Stupid Ticketmaster (rant)...

[Sdallnct]

So my 14 year old really wants to go see this concert, he does all the research etc, and finds out the tickets go on sale, on line at Ticketmaster at 10:00am this morning. I figure what the heck, I like the group and I have not taken him to a concert in about four years, made my son a "deal" regarding this concert and getting homework done ON TIME and figured I'd order.

So right at 9:59 I have the web page up hitting refresh and sure enough right at 10:00 you can have it look for the "best available" seats. Well it says the best available are lawn tickets! Well I'm old so I don't want to sit in the lawn, but whatever so I buy them, print the receipt and set to go. But then even tho I'm sure tickets went on sale at other place, pre-sale, etc, I'm still kind of miffed I couldn't get reserved seating, in seats. (this is one of those typical outdoor venues where 1/2 of the seats are reserved in seats, while the rest is lawn seating) So for fun, I go thru again and ask for best available tickets and it has some of the reserved tickets! I then hit refresh and find even better tickets. So then I buy them, figuring I can cancel the general seating lawn tickets I bought earlier.

No where on the site is there cancel so I call. Put on hold for 20 minutes and the person says "all sales are final". I try to stay calm and said I wanted the best available tickets and your system screwed up. She said that is normal that tickets go and come off of "availability". So then I ask why it doesn't say that on the site? Finally she says "well since you just did it 30 minutes ago, I will cancel the order for the lawn tickets and give you a full refund". She told me to wait an hour or two and it should show canceled on-line.

So I'm checking now and guess what? There are even better tickets available. WTF??? I'm not going to try to switch again, I just wanted reserved seating, and got that. But what a terrible system. I ordered once on line for them before and actually got really good tickets. This time it sucked!

[jaeufraser]

As someone who has used ticketmaster before...

Yes, it sucks...badly.

[Matthew Chmiel]

Unless you know the show is going to sell out instantly OR the show is pretty much "general admission" in the entire veniue, do not use Ticketmaster's online service. Ticketmaster sucks, but they're online service sucks more.

If you're going to a show that has reserved seating, do one of the two things when tickets go on sale...

A. Go directly to the venue the concert/show is being held at.
B. Go to a Ticketmaster agent where you are able to pick your own seat.

With Ticketmaster online, you're not going to get to pick which seat you want. It's going to select it for you.

[Deftones]

I was pissed the other day when I purchased 2 tickets to a show. The tickets were $22 each. I ended up paying $67.50 after surcharges. Ok, so let me get this straight. Just for using your "service" I'm paying for, basically, a full other ticket.

[Sdallnct]

Originally Posted by Matthew Chmiel

Unless you know the show is going to sell out instantly OR the show is pretty much "general admission" in the entire veniue, do not use Ticketmaster's online service. Ticketmaster sucks, but they're online service sucks more.

If you're going to a show that has reserved seating, do one of the two things when tickets go on sale...

A. Go directly to the venue the concert/show is being held at.
B. Go to a Ticketmaster agent where you are able to pick your own seat.

With Ticketmaster online, you're not going to get to pick which seat you want. It's going to select it for you.

Gotcha. Will note for the future.

I'm not one of those who has to have front row or anything. I go to a concert once every couple of years. So I didn't really care how good or bad the reserved seats where, I just wanted reserved and was willing to pay for them (almost $20 more per ticket!).

I saw this group by myself once before (DMB) coupel of years ago, but I had ordered from their own site and got excellent tickets as they do pre-sale stuff. But I didn't know my son would want to go and see them so missed the pre-sale, so had to go thru Ticketmaster.

[monkeyboy]

Yeah, I got a bunch of Nine Inch Nails tickets, only to find later on that I could have had MUCH better seats for the same price. The surcharges are ridiculous.

Maybe you can sell your extra tickets on e-bay and make a little profit?

[griz]

I don't care for Ticketmaster, but did well last week, albeit for a not that popular artist in a probably not too large of a venue.

My wife has been on a Rodney Crowell kick lately (country music artist that's been around a while). We are going to San Diego in September and he just happens to be playing at Viejas (Indian casino an hour from SD) and I look for tickets and they don't go onsale for 2 more hours. Cool, decent chance to get decent tickets. I kept refreshing several minutes before they went onsale and scored 1st row, right section, seats 3-4. I'm sure there weren't very many people competing for these tickets, but it made me feel pretty good. Although the $30 tickets ended up over $42 with all the crap added.

[dvd182]

Originally Posted by griz

Although the $30 tickets ended up over $42 with all the crap added.

