These captchas are so stupid. Click on all the pictures of ice cream. That picture of frozen yogurt, that clearly says frozen yogurt in the photo, is not ice cream.
The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to fredr123 For This Useful Post:
Got tickets for August 1st, wheelchair seating section. I was told they were the last to be had in the WC sections. Called immediately at 10:00am, I would like to thank Michelle with Ticketmaster, for her diligence.
__________________
Last edited by GreatWhiteEbola; 06-03-2016 at 11:48 AM.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to GreatWhiteEbola For This Useful Post:
I finally ended up with a pair of seats in my cart, but when I clicked to purchase, I got a 'Forbidden server' message. Now I can't even access ticketmaster.ca or ticketmaster.com - same message. I'm guessing a few people at my workplace managed to grab tix, and TM's "sophisticated" software thinks we're a bot. And my workplace isn't that big. Anyone else get that issue? I suppose you'd need to be lucky enough to have tix in your cart first...
I finally ended up with a pair of seats in my cart, but when I clicked to purchase, I got a 'Forbidden server' message. Now I can't even access ticketmaster.ca or ticketmaster.com - same message. I'm guessing a few people at my workplace managed to grab tix, and TM's "sophisticated" software thinks we're a bot. And my workplace isn't that big. Anyone else get that issue? I suppose you'd need to be lucky enough to have tix in your cart first...
Yeah, I had trouble with using TM from work as well. Assumed it was something from our end, but it was in fact TM blocking things up. They suck.
__________________
From HFBoard oiler fan, in analyzing MacT's management:
O.K. there has been a lot of talk on whether or not MacTavish has actually done a good job for us, most fans on this board are very basic in their analysis and I feel would change their opinion entirely if the team was successful.
I watched the timer hit zero on the TM site, picked 2 tickets and hit the "I am not a bot" checkbox and didn't get a sniff of tickets. I tried for about 20-25 minutes before giving up. I've tried a few times since but nada.
Actually I figured this was going to be a big ticket so I am not surprised.
__________________
"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
Reminder to keep checking, they block release sometimes. I remember a few years ago for Rush in Edmonton I tried right at 10am and got second level, tried again at like 11:15 and got two on the floor, 9th row.
__________________
"Think I'm gonna be the scapegoat for the whole damn machine? Sheeee......."
Ticketmaster have always been scummy with the inflated fees but have become even worse now that they are scalping their own tickets. Complete garbage company, I despise them.
Here's a good article from the former Ticketmaster CEO with a good summary of why it's really tough to get tickets to high demand concerts and sporting events.
Picked out some key parts for those not wanting to read the whole thing.
Reality no. 1: Tickets never go on sale when you think they do.
"Presales are privately and inconsistently announced to smaller groups of people who usually paid for access (like American Express cardholders or radio stations, for example). Then fan clubs, venue email lists, promoter email lists, and others usually get a chance at decent seats before the “general on-sale” happens. The problem, of course, is that these lists and clubs have been infiltrated by ticket brokers, many of whom use fake names, fake addresses, and multiple credit cards to steal tickets out from under an even smaller subset of real fans."
Reality no. 2: You probably can’t even get a whiff of a good seat.
"Even before that sham of an on-sale happens, a big chunk of the best seats are held back from ever going directly on sale. On average, less than half of all tickets go on sale to the general public. For specifically cited Katy Perry and Justin Bieber shows, no more than 15 percent of the tickets were made available to people like you. Tickets are held by the artist or team and the rest of the band/athlete’s family and groupies. Some are held surreptitiously by other stakeholders in the event — the promoter, venue, band manager, team president, and record label all have a claim. And while some special tickets are used to reward employees, grease the palms of key partners, and (God forbid) admit fans who actually deserve to be at the show, a significant portion not-so-magically find their way into the hands of secondary market brokers."
Reality no. 3: You DEFINITELY can’t get a good seat.
"First, principals — including, yes, teams and the artist (not you, Pearl Jam!) — may take tickets and sell them directly to brokers"
"So the biggest artists sign contracts that guarantee them money every time they step on the stage, and that guaranteed amount is usually more than 100 percent of the revenue if every ticket is sold at face value. Which means that if every ticket in the venue “sells out” at the face value printed on the ticket, that wouldn’t be enough to pay the artist what they are contractually guaranteed by the promoter for the performance."
Reality no. 4: Bots are pwning you. "Ticket bots — have years of experience beating you to the punch for premium seats. Brokers have written programs that blaze through the checkout experience of a ticketing site faster than any human being ever could. They grab the best seats and let the broker decide whether to buy them."
Reality no. 5: You can’t win. "This shouldn’t be a zero-sum game, but it is. And you already lost."
Is there any way to get alerts as to when new blocks of tickets go on sale?
According to the article I posted...
