Ticketmaster’s got lots of ‘splainin’ to do!
On Monday, some Bruce Springsteen fans hit a shady glitch on the Ticketmaster site when they tried to buy tix for his New Jersey-Meadowlands show. Apparently, they were being locked out of buying ‘face value’ seats only to find themselves directed to Ticketmaster sister company’s website, TicketsNow, who were selling the locked out seats at a higher, legally ‘scalped’ price.
A New Jersey congressman has already called for an investigation into the shadiness.
And now, the Boss and his people have jumped into the fray.
In an open letter on his official site, Bruce expresses outrage at what fans had to go through and was able to use his Boss powers for a little good. Says the music legend, “We have asked this redirection from Ticketmaster to TicketsNow cease and desist immediately and Ticketmaster has agreed to do so in the future and has removed its unwanted material from their and our site.”
The Boss also took the opportunity to speak out against the proposed merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster, as it would make ticketing even more disastrous for fans:
A final point for now: the one thing that would make the current ticket situation even worse for the fan than it is now would be Ticketmaster and Live Nation coming up with a single system, thereby returning us to a near monopoly situation in music ticketing. Several newspapers are reporting on this story right now. If you, like us, oppose that idea, you should make it known to your representatives.
Fight the evil vertical integration!
Bruce also promised fans that he and his team will do what they can to keep Ticketmaster from effing over his fans in the future:
“The abuse of our fans and our trust by Ticketmaster has made us as furious as it has made many of you. We will continue to do our utmost now and in the future to make sure that these practices are permanently curtailed on our tours.”
No one messes with the Boss!
[Image via WENN.]