Editorial: Ticketmaster Is A Scam
Mastering the Ticketmaster.com process is not something that comes easy. It takes cunning, honing, dry runs and live-action experience. It takes patience and dedication. But for years, the effort and constant refreshing was worth it when you pulled up tickets for the show.
When Phish was touring towards the end of its career, I was at my ticketmaster zenith. I masterfully maneuvered tickets for the reunion show at MSG, the subsequent shows at Hampton and scored pavilion seats left and right. On-sale dates, re-releases, it didn’t matter. I was on it. I never got shut out. As long as you put in the effort, you were rewarded.
But in the recent past, something has happened that has made getting tickets more of a crapshoot then ever before. I don’t know exactly what it was, but I have a hunch it has something to do with the 12 presales and various “auctions” that now accompany Ticketmaster on-sales.
On Monday, I slipped back into “Ticketmaster Master” mode to grab two tickets for my wife and I to check out Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden, a venue that claims on its website to have, “a flexible seating capacity ranging from 3,300 to 7,000.” When I pulled up the Event Page a few minutes early to do a little scouting – like a good Ticketmaster.com veteran does – I noticed no fewer than three presales had already taken place. One for some fan club and two more for Amex card holders. Oh, and something called the “Hot Seat Package” that apparently starts at $304.50. But hey – it does include a merchandise gift and a special laminate. That’s gotta be worth the extra $200, right? Just ask the people who signed up for the Police fan club what their “special gift” was and if it was worth the extra cost. Read on for more of Luke’s rant…
Despite all that, when I clicked refresh at exactly 11 am, I still expected to score tickets no problem. I breezed through the always challenging “enter the number of tickets” scroll. I successfully read and entered in the gibberish words “chronic upon” to prove I was not a computer program. And at 11:00:04, I expected two tickets to pop up. Not necessarily good tickets, but something. Then, like a slap in the face, there was the “We couldn’t find tickets to match your request” page. WHAT? Tickets had been on sale for four seconds. No matter how popular an act, you can’t tell me it is possible to sell thousands of tickets in four seconds. People wouldn’t even have had time to enter their name, address, etc. Those of us with pre-existing Ticketmaster accounts, another key to past successes, would not be able to enter our usernames and passwords in four seconds. It all seemed very fishy to me and the anger began to rise quickly.
Ironically, four hours after the Plant/Krauss debacle, and after two days of nothing but that “There are no tickets available” screen, I magically, mysteriously and miraculously pulled up a pair in the orchestra. Row H for Van Morrison at the United Palace Theater. Four clicks and they were mine. How does that happen? Why does it happen? Sold out for days and then randomly, four good seats are mine.
I emailed ticketmaster for some answers. I asked what their logic is on the presales. I asked how they could sellout a show in four seconds. I asked how and why tickets are sold out one minute and there the next. I expect Van Morrison and Robert Plant will both be long retired before I hear back from Ticketmaster.
Pearl Jam took on Ticketmaster years ago and failed. Tickets.com and Music Today’s ticketing arm were saviors for about 11 seconds until their “service fees” and other made-up sounding charges just about caught up with those of ticketmaster. It’s all very depressing.
It seems now, between the process and the cost, your best bet to get a good value on a show is to wait till day before or day of and hit up Craigslist for a discounted ticket from a desperate seller. I know a ton of people here in NYC that adopted this strategy. If you don’t mind sweating it out and putting a small bit of trust in a stranger, it’s not a bad way to go. It worked for various friends for The Police, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, The Beastie Boys and the White Stripes. All premiere concerts.
It used to be, your best shot at tickets was a dedicated effort, a few little hints and a little luck. Now, you need a gold Amex card or a presale password. Of course you could always just buy them through theTicketmaster auction. If you’ve got enough money, you can get good seats to anything. If you’re just an Average Joe, better start filling out that Amex application.
How have your ticketmaster experiences worked out lately? Leave us a note letting us know if you agree…
right on Luke! ’bout freaking time this op/ed piece was done! I had this same talk after I couldn’t score tix for numerous shows…If it’s in NYC, I highly suggest getting Andrew Cuomo’s (ny attorney general) involved. Believe it or not, he got involved when NY Giants Fans couldn’t score tix for the superbowl…thanks HT for the exposure on this issue.
F Ticketmaster. I can’t stand buying two $25 tickets for $80.
ticketmaster is in bed with themsleves, and it’s not pretty for anyone but them
sweet rant
Great piece Luke!
