Can't someone or something make ticket master go away? are they even relevent in today's world?

They should pay him 13 bucks extra in inconvenience fees.

@LeChiffre: If there was any other way to purchase tickets, I'd do it. But, these places have signed exclusivity contracts with ticketmaster. I can't get tickets for shows in my local hall by walking down there. I have to go online and get them shipped to me. It sucks, big time.

I will rejoin on tyhe day that ticketmaster takes a nose dive into oblivion.

$13 in convienence fees? Wtf?
I wonder how many other poor buggers were swindled when this occured.

@Chumas: Shouldn't that be more like them paying Chris $13 for inconvenience fees?

@LeChiffre: You don't listen to the Planet Money Podcast, do you?

@Chumas: Exactly, I really liked how Ticketmaster was going to refund everything except for the cost of his conveniently booking the wrong tickets because of their mistake.

@AshCatScram: I've just stopped going to most concerts in general. There are still non-Ticketmaster venues available (Six-Flags, free radio station sponsored events, etc.).

@LeChiffre: We really need a mass boycott.

@LeChiffre: I didn't realize how bad Ticketmaster was until I bought tickets for a show on another service (yeah, that's right, a show that didn't use ticketmaster *gasp!*). The tickets were comparable to the face value of the TM tickets, but... there were no stupid hidden fees, no "shipping fee" for will-call. It was a amazing, I really wish the monopoly that is The Master would burn in hell.

Ticketmaster is evil. 2nd only to eBay/PayPal. One of the worst companies ever on the face of the earth.

@Chumas: Seems like a sound business model to me. If you sell a ticket to a concert you have a limited supply but if accidentally sell and refund - minus fees- for sound alike acts you have an infinite supply.

Now I have to return these Jonus Brother tickets, turns out they are a Baroque Quartet selling out a stadium tour to tweens.

According to the linked article, the guy received a full refund including his fees (plus a gift card.) It said he had to contact them multiple times, but it doesn't say anything about the newspaper having to intervene on his behalf. The only thing it says is that the listing on ticketmaster.com wasn't changed until the newspaper contacted them.

Unless I'm missing something...

And you just know he wasn't the only one who was confused, and other folks will just be screwed for not knowing how to get media attention for it.

That is, unless Ticketmaster decided to be a responsible company (*snort*) and contact anyone else who had possibly been wronged by the error (*giggle*) and ask them if they'd like a refund (*cackling*) and also not have to pay a "convenience fee" (*collapses in a fit of insane laughter*).

@ben: You're right, it says the Star-Tribune got them to change the listing on their Web site.

@LeChiffre: I am not sure how the government has not intervened in Ticketmaster, growing up there was also Ticketron, which Ticketmaster bought out... I wish there was a much better service that didn't ream me in fees.
When I had tickets for Mighty Mighty Bosstones in LA, (and I drove from Phoenix) the wrong time was printed on the tickets, the show started an hour earlier, I expected to miss the first band, but not the 2nd also, when we went in, Bosstones were starting.. Ticketmaster blamed the venue so they would not give a partial refund. They are slime.

I'll buy his ticket! I still have a fan Peter Noone autographed for me when I was 12. (It was in 1996. I also saw the Monkees reunion tour that year).

Pretty good scam, You can buy 1 ticket to have in stock in your company, then sell that 1 ticket to a million people then refund their money minus the hidden fees then you make a lot of money.

Also whats so convenient about getting the wrong ticket, all of the money should be refunded and if not they should start a class action lawsuit because if they let this go then many other companies will follow this business model and make profits through hidden fees with out actually selling anyone anything.

Ok he is an idiot. Go to ticketmaster.com and search for "teen idols". The results make it completely clear what you are buying tickets too. The results are TITLED "Event Location Date
Teen Idols featuring Peter Noone, Mickey Dolenz and Mark Lindsay
Grand Casino Mille Lacs Event Center
Onamia, MN
Fri, 10/09/09
06:00 PM
Find Tickets"

And then you click on it, and it again says the artists. Its really not that hard.

What'@sweetnjoe:
What's really even easier is to read that Ticketmaster eventually realized their mistake, and fixed the listing.

Back to the good ol' "Blame the OP" game, eh?

@sweetnjoe: RTFA.

Did it occur to you that they updated the listing because of the fact that they had to refund money because of the confusion?

Getting the wrong tickets was SOOOOO convenient...

@Smashville_makes his own comments at home: @Smashville_makes his own comments at home: They removed the "picture" is all they did. There is no referance that they removed anything else at all, but I would like the consumerist to retract this part of their article:

Ticketmaster offered Chris a refund minus $13 in "convenience fees," but the Star Tribune interceded and Ticketmaster issued a full refund to Chris and any others who were inconvenienced with the accidental bait-and-switch.

This is completely inaccurate if you "RTFA", because he was refunded way before the "Star-Tribune" interceded. They only removed the "pic and bio" after the Star Tribune came in to the "rescue". The other events that have the Oldies Teen Idols in other states have the same exact performance name.

