An Open Letter to Pearl Jam
Guys,
I have been a fan of this band for over 20 years now. I've seen about 35 shows on 3 different continents and all across the US. I've always felt the band really had the fans' best interest at heart-until now. I've only become a fan club member in the last 2 years so, before that I had never experienced how you sell tickets to fan club members (thank god for that). My first experience was in 2010 and it was an utter shit show. After you pissed off nearly every member, you finally got Ticketmaster to step in and do a proper pre-sale. And guess what? It worked.
Fast forward to 5 days ago. First of all, as you all are aware, many fans go to international shows (and spend a fuckload of money doing it). To announce a European tour with 5 days notice is rubbish. To not announce a US tour (that will likely be happening next year also) simultaneously, thus allowing people to choose what shows to go to armed with all the facts is spitting in our face.
And then today. After assuring many friends that 10 club appeared to have worked out many of the bugs, switched to a different vendor, etc., not only do I now look like a fool, but I'm a fool without tickets as well. Why in the hell would you use a small vendor (AGAIN) and set the presales to start simultaneously??????? Are you fucking kidding me??? Guys, it doesn't take a rocket science to figure out that, after seeing the entire system crash time and time again that you need to use a more capable vendor-even if it is Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster's not losing in any of this; your fans are. Not only do we go see multiple shows year after year (making you all richer than you ever thought you'd be in your wildest dreams), WE PAY FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF GETTING SHIT ON. That's right. You heard me correctly. Everyone knows that the reason you pay for the membership is to get access to the presales. So to then give some microscopic company the job of selling tickets to MILLIONS of fans all over the world is just idiocy. You 5 have all the power. You could change it. You're aware of the problem. Yet it's like this every time.
Now to the fans. Pearl Jam is a business like any other business. It's time to hit them where it hurts-their pockets. At this point, the only thing that is going to get the band's attention is apparently the only thing they care about-money. When revenue decreases they WILL fix the problem. Does anyone know why? Because it's totally fixable!! This isn't even a tough problem. Ticketmaster does things like this nearly every day of the week with it's eyes closed. It almost appears magical they make it look so easy. Does anyone care? Doesn't seem like it to me. So great, after I spent over 3 HOURS trying to get tickets now I'll wait for the email that says, "Ummmm....we fucked up again. We're gonna do it again using Ticketmaster" and I'll buy tickets like the rest of the world does-in a proper, organized fashion using a website built to handle this kind of traffic. It wasn't even 9 am PST before the website had frozen!!! Once again, it doesn't have to be like this. The band is choosing it. Why? I can't be certain. I suspect it's an ideology of trying to give business to the little guy. Great idea if it works. But it's been demonstrated time after time after time after time again that it doesn't.
I'm going back to the "normal" way of buying tickets. The way in which I get tickets in 30 seconds instead of using 3+ hours during work to TRY to get tickets. It's disgusting. And until they feel it in the pocket, it's not gonna stop. Finally, those of you not going to the Europe shows may be thinking, "Oh who cares? It'll be different in the US". Guess what? It won't be. Unless something drastic happens, they're going to keep feeding us a line of shit while choosing microscopic vendors that can't actually do the job they were hired to.
A completely dejected (but now aware) fan that won't be wasting any more money on a membership that supposedly gets you access to presales (hardly ever does and the seats aren't even that great).
I have been a fan of this band for over 20 years now. I've seen about 35 shows on 3 different continents and all across the US. I've always felt the band really had the fans' best interest at heart-until now. I've only become a fan club member in the last 2 years so, before that I had never experienced how you sell tickets to fan club members (thank god for that). My first experience was in 2010 and it was an utter shit show. After you pissed off nearly every member, you finally got Ticketmaster to step in and do a proper pre-sale. And guess what? It worked.
Fast forward to 5 days ago. First of all, as you all are aware, many fans go to international shows (and spend a fuckload of money doing it). To announce a European tour with 5 days notice is rubbish. To not announce a US tour (that will likely be happening next year also) simultaneously, thus allowing people to choose what shows to go to armed with all the facts is spitting in our face.
And then today. After assuring many friends that 10 club appeared to have worked out many of the bugs, switched to a different vendor, etc., not only do I now look like a fool, but I'm a fool without tickets as well. Why in the hell would you use a small vendor (AGAIN) and set the presales to start simultaneously??????? Are you fucking kidding me??? Guys, it doesn't take a rocket science to figure out that, after seeing the entire system crash time and time again that you need to use a more capable vendor-even if it is Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster's not losing in any of this; your fans are. Not only do we go see multiple shows year after year (making you all richer than you ever thought you'd be in your wildest dreams), WE PAY FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF GETTING SHIT ON. That's right. You heard me correctly. Everyone knows that the reason you pay for the membership is to get access to the presales. So to then give some microscopic company the job of selling tickets to MILLIONS of fans all over the world is just idiocy. You 5 have all the power. You could change it. You're aware of the problem. Yet it's like this every time.
Now to the fans. Pearl Jam is a business like any other business. It's time to hit them where it hurts-their pockets. At this point, the only thing that is going to get the band's attention is apparently the only thing they care about-money. When revenue decreases they WILL fix the problem. Does anyone know why? Because it's totally fixable!! This isn't even a tough problem. Ticketmaster does things like this nearly every day of the week with it's eyes closed. It almost appears magical they make it look so easy. Does anyone care? Doesn't seem like it to me. So great, after I spent over 3 HOURS trying to get tickets now I'll wait for the email that says, "Ummmm....we fucked up again. We're gonna do it again using Ticketmaster" and I'll buy tickets like the rest of the world does-in a proper, organized fashion using a website built to handle this kind of traffic. It wasn't even 9 am PST before the website had frozen!!! Once again, it doesn't have to be like this. The band is choosing it. Why? I can't be certain. I suspect it's an ideology of trying to give business to the little guy. Great idea if it works. But it's been demonstrated time after time after time after time again that it doesn't.
I'm going back to the "normal" way of buying tickets. The way in which I get tickets in 30 seconds instead of using 3+ hours during work to TRY to get tickets. It's disgusting. And until they feel it in the pocket, it's not gonna stop. Finally, those of you not going to the Europe shows may be thinking, "Oh who cares? It'll be different in the US". Guess what? It won't be. Unless something drastic happens, they're going to keep feeding us a line of shit while choosing microscopic vendors that can't actually do the job they were hired to.
A completely dejected (but now aware) fan that won't be wasting any more money on a membership that supposedly gets you access to presales (hardly ever does and the seats aren't even that great).
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