This is the worst part, all of the service and venue charges.

[monkeyboy]

Originally Posted by dvd182

This is the worst part, all of the service and venue charges.

Yeah, I can understand a service charge per transaction, but hitting us with an $8 fee per ticket is robbery.

[pedagogue]

Ahh...Dave tickets. Go through the Warehouse and you can usually score some pretty good tix. They put on a great show....even with the nuevo fans and some of their less than great newer songs.

-pedagogue

[Tradnor]

Originally Posted by Sdallnct

She said that is normal that tickets go and come off of "availability".

This is true, and there really isn't any way to avoid it. When you submit a ticket request, it reserves those seats and will hold them up to six minutes for you to complete the ordering process. So the first ten people who order (say) get the twenty best tickets, and if you order after them you'll be behind them. But then only half those people actually complete the order, so after a little while there are seats available in front of you again.

[Sdallnct]

Originally Posted by pedagogue

Ahh...Dave tickets. Go through the Warehouse and you can usually score some pretty good tix. They put on a great show....even with the nuevo fans and some of their less than great newer songs.

-pedagogue

Yea, I got to see him in Colorado (in fact I was at the show they recorded and came out with a Live CD - the one at Colorado University) and had bought great tickets thru The Warehouse. They did put on a great show. But I had no real plans of going out of my way to see him again, so I missed buy through the The Warehouse. And recently my son has been listening to DMB, so he wanted to go.

[pedagogue]

I have been meaning to get to a show or two. I actually just missed out on a show down in FL. Someone was selling the tixs....but for some reason I couldn't go (either it just happened, or i'll be traveling later when it is....I can't remember)

[greg9x]

I like the $4 'delivery charge' per ticket for them to email them to you...

[SunMonkey]

Ticketmaster is the worst "service" I have ever come across. I refuse to use them.

[kevin75]

i am glad that i found this last night. there is a show coming that i wanted to see and i was going to order a ticket online considering it's gonna be 2 hrs. away. well today i was in the city where it's gonna be so i stopped and found a better ticket than what was available online.

so i bought a $52 dollar ticket for $60. nothing like a 15% surcharge to reinforce my hatred of ticketmaster.

[criptik28]

Trying to contact Ticketmaster's customer service on the phone is damn_near impossible.

[Green Smurf]

I hate Ticketmaster, it's disgusting how much they rape you in charges. I wish there was another way to get tickets.

[tasha99]

I had the same thing happen a couple years ago--bought seats way in the back, then went online a day later and found 8th row center seats. I tried to sell my other tickets back, but they wouldn't take them. I ended up making a sign and selling them outside the concert for about 3/4 what I paid for them. That sucked, but I did get really good seats without paying a scalper, so I still came out ahead.

[ike0000]

[vdadlani219]

The sole experience I had with a phone reprensentative was a pleasant one. I purchased tickets to a 7pm musical, only to find out the girlfriend wants the 2pm show. And this was at noon of the same day. So I call up Ticketmaster and explained that I wanted to exchange tickets, and she said no problem. It showed up within seconds on the online system and my tickets were ready for pick up at the theatre box office.

Of course all the services/transaction fees weigh into the factor of whether I really want to go to concert or show, but I don't have time to wait in line on the sale day at 10am at Tower Records or at the box office. So to pay the extra $5-$8 a ticket is a convience I'm willing to accept.

[SleepyW]

I absolutely refuse to purchase anything that requires me to use Ticketmaster. If I wanted to get screwed that bad, I'd fill up my tank with that midgrade bullshit.

[Matthew Chmiel]

Originally Posted by SleepyW

I absolutely refuse to purchase anything that requires me to use Ticketmaster. If I wanted to get screwed that bad, I'd fill up my tank with that midgrade bullshit.

After yesterday, I hate Ticketmaster more than ever. I purchased two tickets for my friend and I for the Interpol concert here in Vegas in a few weeks. Each ticket was supposed to cost $22. After taxes and what not, I should've only had to pay a little bit under $50.

The total cost of the two tickets came to a little bit over $65. Basically, I paid $20 (almost the price of a third ticket) worth of service charges.

Fucking assholes. But what can you do?

[atlantamoi]

I've skipped shows I wanted to see because of Ticketmaster's service charges. There probably is no company on the planet that I hate worse and I'll do my best to avoid giving them my money.

[LivingINClip]

Eh. My closest Ticketmaster agent is over an hour away, so I typically use the online service. Still, it does suck ass and the extra charges are a rip-off.