NBA Experiences

NBA Experiences is not the NBA itself but another company that works with numerous licensors to provide a VIP level experience for immensely popular events. I'll provide more detail on my story below, but I first want to share three very important takeaways from my extremely frustrating experience with them, which left me without $700 and several weeks of really terrible customer service that culminated on my actual birthday morning. To summarize, they claimed that workers with NBA Experience badges and apparel on at the NBA Experience front desks at the main experience hub were not actual employees and could not make refund promises (even though they did), so my refund request was invalid despite me completely changing my Sunday plans.

1.) Their customer experience team consists of just one person responding back to calls and voicemails. Every phone call I made to NBA Experiences was always to the same person, even after they required me to leave a voicemail. The return caller was always named Kalah, which was frustrating because 5-6 phone calls spanning two weeks resulted from this lack of resources.

2.) There are extremely high prices, with no benefit to early birds. Prices for all types of events, notably NBA Experience ones, were extremely pricey when they were first presented to me, an NBA season ticket holder, but they got rapidly cheaper (about 50-60% cheaper) as the end date neared. People might think they're saving a lot by purchasing a package early, just like it's mostly the case for Ticketmaster, but that is incorrect. Although I would not recommend NBA Experiences at all for any purchase, note that buying extremely late is the best way to save money because the experiences don't have seat assignments or priority for getting them early. There's also no price protection, making the most hardcore fans pay way more than those who decide to go a few days prior.

3.) The business shows dishonesty, and a lack of transparency and responsibility. This was the most frustrating part of my experience with them. I paid NBA Experiences over $700 for an NBA Champions Club experience. Unfortunately, due to a flight cancellation, this experience was no longer possible to be redeemed and I contacted NBA Experiences weeks in advance about it. Despite 5-6 calls, a couple of emails, and several voicemails, I received no response. I took matters into my own hands and reported the issues in-person to an NBA Experiences desk the day before my experience, explaining my guest could no longer make it and asked if they would provide a full or partial refund for the $700. They verbally agreed to the full refund and told me that I would receive an email about the situation.

Fast forward to the next day where I hadn't received any sort of email. I called NBA Experiences guest services and the same rep, Kalah, picked up, explaining she would investigate the situation. This was while my actual experience was happening, which was a two-hour timed event. I had already made other plans because of the refund promise and I could not leave my two young kids (6 and 4) by themselves, and even if I wanted to, there was no re-entry at the NBA convention we were at.

Guest services explained I needed to wait for a decision, never mentioned it was 100% certain it wouldn't be refunded, and allowed my event time (and the $700 we paid) to expire that afternoon just before the NBA All Star Game. Fast forward to my actual birthday morning on February 18, guest services had the nerve to finally get back to me and let me know a refund would not be honored because the NBA Experience workers I had talked to were actually contractors and had no authority to make any refund decisions. How was I supposed to know that? Why did all of these calls, emails, and work happen, allowing this event (and my $700 paid) to expire without NBA Experiences taking full ownership of the confusion of the situation over who they hired? This is simply unacceptable and shows no transparency or responsibility for the situation.

Had the NBA Experiences reps on-site told me something else, I could have found an additional way to make the most of the event I paid for and better planned out my birthday. Instead, I was left with a $700 charge where I did not get what I paid for and I was led to believe that a refund had been done.

I have since sent NBA Experiences photos of the actual NBA Experience workers who clearly told me the wrong information and they remain steadfast in saying that they were not authorized to make that decision, despite working at the official NBA Experience customer service desk at the front of the event experience space.

I am extremely angry at the way I have been treated and misled here and will be pursuing further options to ensure every potential customer understands this is how they really operate. No customer, much less on their actual birthday, should be treated like this even after spending thousands of dollars with them. I will be pursuing further actions with my attorney to ensure I can get back the money that should have been refunded to me properly and as promised by the NBA Experience team on-site.