F2F is OPEN

GlowGirl said:

Weston1283 said:

GlowGirl said:

on2legs said:

I don’t think Ticketmaster is trying to lock out accounts of actual customers.  I’m guessing it’s an unintended consequence of trying to weed out the real problem accounts.  I’m also guessing that this issue has not reached the ears of the people who matter and can actually make a decision.  So the issue hasn’t been corrected yet and people will continue to get locked out.  The whole “make a new account” advice is probably just a workaround that the people who answer the phones have figured out to try and help people.  

Mine was escalated to a tech person who emailed me on Saturday. He asked for my IP address and the error message I was getting and asked me questions like if I used multiple devices at once, or if I used any software that automatically fills out web forms, or if I went over any ticket limits, etc. All of my responses were truthfully no. Then today I got an email saying I violated terms of service (without telling me which term) and my account would be permanently blocked from purchasing tickets. But I could create a new account to purchase tickets. Anyway, good luck to all who are presently blocked. I hope they are just temporary. Keep us posted.

This is horrible

Will you still have access to any tickets already purchased in your account?

Yes. I can access the old account for my existing tickets. I was assured that by TM and I can access them. I just can't buy new ones with that same account.

That’s good at least, but this entire thing is truly a scam.  Incredibly, incredibly dirty.

A “Fan to Fan” exchange that isn’t actually accessible to most fans….

KJ228171 said:

GlowGirl said:

KJ228171 said:

danofun said:

GlowGirl said:

bootleg said:

I was temp blocked back in May when trying to upgrade Seattle tickets.  Said my account was showing bot like behavior and violated the terms of service but couldn’t tell me what I had done wrong.  I’m guessing it was refreshing too often, and jumping back and forth between the two Seattle shows.  Spoke to a person and said I’m a real dude just trying to buy tickets, and that I’ve bought and used hundreds of tickets before and that they should be able to see that but they still wouldn’t remove the block.  Somehow the block ended up being removed when I traveled to a new city (on my way to Seattle) so there might be some kind of link between the account and IP service area.  It’s really a pain in the ass and no one from Ticketmaster can even help you.  There really needs to be more transparency to the whole thing.

Yeah. Earlier this year it was connected to your IP address. If you got blocked on that, you still could log in using cellular or a different wifi. But now it appears that they changed it to the account level. If you are blocked now you can't access your account from wifi, cellular or a different wifi. I think that is a recent change. Or maybe as someone mentioned above, they may have different levels of blocks.

A low level, TM support agent having a clue what is happening with your account doesn’t add up.. We’ve all been bottled before. I’d be surprised if your account isn’t operational again in a few days.

Well it's not the front line support. It's at least level II because I just got the email. I don't like where this is going for me. I reader both the Terms of Use and the Purchase Policy. I didn't break any of them. If there is some other rules they are not publicly listed where I could find them.

We are sorry to hear about your issues with accessing our site. To assist you further, we require the following information:                1. Your Name
2. A screenshot of your IP Address, including both the IPv4 and IPv6

• You can find your IP address by visiting www.whatismyip.com

3. A screenshot of any error received, if applicable
4. The email used to access your Ticketmaster account
5. Complete the below questionnaire:

• Have you read and understood the Ticketmaster/Live Nation Terms of Use?
• What show(s) were you interested in?
• Were you informed of any ticket limits when you were looking at or making ticket selections?
• Please estimate how many computers (including virtual machines) access the Internet through this IP address.
• Over the last year have you used multiple browser tabs to access the Ticketmaster/LiveNation prior to getting blocked?
• Over the last year have you used accounts other than the account above to purchase tickets on the Ticketmaster/LiveNation website?
• Are you using any software to automatically fill out web form fields and/or automate web submissions?
• Over the last year have you ever switched or tried to switch IP addresses to avoid a block?

 
We sincerely appreciate your cooperation in providing this information, which will enable our team to address the issue more effectively. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and we look forward to your response."

Yup - that is the email. I didn't break any of those rules either. Good luck. Keep us posted what happens.

I figure the best case scenario will be it time out in the coming weeks/months and I can reuse it my then. I did add an addendum to my response pleading my case but don’t think it will matter.

This is not all bad.. Well it is bad now, but it shows that TM is trying and failing to block the BOTS. They are aware of it, and trying to stop it and we and our access is getting caught up in it.. TM would not want to block our accounts ( ticket buyers and real customers) they are in the business of selling tickets, not keeping us from buying their tickets. Let's hope they figure it out. 

