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Ticketmaster Customers, Get Ready For Your (Tiny) Class-Action Payout
An anonymous reader writes "If you used Ticketmaster's website to buy tickets between October 21, 1999 and October 19, 2011, you're in for a windfall. Well, a $1.50 per ticket order windfall. Because of a proposed class action settlement, Ticketmaster is being forced to credit $1.50 per ticket order (up to 17 orders) to customers because they profited from 'processing fees' without declaring as much. And despite the reparations, Ticketmaster can continue to profit off transactions — they just have to say they're doing so on their website."
Got this mail today. I was about to delete the mail as another spamscam that got through but the text looked like too much hardwork to have gone in for a phishing attempt or a "Nigerian scam". I lived in the USA 10 years ago and may have purchased something from Ticketmaster.
1999 was after Jerry Garcia died, and I haven't been to any other concerts since then! Bummer, cause I could really use an extra $25.50 from the max payout for my next bag of hooch.
The word master is right there in the name. They really do consider ticket buyers their slaves.
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
..that the attorneys are going to get substantially more than $1.50 ($16,500,000 shared between them)
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
I've used ticketmaster for events in the UK and Australia. Do I get anything? Or is it just the USA?
...where a commercial enterprise has to DECLARE that they operate with the intent to make a profit.
No wonder our financial system is nearly in ruins.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
They also are allowed to force that fee (Now $2.50) even if you buy the tickets at the venue.
It's why I dont go to see shows anymore. Horribly overpriced, everyone has to get an additional profit fee in there, and you end up with crap seats unless you pay 4 figures.
Screw it, it's not worth it anymore. And from the performance of the band at the last 3 concerts I was at, they suck live anyways. Beastie Boys utterly stunk live.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
We at Ticketmaster would like to remind everyone, during this difficult time, that the reason that their payout is so tiny and late is not that the penalties for audacious fraud on a grand scale are pitifully small; but that trial lawyers are evil and greedy.
Had we embraced the glorious truths of tort reform, you could have been spared having to receive such an insultingly small offer at all, and we could have gotten away with the entire thing.
"And despite the reparations, Ticketmaster can continue to profit off transactions — they just have to say they're doing so on their website."
No, really? A private enterprise is allowed to profit off its business provided it does so in a manner that is not fraudulent? Shocking!
"And despite the reparations, Ticketmaster can continue to profit off transactions — they just have to say they're doing so on their website."
No, really? A private enterprise is allowed to profit off its business provided it does so in a manner that is not fraudulent? Shocking!
And despite the reparations, Ticketmaster can continue to profit off transactions â" they just have to say they're doing so on their website.
That's all we can really ask for, besides actually getting back the ill-gotten gains, and having any unclaimed ill-gotten gains reclaimed and put to some good use, which I note hasn't happened. (Operational costs would take care of making it costly as opposed to simply unprofitable.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I received the email regarding this class action and, well, it's stupid. people knew how much they paid and what they were paying for and agreed to it. this whole thing is unnecessary.
I lived in Orlando, Florida about the time the Orlando Magic were becoming the next big thing. Ticketmaster was in charge of ticketing at the "O-rena". Funny thing is, the city of Orlando passed an ordinance that individuals selling tickets and charging more than $1 over face value could be arrested for scalping. Ticketmaster however could charge their "convenience fee" without any fear of retribution.
Bought tickets through Ticketmaster for an event a couple months ago. Now I'm getting weekly spam from them. Their "unsubscribe spam" page actually has the balls to say, "You may still receive [spam] from our advertising partners" or some horseshit like that. And sure enough, the spam doesn't stop.
Won't be dealing with Ticketmaster again if I can at all avoid it.
With all that money at least 11 tickets I'll be able to buy 1 concert beer :-)
There was a recent class action settlement against eBay which I accidentally was a part of. I received a check for $1.63. $1.63!! You Ticketmaster users only got $1.50. Eat my dust!
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
They are amateurs compared to the real evil - Stubhub. Bribing legislators to repeal anti-scalping laws etc. Owned by eBay.
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
Is not to make the people participating rich but to punish the perp. And it is working.
and asking for a fee which will be a around 20% of the settlement. While the number is very large I doubt you or I or much of anyone on this site knows the true costs involved in running a major law firm and maintaining a case over eight years.
So while it is simple to demagogue someone/something/etc because we don't understand it still does not make it right, let alone worthy of being rated insightful on this site. We should not give into our ignorance, let alone jealously, of others simply because of a dollar amount. It cheapen us and the very work we do. I am quite certain you can find any number of people on the street who would be aghast at how much "some" people get paid to work on computers and that attitude has the same founding.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I don't understand why this is a story? This sounds like a typical class-action lawsuit settlement. The plaintiff lawyers got their $$$ and that is what the law suit was all about.
Best way to prevent these sort of crappy deals, is to require the lawyers to get paid in coupons whenever the members of the class action get paid in coupons.
That's the problem. They are going to reword the "processing fee" and continue charging the $1.50.
Nothing will change.
If it were MERELY a way to get tickets online-- then charging a Buck for the "service" would be fine. But it's really a profit-gobbling obscenity, that creates a monopoly for Ticket prices.
