RE: (TV) (OT) Ticketmaster (was: You think Ebay is bad...)

["Dever, Paul (ELS)" <P.Dever@elsevier.com>]

Seven friends and I were going to buy 
tickets to see David Sedaris speak at 
a local (smallish) venue. Then we found out
that the 28$ tickets were going to cost us 
35$ apiece--ticket master surcharges (20%!)--
and that tickets were not for sale except through 
ticketmaster. 

We were all pretty put out, and someone said they 
wouldn't go at that price, pretty quickly 
everyone decided not to go. One of my friends, however,
unwilling to let sleeping dogs lie, e-mailed Sedaris' 
agent and complained. 

The agent was sympathetic to the complaint, said he 
couldn't help us out directly, but he forwarded the 
complaint with some additional comments to the theatre.  

After a hot exchange of several e-mails between the 
theatre and the agent, the theatre contacted my friend 
and said they'd sell 2 tickets to my friend for 28$ ea. 
My friend said he needed 8 tickets, and now we're all 
going to David Sedaris for 28$ apiece.

--Paul


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark G. Ryan [mailto:mgryan@cruzio.com]
> Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 2:20 PM
> To: tv@obbard.com
> Subject: (TV) (OT) Ticketmaster (was: You think Ebay is bad...)
> 
> 
> "Emilie T. Hsu" <ehsu@mindspring.com> wrote:
> > 
> > Forget Ebay -- I think those Clear-Channel/Ticketmaster 
> charges are outrageous -- they come to $8 per ticket (I just 
> ordered the tickets to the Saturday 03/22 Television concert)!
> > 
> > Didn't people try to sue Ticketmaster?  If they didn't, 
> people really should, it's a monopoly!
> > 
> 
> Sure it's a monopoly, like PC operating systems and about a 
> hundred other 
> things.  It costs consumers loose millions in monoploy 
> profits.  Worse, 
> ClearChannel is a vertically integrated monopoly, and it uses 
> its monopoly 
> profits in one industry (radio) to fund predetory practices in other
> industries (live music).
> 
> But don't hold your breath waiting for the Justice Dept. or courts
> to do something about it.  I'll bet ClearChannel contributes more to 
> Congressional campaigns than anybody on this list.  (The 
> defining event 
> in American politics in my lifetime has been when 
> corporations figured 
> out it was smart to contribute to both political parties, so that no 
> matter which candidate wins nobody will dare to complain.)
> 
> However, should it take a court case to get rid of TicketMaster?  You 
> don't have to sue to get rid of a bad restaurant.  Just don't buy the 
> tickets!   Nobody really needs to go see rock concerts: it's 
> a luxury item.  
> If people stopped for one month it would be the end of TicketMaster.
> 
> If this sounds too idealistic, remember what happend with the 
> "New Coke".
> The market sent a clear message to Coca-Cola Company that it 
> is unlikely 
> ever to forget.  And the embargo on South Africa also was 
> widely observed.
> All it would take is for people on lists like this one to 
> decide it is 
> definitely _not_cool_ to buy tickets through Ticketmaster.
> 
> Of course, I know this is damn unlikely--the American public 
> would buy 
> tickets from Adolph Hitler if it got them in to see their 
> favorite band,
> just as they will buy goods made by political prisoners in 
> the People's
> Republic of China just to save a few bucks.
> 
> To a large extent, people get the econcomic masters they 
> deserve.  Ticket-
> master's logo should be a white guy in a Panama hat with a 
> bull whip, and
> anybody who buys from them should be proud to call themselves a 
> "ticket-slave".
> 
> Mark
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