Ticketmaster
reviews and complaints

I just tried buying a ticket on ticketmaster.com, and halfway through the process it says my bank needs to "verify" my account. I agreed to verify, and a small box on the side of my order redirected me to my local bank's "verify" page, except this time it said it's a service for greater security. It says "its free of charge" but I AM never believing that after being scammed by banks/stores/etc. So i looked for a link saying "NO Thanks" or "Continue without offer" or "Later" and I found NONE. I looked everywhere and I ended up canceling my order because it's obligating me to sign up for something I do not want to be involved in. I don't know what to do now, I am only able to buy this ticket through ticketmaster, and with two accounts. This one, and one in another country (which doesn't work considering ticketmaster now uses the billing address as the shipping address)
I hate when they make you sign up for stuff that you do not WANT.

Once again, Ticketmaster is at the heart of the ole bait and switch scam. You've probably read about the State of New Jersey lawsuit against Ticketmaster which accuses them of re-routing customers to ticket brokers for tickets with prices well above face value. Well now, they are perpetrating another scam with the whole notion of allowing consumers to buy 'Pre-Sale' tickets.

Almost each and every above average performer that plays at a medium to large sized venue, allows fans to buy so-called 'Pre-Sale tickets. What Ticketmaster is doing, is working out a deal with the ticket brokers to allow them access to the best seats for a fee. Ticketmaster feeds the brokers the 'Pre-Sale Password' and let's them go to work on gobbling up the best seats. If you are normal Joe Concert-goer and you have purchased the 'Pre-Sale Password' from a fan website for $25 to $50, you are still going to be up against hundreds of brokers going after the same tickets, thus making your purchase of the password of very little value to you.

Does it ever make you wonder when tickets go on sale to the general public that you get what I call 'outskirt' seats even though you logged in at 10:00am on the given sale date? This is completely due to this 'Pre-Sale Scam' that Ticketmaster has been operating for the last few years.

Now onto my latest 'Bait and Switch' tactic that happened to me last weekend. I managed to obtain the pre-sale password for a band playing at my local venue through a blog and for fun, thought I'd see how ticket prices were going one day before they went on sale to the general public. When I logged in and used the password, I was told that my best seats were going to be in the last section of the pavilion at the venue. I told myself that it was typical that the entire pavilion was likely to sell-out before any seats were going to go on sale to the general public and laughed outloud at the outrageousness of the whole ticketing process that Ticketmaster was providing.

So now I digress, since the price of the pavilion tickets were double that of the lawn, I went ahead and bought 4 general admission lawn seats because I simply wanted to take friends and see the show. Plus, sitting in the lawn is not all that bad unless it is raining. Anyway, a day goes by and I log into Ticketmaster to see how the general public ticket sales are coming along and I notice that the prices for the lawn seats are $12.30 lower per ticket than they were during the so-called 'Pre-Sale'!

Seeing as how this is a clear example of the Bait and Switch, I called Ticketmaster and asked them a simple question, 'why do my tickets cost $12.30 less today than they did yesterday and can I get a refund or credit?'
Their answer was that all ticket sales are final and that I was the one that chose to go through the pre-sale ticket process instead of waiting for the tickets to go on sale to the general public. No apology, no recognition of the fact that I've spent thousands and thousands of dollars on tickets through this monopoly over the years, no nothing! It was my fault they said, my fault that I bought the same ticket less than 24 hours earlier for $12.30 more per ticket. So for the 4 tickets that I bought, Ticketmaster scammed me out of $49.20. Think about how many others may have done the same thing?

So with that, we fans are going to have to pay the excessive venue charges, and pay the excessive 'in'-convenience charges which end up making your overall ticket price approximately 40% more than the original ticket price. We are going to have to put up with this monopoly that takes advantage of the fact that bands can only make money touring and not by CD sales. They take advantage and scam each and every one of us with these practices.

I'll end with one thing that the Ticketmaster Customer Disservice Representative said that resonated with me. He tried to use an example to me that if you bought a shirt from a store one day for $50 and it went on sale for $40 the next day, would that store give me $10 back? He said no they would not, when I know that stores follow that policy all of the time and that this man that I had on the phone was clueless about life and about what it is to earn a buck and to try to spend it wisely. I feel sorry for him and the life lesson that he will learn later when he realized what a shameful company he works for.

