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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.
..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
Ah, I found the answer, and it's "You must also have been a resident of the United States at the time of your purchase". And the $1.50 is only credit on their site! You don't even get a cheque for the money. Ridiculous. I hope the lawyers who agreed to this also get their payment in ticketmaster credit only.
Plus you can only use the $1.50 credit vouchers two at a time, saving you a maximum of $3 off the extortionate price of a ticket. Seriously, does anyone apart for the lawyers in a class action suit walk away with fistfuls of cold hard cash? Offer to pay the lawyers in $3-off-your-next-purchase credit notes and see whether they go for it...
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.
It probably doesn't serve your sense of victimhood as well; but if you take a look at the complaint you'll notice that something rather different is the case:
Specifically, TicketMaster (falsely) declared that a given charge covered the cost of a specific processing option, when in fact it was simply added to improve the margin on the transaction. Making false claims about goods or services involved in a transaction is, y'know, "fraud"(which, incidentally, is in large part why our financial system is in ruins)... Had they simply not engaged in fraud, and not misrepresented the nature of the fee, they would have been free and clear...
I just checked a recent ticket and it does indeed declare that charge correctly now. The 4 items mentioned are:
1. Cost of performance
2. Cost of venue
3. <illegible smudge>
4. Profit!
Well the problem with this "$1.50 refund" is that it's actually $1.50 off your next purchase with ticketmaster".
Read them email to the end. I got this email a few days ago, and as far as I can tell this is legalized highway robbery. For the low, low price of $16.5 million to the lawyers who took up the cause, Ticketmaster gets free publicity and additional repeat customers, while not having to pay their customers anything. There is so absolutely little for the average customer to have gained from this, there might have not even been a lawsuit to begin with.
These sorts of cases where the lawyers representing the public are well compensated need to require that a cash payment be put in to a fund to be claimed against. Reading that email from Ticketmaster was a waste of my time.
moox. for a new generation.
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.
This is a punishment for TicketMaster, not a "cash please" thing. Be lucky that the system doesn't always charge insane fees in the millions for a small processing fee. $1.50 USD is seriously not a massive amount of money and in this capitalistic world; you could have always bought them somewhere else.
This is not a punishment.
People now have the choice to (A) not get the refund or (B) pay TicketMaster to get the refund.
Unless you consider "slightly less profit on customers you might have otherwise lost" as punishment.
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Just about exactly what I was going to post.
Seriously, what did people think ticketmaster's business model was?
You would think that it is to provide an optional sales service for convenience that people would choose to pay for, and you'd be wrong. While the email option is convenient, it turns out that they demand exclusive deals with venues, so that you have to pay their "ticket fee" when buying at the door as well. Mind you, ticketmaster has *nothing* to do with door sales except for receiving their racket money (source: a good buddy works at one of these venues), and you don't even get a ticket. Venues still announce cover charge without the fees.
As I see it, if there's no way you can avoid paying the fee even at the doors it's hard to claim that they're tied up to a cost for a service. When I get a goddamn rubber stamp at the entrance in exchange for cash, I don't expect to have to pay a fee to some third party. Ticketmaster don't even do anything to inhibit illegal ticket scalping - which would have been a nice service, and real added value for all concertgoers. If they did I'd be less annoyed with paying their fee.
Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors!