It's a Start Anyway...Ticketmonster Repays for Deceptive Ticket Sales

Last year, I tried to obtain tickets for Bruce Springsteen's Albany, NY show when it went onsale via the Ticketmaster site. I got in smoothly but then it said that the show was sold out there but additional tickets were being sold via ticketsnow.com. When I went to that site though, the ticket prices being on par with what a scalper would charge...I remember thinking, "Ticketmaster is pricey but how on earth are they getting away with advocating what is essentially an effing ticket scalping site too???!!" Needless to say, I didn't buy tickets.

Well it looks like Ticketmonster now has to pony up to all those people who did buy tickets via that route. The NY Post reports today that Ticketmonster is actually providing refunds (though not full refunds, the bastards) for the deceptive selling tactics used for 14 of Springsteen's shows last year. They're saying it was a "glitch" in the system that caused it to happen; riiiight. Did you know the definition of "glitch" is "being they got called to the mat on the situation and then Springsteen publically berating you for it"?

Thousands of Bruce Springsteen fans will receive refunds for deceptive ticket-sales practices by a unit of Ticketmaster, the Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday.

The FTC said Ticketmaster, which is now part of Live Nation Entertainment Inc., will repay fans "upward of a million dollars" after it used "deceptive bait-and-switch tactics" to sell tickets at 14 Springsteen concerts last year.

Fans complained last February that tickets to two Springsteen concerts at Jersey's Izod Center appeared to sell out instantly, and then they were directed to Ticketmaster's TicketsNow.com subsidiary to buy pricier tickets. The incident, which Ticketmaster blamed on a "glitch," sparked outrage from fans, lawmakers and the Boss himself.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz told reporters yesterday that the investigation into the practices of the ticket reselling due to the Springsteen complaints had uncovered "pretty shocking" practices.

One such practice was that TicketsNow sold "phantom tickets" without telling the consumers they did not actually have the tickets, but were hoping to get them.

The FTC said TicketsNow was also not fully refunding fans for the premium-priced tickets it could not deliver.

In connection with the settlement, the FTC sent letters to all major ticket resellers demanding better transparency in dealing with fans.

"Clearly, consumers deserve better," Leibowitz said. "They deserve to know what they're buying, including the risk their tickets won't materialize."

The Springsteen uproar threatened to undermine Ticketmaster's merger with the concert-promoting giant Live Nation, which was eventually approved in January.

News: DC Venue Black Cat Kicking Ticketmaster to Curb, Using Ticket Alternative

The Black Cat is a rad middle-size venue here in Washington, DC (roughly 500-800 people I'd guess-timate), and consistently books great acts. Owner Dante Ferrando has long held the respect of many because while he's a music club owner, it's obvious he's also a music fan (Ferrando had been a drummer in many of the DC HardCore bands), and acts accordingly. Be it because TicketMaster is so pricey, or to avoid giving money to the competition, I know an entire community of music fans is singing Ferrando's praises right now.

Venerable D.C. music venue the Black Cat announced today that it will stop selling advance tickets through Ticketmaster, instead switching to competitor Ticket Alternative. The change will become effective September 25, so all shows that are taking place after that date are already on sale via Ticket Alternative.

In a strongly worded release, the venue made plain the reasons for the switch: Ticket Alternative's service charges are lower, typically $2.50 or less for the vast majority of Black Cat shows; and Ticketmaster's impending merger with Live Nation.

In a conversation with DCist, owner Dante Ferrando explained that while the local version of Ticketmaster has been relatively easy to deal with versus the oft-maligned national corporation, the company's merger with Live Nation made continuing to work with them impossible. Live Nation operates several venues in the Washington, D.C. market, including the Warner Theatre and Nissan Pavilion. "It just doesn't make any sense to be handing a portion of your shows to your competition," Ferrando said.
According to Ferrando, tickets for Black Cat shows that are $10 and under will be charged a flat $2 fee by Ticket Alternative, while for tickets that are $11-$20, it will be $2.50. The Black Cat's box office will remain free of all service charges. (Source)

News: DC in on the Springsteen/Ticketmaster Debacule

You may recall this story from a few months back when people buying tickets for the Meadowlands shows were sent to TicketsNow.com, or what I like to call "Ticketmaster's Sanctioned Scalping Site." Fans, and Springsteen himself, raised a ruckus and as part of its settlement, Ticketmaster will create a wall between its site and TicketsNow.com for one year, and establish a lottery where fans who filed complaints could purchase tickets to Mr. Springsteen’s New Jersey shows. Seems their "wall" is about as flimsy as those go-go beads Greg Brady used for a door because the same thing happened for the show here in DC

Hundreds of concertgoers who thought they bought tickets for a coming Bruce Springsteen show from Ticketmaster but instead purchased seats from TicketsNow, a resale service owned by Ticketmaster, will receive reimbursements or tickets to another of Mr. Springsteen’s shows, The Washington Post reported. More than 300 fans said that they were misled when they bought the tickets to Mr. Springsteen’s show this Monday night at the Verizon Center in Washington. In February, Ticketmaster said that it would change its sales policies as part of a settlement with the State of New Jersey after more than 2,000 Springsteen fans there made similar complaints. In a statement at Mr. Springsteen’s official Web site, brucespringsteen.net, his manager, Jon Landau, wrote that there “appear to be chronic problems” with how Ticketmaster uses TicketsNow and that he and Mr. Springsteen “deeply resent the abuse of our fans.” (Source)