Another Reason to Hate Ticketmaster

restlesssoul · May 2008

THIS. im refreshing for Beck tickets at 10 am. I refresh the thing like 4 or five times cuz its near 10 am and this comes up.

Please note.

We limit the rate of web page requests that can be made by individual users in any given time period. Your web page requests have exceeded these limits and your access has been temporarily disabled. We impose these limits to protect the web site from automated programs, as part of our efforts to promote fair access to tickets. Please allow several minutes and then try again.

im fucked for tickets now.

im all for it, at least fuckin warn me that it would happen.

just venting

Bathgate66 · May 2008

this has been going on a while now
i think it is IE exclusive- as it doesnt appear to happen on firefox.

also-

the password thing- now you have to try and decipher 2 illegible hieroglyphics and type them in! Ridiculous !

restlesssoul · May 2008

it hasnt been happening that long, i buy tickets often and use firefox, either way it sucks....

Dylan Stone · May 2008

restlesssoul wrote:

it hasnt been happening that long, i buy tickets often and use firefox, either way it sucks....

Maybe jump over to TM Canada when it happens...

Wobbie · May 2008

I don't need another reason to hate TM! :mad:

Wobbie · May 2008

Bathgate66 wrote:

the password thing- now you have to try and decipher 2 illegible hieroglyphics and type them in! Ridiculous !

http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=285150

Bathgate66 · May 2008

imalive wrote:

http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=285150

so is it the guy or TM or both.

fuckem all

feedem' fishheads

good combatant would be telephone only sales, limit of 2 per .

Shawn Smith Collective · May 2008

Bathgate66 wrote:

good combatant would be telephone only sales, limit of 2 per .

ha! telephone only...generally the way it used to be...was the most frustrating thing in the history of ticket sales. incessant busy signals and being subjected to the pushy sales reps. no thanks. for all the complaints people have about TM now, it used to be much worse.

Bathgate66 · May 2008

pjny wrote:

ha! telephone only...generally the way it used to be...was the most frustrating thing in the history of ticket sales. incessant busy signals and being subjected to the pushy sales reps. no thanks. for all the complaints people have about TM now, it used to be much worse.

well, it levels the playing field.
Bruce still uses this methodology for smaller , more intimate shows ( such as those at Convention Hall or Paramount Theatre inside Convention Hall in Asbury Park )
It also eliminates this douchebag Harley Davidson Wanna Be Program/Software makers advantage . Did you hear how many of the primary tickets they gobble up in that video - at the very instant they go onsale to the general public ? 100s of thousands-
that pretty much wipes out- for instance- the 20,000 seats available at a place like MSG NYC ( coincidentally one of the more popular venues fans want to see Pearl Jam inside of,.... regardless of your geogrphic residential location. )

the video also explains how there is a conflict of interest , with TM going to court to fight the use of these programs ( "automated " is what they are calling them now ) ,

but :

at the same time TM now owns " Tickets Now " which makes use of these software programs regularly.

someone needs to take that little troll dude out ! The only way to do this is the use of more modern technology ( which in turn means spending more $ ) - the guy even admits everyone is using very old methods .

Shawn Smith Collective · May 2008

Bathgate66 wrote:

well, it levels the playing field.
Bruce still uses this methodology for smaller , more intimate shows ( such as those at Convention Hall or Paramount Theatre inside Convention Hall in Asbury Park )
It also eliminates this douchebag Harley Davidson Wanna Be Program/Software makers advantage . Did you hear how many of the primary tickets they gobble up in that video - at the very instant they go onsale to the general public ? 100s of thousands-
that pretty much wipes out- for instance- the 20,000 seats available at a place like MSG NYC ( coincidentally one of the more popular venues fans want to see Pearl Jam inside of,.... regardless of your geogrphic residential location. )

the video also explains how there is a conflict of interest , with TM going to court to fight the use of these programs ( "automated " is what they are calling them now ) ,

but :

at the same time TM now owns " Tickets Now " which makes use of these software programs regularly.

