I hate Ticketmaster.

If the tickets went on sale at 10:00am, and TicketsNow sold them at 10:02am, then they technically sold them after they went on sale.

Ticketmaster is the reason I root for a giant comet to wipe out the Earth.

Tried to get tickets to the same show at DTE. Literally minutes after they went on sale I punched in for any ticket/best available and was informed that there were no tickets available BUT...over here we have some nice tickets for sale from Ticketsnow for 3x the price. Have since sent complaints to Michigans AG and Senators and Reps. Hopefully something will happen but I really have no faith in the system.

I, for one, welcome our new LiveMaster overlords.

Ticketmaster has always been fishy.

@torgonius: But when did they buy them?

I'm not familiar with TicketsNow's system or layout, but wouldn't it show her the price of the tickets before she purchased them? Not trying to blame the OP but how do you buy tickets without seeing the price?

Ticket master blows...many times I have tried to purchase tickets only to be pushed to their secondary ticketing site. It is crap...and should be shut down by someone. Ticketmaster is basically a monopoly at this point...and is that illegal?

Ticketmaster is such a scam. In this day and age, are they even necessary? Can't the venues sell their own tickets?

@kiltman: Man, I should have complained to the Maryland AG when I had this problem with trying to buy Baltimore Ravens tickets. The best part was getting an E-mail later saying that they had to push the sale back to the next day due to "technical problems"

@pecan pi: I'm not clear if she has an issue with the price. She has an issue with paying that price and receiving nothing. But I can see this happening because 1) She probably figured she already knew the upper price limit, since she thought she was still on the TicketBastard site and 2) They sell, or hide, the tickets so fast that you can click through the site in a panic, trying not to get shut out because your Internet connection hangs up or whatever.

@Shawn Roth: It's illegal when the feds decide it's illegal.

Similar story. My wife and I both were hop0ing to get the Buffet tickets for Las Vegas I kept hitting refresh from about 9:59 and at 10:00.45 I yelled out: "I've got two in the 'best available' search. Way up in nosebleed, but we got them". She said wait a minute, let ME check.

She went to our other computer, logged on and at 10:08 or so had 2 tickets on the FLOOR. What Gives, I ask. She told me since she had her profile saved with her AMEX card she gets better seats. So.... Just for fun, I re-log in and look again for best availabl. I get way nosebleed seats. Then I update my profile with my AMEX card info, search again and, viola! more seats on the floor level.

Clearly, the concert world is far from a level playing field.

Concert tickets will always be an irreducible dilemma to me. They are generally considered too expensive already by consumers and even some bands, but the prices are clearly FAR below their actual market value. Concert tickets have true scarcity, while usually maintaining through the roof demand.

Ticket Master et. al. have pretty much a monopoly over the ticket retailing industry, but they still enforce pricing that is far below what the market will bear. So, ticket sales are all kinds of screwy right from the start.

There is a lawsuit going on right now here in toronto because of this issue. Some guy wanted to buy tickets for a smashing pumpkins concert and as soon as the tickets were on sale, they were sold out and ticketmaster rediredted the guy to their sister website which is owned by them. It was all over the news!

@Skybolt: These would be the same feds getting free tickets to the Washington Captials and Hannah Montana concerts from the lobbyists working for TicketFraudster? Good luck with that.

@TheFuzz53: Individual venues are often so small they can't take on the workload and technology requirements of selling tickets via their own website. Since Ticketmaster has nearly a monopoly on ticket sales, where else can you go?

I know that the possibility of a day long commuter boycott will come up in discussions pertaining to MTA fare increases/corruption. Is it realistic to organize a boycott against Ticketmaster-or-whatever targeting the general public for maybe 6 months? I mean, can you live without attending an event requiring the purchase of tickets through this company? Surely one can seek out other shows or events on a smaller scale temporarily (and who knows, you might be pleasantly surprised).

@komodork: Just read of a second one starting today! [www.calgaryherald.com]

I wish them much pain!

@kiltman: Why the complaints? They informed you that they had no tickets available, and showed you an alternative purchasing method.

@pecan pi:
Its not unreasonable for 2 $50 tickets plus fees to be over $800 these days...is it?

I realize Ticketmaster isn't going to win any awards for best company, but seriously "I know what the mistake did to out family emotionally and mentally?" Come on, they are concert tickets, not life saving medications. To go so far as to claim that Ticketmaster inflicted emotional distress upon you over some Jimmy Buffet tickets is a little bit sensational. While I accept that Ticketmaster is probably taking advantage of the fact that people rarely actually read things before clicking "Ok" or "Submit" on a website, I think the problem is better solved by encouraging people to actually read what is in front of them, rather than get angry after the fact and claim they were screwed. Ticketmaster does have a virtual monopoly over the Ticketing industry, but there is a movement among some artists to break away from Ticketmaster and use alternative ticketing sources. I think the appropriate solution to this problem is for fans to lobby their favorite bands to explore venues and ticketing arrangements that are non-Ticketmaster, rather than having the government step in and tell Ticketmaster what to do.

I kind of miss the good old days of Ticketmaster before the internet....when you had to get up at the crack of dawn and wait in a line at the Ticketmaster store (which was in the customer service dept of Filene's). You got better seats AND there weren't a zillion service charges. Seeing as the only band I really see on tour is Barenaked Ladies, I just buy from their fan club...and for sports/theater I go to the box office when possible to cut out the middle man.

