card and the tickets dropped out. Her birthday was October 22nd and that left a week for the excitement to build. The day before the concert she was delirious with anticipation. An hour before my shift ended, Jackie approached the counter where I was polishing jewelry. She looked upset; her bottom lip was sticking out and her eyes were damp. “A friend just called to give me the bad news. Michael Jackson cancelled tomorrow night’s concert. He has a sore throat.”
     
 “Will the concert be rescheduled for ticket holders?” I asked.
      
“No. But Ticketmaster will refund the face value of the tickets,” she explained. “Damn! This is the second time Michael Jackson has cancelled on me.”
      
I wasn’t looking forward to telling Mrs. C. about the cancellation, but a fellow had entered the store and taken a seat in front of the diamond engagement rings. I set personal business aside to earn my salary.
     
 An hour later I was wrapping up a thirty-six hundred dollar sale. The commission I was about to receive almost made up for the sting of the concert cancellation. When I asked the young man if he’d like to open an account to finance the ring he smiled and shook his head. “I have an interesting way to pay for this ring,” he said. “Three weeks ago I bought ten tickets from scalpers for tomorrow night’s Michael Jackson concert. I’ll make a killing selling these outside the gate tomorrow night. Hold onto the ring and I’ll be back with cash after the concert.”
      
He looked pleased with himself; I hated to break the news. “So you haven’t heard?”
      
His eyes widened. “Heard what?”
     
 “Jackson has a sore throat. He cancelled the concert.”
      
He let out a long moan. “Shiiiiiiiiit! What about refunds?”
      
“Ticketmaster will refund the face value.”
      
“But I didn’t pay face value. I paid scalpers a hundred bucks apiece for ten tickets.”
      
I didn’t know what to say.
      
He took a last look at the sparkling diamond in his hand before returning it to me. “Can’t afford this now,” he said.
      
He stood and walked out the door, taking my fat commission with him.
      
Mrs. C. was quite understanding about the cancellation. I tried to make it up to her with my employee discount and bought her a piece of jewelry. We never did see Michael Jackson perform live and I’ve held a grudge against him since 1984.
      
I guess it’s time to say: I forgive you, Michael. 

Submitted to my friends at Dude Write.

35 comments:

  1. That always stinks when an artist cancels and doesn't reschedule. That would especially be bad if you camped out for 2 days! There's one artist who canceled mostly because they played in that "Live 8" or whatever it was a few years ago in the UK and just didn't feel like coming back to Michigan to fulfill their obligation people had paid for. Needless to say I am not buying tickets for them ever again.

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  2. Memory lane for me. The guy who was trying to sell us on our first VCR used Thriller to convince us of the purchase. We didn't buy from him, but we did buy. Now VCRs are long since obsolete, and my kids have bought a Blueray player for 50 bucks! It connects to the internet too.

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  3. karma is a biach .. see the true moral is never buy from a scalper

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  4. Tell your wife I saw Michael during his Bad tour and he was amazing. Okay don't tell her that. :D

    So it's not just Usher that cancels tours then? ;)

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  5. It could have been worse, he could have died, thus ending any chance of you ever witnessing the King of Pop at his prime...

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  6. Well if you didn't have bad luck you'd have no luck at all. I know you take literary license with your posts, but I've a feeling that much of your posts are true. Excellent reading too.

    Have a terrific day. :)

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  7. Forgiveness is Devine and at least you got your money back. $35 for tickets back then huh? It's amazing the inflation...not to mention the fees.

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  8. That sucks but I'm glad Mrs C didn't take it too badly.

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  9. Damn... That would've been an awesome concert. Great story!

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  10. Ooh! That must have hurt, all that anticipation both with Michael and the sale!

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  11. Ack! That would have been a hard pill to swallow, but forgiveness at this point sounds like a good move ;)

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  12. That's too back about the cancellation but clearly it could have been worse as demonstrated by the guy that had 10 over-priced tickets. Surely, the jewelry made up in part for Mrs. Chatterbox's disappointment.

    I never saw Michael Jackson in person but I did buy two limited release Thriller albums that I never opened. I sold them right after Michael died and got more than I paid for them.

