TicketBastard's in trouble...

MellowCat

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... A_aVFRlq44

Not sure if the above link works or not. Anyway... apparently Bruce Springsteen is pissed at Ticketbastard because a big snaffu (sp?) occurred with sales of his concert tickets in New Jersey. Ticketbastard is basically scalping their own tickets on their sister site Tickets Now. This just happened to me when I tried to buy AC/DC tickets here in Texas. TicketBastard was conveniently "sold out," but their sister site had plenty of tickets available at scalper prices. I wrote their customer service to inform them that they were nothing but thieves. I was, and still am outraged at the audacity of this bullshit.

So today, I'm listening to the news and they mentioned this TicketBastard/Springsteen thing. I was thrilled somebody noticed and seemed to give a damn. The New Jersey authorities are getting involved and launching an investigation due to numerous complaints. Hallelujah. TicketBastard issued an apology (and a refund) to the fans that was nothing but lies and bullshit (acting like it was an "accident", for example).

I wish Texas would crack down on this greedy no-count company. Now would be a good time for Pearl Jam to say "I told you so" to these congress fucks. TicketBastard was back then and is still to this day, a smoldering pile of shit.

Eduardo Veduardo

it happens with every major event they sell...such a disgrace.

MissPennyLane

http://www.kroq.com/ click on Kevin and Bean on the left side then click on Podcast and listen to the first one. they had US rep Bill Pacrell on talking about how he's taking on ticketmaster...

MellowCat

kg285853 wrote:

http://www.kroq.com/ click on Kevin and Bean on the left side then click on Podcast and listen to the first one. they had US rep Bill Pacrell on talking about how he's taking on ticketmaster...

Thanks for the link. I have a bad feeling their investigation will yield nothing because Ticketbastard will pay off somebody.

BeerBaron

I'm surprised that it took this long...

danny

MellowCat wrote:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aEA_aVFRlq44

Not sure if the above link works or not. Anyway... apparently Bruce Springsteen is pissed at Ticketbastard because a big snaffu (sp?) occurred with sales of his concert tickets in New Jersey. Ticketbastard is basically scalping their own tickets on their sister site Tickets Now. This just happened to me when I tried to buy AC/DC tickets here in Texas. TicketBastard was conveniently "sold out," but their sister site had plenty of tickets available at scalper prices. I wrote their customer service to inform them that they were nothing but thieves. I was, and still am outraged at the audacity of this bullshit.

So today, I'm listening to the news and they mentioned this TicketBastard/Springsteen thing. I was thrilled somebody noticed and seemed to give a damn. The New Jersey authorities are getting involved and launching an investigation due to numerous complaints. Hallelujah. TicketBastard issued an apology (and a refund) to the fans that was nothing but lies and bullshit (acting like it was an "accident", for example).

I wish Texas would crack down on this greedy no-count company. Now would be a good time for Pearl Jam to say "I told you so" to these congress fucks. TicketBastard was back then and is still to this day, a smoldering pile of shit.

wankers!

PJ Fan est. 1990

Pearl Jam needs to rejoin the fight...boycott Ticketmaster venues yet again...start playing clubs and whatnot

Vedderman51

The same thing happened on the EV shows. I managed to score mine through 10C. But people on here were trying who got shut out and all they could pull up at the time of the on sale was the link to the scalper site.

Now that Live Nation and Ticketmaster are merging, there is no doubt this is a monopoly. They need to be stopped somehow, someway.

red mos

MellowCat wrote:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aEA_aVFRlq44

Not sure if the above link works or not. Anyway... apparently Bruce Springsteen is pissed at Ticketbastard because a big snaffu (sp?) occurred with sales of his concert tickets in New Jersey. Ticketbastard is basically scalping their own tickets on their sister site Tickets Now. This just happened to me when I tried to buy AC/DC tickets here in Texas. TicketBastard was conveniently "sold out," but their sister site had plenty of tickets available at scalper prices. I wrote their customer service to inform them that they were nothing but thieves. I was, and still am outraged at the audacity of this bullshit.