KJ228171 said:

craigraether said:

KJ228171 said:

GlowGirl said:

KJ228171 said:

danofun said:

GlowGirl said:

bootleg said:

I was temp blocked back in May when trying to upgrade Seattle tickets.  Said my account was showing bot like behavior and violated the terms of service but couldn’t tell me what I had done wrong.  I’m guessing it was refreshing too often, and jumping back and forth between the two Seattle shows.  Spoke to a person and said I’m a real dude just trying to buy tickets, and that I’ve bought and used hundreds of tickets before and that they should be able to see that but they still wouldn’t remove the block.  Somehow the block ended up being removed when I traveled to a new city (on my way to Seattle) so there might be some kind of link between the account and IP service area.  It’s really a pain in the ass and no one from Ticketmaster can even help you.  There really needs to be more transparency to the whole thing.

Yeah. Earlier this year it was connected to your IP address. If you got blocked on that, you still could log in using cellular or a different wifi. But now it appears that they changed it to the account level. If you are blocked now you can't access your account from wifi, cellular or a different wifi. I think that is a recent change. Or maybe as someone mentioned above, they may have different levels of blocks.

A low level, TM support agent having a clue what is happening with your account doesn’t add up.. We’ve all been bottled before. I’d be surprised if your account isn’t operational again in a few days.

Well it's not the front line support. It's at least level II because I just got the email. I don't like where this is going for me. I reader both the Terms of Use and the Purchase Policy. I didn't break any of them. If there is some other rules they are not publicly listed where I could find them.

We are sorry to hear about your issues with accessing our site. To assist you further, we require the following information:                1. Your Name
2. A screenshot of your IP Address, including both the IPv4 and IPv6

• You can find your IP address by visiting www.whatismyip.com

3. A screenshot of any error received, if applicable
4. The email used to access your Ticketmaster account
5. Complete the below questionnaire:

• Have you read and understood the Ticketmaster/Live Nation Terms of Use?
• What show(s) were you interested in?
• Were you informed of any ticket limits when you were looking at or making ticket selections?
• Please estimate how many computers (including virtual machines) access the Internet through this IP address.
• Over the last year have you used multiple browser tabs to access the Ticketmaster/LiveNation prior to getting blocked?
• Over the last year have you used accounts other than the account above to purchase tickets on the Ticketmaster/LiveNation website?
• Are you using any software to automatically fill out web form fields and/or automate web submissions?
• Over the last year have you ever switched or tried to switch IP addresses to avoid a block?

 
We sincerely appreciate your cooperation in providing this information, which will enable our team to address the issue more effectively. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and we look forward to your response."

Yup - that is the email. I didn't break any of those rules either. Good luck. Keep us posted what happens.

I figure the best case scenario will be it time out in the coming weeks/months and I can reuse it my then. I did add an addendum to my response pleading my case but don’t think it will matter.

This is not all bad.. Well it is bad now, but it shows that TM is trying and failing to block the BOTS. They are aware of it, and trying to stop it and we and our access is getting caught up in it.. TM would not want to block our accounts ( ticket buyers and real customers) they are in the business of selling tickets, not keeping us from buying their tickets. Let's hope they figure it out. 

Maybe but those people have sophisticated systems to work around blocks. They’ve managed to catch a dude with a laptop that had Sunday afternoon free to look for tickets. They might be trying but they are failing spectacularly. In the last few hours I’m made peace with losing the use of the account. I think to spite TM I’m just going to buy on a different account and transfer the ones I can to my original. It’s petty and deranged but it will satisfy my OCD. 

I’m probably take a break for looking until after the new year anyway. I won’t have the free time.

Right, and with companies that want to succeed they will realize they are failing, impacting customers and hopefully deploy counter measures that work against BOTS and not customers. Losing money should motivate them. Also keep calling support, tie up their agents with blocking issues, support should evaluate their calls and issues and work to fix them as again it impacts them and the business. 

given2flym said:

The big issue here is that “the bots” are brokers that pay Ticketmaster large sums to access TM’s API’s which allows them to circumvent the website completely. 

People much smarter than me can explain it better. But basically this allows these brokers to get first crack at tickets before they ever even get to the website. Effectively calling the Ticketmaster inventories 100s of times a minute looking for new tickets and scooping them up. 

For sure there are still smaller-time bots and brokers running bots off the website and maybe these measures will nip some of those. But there’s a lot bigger of a fish at work. 

