Friday, February 06, 2009

Springsteen & Fans Trash Ticketmaster / TicketsNow on Twitter

If there's a list of the worst crowd to tick off, New Jersyans are definitely in the top 10. As the son of two New Jersy natives, I learned that lesson the hard way, and Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff is feeling the heat after many Jersey-area Springsteen fans seeking tickets to his concert at the Izod center  were redirected to ticketsnow.com, a resale site that sells tickets above face price.

Outraged fans responded with angry emails and Springsteen condemned Ticketmaster's tactics on his fan site, brucespringsteen.net. To gain realtime perspective of the customer outrage, just search ticketsnow on Twitter.

I.E. SmoothieRider posted:

Lets HOPE that TicketMaster & TicketsNow dont get involved with the DMB Tour this summer and screw up like they did Bruce Springsteen's

Ticketmaster issued an apology to Springsteen and his fans, which he posted on his homepage. Here's an excerpt:

We will never again link to TicketsNow in a manner that can possibly create any confusion during a high-demand on-sale. Specifically, we will not present an option to go to TicketsNow from Ticketmaster without the consent of the artist and the venue, both of whom work together to bring the joy of live entertainment to millions of fans. If any fans inadvertently purchased tickets in the resale marketplace believing in error they were purchasing from the initial on-sale, we will refund the difference between the actual purchase price and the face price of the ticket. Please don't abuse this good faith gesture - we did not give brokers any preferential access to tickets.

Notice how Ticketmaster phrased the ending "We did not give brokers any preferential access to tickets." Translation: "We're sorry you weren't smart enough to figure out our system."

I know how frustrating it can be to deal with Ticketmaster. They lost my ticket to a U2 Elevation Tour concert in Atlanta. Hopefully, a viable-competitor will emerge from this PR mess Ticketmaster is battling, which highlights the importance of online reputation management.

Posted By Matt O'Hern at 02:00 PM
Permanent Link: Springsteen & Fans Trash Ticketmaster / TicketsNow on Twitter | Comments (1)

(1) Comments on Springsteen & Fans Trash Ticketmaster / TicketsNow on Twitter

"Hopefully, a viable-competitor will emerge from this PR mess Ticketmaster is battling..."

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Ticketmaster wants to merge with Live Nation. Creating the largest live entertainment gorilla in history! If you think fees, prices and service are bad now, if the merger is approved by the US Department of Justice, imagine how responsive a company that controls 90% of the live entertainment industry is going to be toward one, lonely customer???

Comments by unknown user : Friday, February 06, 2009 at 03:07 PM

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