So today, I'm listening to the news and they mentioned this TicketBastard/Springsteen thing. I was thrilled somebody noticed and seemed to give a damn. The New Jersey authorities are getting involved and launching an investigation due to numerous complaints. Hallelujah. TicketBastard issued an apology (and a refund) to the fans that was nothing but lies and bullshit (acting like it was an "accident", for example).

I wish Texas would crack down on this greedy no-count company. Now would be a good time for Pearl Jam to say "I told you so" to these congress fucks. TicketBastard was back then and is still to this day, a smoldering pile of shit.

I don't think it's just ticketbastard unfortunatley. When we bought Springsteen Tix for Houston yesterday, at 10am they were throwing us in one section behind the stage. Toyota Center doesn't use ticketbastard, but they have this thing called flash seats which is their version of all these scalper sites. It's pretty sad that the Ticket companies have decided to jump in on the third party ticket scalping bandwagon.
Also, Mellow cat, did you go to University of North Texas? I think you were one of them on here? I'm a graduate of their 2006 class.

lateralus963

I hope it actually works this time... It is just not fair. They already get so much per ticket. I remember, trying to get EV tickets on Ticketmaster and that happening... I thought to myself at the time that cant be legal. However, I was in a rush to get tickets for another show , so I didn't have much time to think. But I tell you what: I had to help my brother get Jimmy Buffett tickets yesterday. We had no problem, and the show sold out in like 5 minutes. So something tell me TM is on their best behavior right now...lol.

Dirt Like Me

I was involved in the Ticketmaster mess last Monday. Luckily I was able to catch a brief glimpse of an order number and call and get my Springsteen tickets. The bottom line for me is that if 75% of the tickets are being scalped (for Springsteen in Philly that may be an underestimate), somebody should be able to see that it is obviously a failed system. If Springsteen sells tickets for $95 for a 15,000 seat venue, and only 50% of the people pay $95, while the others pay $200+, something is very wrong. I would think that the artists would reassess the price of the ticket. If the people will pay $200 to a scalper, why doesn't the artist just charge $200?

The best combating of scalping I've seen was for Tom Waits last summer. Tickets were gone in minutes but you needed to present the credit card used to purchase the tickets and a valid ID to get in. There was also a 2 ticket limit. I saw very few tickets available on StubHub or eBay. I truly hope to see Ticketmaster die in the near future and maybe if others join Springsteen, it can happen.

The whole thing really left me with a bad feeling about going to concerts. I have been very lucky and I got tickets for 3 of the 4 Springsteen shows I wanted, but reading other peoples stories just made me sick.

Ok

Dirt Like Me wrote:

I was involved in the Ticketmaster mess last Monday. Luckily I was able to catch a brief glimpse of an order number and call and get my Springsteen tickets. The bottom line for me is that if 75% of the tickets are being scalped (for Springsteen in Philly that may be an underestimate), somebody should be able to see that it is obviously a failed system. If Springsteen sells tickets for $95 for a 15,000 seat venue, and only 50% of the people pay $95, while the others pay $200+, something is very wrong. I would think that the artists would reassess the price of the ticket. If the people will pay $200 to a scalper, why doesn't the artist just charge $200?

The best combating of scalping I've seen was for Tom Waits last summer. Tickets were gone in minutes but you needed to present the credit card used to purchase the tickets and a valid ID to get in. There was also a 2 ticket limit. I saw very few tickets available on StubHub or eBay. I truly hope to see Ticketmaster die in the near future and maybe if others join Springsteen, it can happen.

The whole thing really left me with a bad feeling about going to concerts. I have been very lucky and I got tickets for 3 of the 4 Springsteen shows I wanted, but reading other peoples stories just made me sick.