I know that is a theory that people like to spread, not saying it's not true. Ive wondered if brokers have figured out how to scan for links to be generated. I have tried to reverse engineer the links to see if I could figure out what the next link would be. 

Lol 5000 searches a day and 5 requests/refreshes per second. 

SHZA said:

Like this? https://developer.ticketmaster.com/products-and-docs/apis/getting-started/ 

Yeah, except what you're actually looking for is this: https://developer.ticketmaster.com/products-and-docs/apis/partner/#ticket-availability

Per TM's terms, the Ticketing API is only available to Ticketmaster partners, which means lots of red tape. Business development, sales, legal, fraud, AML, etc... which is to say there aren't mysterious bot/device farms out there using that API to procure tickets. If the APIs are being used for ticket procurement, then they're being used with TM's knowledge by entities that are in mutually beneficial business agreements with Ticketmaster.

This whole thing is just sad. Obviously I'm frustrated that my account is blocked, but I've also made a career in tech... as a customer-oriented head of product, working closely with CS and engineering. And that part of me is livid about TM's lazy, ineffective, heavy-handed approach to this problem.

I haven't received that questionnaire yet, but I'm going to ask for it now so I can send them my answers:

• Have you read and understood the Ticketmaster/Live Nation Terms of Use?
  
  Yes, just now in response to this question so I could say that I could. Previously I hadn't because literally no consumer in the world reads Terms of Use before joining a platform. You know that.
  
  
• What show(s) were you interested in?
  
  A few shows from Pearl Jam's 2025 Dark Matter tour.
  
  
• Were you informed of any ticket limits when you were looking at or making ticket selections?
  
  Yes, 4 per show.
  
  
• Please estimate how many computers (including virtual machines) access the Internet through this IP address.
  
  Typically 5, 3 laptops and 2 mobile phones. But we also have guests over with phones and laptops frequently. They also use our wifi. 
  
  
• Over the last year have you used multiple browser tabs to access the Ticketmaster/LiveNation prior to getting blocked?
  
  Yes. For multiple high demand tours, given the way the queue system works, I've joined the queue for multiple shows at once when the whole tour goes on sale, hoping to get tickets to at least one show if I'm lucky enough to get a good queue position. By necessity, I need multiple tabs open to be in multiple queues when a tour goes on sale.
  
  
• Over the last year have you used accounts other than the account above to purchase tickets on the Ticketmaster/LiveNation website?
  
  Yes. When my account was previously blocked, also for "refreshing too often" I was advised by Ticketmaster support to create a new account. Earlier this year I bought tickets to Death Cab / Postal Service on the new account because my main account was experiencing intermittent blocks again for undisclosed reasons, and I didn't want to miss the sale.
  
  
• Are you using any software to automatically fill out web form fields and/or automate web submissions?
  
  No
  
  
• Over the last year have you ever switched or tried to switch IP addresses to avoid a block?
  
  Yes, your guidance when the block occurs is to try a different device, switch from wifi to mobile data, or try a different network. Any one of those things will change an IP address, and–again, per your guidance–I've tried them all

The questionnaire is clearly written by lawyers to cover TM's ass and to intimidate consumers. I have to believe that if there are any user-focused professionals over at TM, they have no idea this nonsense is going on.

It looks like they're leaning on Section 3 of their Terms of Use as the grounds to ban, but they're only selectively enforcing it. For example, the third bullet point also lists linking to anything other than the assigned homepage of the Site as punishable offense. That doesn't even make sense; that's like asking people not to share links directly to shows they or their friends are interested in attending. There's legal precedent for negating the enforceability of an agreement if no effort is made to enforce a particular aspect of it. Not saying that would work here, and definitely not saying that a legal effort is the way to go (it's 100% not), but it highlights how lazy TM is actually being about this whole thing.

I am trying to make some friendly contacts at TM in the hopes of reaching an empathetic customer-focused ear at the company. Not sure that's a winning strategy either, but I'm so frustrated by how this is being handled I feel compelled to try whatever I can.

Shaindli1 said:

driventofly39 said:

Will be posting a pair for Raleigh 1 (Sec 125) tomorrow morning around 9:15am ET. Will post the link here as well.

@yieldtobinaural

Thanks for the tag! I’ll be on the lookout!

https://my.ticketmaster.com/ds/vQ17f6kpv8/event/1600617BEFC5519B