Cheated, Disappointed, And Nauseous ...or How Ticketmaster and Scalpers Screwed Me

[Farseed 0]

This is my first post, so 'hi' all.

 

So, I've been excited about getting a pair of Tool tickets for the upcoming shows in the US in May. Mind you, I've been a long time fan, bought all the albums, a DVD set, worked security for a show in TN and saw a show in NC later, and I've pre-ordered the upcoming 10,000 Days album. I'm a devout fan. I've waited with cautious optimism for a number of months for the tour announcement and the moment I could order my tickets.

 

I waited patiently, logged into Ticketmaster before the appointed sale time and pressed 'refresh' on my browser like a devout parishoner rubbing their rosary. I could not be at home at the time because we were helping with my sister-in-law's wedding that day and had to be on the road. I took my laptop and connected my PDA for wireless access. I found a way to make it happen.

 

The moment came, went through the motions.... and three times Ticketmaster returned a page that said there was a problem placing my order. Knowing time was of the essence, I tried quickly but calmly to place new orders and each time was rebuffed. Part of me knew to expect this, and within eight minutes I was seeing pages declaring the show was sold out. Deflated, I tried to let go of my lofty hopes.

 

A family member suggested trying some other sites to look for tickets. "No, they wouldn't be there now, those are secondhand sites. The tickets just went on sale, they wouldn't be there." I gave them the laptop and told them to go for it, figuring 'why not?'

 

Now to my rant. What was discovered disgusted me. eBay, StubHub, et al. had tickets. No, not just a few, but dozens of pairs of tickets. Great tickets. The tickets were being priced from 5x to 10x the original price. I was enflamed. It made me sick to my visceral being to see these jagoffs making a fortune, literally, off the band and my lack of opportunity. Somehow, scalpers had already posted auctions for tickets before they were on sale, and filled in the seat numbers within 12min after they had 'originally' gone on sale. I absolutely couldn't believe it. Tickets priced for $66 each were going for $1,199 a pair.

 

Infuriated, hurt, languished, smacked - I felt it all. I don't blame the band, because they absolutely don't support this sort of extortion. I sorta blame Ticketmaster because how else could tickets have been so available to scalpers ahead of time when the everyday devout fan never had a chance. I blame the system definitely, for how else could these carrion feeders have had the gall to gloat their tickets before they were even available to the public? They knew they were going to win before the game even started, and it made me lose confidence in the goodwill of music.

 

Disgustipatedly yours,

Farseed

[MaineFishing45 0]

Did not really know what band you were talking about, but dude I feal your pain and know what you mean and it blows. I hate people that do that, perfect example was the Xbox 360's I could really careless about them and stuff, but people were selling them for 10,000 dollars...wtf? And who would buy it that much? MY friend sold his for 8,540.89! Is that total CASH, and a ripoff? I mean there only like $400-800 dollars but still.

 

Now to your point, I don't know how they got the tickets, but those are some really cheap (pick a word) type of people! I mean who would really spend the time, just ripping off people for $$$. Its sad that thats the way it happends today in this world. You should have called ticket master, or call the box office to get tickets and stuff, but how much does ticket master get for this stuff?

[Tyssen 0]

Infuriated, hurt, languished, smacked - I felt it all. I don't blame the band, because they absolutely don't support this sort of extortion.

I think to a certain extent you do have to blame the band. They may say they don't support this sort of stuff, but if they were serious about it, they'd have a better agreement with the promoter to guard against this sort of thing happening.

[dvalkass 0]

I see how you feelt his happened to me with greenday tickets. ticket master and see tickets and stuff had run out within a few minutes. I looked on ebay and bam hundreds of tickets going for way more than the standard price. I waited and waited looking on various other sites for tickets. To my surprise i checked back on see tickets and they had thousands more tickets :S I jumped in as quick as I could to buy them luckily i got some . Next time ring one of the companies or the helpline for getting tickets and ask if you could like pre-order some or pay a little extra and have some kept by for you.

[iGuest 3]

When the ticket monopolist is the worst scalper . . . .

Cheated, Disappointed, And Nauseous

 

I had a bad experience with Ticketmaster, which eventually turned out OK.

 

I stayed up all night online to buy tix for Radiohead in Toronto from the pre-sale on the band's W.A.S.T.E. Site, but struck out. I then went into Ticketmaster the instant that sales opened there. Nothing. The scalpers got them all.

 

I then bought two tix on eBay, very close to the stage, for $180 each. But when I complained (politely) to W.A.S.T.E. By email about my double strikeout, they sold me two tix down close, dead centre, for $79 each. So I resold the eBay tix for $200 each (adding $20 each to cover listing costs), and saw them resold there the same day for $250 each.

 

I could also have sold the primo W.A.S.T.E. Tickets for up to $350 each the week before the show. Instead, we enjoyed a great concert at the original price, although I couldn't help wondering what the people around us had paid,and how many had been ripped off by Ticketmaster and its own scalping "service".

 

-reply by Catchlight