What you said above about the approach to the Tom Waits concert is what I've been screaming - I mean, do that for say 60 or 70 percent of the tickets and it would have a huge impact for the average fan who's looking for tickets at face value!

preble69

TM is alot easier to get tickets than LN. LN blows. at least TM has its tricks so its easy to get tickets. I had tons of Boss tickets last week just threw them all back

chromiam

Dirt Like Me wrote:

I was involved in the Ticketmaster mess last Monday. Luckily I was able to catch a brief glimpse of an order number and call and get my Springsteen tickets. The bottom line for me is that if 75% of the tickets are being scalped (for Springsteen in Philly that may be an underestimate), somebody should be able to see that it is obviously a failed system. If Springsteen sells tickets for $95 for a 15,000 seat venue, and only 50% of the people pay $95, while the others pay $200+, something is very wrong. I would think that the artists would reassess the price of the ticket. If the people will pay $200 to a scalper, why doesn't the artist just charge $200?

The best combating of scalping I've seen was for Tom Waits last summer. Tickets were gone in minutes but you needed to present the credit card used to purchase the tickets and a valid ID to get in. There was also a 2 ticket limit. I saw very few tickets available on StubHub or eBay. I truly hope to see Ticketmaster die in the near future and maybe if others join Springsteen, it can happen.

The whole thing really left me with a bad feeling about going to concerts. I have been very lucky and I got tickets for 3 of the 4 Springsteen shows I wanted, but reading other peoples stories just made me sick.

I wouldn't inlude Philly in this debate at all since their tickets are not sold via Ticketmaster. Also I have not heard any problems with purchasing tickets via comcasttix for this show or others. Lastly, comcasttix does not own or operate a ticket resale site like Ticketmaster.

Writingjunkie

I've got zero use for ticket master...

...just recently dealt with this nonsense trying to track down Kings of Leon tickets when they were in Columbus... all SOLD OUT... with a handy link right there where I could get myriads of tickets for the show at a 300+% mark-up.

That is complete and utter dirty business.

I hope every single person on their board of directors come down with a raging case of herpes and genital warts...

DeLukin

Just saw this. They wouldn't be THIS evil, would they?

http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/02/ ... cketm.html

If Live Nation and Ticketmaster merge, the combined entity could bypass the primary ticketing system partially or completely, forcing fans to bid against each other for tickets in Ticketmaster's TicketsNow secondary market rather than selling them at a fixed price in the primary ticket market, the way they have done in the past.

In other words, thickness of wallet -- and not quickness of response -- would become the salient factor when trying to buy tickets for hot shows.

Red Lukin2

For those in Toronto or Ontario go to channel CP24 now..there's a good Q&A on this right now.

hrd2imgn

welcome to fucking 1995

the band tried to dump TM but all the fans did was bitch about how they played small venues, and no one could get tickets.

Pick your fucking poison

Long Live ETM

Kel Varnsen

I am surprised that the venues are willing to go for this sort of thing. I mean the more tickets that go to scalpers, the less chance that a sell-out will be a true sell out with every seat full. Since I imagine that venues make a large portion of there revenue on $9 beers, you would think they would want as many people as possible in attendance.

Trixie

They're not just in "trouble", they are being sued via class actions here in Canada. Just announced yesterday. An Ontario firm and a BC firm filed applications with the Court yesterday. Can't wait to see what the outcome might be. If nothing else, it will put them in an extremely bad light and will at least cause them (by way of their response materials) to explain their connection with TicketsNow.

jhulud

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is old and jaded that remembers the days when Ticketron was around. It was a simpler time.

Red Lukin2

And a $5,000,000 class action law suite that is.

I just looked at the best Bruce Springsteen tickets on Ticketsnow for the show in Toronto. Look at the S/C per ticket. That's more than the face value of the tickets?

Subtotal:4 x $1,070.00
Service Charge:4 x $160.50
Shipping:$14.95
Order Total:$4,936.95

BeerBaron

Red Lukin2 wrote:

And a $5,000,000 class action law suite that is.

I just looked at the best Bruce Springsteen tickets on Ticketsnow for the show in Toronto. Look at the S/C per ticket. That's more than the face value of the tickets?

Subtotal:4 x $1,070.00
Service Charge:4 x $160.50
Shipping:$14.95
Order Total:$4,936.95

So not only do they jack up the prices of the tickets, but they also jack up the service charge? That's ridiculous.

