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Ticketmaster is a horrible company

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Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#161

Post by Fezzik »

teddyh wrote: post #14

Ticketmaster recently lost a class action suit, but managed to be allowed to pay the customers it unfairly charged not in money, but in coupons for Ticketmaster . http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7370600/ticketmas...

This settlement was even more bogus than the bogus sounding words make it sound. It is basically a non-remedy remedy. The judgment gave members of the class 1) 1 $2.xx voucher or 2) a "free ticket" (coupon) to a qualifying show. I was awarded a handful of the money vouchers (maybe 20 or so) and 10 or so of the "free tickets". Low and behold, when I go to redeem either of these awards I can a) only use 2 of the $2.xx vouchers at once (which is friggin absurd, that does not even cover the service fees for a show) and b) have never been able to find a single qualifying show on which I can use the "free tickets" - every single one has no qualifying tickets left.

And so the world turns and business continues as usual.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#162

Post by mulmen »

zeroer wrote: post #151
jandrese wrote: post #13

That insurance scam is only reason #8382 not to use Ticketmaster. Of course there is one reason to use Ticketmaster: you often don't get a choice anymore. The Venue box office is a joke, and Ticketmaster has an exclusive agreement for the rest so it's either them or pay even more to a scalper. This is why I go to barely any shows anymore. The ones I do go to are at the one local venue that doesn't use Ticketmaster (W…

You don't have a choice? I've never used Ticketmaster. You can too.

But that means not attending some events.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#164

Post by pedalpete »

With all the comments here regarding "why doesn't another start-up come in and disrupt this market", I'm surprised nobody has mentioned SongKick which had an exclusive to sell Adele tickets in Europe in 2015. They're making inroads, but it is a long and challenging market.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#165

Post by schwap »

droithomme wrote: post #145

> "If I can help it, I will never order another ticket from them again." I find these to be weasel words. I don't use Ticketmaster. Full stop. If your concert uses Ticketmaster, I'm not going to that. It's not a problem because all the cool acts don't use Ticketmaster. Only lame old decrepit acts use Ticketmaster anyway. And if I wanted to see those, I'd go to Vegas, and at least get a comped all you can eat buffet a…

> Only lame old decrepit acts use Ticketmaster anyway

... and a few little sports leagues like the NFL, NBA, and NHL (for primary sales).

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#167

Post by anoonmoose »

droithomme wrote: post #145

> "If I can help it, I will never order another ticket from them again." I find these to be weasel words. I don't use Ticketmaster. Full stop. If your concert uses Ticketmaster, I'm not going to that. It's not a problem because all the cool acts don't use Ticketmaster. Only lame old decrepit acts use Ticketmaster anyway. And if I wanted to see those, I'd go to Vegas, and at least get a comped all you can eat buffet a…

You're not serious, are you? As a person who goes to dozens of concerts a year, not using Ticketmaster would be a huge hassle.

Let's take just one example: I'm going to see Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in NYC. I have three options to get tickets directly:

-Ticketmaster

-In person

-Over the phone

Since I don't live in NYC, I don't want to give my CC number to some random theater employee over the phone, and I am not going to skip seeing my favorite band in the world, what do you suggest I do?

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#168

Post by xn »

toddmorey wrote: post #141
zdean wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It is a testament to our weak antitrust laws that Ticketmaster has been able to gouge the public for decades with no repercussions whatsoever." Genuinely interested to know what is keeping a nimble new startup from stepping in and blowing this up.

Dating myself by mentioning this, but when I was in college Pearl Jam (huge at the time) tried to go around Ticketmaster and got their asses handed to them. They basically had to end up cancelling and offering refunds. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/pearl-jam-taking-on-t...

I bought tickets to the San Diego show on the Vitalogy tour from ETM. They went out of business in 2000: http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jun/20/business/fi-42758

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#169

Post by venue-throwaway »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #3

Can anyone offer any evidence to confirm or dispute the rumor I frequently see online in message boards that Ticketmaster is passing most of the profit from these fees onto the venues and it's really the venues that are doing the price gouging here? The idea that is frequently floated is that Ticketmaster bears the brunt of the hate from fans in exchange for letting the performers and venues collect most of the extra…

I have some knowledge of the ticketing contract with a small independently owned venue (posting anonymously because I don't want to share their business details in an identifiable fashion). We contract with Ticketfly, a Ticketmaster competitor (Ticketfly is owned by Pandora). Ticketfly may not have as many dark patterns, but they also charge material fees (on a recent transaction, close to 30% more).

I can confirm that while Ticketfly keeps the fees, they pay the venue a pretty substantial contract-signing fee every time we renew. In this fashion, the act gets a certain percentage (even 100%) of ticket sales, but the venue ends up participating in Ticketfly's revenue stream on top of that. I'm sure Ticketmaster and others have similar strategies for creating and concealing incentives. While some ticketing companies may be abusive, there's a certain amount of letting the ticketing companies take the heat for revenue streams that others (venues and performers) benefit from, either directly or indirectly.

Separately, on one point OP is wrong: "Facility Fee" goes entirely to the facility and would be charged at the box office as well.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#170

Post by donretag »

droithomme wrote: post #145

> "If I can help it, I will never order another ticket from them again." I find these to be weasel words. I don't use Ticketmaster. Full stop. If your concert uses Ticketmaster, I'm not going to that. It's not a problem because all the cool acts don't use Ticketmaster. Only lame old decrepit acts use Ticketmaster anyway. And if I wanted to see those, I'd go to Vegas, and at least get a comped all you can eat buffet a…

The acts do not dictate the ticketing agency, the venue does. These ticketing agency will have an exclusive for every event at the venue. Occasionally, an artist, usually via their fan club, will sell tickets themselves using services like Brown Paper Tickets.

If you want to see a concert that can sell out very quickly, buying tickets online is the only option. The only time I have used TM is the past several months (I go to a lot of shows), was for a concert that eventually sold out in two minutes.

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