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It's really a shame that there's nothing anyone can do about any of this. Ticketbastard is a cruel heartless company who owes nobody an apology and feels no responsibility to improve their system because they have absolutely no reason to. They are a monopoly and can therefore do whatever the hell they want, whenever they want because people have to use them if they want to see a concert. I don't know a lot about how the system works. I recall Pearl Jam trying to take them on before and I don't know enough about it to understand why they failed, but why can't bands just distribute their own tickets privately? Would it cost too much money? Is there legal blockages that would prevent this, such as contracts with venues? I'm not angry that bands don't do this because I'm ignorant to the system. But as it stands now, ticketbastard will continue to fuck people over with no remorse simply because they can get away with it and nobody can stop them. They've had issues with their system (crashes, not accepting information, no viable options to enter your information, service fees, ticketsnow etc..) for as long as I can remember, and no attempt has been made to correct any of these issues, or take steps to ensure that they don't continue to take place.
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The back office issues would just swamp any band; to issue tickets on your own, you;d have to deal with all the credit card companies, ensure the security of said CC numbers, make sure the transactions post, then you'd have to deal with the mailing and printing costs in addition to dealing with any FUBAR situations like the most recent one. That's alot of support staff and technology investment for any band. That said, I'm sure Ticketbastard makes sure any potential competition is strangled in the cradle by locking up venues in long term contracts.
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Just got a call from TB indicating they were sorry for the screwup and that the Hip's "promoter" would contact me once they resolved the issue. I'm surprised they even called back.
"we've only got three hundred feet to go ..."
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Just got an email from Ticketmaster...
Hello,
We apologize for the delay in response. Ticketmaster, the band and management are currently in discussion regarding the purchasing concerns you experienced on Monday.
Further communication will be coming out to you from the fanclub shortly. We appreciate your patience.
Thank you,
Colin
Customer Service
...at least they got back in touch with me
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Just received this, as i am sure everyone else has.
Dear,
We are writing to you and all of the Registered Users who may have encountered problems purchasing tickets to The Music Hall on Friday, April 24th through the Ticketmaster Canada system at the designated on sale time of 10:00am (EDT).
Our intention was to offer our fans a special treat and a thank you for your continued support. Unfortunately, what transpired during Monday's on sale was neither special nor particularly thankful.
On behalf of the band, our management and Ticketmaster we would like to take this opportunity to offer you our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience that you may have experienced and let you know that in the coming days you will receive, via email, an electronic gift card from Ticketmaster in the amount of $15.00 (cdn). You will be able to put this money towards a future transaction of your choice at Ticketmaster.
We thank all of you for your understanding with this matter and your continued support for the band over the years.
All the best,
The Hip
The Hip, nor their website need to be apologizing for this, it was a complete TM screw up. But what can you say, they definitely care about their fans.
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I think this is pretty classy considering the circumstances ...
Dear Juan Collados
We are writing to you and all of the Registered Users who may have encountered problems purchasing tickets to The Music Hall on Friday, April 24th through the Ticketmaster Canada system at the designated on sale time of 10:00am (EDT).
Our intention was to offer our fans a special treat and a thank you for your continued support. Unfortunately, what transpired during Monday's on sale was neither special nor particularly thankful.
On behalf of the band, our management and Ticketmaster we would like to take this opportunity to offer you our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience that you may have experienced and let you know that in the coming days you will receive, via email, an electronic gift card from Ticketmaster in the amount of $15.00 (cdn). You will be able to put this money towards a future transaction of your choice at Ticketmaster.
We thank all of you for your understanding with this matter and your continued support for the band over the years.
All the best,
The Hip
"we've only got three hundred feet to go ..."
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That's pretty cool. I've never heard of anything like this before.
Edit: Wait, I just got the email as well. Does that mean irregardless of whether i got tickets or not I'm getting one of those gift cards!? If so, like Chris said, WOW. My respect was just elevated like ten levels.
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A nice gesture, thanks mainly to the band I would guess. I can't imagine TM doing this on their own. I suppose that some portion of these $15 credits will have to come out of the band's pocket. They could have let us all hate TM even more than before without getting involved, but I'm sure they negotiated hard for this.
Now, I wonder what the chances are that I'll actually be able to use this before it inevitably expires?
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I don't think they can expire... I heard it was a new law or something.
I wonder how many users on thehip.com... say 100,000 X $15? wow.
