Is Ticketmaster Taking Advantage?

Tickets Going to Online Scalpers, Resale Companies, Not Public

Feb 8, 2009

Ticketmaster is under fire for its suspicious sales practices and affiliations with sister companies like TicketsNow.

Fans everywhere have been disappointed by a number of so-called "pre-sale" and "public sale" mishaps on Ticketmaster's website. The controversy over Ticketmaster's sales practices has gotten thicker recently over the web sales for bands like Flight of the Conchords and Bruce Springsteen.

"Pre-Sales" Turn into E-Scalping

While Ticketmaster boasts the opportunity for fans with a special password to purchase "pre-sale" tickets, they are often sold out before anyone gets a chance to purchase. The same thing happens when the "public" tickets officially go on sale. Moments later, however, countless tickets are found to be available on other websites like eBay, craigslist, and most suspiciously, TicketsNow, which was purchased by none other than Ticketmaster over a year ago.

The most upsetting thing for fans is that other websites put concert tickets up for sale at highly inflated prices - tickets to see New Zealand folk rockers Flight of the Conchords, originally priced at approx $50 CDN are now on sale for over $200 per ticket.

Springsteen Expresses Upset Over TicketsNow Resales

Bruce Springsteen has been quoted as calling these practices an "abuse" of the fans, but Ticketmaster argues that TicketsNow is "simply fulfilling the demand for tickets from fans willing to pay more." Willing, though, seems a stretch. Rather, fans who are desperate to see their favourite bands live in concert have no choice but to succumb to these resale websites' inflated prices.

Apologies Not Good Enough For Fans Left Without Tickets

The entire situation became even further complicated when fans reported that tickets were put on sale on the inflated resale websites prior to the official web sales dates on Ticketmaster, making it even more difficult for anyone to get a ticket. Thousands of complaints have been issued, but the most Ticketmaster has offered is an apology. In the meantime, they continue to provide the majority of the tickets to their events to resale websites, rather than making them available to the public at face value.

What's more, Ticketmaster charges a preposterous service fee of $10.75 per ticket on all web sales, whether they are being mailed out to the buyer or not. In fact, if they are being mailed to you, expect an even heftier fee. They also take a 15% cut of any ticket resale that is being made on TicketsNow. It seems impossible that practices like these have been ignored for so long, but with no competition, fans don't have much of a choice.

The copyright of the article Is Ticketmaster Taking Advantage? in Consumer Alerts/Product Recalls is owned by Andrea Beca. Permission to republish Is Ticketmaster Taking Advantage? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Feb 10, 2009 2:59 PM

Guest :

I FEEL THE PAIN! KEITH URBAN TICKETS WENT ONSALE TODAY BUT FUNNY THING IT WAS SOLD OUT hmmmmmmmm

Mar 5, 2009 1:58 PM

Guest :

I totally agree ! What you need to do is create a link to government officals, so angry consumers can email directly to them. This is the only way to get someone who can do something invovled in this conspiracy.

Mar 11, 2009 8:20 AM

Guest :

Yeah totally was planning on making the trip from Newfoundland, Canada to Boston to see Flight of the Conchords but I just can't justify paying over $100us for tickets originally priced at $38us. The crappy thing is that I also planned on catching game 2 of the NHL playoffs (I'm a huge Bruins fan) while in Boston. However, StubNow, TicketsNow, etc. Are already selling playoff tickets while tickets for playoff games are not even on the market yet. Its funny that I stumbled on this article while I was shopping for tickets to both.