I can sure as hell live w/o attending any event that Shitmaster (see what I did there?) is involved with. If everyone could do the same maybe something would change.

@ludwigk:
Excellent point. There wouldn't be a secondary market for tickets if they were sold for their true value. The "Scalpers" are simply taking advantage of the fact that Ticketmaster, et al are essentially keeping the prices artificially low. What Ticketmaster is trying to do through TicketsNow is get in on the secondary market action, realizing that due to contracts with Artists,etc. they can't really raise the prices themselves.

There's a $500m class-action lawsuit against Ticketmaster Canada right now because of the TicketsNow relationship.

Not to mention the fiasco on Springsteen tickets last week.

@CowboyRob:
It's important to remember that Canada does have laws that are different from those of the United States. So a lawsuit in Canada doesn't really have much bearing on the legality of their US operations.

@kiltman: 10:01, obviously.

@Skybolt: And that will be the day they don't get campaign contributions.

@Borax-Johnson: That is easily explainable. At the time you originally requested your seats, someone else had already requested the floor seats you and your wife "found" later. One of two things happened to make those seats available: either the original prospective purchaser intentionally declined to buy the tickets or the order didn't go through (perhaps they were unable to complete their purchase in the time alloted before the tickets go back into play, for example, or they were disconnected from the internet prior to completing the purchase).

Doesn't take a conspiracy to have this happen. Just an uncompleted purchase for requested floor seats will do it.

I miss the good old days of a physical sale of tickets, and human scalpers at the door.

Camping overnight in line to see your favorite band...good times, good times.

What tcktmaster is doing is clearly fraudulent. They insist on a low base price, because they have to pay a percentage of that to the performer. Then moments after going on sale...by some miracle all of those seats have been purchased by their sister scalper-site...these they sell at the true going rate, and they don't have to share the monies with the artist or venue. Why does any venue do business with these goons?

Don

@Shawn Roth:
Simply being a monopoly is not illegal. Using your acquired power to retain the monopoly is illegal, as is certain anti-competitive means of obtaining a monopoly. But the mere fact that Ticketmaster is a monopoly isn't indicative of anything illegal.

@pecan pi: I don't know about that. I would think it's the bigger venues that would "need" Ticketmaster. A small place doesn't need to to sell online at all. For example, a couple years ago I went to a country concert in a little arts center in Homer, NY. The place held maybe 200 people, or less. They handled all the ticketing themselves. I called with a CC number and they mailed me nice paper tickets. It didn't seem to be a burden to them. Given the choice between dealing with TM and having to call during business hours, I know what I'd rather.

@Borax-Johnson: Duh. I'm an idiot. You're right about the Amex advantage. I misunderstood why you were getting better seats. However, I actually have gotten better seats than my initial attempt by waiting to see what gets thrown back in by uncompleted purchases.

Apologies, Borax-Johnson.

@ryan89: It is entirely unreasonable for a $100 purchase to balloon into $800 in fees. Absolutely unreasonable, and obviously so.

Even if the tickets were $200 together, how do you even justify $600 in fees?

I've given up even trying to get concert tickets any more. It's depressing, but I'm tired of all the BS. I'd love to go see Jimmy Buffett, but as much as I like him (and other artists), it's just not worth it.

@richcreamerybutter: every person that's complained to me about being pushed to ticketsnow has still gone on to willingly buy the tickets...which in my mind sort of makes them part of the problem.

How is that not fraud? Why isn't Ticketmaster under investigation? Their 25-100% markup on normal tickets isn't enough, now they just send them to their own scalper site. Someone needs to take them down.

It irritates me greatly when people compare this merger with the Sirius XM merger. Although there are some similarities, there was definately ZERO evil factor in the satellite radio merger.

@Pylon83: I'm with you on that, but i think the "distress" may come from being cheated out of money. $800 is no small amount (no matter who you are), so essentially flushing it down the toilet is kind of distressing.

@Papercutninja:
I understand being upset that the tickets don't exist, but a rational individual would realize that the money will be refunded if the tickets are fraudulent, noting to get "distressed" over.

I haven't gone to a concert (for which I had to purchase tickets) for many years for this very reason. I would have no problem getting up stupidly early to stand in line with an almost guarnateed payoff of walking away with a decent seat, but that system has been replaced the new one where the only way to get tickets, usually shitty ones, is to overpay these asshats who control the entire market. F the MFers.

Fortunately we advertise with the local paper a lot and the sales rep showers us with box seats to many shows, if not for that I'd never go.

@kiltman: 10:01

@Papercutninja: LiveNation is not much better. 25% service charges!!!

@Skybolt: We have a local place called Variety Playhouse that gets a lot of indie acts. They sell online, all they need is a merchant account and a database. All the tickets are either will called or mailed. It's not much different than operating a ticket booth.

@DeanOfAllTrades: TicketMaster has 30% service charges on some seats.

I live in a mid- to small-sized market, and there is plenty of good music to go see by small, local acts. I can see some talented people for not much money, sometimes free. The local music school gives faculty recitals, sometimes free. The clubs get decent local talent.

I don't go to big-name acts anymore, it's not worth it, not by a longshot.

@Papercutninja: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

@tc4b: no, they bought them at 10:00:01. god forbid they let people buy them before they get their cut.

Ticketmaster = Satan's minions.