A Los Angeles Times writer has taken the Angels to the proverbial woodshed over what he deems "bad customer service." The columnist, Michael Hiltzik, comes out swinging from the get-go, opening with:
It's sad indeed when a respectable business organization gets so puffed up by its own reputation that it decides there's no downside to treating its customers like chumps.
The issue at hand involves ticket packages for the upcoming Angels season. Hiltzik reports that the Angels told fans with ticket vouchers to start showing up for their tickets last Tuesday morning. By 5:30 p.m., when the ticket office closed, he said that "no more than a few hundred" of the "1,000 to 2,000" people that had been there since 9 a.m. got their tickets. Evidently only seven of the 14 ticket windows were staffed and things moved at a snail's pace.

And it gets worse. Check out what Hiltzik says happened to his wife:
On Tuesday my wife spent three hours at the park trying to redeem a set of vouchers we received for Christmas. At noon she was told there was no chance she'd get tickets that day and was given a yellow wristband to save her place in line for Wednesday. She returned first thing the next morning and finally got served that afternoon, after waiting in line an additional six hours. And her experience was by no means unusual.
When the Hiltziks complained to the Angels' front office, they were reportedly met with indifference. And it turns out what was taking so long was that fans at the front of the line were choosing their seats for the season. The only way to do so was to show up in person at the ticket office and then try to find the seats you want. It does seem pretty reasonable to expect a better way to do this -- via Internet or at least phone -- rather than waste an entire day of someone's time.

It's entirely possible this is just a case of poor planning and execution, but Hiltzik spins it as organizational arrogance. And he makes at least a mildly good case (seriously, it's worth reading the entire column).

Hopefully this was an isolated incident and clubs don't start forgetting to take great care of their paying customers. The game doesn't exist without fans.