U2 Ticket Presale Inflames Fans

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Ticketmaster, Clear Channel, and Fanfir strike again....

(incidentally, my posting made the news-this is being picked up by yahoo and google within the hour)

Tickets for the North American and European legs of U2’s forthcoming Vertigo tour were pre-sold to members of the band’s fan club Tuesday morning (January 25); however, instead of looking forward to the kickoff of the tour in San Diego, California, thousands of fans are up in arms over the way in which the presale was conducted after being shut out and they have jammed U2 message boards to express their displeasure.

U2 fans who paid the band’s fan club for a membership late last year were told that the membership would allow them to gain priority access to tickets, including the coveted low-priced General Admission tickets that proved so popular on the band’s Elevation tour.



U2 fan Emily Worth summarized the feelings of many of supporters of the band. “U2 backed out on a promise to their most loyal fans,” she said. “We joined the U2.com fan club under the premise that we would have priority ticket buying. Well, I'm a member of the fan club, but hours after the pre-sale began, I am still ticketless. U2 have clearly not allotted for enough tickets to accommodate the fan club members. This treatment is unethical and has hurt the people that have funded the band's career for the past 25 years.”

This ticketing snafu especially distressed those members of the fan club who were previously members of Propaganda, the band’s fan club, which handled ticket distribution for years before closing after the conclusion of the last tour. In the past, ticket sales were handled in much the same way that bands like Pearl Jam handle fan-club ticket sales: Prior to public ticket sales, fan club members received a letter listing the forthcoming tour dates. Fans would then check off the show (or shows) they wanted to see and sent in money for the tickets.

For this tour, U2.com took over the fan club and associated presale chores and attempted to use Ticketmaster and Fanfire to coordinate the sale. Longtime fans were especially distressed. On the message boards at interference.com, U2 fan adenoid_hynkel wrote, “The band took a reliable fan-friendly service like Propaganda and replaced it with a poorly-managed company.”

more:
http://groovevolt.com/Newswires/newswire.asp?ID=1199

[mr blur]

1. Those fans are the lucky ones,

they won't have to watch it.

[tjdee]

2. I'm one of those, and I am PISSED.

I don't blame U2 though. :loveya:

I blame their management, or their site, or whomever they gave this responsibility to. That's bullshit. 15 minutes after presale began I couldn't get two tickets.