"These same bots hammer ticketing sites with searches, doomed to a life of infinitely combing for new inventory in case any quality seats held back from the on-sale get released to the “general public.” Once they’re released, guess what? They’re scooped immediately by the ticket bots. It’s like your dog sitting underneath the table waiting for a little bit of your sandwich to fall. It’s gone before it hits the ground. You don’t have a chance."
Well, a bunch of people got tickets and will get tickets, so it isn't impossible.
I'm sure a lot of that article is true and the ticket supply isn't as great as it should be. Then factor in the sheer popularity of an event like this and it feels like it is impossible.
I just hope this concert is like The Who Farewell Tour, 1982 or the Kiss Farewell Tour I went to at the Dome in 2000. Not likely, but it would be nice.
__________________
"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
Interesting post from Trent Reznor on how these ticket sales are handled and why they sell out so quickly. Spoiler for length.
Spoiler!
As we approach on-sale dates for the upcoming tour, I’ve noticed lots of you are curious / concerned / outraged at the plethora of tickets that somehow appear on all these reseller sites at inflated prices – even before the pre-sale dates. I’ll do my best to explain the situation as I see it, as well as clarify my organization’s stance in the matter.
NIN decides to tour this summer. We arrive at the conclusion outdoor amphitheaters are the right venue for this outing, for a variety of reasons we’ve throughly considered*. In the past, NIN would sell the shows in each market to local promoters, who then “buy” the show from us to sell to you. Live Nation happens to own all the amphitheaters and bought most of the local promoters – so if you want to play those venues, you’re being promoted by Live Nation. Live Nation has had an exclusive deal with TicketMaster that has just expired, so Live Nation launched their own ticketing service. Most of the dates on this tour are through Live Nation, some are through TicketMaster – this is determined by the promoter (Live Nation), not us.
Now we get into the issue of secondary markets for tickets, which is the hot issue here. The ticketing marketplace for rock concerts shows a real lack of sophistication, meaning this: the true market value of some tickets for some concerts is much higher than what the act wants to be perceived as charging. For example, there are some people who would be willing to pay $1,000 and up to be in the best seats for various shows, but MOST acts in the rock / pop world don’t want to come off as greedy pricks asking that much, even though the market says its value is that high. The acts know this, the venue knows this, the promoters know this, the ticketing company knows this and the scalpers really know this. So…
The venue, the promoter, the ticketing agency and often the artist camp (artist, management and agent) take tickets from the pool of available seats and feed them directly to the re-seller (which from this point on will be referred to by their true name: SCALPER). I am not saying every one of the above entities all do this, nor am I saying they do it for all shows but this is a very common practice that happens more often than not. There is money to be made and they feel they should participate in it. There are a number of scams they employ to pull this off which is beyond the scope of this note.
StubHub.com is an example of a re-seller / scalper. So is TicketsNow.com.
Here’s the rub: TicketMaster has essentially been a monopoly for many years – certainly up until Live Nation’s exclusive deal ran out. They could have (and can right now) stop the secondary market dead in its tracks by doing the following: limit the amount of sales per customer, print names on the tickets and require ID / ticket matches at the venue. We know this works because we do it for our pre-sales. Why don’t THEY do it? It’s obvious – they make a lot of money fueling the secondary market. TicketMaster even bought a re-seller site and often bounces you over to that site to buy tickets (TicketsNow.com)!
NIN gets 10% of the available seats for our own pre-sale. We won a tough (and I mean TOUGH) battle to get the best seats. We require you to sign up at our site (for free) to get tickets. We limit the amount you can buy, we print your name on the tickets and we have our own person let you in a separate entrance where we check your ID to match the ticket. We charge you a surcharge that has been less than TicketMaster’s or Live Nation’s in all cases so far to pay for the costs of doing this – it’s not a profit center for us. We have essentially stopped scalping by doing these things – because we want true fans to be able to get great seats and not get ripped off by these parasites.
I assure you nobody in the NIN camp supplies or supports the practice of supplying tickets to these re-sellers because it’s not something we morally feel is the right thing to do. We are leaving money on the table here but it’s not always about money.
Being completely honest, it IS something I’ve had to consider. If people are willing to pay a lot of money to sit up front AND ARE GOING TO ANYWAY thanks to the rigged system, why let that money go into the hands of the scalpers? I’m the one busting my ass up there every night. The conclusion really came down to it not feeling like the right thing to do – simple as that.
My guess as to what will eventually happen if / when Live Nation and TicketMaster merges is that they’ll move to an auction or market-based pricing scheme – which will simply mean it will cost a lot more to get a good seat for a hot show. They will simply BECOME the scalper, eliminating them from the mix.
