Action 13 gets assurance of refund for Houston woman out nearly $1,100 for Rodeo online ticket snafu

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Action 13 stepped in to help get fast results on Friday for Houston resident Angelica Ortega. Ortega contacted the ABC13 newsroom late Thursday night, saying she had been charged more than $1,000 in two different failed attempts to buy tickets to the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo's Bun B concert.

After completing the purchases, Ortega says she only got error messages, and no email about tickets. But on Wednesday, she saw her bank account had been charged for the two different purchases - totaling almost $1,100. Ortega says she reached out to the Rodeo ticketing department but was told she needed to contact AXS, who the rodeo uses as its ticket vendor. She says the company advised her that if the tickets didn't come through, she could be eligible for a refund in 14 days with email proof of purchase.

But Ortega never received an email to begin with.

"And then I reached out to (ABC13). Because this was a horrible feeling. I'm a single mom. And if this can happen to me, it can happen to anybody," Ortega said.

ABC13's Jonathan Bruce worked to verify Angelica's information and then worked the phones with the rodeo to get to the bottom of the situation. After multiple emails and phone calls, a rodeo spokesperson informed ABC13 that they had worked with AXS to identify a 'short-lived glitch' that had caused the problems for Ortega, and that the company would contact her and issue an immediate refund.

"It feels good to finally get something back from AXS, because I had been getting the run-around. So it feels good, knowing they had charged double and then not receiving a ticket. It was a horrible feeling," Ortega said.

Ortega says she was told by the ticketing department that others had experienced the issue and that the rodeo had been aware of the problem. ABC13 could not confirm that information, and a rodeo spokesperson says the organization is not aware of any other reported problems.

For updates on this story, follow Jonathan Bruce on Facebook, X and Instagram.