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  13. Waiting two days for concert tickets? I guess you have to be a real fan. I usually check to see if thee are any 'house' tickets available an hour or so before a show. Same price..best seats in the theatre. Of course sometimes even 'house' tickets are sold...but to me the chance is worth not waiting in long lines.

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  14. It's good that you can lt these things go, no matter how fresh the wounds are ;P

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  15. Back in Indiana we might say that sounds like a Vonnegut moment. Great story.

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  16. File this under not counting chickens before they hatch.

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  17. What a terrific anecdote. I wasn't sure how it was going to end, but throwing in the customer made the whole tale worthwhile. I am so sorry about the disappointment. I was getting ready to be really jealous.

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  18. I know how you feel. I once had a calculus exam canceled. Wait . . . not exactly the same thing.

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  19. Cool story Stephen, I know Mrs C. was disappointed but you have to feel a little bad for the guy buying from the scalpers hoping to turn a buck, did he have SUCKER written on his forehead?

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  20. Not quite Michael Jackson, but my son was upset when Wynonna Judd canceled a concert at a civic center near our little podunk town. He was eight at the time. I THINK he wanted to go because of her music. She sang Burnin' Love on the Lilo and Stitch Soundtrack, you know.

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  21. Well told story! Funny how a string of events will link to each other.

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  22. I've never forgiven Nathan Lane. We had tickets to one of his final performances in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. He called in sick about 30 minutes before showtime. I wrote a letter to him that included The Hurricane's comment. She was seven years old and she said Nathan Lane was too low to kiss her ass. Nathan Lane did not reply.

    Love,
    Janie

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  23. forgiveness is good, worth more than a sale.

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  24. Remember when he dangled his kid over the balcony for the amusement of the crowd. Well, he's dead now.

    During Michael's BAD tour, he cancelled his show in St.Louis the day of because of a sore throat. He rescheduled for the next night and then cancelled again.

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  25. and the best bit is that thanks to you paying nice and early and the money sitting in his account - he still made money even though you got a refund.

    I don't go to many concerts these days as the cost of admission has skyrocketed from what used to be £10-30 to in the £100s - pricing me out of the market i'm afraid

    I was never much of a fan of Jackson, but i can't help but think he was sending us a message with his album titles "Bad", "Dangerous" and "Off The Wall"......

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  26. Ouch. I have to say that if Michael were still alive and were to give one last concert, I would do almost anything to get tickets to it. He left us too soon. I miss him.

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  27. You're a bigger MAN by forgiving. Besides, all that negative karma could have affected your health.

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  28. That would have been an awesome concert but I really like his newer stuff too, so I would have like to have gone to his History tour.

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  29. So glad you were the honest salesman that poor guy came upon. Imagine his misery if he hadn't met you before buying that ring!

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  30. Sucks! It's always worse when you have time to build up anticipation. Very generous of you to forgive Michael. I'm sure he's a relieved man in Heaven. Or a secret underground bunker somewhere in the middle of the Pacific, depending on what conspiracy theories you believe.

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  31. Wow, that sucks. I guess be grateful that you weren't that other guy. Poor Mrs. C.

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  32. Oh, that's a bummer! At least you had already given your wife the tickets before you found out it had been canceled. You got to be a hero twice...first with the tickets and then with jewelry.

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  33. Sorry about your concert disappointment, but so good to hear a tout get fleeced!

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  34. While we used to attend a few concerts, we seem to have lost a lot of our interest in seeing live shows these days. Some of those events are just so damned loud!

    .......I may have just turned into my dad?

    Also, we're fortunate enough to have season tickets to our local football team. (it's the CFL, it's pretty affordable.) There's always scalpers selling tickets on our way to the stadium yet I rarely see people buying from them. I always wonder who much they make not selling tickets?

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  35. Ouch, that was so unfortunate that I felt the pain from that short exchange of words. Ah, I used to be creepily obsessed with Michael Jackson when I was younger. My friend and I would watch the music videos on a VHS for hours. It was kind of sad and incredibly creepy.

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