Ticketmaster is the Hypocrite Master
It seems like the folks at Ticketmaster are a little confused about fair play and consumer rights. Case and point – the new “paperless tickets” Ticketmaster is requiring for the upcoming Miley Cyrus tour.
This new feature requires concertgoers to buy tickets from Ticketmaster.com and Ticketmaster.ca with a credit card, then use the credit card along with photo id at the gate to get in. You got that right, you and 18,000+ fans will have to wait in line while each and every credit card is scanned at the door. If you get sick or have a change of plans you cannot transfer your ticket, and for all you soccer moms, you will have to pay for parking and walk your teenage daughter all the way to the entrance for her and her friends to get in (who will be embarrassed to be standing next to you at the hottest event of the year).
Now the funny part in this sad mess is the alleged reason for implementing the paperless ticket policy. Here is the direct quote from the Miley Cyrus tour page on Ticketmaster.
“Why? To ensure fans get fair access to seats at face value-the only way to get into the event is with the credit card used to purchase the tickets.”
Well I hope the CEO of Ticketmaster Irving Azoff doesn’t have a daughter and if he does I hope she’s not a Miley Cyrus fan because Ticketmaster has been selling tickets for over face value for years!
Ticketmaster has been retailing tickets through “high bid win” type auctions on Ticketmaster.com and Ticketmaster.ca since 2003. Coincidentally enough Ticketmaster actually offered these auctions for the Hannah Montana Miley Cyrus “Best of Both Worlds Tour” in 2007 with seats for the Oracle Arena show on Nov 1st selling for over $2,000! Wow talk about ensuring “fair access to seats at face value”!
It gets even better… Currently you can buy a Miley Cyrus “VIP package” at iloveallaccess.com (owned by Ticketmaster of course) for $295 per ticket (face value is $79.50). Now there are amazing amenities included in this package such as a tour laminate (which doesn’t include backstage access) a pre-show party (which Miley Cyrus will not attend) and “hassle free” shopping (so you can more conveniently spend $75 on a t-shirt). And get this, these wonderful features are subject to change without notice. Since I can go to Kinkos and make a laminate for $5 and I’d rather wait in the paperless ticketing line outside the venue than attend a preshow party with no appearance from Miley Cyrus. I think I can pretty confidently say I would be paying $295 for the guaranteed first 25 row ticket to the show. An honest person might call this paying above face value for a premium seat.
The icing on the cake is Ticketmaster spent $250 million to acquire TicketsNow, a leading secondary ticketing site that sells tickets for over face value! We won’t even get into recent litigation that alleges Ticketmaster redirected potential Bruce Springsteen ticket buyers to TicketsNow and confused them into paying over face value for tickets.
To make things worse Ticketmaster has built TicketExchange, a marketplace that allows fans in the U.S. and Canada to buy and sell tickets directly on Ticketmaster.com and Ticketmaster.ca. Well wouldn’t you know that a vast majority of these tickets are being offered by Ticketmaster for… what do you know… over face value! They now call them “official platinum seats” and proclaim
“the goal is to give the most passionate fans fair and safe access to the best tickets, while enabling artists and other people involved in staging live events to price tickets closer to their true value.”
Seems to contradict their paperless ticket policy quote, cited earlier…
For over a year now Ticketmaster has been selling tickets on TicketExchange for over face value for some of the biggest artists in the biz. Elton John & Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, Van Halen, Tina Turner, Celine Dion, New Kids on the Block, Steely Dan, The Eagles (just to name a few).
I know the world in 2009 is a confusing place. But I mean, c’mon Ticketmaster… Are you going to restrict consumer rights with a “paperless tickets” policy that attempts to ensure tickets are available for face value, OR are you going to sell tickets over face value on your TicketExchange and TicketsNow subsidiaries? Just pick a side and stick with it!
Too Bad Ticketmaster Makes it such a Hassle to see Miley…
Source Credits:
Miley Cyrus Concert Photo by Vicky Sedgwick
No Access Badge Photo by landacollectible
Screenshot of TicketMaster TicketExchange page source
Hannah Montana, TicketMaster, TicketsNow, and TicketExchange are trademarks of their respective owners.
Tags: auctions, Best of Both Worlds Tour, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Celine Dion, concerts, consumer rights, Elton John, face value, Hannah Montana, Hypocrite Master, iloveallaccess.com, Irving Azoff, Kinkos, Miley Cyrus, Neil Diamond, New Kids on the Block, official platinum seats, Oracle Arena, paperless tickets, pay what you want, SaveFans!, SaveFans.com, soccer moms, Steely Dan, The Eages, TicketExchange, ticketmaster, Ticketmaster.com, tickets, TicketsNow, Tina Turner, tours, Van Halen
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very well written and something that really bugs me. That is such a scam
Just hearing this Co. name makes me see RED!!! I bought tickets to a concert here (Charlie Pride)…not someone you’d think would be hard to get good seats to in my city of Red Deer, Alberta in November.He was coming in May, and I thought what a great Mother’s day gift! It didn’t even SHOW floor seats. I paid top price for crappy seats, even though they had just been released and I’m a “ticketmaster” member. Well, as it would be, my husband won an award trip to Costa Rica, and our plane left REAL early the morning after the show, and my Mom backed out. I thought I might be able to sell them, so went online to see if there were tickets left the day of the show. Yep! Row 1-CENTER FLOOR!!! WTF??? For the SAME price I paid for rafter tickets!
What is going on here?
Ticketmaster said it’s not their fault. They blamed it on the promoter. I’m not buying that one bit!
Now I get front row $500 tickets to the likes of Celine Dion for free from my Dad, who gets them from his Promoter friend!
Ticketmaster just likes to play cat & mouse with the paying public!
[...] As I’m sure many of you know the recent Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band shows at the Izod Center caused quite a big ticket controversy. At the center of this controversy was Ticketmaster’s handling of these sold out shows, redirecting unknowing buyers to Ticketsnow where they could purchase tickets for over face value (I guess this is better than them secretly selling tickets on TicketExchange – but that’s a whole different blog post). [...]
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
[...] for over face value through their “official platinum seats” program on Ticketexchange. Full Story» (plus screen shot [...]
All it certainly is interesting but how to live further?
Ticketmaster is unbvelievable. I purchased tickets 7 months ago for the Hullabalou festival to see Dave Matthews. I paid for dead center tickets 3 rows back. Today I get an e-mail saying d/t a change in production your tickets have been cancelled and we have done our best to get you similiar seats!!! Now I am 16 rows back and off to the side!!!!!! Do those seats sound similiar????!!!! I am fuming. They basically said if you don’y like it we will refund “most” of your money. I am waiting to here from them which I know will not make anything different. How are they allowed to do this?
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[...] does not share in our belief system. Beginning in 2009, the two companies began instituting a Paperless Tickets system, which eliminated many of the rights given to a ticket owner. Transferability is limited, [...]
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