We even have laws against scalping now -- which wouldn't be necessary if tickets were just SOLD at the gate, or there were enough concerts/large venue performances that scarcity weren't a problem.
But TicketMaster in essence is a Monopoly on top of local Monopolies. You aren't going to watch a Braves baseball game unless you are at the Braves stadium or their competitors -- this goes the same for watching a concert; reasonably, nobody is going to drive 200 miles to the next concert venue for that particular artist.
>> So either there will have to be a regulated Limit on prices -- because TicketMaster can fix them, or there has to be no TICKETMASTER at all. The could be sold off to all the local companies that sell tickets as a "clearinghouse" since that's the useful function they serve.
When most of the profits go to the middleman -- there is ALWAYS a problem in a system.
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
WHAT? They provide a service and they're allowed to profit off it? That's outrageous, why do we let these corporations get away with this kind of activity?
Now if the issue is a difference between the advertised price and the actual price because of these "processing fees" that's a different matter. They (and the phone companies, and the airlines) should have to advertise what you'll really pay.
They suck on more levels than that. Wish I got here earlier so more people could read this.
1) Their login form sends incorrect passwords so I can't login to print my tickets
2) they refuse to support me on this since I bought the tickets through a 3rd party (actually Ticktackticket, who they bought years ago)
3) I point this out, they still refuse to help because apparently the gig is in Mexico (it's in Spain)
4) I lost 60 euros on this bullshit and they still refuse to offer any level of support
Moral of the rant: ticketmaster suck, and interminably so.
The Horror! A company actually charged a fee, for profit? How does everyone that buys tickets from Ticketmaster think they pay their employees, keep their servers up and running and the lights on? Of course they make a profit from their "processing fee." Anyone that thought any different is naive about how a business works or just didn't give it any thought.
It was easy :-) All I had to do was buy a ticket from a venue that's using TicketMaster as its only ticket sales channel. There wasn't any way to buy my ticket without TM's fees, and there wasn't any way to buy it without paying $8-10 for parking even though I wasn't driving there. (I live about a mile from a venue that's usually a bad traffic jam for concerts, and I'd much rather bike there, not get stuck in traffic, and not need to worry about my substance consumption during the concert :-) Also, one year I ended up with a subscription to Rolling Stone that I'm sure was padded on to my bill, even though I didn't see any checkbox where I authorized it.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I received the notification and I opted out. Why? Because this does not benefit the customers. It only benefits the lawyers who filed the class action suit. Ultimately it hurts the customer because it will cause TicketMaster et. al. to raise prices.
I just got a check in the mail for one penny for an ebay motors class action settlement. Printing and mailing the check probably cost a dollar. Reminds me of the time my school sent me a bill (in the mail) for $19 cents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_on_Strike#Lawsuit
... Kyle convinces the world leaders to give Canada a consolation prize of gumballs and Bennigan's coupons. The strike is settled .... Aboutman throws a party to celebrate end of the strike, treating it as a great victory for Canada, but Terrance and Phillip realize that the gumballs and coupons are worth $3,008, whereas Canada lost $10.4 million by striking.
I excluded myself from the class action suit and expressly declined to waive my rights against Ticketmaster for any claims referenced in the suit. Members of the class and/or subclass can contest the terms of the settlement, including attorney compensation terms, by sending letters to the court and both counsels. Instructions on how to do all of this are included in the class settlement notice.
Also if you do not use your $1.50 coupon then they will give $1.50 to a charity.
I disagreed because the settlement A) Requires that I do business with the company that allegedly breached a duty to me and B) overcompensates counsel (awards an amount equal to 2.5 times the firms normal hourly billing rate).
I just got a check for some odd EBay related class action. Total reward to me was something like $1.60, but my total disbursement was a whopping $0.08 after I assume "processing and legal fees". Just to be irritating and get my money's worth, I thought I should call up the contact number and ask lots of questions so I get my money's worth from the lawyers.
Good to see that we've totally forgotten the concept of voluntary transactions.
I am part of the class-action also and have declined to participate.
Do I think Ticketmaster's fees are obnoxious? Yes. Did anyone, including Ticketmaster, put a gun to my head and force me to buy tickets to concerts? No.
I blogged about this further recently.
http://curmudgeons.net/2011/excessive-deceptive/
Was going to buy 4 tickets for something, and when I went online and saw what Ticketmaster was going to charge, I drove up to the venue and bought'em at the box office. Even with the cost of gas these days, I saved money. YMMV.
If we hadn't bought all those tickets over that decade, isn't it possible that Ticketmaster might not have managed to grow as big as it has?
Aren't we simply unwilling investors?
As such, don't we deserve a share closer to the equivalent investment gain assuming we bought shares of stock with that money instead of paying processing fees? Or since that's impossible to calculate, shares of stock at current price?
Seems to me that all existing shareholders should be forced to relinquish enough shares to cover issuance of shares to claimants, and if the claim value is less than the price of one share, they simply have to give out one share. The threat of dilution, paperwork headache, and likely significant impact on their price would help keep them in check by their real investors wishing to prevent these situations. Given an egregious enough offense, claimants could take over the company. If the situation kills the company, making the shares worthless, at least we got some real blood for our trouble.