Nothing’s going to change until the ticketing entity gets serious about stopping the problem – which of course they don’t see as a problem. The ultimate way to hurt scalpers is to not support them. Leave them holding the merchandise. If this subject interests you, check out the following links. Don’t buy from scalpers, and be suspect of artists singing the praises of the Live Nation / TicketMaster merger. What’s in it for them?
The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to Coys1882 For This Useful Post:
I remember the pre-sale thing being a big issue too. Most times the presale tickets actually kind of suck or are mediocre at best but the promoter knows that the hardcore fans will buy right away. Sort of like what the Flames/NHL did with STH and the heritage classic a few years ago.
Interesting post from Trent Reznor on how these ticket sales are handled and why they sell out so quickly. Spoiler for length.
Spoiler!
As we approach on-sale dates for the upcoming tour, I’ve noticed lots of you are curious / concerned / outraged at the plethora of tickets that somehow appear on all these reseller sites at inflated prices – even before the pre-sale dates. I’ll do my best to explain the situation as I see it, as well as clarify my organization’s stance in the matter.
NIN decides to tour this summer. We arrive at the conclusion outdoor amphitheaters are the right venue for this outing, for a variety of reasons we’ve throughly considered*. In the past, NIN would sell the shows in each market to local promoters, who then “buy” the show from us to sell to you. Live Nation happens to own all the amphitheaters and bought most of the local promoters – so if you want to play those venues, you’re being promoted by Live Nation. Live Nation has had an exclusive deal with TicketMaster that has just expired, so Live Nation launched their own ticketing service. Most of the dates on this tour are through Live Nation, some are through TicketMaster – this is determined by the promoter (Live Nation), not us.
Now we get into the issue of secondary markets for tickets, which is the hot issue here. The ticketing marketplace for rock concerts shows a real lack of sophistication, meaning this: the true market value of some tickets for some concerts is much higher than what the act wants to be perceived as charging. For example, there are some people who would be willing to pay $1,000 and up to be in the best seats for various shows, but MOST acts in the rock / pop world don’t want to come off as greedy pricks asking that much, even though the market says its value is that high. The acts know this, the venue knows this, the promoters know this, the ticketing company knows this and the scalpers really know this. So…
The venue, the promoter, the ticketing agency and often the artist camp (artist, management and agent) take tickets from the pool of available seats and feed them directly to the re-seller (which from this point on will be referred to by their true name: SCALPER). I am not saying every one of the above entities all do this, nor am I saying they do it for all shows but this is a very common practice that happens more often than not. There is money to be made and they feel they should participate in it. There are a number of scams they employ to pull this off which is beyond the scope of this note.
StubHub.com is an example of a re-seller / scalper. So is TicketsNow.com.
Here’s the rub: TicketMaster has essentially been a monopoly for many years – certainly up until Live Nation’s exclusive deal ran out. They could have (and can right now) stop the secondary market dead in its tracks by doing the following: limit the amount of sales per customer, print names on the tickets and require ID / ticket matches at the venue. We know this works because we do it for our pre-sales. Why don’t THEY do it? It’s obvious – they make a lot of money fueling the secondary market. TicketMaster even bought a re-seller site and often bounces you over to that site to buy tickets (TicketsNow.com)!
NIN gets 10% of the available seats for our own pre-sale. We won a tough (and I mean TOUGH) battle to get the best seats. We require you to sign up at our site (for free) to get tickets. We limit the amount you can buy, we print your name on the tickets and we have our own person let you in a separate entrance where we check your ID to match the ticket. We charge you a surcharge that has been less than TicketMaster’s or Live Nation’s in all cases so far to pay for the costs of doing this – it’s not a profit center for us. We have essentially stopped scalping by doing these things – because we want true fans to be able to get great seats and not get ripped off by these parasites.
I assure you nobody in the NIN camp supplies or supports the practice of supplying tickets to these re-sellers because it’s not something we morally feel is the right thing to do. We are leaving money on the table here but it’s not always about money.
Being completely honest, it IS something I’ve had to consider. If people are willing to pay a lot of money to sit up front AND ARE GOING TO ANYWAY thanks to the rigged system, why let that money go into the hands of the scalpers? I’m the one busting my ass up there every night. The conclusion really came down to it not feeling like the right thing to do – simple as that.
My guess as to what will eventually happen if / when Live Nation and TicketMaster merges is that they’ll move to an auction or market-based pricing scheme – which will simply mean it will cost a lot more to get a good seat for a hot show. They will simply BECOME the scalper, eliminating them from the mix.
Nothing’s going to change until the ticketing entity gets serious about stopping the problem – which of course they don’t see as a problem. The ultimate way to hurt scalpers is to not support them. Leave them holding the merchandise. If this subject interests you, check out the following links. Don’t buy from scalpers, and be suspect of artists singing the praises of the Live Nation / TicketMaster merger. What’s in it for them?
How can you not love this man? Long live Trent Reznor!
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to icecube For This Useful Post:
