Ticketmaster has once again set the music world on fire with their shady business practices, this time when they quietly altered their terms of service to eliminate the ability for ticket holders to get a refund when shows are postponed. The key to the change is that now, no matter how long a concert is scheduled, no refunds will ever be given. If a festival is postponed until the next year, you can't get your money back. If Ozzy continues to indulge the fantasy that he's going to tour again, and a date in your city doesn't get played for years on end, Ozzy, Sharon, and Ticketmaster get to use your money for as long as they want.
And therein is the rub; this has nothing to do with improved service, or even security for the artists to make sure revenue will be there when things return to normal. This is entirely about the ability for Ticketmaster to hold onto fans money, invest it, and keep the profits for themselves. If they gave refunds for all the shows canceled this year, the fans could put that money to use trying to survive, while Ticketmaster would have nothing and eventually slide towards bankruptcy. But with these changes, Ticketmaster can better endure the lack of income from nonexistent sales by accruing interest on the millions of dollars they are already holding. It's a horrible business practice, but exactly what you would expect from a heartless corporate entity.
The worst part of the whole deal is that these changes were made in the shadows, not publicized fairly, and it remains unclear whether these new rules apply just to any tickets purchased from now moving forward, or if Ticketmaster has retroactively decided to screw their customers. If the latter is indeed the case, we could be starting the process of one of the largest class-action lawsuits the industry has ever heard, which could also spell the end of Ticketmaster. It's not clear they can emerge from this pandemic without going bankrupt no matter which choice they make.
There's a saying about crisis revealing character. If that is indeed the case, we have seen the best and worst of humanity lately. Countless artists have stepped forward to talk to us and perform from home to give us something to look forward to, something to entertain us. Many have even put out special merchandise where the revenue will go to support their road crews who no longer have any income. These people are trying to bring us all together, to give us hope, and to keep depression from setting in.
But we have also seen the worst of ourselves, and that's where Ticketmaster comes in. To clutch money that people need to get through each day in the midst of the worst economic times we have ever seen is disgusting. If Ticketmaster goes under, they can file for bankruptcy protection, and the landing will be relatively soft. If the people they are now screwing over don't have their money, they move closer to losing everything. Yes, we're talking about concert tickets, which usually aren't astronomical sums of money, but right now every dollar counts. Getting that $50 ticket back could be the difference between someone being able to afford their medication or not, being able to make their rent this month or not.
I say this about bands all the time, and it applies to business; the one thing we are owed is honesty. Ticketmaster can be as money-hungry as they want, that's their right, but we should know what we're getting into. This incident is another case of the music industry trying to play three-card monte with fans money, treating customers as a commodity, cock-sure that no one can ever fight back or abandon them. It's sad that Ticketmaster has decided they want to be the villains of the story. If they had done the right thing now, plenty of their past sins would be forgiven. That's not the route they have taken, and if karma is real, it will come back to bite them in the ass.
We can only hope.
*Editor's Note* After this commentary was written, Ticketmaster released a statement 'clarifying' their policy.
Ticketmaster's new statement does nothing to address the concerns fans rightfully have. They try to pass the buck, and put the burden onto each band and ticket seller to set the policies regarding refunds of any individual event. That might be reasonable, but it doesn't explain why Ticketmaster felt the need to covertly change their policy in the middle of a public pandemic. If this is a continuation of their original policy, as they are implying, there would be no need for the new language. You don't alter something that doesn't need to be altered.
Furthermore, it is incredibly weak to say that event organizers need more time to determine if refunds should be given out. This isn't that complicated. Since we don't know when events are going to be allowed to resume, therefore you can't accurately schedule a make-up date, no one should be on the hook for a ticket to an event that may never happen, that they might not be able to attend even if it does. Not giving out refunds to events that have been rescheduled for normal reasons is bad enough, but there is simply no excuse for it now.
It's shameful Ticketmaster is even allowing the possibility of this happening. As the broker, they can easily set rules for everyone using their service that refunds must be made available. They aren't doing that, and are instead trying to pass the blame. Look, blame is warranted in many places. Ticketmaster is right that the organizers of events who don't offer refunds deserve to be criticized, but that doesn't absolve them of their own responsibility. Ticketmaster has the power to put an end to this, but they won't, which is a tacit endorsement.
They can't argue that away.
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