I’ve tried in the past and have had some luck but it’s worked only pulling one ticket.
http://www.simplehelp.net/2006/07/30/how-to-get-tickets-for-any-ticketmaster-event/
It’s a lost cause.. I’ve finally given up, and just use a ticket broker when I want tickets to a concert. Sure, I’m paying more, but if I keep playing with TM, I’m liable to throw my computer out the window, and that’ll probably cost more in the long run.. :)
Great article…you’re right about TM. Springsteen tickets at the roughly 20,000 seat United Center sold out in about 1 minute! IMPOSSIBLE. Fortunately they added a second night, but the best I could get was 300 section. My new theory for arena/amphitheatre shows is to sweat it out just as you said. A little to risky for the smaller theaters. But don’t leave the artists and/or their management out…they know about the pre-sales and AMEX Gold sh*t out there.
ticket “master” my ass … you nailed it luke. ticket bastard it is.
It’s complete crap! It’s the definition of monopoly in this country and I can’t believe the only band in the spotlight that’s stepped up is Pearl Jam. We need a revolution!
Ticketmaster always reopens “sold out” arena shows on the day of the performance. Granted, they are not the best seats, but I got great seats to the back right of the stage for Clapton/Winwood. Best seats I’ve ever had at an arena show and that includes the floor. Check at 10:30 or 11:00 day of. Some usually open up.
it’s the service and convenience fees, which sometimes amount to 35-40% of the face value of the ticket, that kills me every time. seems there should be something illegal in that formula. they achieved a monopoly and proceeded to start gouging their customers.
I have never had much luck when Phish ruled my life. I changed my strategy from the computer to the box office. I scored tickets for Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Neil Diamond and the Police by going to the mall to be first in line. I was always fortunate enough to get tickets, but I found myself sitting behind the stage for three of those shows. Good shows despite sitting in the worst section in the venue. That’s what 1st in line will get you. The 3rd person in line for Paul McCartney, did not get tickets! Smell you later Ticketbastard!
I used to be a ticket ninja, scoring great seats to any concert on sale. When we got to the venue and made our way to our seats, my friends would marvel at how good the seats were and the free beers were-a-flowin’ for yours truly. Not any more. I find myself in the same quandry…pre-sales out the wazoo, some from the artist’s mailing list, some from Music Today, some from whomever else. You;’re right, now it IS a crap shoot. Even the venues are getting in on the action wih their own “special” packages. Once again, greed killing one of the most beautiful things in the world, music.
I need to search through, but somewhere I have a Pearl Jam boot (I want to say Soldier Field ‘95?) where the crowd busts out into a spontaneous “TICKET MASTER SUCKS!” chant. It’s epic. So necessary.
Found it. For your listening pleasure, Little Wing Tease, Ticket Master sucks chant, and eV talking some. Pearl Jam, Soldier Field, 1995-07-11.
http://www.mediafire.com/?g0docimgjdn
amen, brother! you obviously touched on a chord with everyone!!
It seems that we’re stuck with the monopoly that is Ticketmaster. I spent five years as a ticket broker, but have since moved on and decided to share my knowledge with the masses at
Why do I need to have ticketmaster keep burning holes in my wallet? I guess I like the abuse.
There’s gotta be a very good reason why they’ve continued to succeed despite spawning pool after pool of increasingly irate customers. I think it starts with the agents who book the big name performers. They probably get a hefty kickback by arranging to sell exclusively through ticketmaster—my guess is that the performers we know and love don’t even know about it or don’t care enough to… (ugh) just disappointing.
It disgusts me how much these same performers are venerated for donating to various good causes yet they do nothing to help respecting fans who made them rich in the first place.
Second, they are faceless middlemen in entire scheme and their employees don’t feel the hurt when customers are unable to make their anger known. Feel free to dial up your local ticketmaster and tell them how you feel, even if you aren’t planning on buying tickets:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/h/customer_serve.html
*Someone* has got to get to the bottom of this. When is the government going to go after the rat bastards that get away with the big scams again? Do we have to wait for another Enron?
As for me, I’m not going to another show sold by ticketmaster. I know the no-name shows aren’t nearly as entertaining, but f*ck—I’ve gotta have at least a little self-respect.
[...] 1. We loved Hidden Track for their weekly features but they also speak their mind with a great editorial by Luke on Ticketbastard. [...]
How is this for a real kicker? Some people who used presale codes from fan clubs or from citibank or similar for the Police final concert at Madison Square Garden were sold good seats with their presale codes and then had their seats changed without their consent and without notice, long after the good seats all sold out, to seats that are far far worse. Yes, that is right, TicketBastard sold MANY people seats for this concert during presales — people who had codes and scored excellent seats — and then went back and changed those seats to horrible seats in the worst tier on the far side of the arena.
Why would they do this? Because they sold seats that were not valid for the configuration being used for the concert. And whose mistake was this? Most certainly some kind of mistake between TicketBastard, the venue, and the band. And who will suffer from it? The fans. The fans with presale codes. The dedicated fans who are fan club members. The fans who got in early and scored hot seats right away. No, they did not get upgraded to better sections. No, they did not get equivalent seats. They were shuffled off to the crappiest seats available, the ones no one would buy.
Talk about bastards. Jesus H Christ. Bait and Switch thievery!