someone needs to take that little troll dude out ! The only way to do this is the use of more modern technology ( which in turn means spending more $ ) - the guy even admits everyone is using very old methods .

it doesnt level the playing field though...go back to pre-internet days and you'll find that ticket brokers used predictive dialers to get through on as many lines as possible, as quickly as possible, to beat the general public and to skirt per order ticket limits. today's dialers are even more advanced...

also, i havent seen the video you mentioned, but think about what you're saying...if the people in this "program" took all the tickets, nobody would be able to get tix...there's never been a case of that happening.

i remember seeing a thread complaining that cablevision employees were getting first dibs on tix to msg...i assume what you're referring to is similar to that...there's a public misunderstanding of how that works. they have boxes...however many...those boxes are theirs for every event at thr venue...they're not available to the public - EVER. these boxes remain empty unless the company holding thr boxes orders tix to the event...one ticket per seat in the box. so let's pretend cablevision has 2 boxes with 20 seats each. their 1st dibs offer is to fill these 40 seats that would NOT be available to the public anyway. its not 1st dibs for their thousands of employees to fill the arena.

is it hard to get tix sometimes? hell yeah! and i hate that...it sucks to spend a half hour refreshing and getting nothing...but its better and quicker than redialing or standing in line for hours to get the same result. all im sayin

Bathgate66 · May 2008

pjny wrote:

it doesnt level the playing field though...go back to pre-internet days and you'll find that ticket brokers used predictive dialers to get through on as many lines as possible, as quickly as possible, to beat the general public and to skirt per order ticket limits. today's dialers are even more advanced...

also, i havent seen the video you mentioned, but think about what you're saying...if the people in this "program" took all the tickets, nobody would be able to get tix...there's never been a case of that happening.

i remember seeing a thread complaining that cablevision employees were getting first dibs on tix to msg...i assume what you're referring to is similar to that...there's a public misunderstanding of how that works. they have boxes...however many...those boxes are theirs for every event at thr venue...they're not available to the public - EVER. these boxes remain empty unless the company holding thr boxes orders tix to the event...one ticket per seat in the box. so let's pretend cablevision has 2 boxes with 20 seats each. their 1st dibs offer is to fill these 40 seats that would NOT be available to the public anyway. its not 1st dibs for their thousands of employees to fill the arena.

is it hard to get tix sometimes? hell yeah! and i hate that...it sucks to spend a half hour refreshing and getting nothing...but its better and quicker than redialing or standing in line for hours to get the same result. all im sayin

go scroll up to post # 6 which in turn links you to this video , which is what we were commenting on. Guess if you didnt see it and watch it, then .....

South of Seattle · May 2008

I was just gonna make a ticketmaster thread, but RS beat me to it.

Here's my latest gripe. I buy 2 MMJ tickets. They are $30 a piece. So my total for 2 ticket + surcharges are $89.90. It's like fucking buy 3, get 2 tickets :rolleyes: I was thinking that it was a lot more of a service charge then it usually is. So today I get the tickets in the mail. $10 facility charge & $19.90 for convenience charge/order processing.

So my envelope comes with 2 coupons for McDonalds. One for a free chicken breakfast sandwich, and a free Southern Chicken Sandwich. Also it comes with a code for 2 free itunes songs.

Basically my service charge goes to itunes and Mickey D's. :(

Ridiculous!

russmc · May 2008

South of Seattle wrote:

So my envelope comes with 2 coupons for McDonalds. One for a free chicken breakfast sandwich, and a free Southern Chicken Sandwich. Also it comes with a code for 2 free itunes songs.

Basically my service charge goes to itunes and Mickey D's. :(

Ridiculous!

Damn, and I don't use itunes or eat at Mickey D's. What a rip, give me something I would use at least, like a free beer for the show, or nachos at least.

