MARQUETTE, MI-- The co-founder of an events tickets website is making his apologies—and presumably bought a lot of beer—after the Upper Peninsula was left off a map, then insulted.
New York-based TickPick, touted as an alternative to StubHub, included only lower Michigan on an interactive map where users could select events near them. When a U.P. resident pointed it out on the company’s Facebook page, TickPick responded by saying, “We got the important part of Michigan, isn't that good enough?"
That, naturally, riled several Yoopers’ SISU and prompted immediate action. Several Facebook users expressed their displeasure at being ignored and took TickPick to task in posts. The company responded again with “We’re sure the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a lovely place to live, and I assure you we didn’t intentionally leave it off the map. But seriously, it’s just a bunch of forests…”
Yoopers responded by giving TickPick one-star reviews, bringing it down from more than four stars to 1.8 in a matter of hours.
Brett Goldberg, TickPick co-founder and co-CEO, later issued a lengthy apology on the company’s Facebook page. He said the map would be fixed, he would hold a company-wide meeting to make sure such a situation never happens again, and he was giving U.P. residents a 10-percent off code, “YOOPERS.” Goldberg also said he was going to take a trip to Marquette Tuesday and meet with the public at the Blackrocks Brewery sometime after 7 p.m. The beer, he said, was on him.
There’s no word yet on how many people took him up on his offer.