Anyway, Stout said he was brushed off once by Grand Casino and three times by Ticketmaster's customer service center -- you know, the company that charged him $13 in "convenience" fees -- before he was finally offered a refund.

Ticketmaster offered a full refund, and notified ALL patrons (that weren't dense and understood the heading), and removed the 'offending' Teen Idol picture and bio that WERE indeed incorrect.

Concerts are always listed with an PERFORMANCE NAME. Find me even one listing that does not have an perfomance name on it. So I know for a absolute fact that SOMETHING was listed under that heading, and the name of the tour is not going to be put as an artist. And as far as I can find, The BAND Teen Idols has not even toured since 2003.

You RTFA and explain that.

He got the ticket he bought. Its not like he bought one thing and received something else.

@sweetnjoe: You my friend are a genius. Did you even bother to RTA? When he originally purchased there was a picture of the band he intended to see listed next to the "Teen Idols" listing and the listing mentioned nothing about Peter Noone, Mickey Dolenz and Mark Lindsay. And TM has since updated the listing to correct to the error and prevent others from doing the same thing.

@YouDidWhatNow?:
Yup, service charges are a hell of a lot worse than child labor, health and safety violations etc.

@sweetnjoe: If he wasn't the only one who got confused, then there clearly was a problem.

@sweetnjoe: Did you seriously have to post a second Blame the OP post after you got called out for it the first time?

@Bitter_Old_Punk: "I am not sure how the government has not intervened in Ticketmaster. . ." Quite simply they are making use of all the fees they collect by buying off politicians.

@Cat_In_A_Hat: Really? WHERE does it say they changed anything other than the Pic & Bio?

The site even posted the Chicago band's bio next to the date.

The performance name of this tour is the same ALL around the country -

Teen Idols Tour starring Peter Noone, Mickey Dolenz & Mark Lindsay

The likelyhood of all these events having the right performance name and this one event having the wrong one is - very low.

In any case, he RECEIVED A fucking gift card for his troubles even after a refund that he shouldnt have received because he IMPORPERLY read the event name. Why is no one saying "Wow, TM, that's a nice thing to do"?

They didn't have to do anything. But they did.

I refuse to buy any tickets thru ticketmaster. I don't know how they get off charging me to print my own tickets, doesn't me printing them out save ticketmaster money??

Also I looked up 2 concerts recently and one had a ticket printing fee of $4.95 and the other $2.95. Why the difference?

@sleze69: Six Flags uses their own system that charges a convenience fee for printing tickets as well.

This reminds me of something the University Musical Society did to me once. Buy tickets, pay convenience fee, they cancel show, here's your money back but we keep the convenience fee. WTF? I considered fighting it with a chargeback but I'm lazy

@AnthonySc: Those aren't ticket printing fees.

They are always 2.50 (and sometimes free)

I think the worst set of fees I had to pay was a 7 dollar convenience fee, a 3 dollar ticket printing fee, a 10 dollar parking lot fee, and then I had to pay 10 dollars for parking when I got there.

I think sweetnjoe works for Ticketmaster. Or owns stock in it.

@JollyJumjuck: Or I just love blaming the OP.

@sweetnjoe:

You are wrong, the price was $4.95 for me to print my own tickets. I just ran another thru for a different show and the TicketNOW fee is $1.75 for Journey at Richmond VA. 2 seats.

$2.50 for the same for Journey in NC.

@sweetnjoe: Um. Shill?

@sweetnjoe: Another post of sweetnjoe defending TM. I call corporate shill shenanigans.

@AnthonySc: TicketsNow is not Ticketmaster's primary website. It's a secondary market. I think they have different stuff on there. Are you even on ticketmaster.com?

@DH405: lol dude... funny stuff. great picture of yourself

@LeChiffre: Unfortunately the only way for me to get my tickets for the house of blues by me is via ticketmaster, or hope that they still have tickets on the day of the even which is unlikely.

@LeChiffre: I know, I've never understood why they are necessary in an age of easy direct-to-consumer distribution through the internet.

@Dragonis: You know what's even worse? When someone makes a vague, contrarian post that adds nothing to the discussion.

Examples, Dragonis. I'm sure we'd all appreciate them.

@sweetnjoe: So...how's the weather under your bridge?

@kaceetheconsumer: I hope you didn't hurt yourself falling down while you were having the fit of insane laughter.

I like the progression.

My cable company (Charter) does a similar thing occasionally with movies listed on their program guide on the cable box. Once in awhile a channel is running an old classic with the same or similar name as a more current flick, and Charter or the subcontractor who does their program guide info will populate the old film's description with the current movie's synopsis. Surprise!

@ben: That's the biggest part of the problem. It takes media attention to get companies like TicketMaster to do nothing above and beyond, but just to meet their obligations. There are still some companies around whose reputations are such that you can buy with complete confidence (LL Bean comes to mind) but there are so many others that have to be hit with a publicity stick before they'll move.