So it has been some time since I railed against the audacity of the Evil Ticketmaster organization through this blog. While every interaction I have had with them since has left me with the same amount of disdain as in that post, this is the first time I have been moved to write about them again.
Dwyer, Ryan, and I were planning on attending the Foghat / Blue Oyster Cult concert this past Saturday night. While not a tremendous fan of either groups I do appreciate their contribution to rock and roll and enjoy quite a few of their hits. So that in mind, I was really looking forward to the show.
Dwyer, Ryan, and I had some dinner down at Heroes Sports Bar and were planning on walking over to the venue to enjoy the show. As we were walking over, we noticed there really weren’t many people downtown like one would expect for a show. As we approached the venue it seemed strange that it would be completely dark with no people going in or out. Sure enough we walked up to the door and saw that the show had been canceled. Bummer.
Now, where my gripe with Ticketmaster comes in is that they did not send any kind of e-mail notification that the concert had been canceled. Apparently it was announced two days prior that it was canceled but we did not hear about it on the radio or TV.
Now if you have purchased any tickets from Ticketmaster you know the drill:
* Confirmation E-mail after you purchase them.
* Follow up e-mail telling you the tickets have been printed and are on their way.
* Then numerous marketing type e-mails trying to alert you to upcoming shows and convince you to buy more tickets.
But a canceled show (which was posted as canceled on their site Saturday night), no messages whatsoever. Where the evil comes in is that I’m sure the reason they do not send out notification of cancellation is that they are hoping someone will lose their original tickets and then be denied a refund. Now that is just bad customer service all the way around. But from Ticketmaster that is their normal way of doing business.
Remember if you have the option of buying tickets through any other mechanism than Ticketmaster, do it. They consistently sell out their customers to make themselves more money. Yep, Ticketmaster is Still Evil, but unfortunately they have cornered the ticket market so completely that often it is the only option.