Pearl Jam and toast · May 2008

Yeh man. That kept me from getting Smashing Pumpkins tickets last summer.. I only saw them twice in Asheville as opposed to all nine shows ^_^

Dylan Stone · May 2008

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

Yeh man. That kept me from getting Smashing Pumpkins tickets last summer.. I only saw them twice in Asheville as opposed to all nine shows ^_^

I know I said it above...

But from now on you should bookmark and register on both TM USA and TM Canada. That way when you get shut down for refreshing one the other can be used.

Pearl Jam and toast · May 2008

GTFLYGIRL wrote:

I know I said it above...

But from now on you should bookmark and register on both TM USA and TM Canada. That way when you get shut down for refreshing one the other can be used.

*eyes widen*

vedderfan10 · May 2008

restlesssoul wrote:

THIS. im refreshing for Beck tickets at 10 am. I refresh the thing like 4 or five times cuz its near 10 am and this comes up.

Please note.

We limit the rate of web page requests that can be made by individual users in any given time period. Your web page requests have exceeded these limits and your access has been temporarily disabled. We impose these limits to protect the web site from automated programs, as part of our efforts to promote fair access to tickets. Please allow several minutes and then try again.

im fucked for tickets now.

im all for it, at least fuckin warn me that it would happen.

just venting

Go see him at Bumbershoot...Tix are easy enough to get. That's what we're doing...I think the tix are only $35 or $40 per day...PLUS you get to go to Flatstock and buy cool concert posters!

hrd2imgn · May 2008

did you need another reason to hate those fuckers?

Wobbie · May 2008

hrd2imgn wrote:

did you need another reason to hate those fuckers?

I didn't!

Shawn Smith Collective · June 2008

Bathgate66 wrote:

go scroll up to post # 6 which in turn links you to this video , which is what we were commenting on. Guess if you didnt see it and watch it, then .....

Thanks for the link - ok so this isn't the thing I mentioned about Cablevision employees (and similar situations), but this isn't any different than ticket brokering/scalping has always been. It's on a larger scale, for sure, but even in the video they noted "hundreds" of tickets for an event were being purchase, not 20k. I don't like the idea of automated systems, and frankly I'd have no interest in paying a scalpers high asking price, but I suppose that's life.

Scalping had been an illegal, big money business for decades, and until recently, the only people that prospered from it were the resellers, and they were labeled criminals. The consequence of the shady business for the average joe was sometimes being fleeced for high priced counterfeits, or worse, mugged for their money. The internet provided physical safety, but people were screwed over constantly. The recent decriminalization and embrace of ticket scalping by teams/leagues/Ticketmaster provides a safe haven for people who ARE willing to spend the money, and it allows them to PROFIT (yes, the evil word) from it. SO WHAT!? Like I said earlier, I get frustrated by it being hard to get tix, but you know what, if I had some edge in logging in and getting tix quicker than you, I'd love to take it. It's certainly common for friends looking to go to high demand events to double or triple their chances by using each of their own computers or phones to try and get through for tix...is that fair to someone with one computer? I wonder if people with 56k modems were calling people like me cheats for being early to the game on broadband highspeed internet...I certainly had a technological advantage.

Look, the TM guy in the vid even admits that they got into the secondary market biz bc it had been "embraced by fans," aka, money was changing hands at high profit. Nobody is hiding the reason behind it being money. But if they got into it for money, they'd get out if there was no money. Therefore, all that's ever been needed for scalping to end is for fans to NOT embrace it. Don't buy the tix. Let there be empty seats at sporting events and concerts. Take away the profit, scalpers won't have any interest in buying up the seats. This report uncovered nothing new, and frankly, nothing hidden. TM wasn't hiding anything, the software engineer wasn't hiding anything...and I doubt their resale business has been hurt by the story - I'd almost be willing to bet it's seen more traffic since the publicity.

Stop buying, end the practice. Simple.

Another Reason to Hate Ticketmaster

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