PJ Fan est. 1990

tickets need to be sold by the venue and the artist playing only...no 3rd part needed...you can order from calling or showing up at the box office, or ordering them on the venue website or band website (which will most likely redirect you to the venue website)...this way it is ENSURED! that people pay the price the artist and venue agreed upon and without any convenience fees either...and it will help enforce scalping laws by making it easier to catch those who scalp...if there does end up being a 3rd party sales company, then they should be forced by law to sell at face value or less without convenience fees (they can make money through offering ad space if need be) but it would just be better to outlaw 3rd party ticket companies all together.

PJ Fan est. 1990

"convenience fees" can be used interchangeably with "service charge"

Thunderclap

jhulud wrote:

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is old and jaded that remembers the days when Ticketron was around. It was a simpler time.

I remember the Ticketron days. I think my parents used Ticketron to get our tickets for Whitesnake and Bad English

Kel Varnsen

PJ Fan est. 1990 wrote:

tickets need to be sold by the venue and the artist playing only...no 3rd part needed...you can order from calling or showing up at the box office, or ordering them on the venue website or band website (which will most likely redirect you to the venue website)...this way it is ENSURED! that people pay the price the artist and venue agreed upon and without any convenience fees either...and it will help enforce scalping laws by making it easier to catch those who scalp...if there does end up being a 3rd party sales company, then they should be forced by law to sell at face value or less without convenience fees (they can make money through offering ad space if need be) but it would just be better to outlaw 3rd party ticket companies all together.

Except that if every venue sold its own ticket, then every venue would need extra staff for the days when big shows go on sale, or they would need to have very good websites to handle the increased traffic on ticket selling days (which is something even 10club has had a problem with in the past). Now to add extra staff and extra phone lines or a fast website, especially when you might only use them one day a month, is very expensive and not very efficient. Those costs would of course get added to the ticket price and in the end we are right back where we started with people complaining about high ticket prices. The one thing ticketmaster can do is have one very powerful website and one group of people working for it, and since they handle so many venues these people can work much more efficently.

On top of that I am old enough to remember a time before websales where if you wanted tickets to something popular you had to wait in line at the venue or call the ticket sales line (which was always busy and not always a toll free number). Ticketmaster may charge high fees, but they certainly provide a service.

Trixie

Red Lukin2 wrote:

And a $5,000,000 class action law suite that is.

I just looked at the best Bruce Springsteen tickets on Ticketsnow for the show in Toronto. Look at the S/C per ticket. That's more than the face value of the tickets?

Subtotal:4 x $1,070.00
Service Charge:4 x $160.50
Shipping:$14.95
Order Total:$4,936.95

Actually it's a $500 million (not $5 million) lawsuit.

poto101

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10463310 ... ie-up.html


Maybe we should've taken Pearl Jam more seriously when the group fought Ticketmaster more than a decade ago.

Red Lukin2

Trixie wrote:

Actually it's a $500 million (not $5 million) lawsuit.

I was going by memory, which was a bad mistake ; )

zdogbone

PJ Fan est. 1990 wrote:

tickets need to be sold by the venue and the artist playing only...no 3rd part needed...you can order from calling or showing up at the box office, or ordering them on the venue website or band website (which will most likely redirect you to the venue website)...this way it is ENSURED! that people pay the price the artist and venue agreed upon and without any convenience fees either...and it will help enforce scalping laws by making it easier to catch those who scalp...if there does end up being a 3rd party sales company, then they should be forced by law to sell at face value or less without convenience fees (they can make money through offering ad space if need be) but it would just be better to outlaw 3rd party ticket companies all together.

pretty good quick read from Forbes.com about the merger.
http://tinyurl.com/ca9aud
Everybody is out to get as much money as they can, but I guess in the end, Ticketmaster is the one left standing willing and able to absorb the blame.
(side note, I went to see BECK a few months ago, and had to get tickets through gettix.net, I don't think they used ticketma$ter for that tour. paid 38.50 per ticket with a 6.75 service charge plus an additional 3.50 handling charge. $94.00 total for 2 tickets)