Ticketmaster is a monopoly, Ticketmaster is a scam, and Ticketmaster is doing a disservice to everyone that is forced to use them to support music in this Country. They are simply un-American.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Hear Ye,
Ticketmaster charge my American Express Card for $718.00 for three Leonard Cohen Tickets on March 5, 2009. The website would not let me select needed features to understand what and the specific cost of a purchase or the option to use America Express points without inputing my Card Number and pushing the "continue" button on the bottom of the page. Upon pushing the "continue" button Ticketmaster charged my card without any opportunity to "finish, " "review, " "pay with American Express Points, " or in any other way comfirm my purchase or finalized the transaction. When I discover to my dismay that an UNAUTHORIZED CHARGE OF $718.00 was made to American Express for tickets that I did not intend to purchase without any option to back out of it online. I immediately phoned Ticketmaster to report the problem with the website and to have the unauthorized charge removed. The call was made with 5 minutes while I was still login to Ticketmaster website.
A Ticketmaster Customer Service Representative refused any assistance in correcting the UNAUTHORIZED CHARGE to the account indicating that his system would not allow him to remove Unauthorized Charges. I requested to speak to a manager or supervior who had the authority to override the mistaken charge. Customer Representatives Tim P. and Jeffery P. (names provide upon request) report that all superviors and managers were in a meeting and would have to call me later. I insisted to speak to a person in charge now. I was repeatedly told that no one was available. Before ending the call I had the promise of two Ticketmaster Customer Care Representatives that, at least one if not all, of the following persons (Irving Azoff, Sean Moriarty, Omar Sales, Tim Pennington, Philip Kaso), in management would call me to review the problem before the work day was finished in West Virginia where I was told Ticketmaster Customer Care is based. I am still waiting for the call promised on March 5, 2009, and it is now March 31, 2009. I do not yet have the Leonard Cohen tickets in question or a confirmation that my American Express will not be charge for 718.00 of charges not authorized by the card owner.
After repeated attempts to resolve the situation with Ticketmaster got no where but a run around and around and around. I then reported the unautorized charge to American Express. American Express Customer Care indicated that Ticketmaster had placed a block on my account for 718.00 and that American Express could do nothing until four days had pasted at which time Ticketmaster would have corrected the unauthorized charges or posted the charge. At the end of four days American Express would proceed to dispute the charge if Ticketmaster had not removed the charge. I wait. Called American Express again. The unauthorized charges continue to be disputed by the owner of the card and American Express. I wait some more...
Since March 5, 2009 Ticketmaster has be contacted online in writing at least three times. American Express continues to report that the matter is under investigation. The Leonard Cohen Event is this coming Friday, April 3, 2009. I have no tickets and no clarification about whether my credit card will be charged for the unautorized charges made by Ticketmasters website.
BUYER BEWARE OF USING TICKETMASTER PURCHASES ONLINE. GOOGLE for TICKETMASTER COMPLAINTS AND YOU WILL DISCOVER NUMEROUS OTHER PROBLEMS WITH TICKETMASTER ONLINE SERVICES. THE ISSUES ARE WIDE SPREAD ACROSS THE USA AND CANADA. CUSTOMERS, GOVERNMENTS, ATTORNEY GENERALS, AND EVEN ARTISTS HAVE COMPLAINTS AND PENDING INVESTIGATIONS.
I became informed of problems with Ticketmaster online services only after first hand experience with Ticketmasters preditory business practices.
Shame on Ticketmaster for failing to be a better business.
Take care not make yourself Ticketmaster's next victim.
Leonard Cohen are you paying attention to who is sharking you tickets.
American Express and other credit card companies appear to be a part of this growing problem by association with Ticketmaster and other business like Ticketmaster.
Buyer Beware!

TicketMaster sends credit card info to its accomplice, Ent* Entertainment Rewards in Troy, MI and they automatically charge $9. each month without stopping and without delivering any product. They say that somehow when we ordered tickets there was a checkbox to allow this, but I always uncheck all contact boxes when making any online order. Anyway, even if some hidden checkbox is there, this is a complete scam! People all over the country are paying this fee every month and don't catch it even some have been charged for years. Just because Entertainment Rewards has a legit product, does NOT mean they can receive my credit card and charge at will. This has been going on for far too long. Class action suit or goverment prosecution must occur.

I am working with a NY LawFfirm now. We are putting together a Class Action Law Suit. Can you explain to me what ticketsnow did to you? please email me at diana.[protected]@sbcglobal.net . The law firm and myself are seeking out others who are willing to be named in the suit.

My story is from Jan 31 2009 when I logged onto Ticketmaster at 9:59am for Jimmy Buffett at DTE Aug 13 2009 and I unknowingly was redirected to TicketsNow to complete my purchase that I still thought was Ticketmaster. After a few minutes and receiving confirmation of my order I realized someting was wrong. I paid $877.XX for 2 Seats. My timestamp on my purchase was 10:02AM.

Anything you can give me to help stop this is greatly appreciated. Thanks for you time...

Diana Wenzel
Toledo OH
diana.[protected]@sbcglobal.net

I had called Ticketmaster to buy 2 VIP Toxic Experience tickets for my friends Birthday and the women on the phone told me I could choose Will Call and still have them sent in the mail because that was the only option. I did it and now their ### are telling me I can only get them an hour before the concert. Forget about the fact that I'm going to be out of town working and will need my ID to get in the office back and fourth.

I hate their useless customer support lines, they are ### and TicketMaster are nothing but LIARS! So now I'm screwed out of 1, 100 dollars and they could care none about it, what a waste of human life they are. Nothing but BS artist and worse than Politicians could ever be.

I'm being charged $4.60 twice in one day for some kind of entertainment rewards I didn't sign up for...Ticketmaster claimed they had no idea why I would be charged these fees unless a concert was cancelled? Yeah, right!

Purchased tickets thru Ticketmaster for comedy show "MoNique" - event scheduled for 10/27 at 8pm. By 8:35 p.m., show had still not started. We had arrived 7:40pm to be on time. During pre-show wait, many guests, including myself, complained to MoNique entertainment staff that the loud music was like a 17-year old showing off in the car next to you with nothing but bass. It was hurting our ears, literally gave ear pain and headache. They refused our requests to adjust the sound. After waiting 55 minutes with noise torture, we left. I contacted Ticketmaster the next business day; their policy is to not refund after an event. If we knew beforehand the event would be intolerably late and would have subjected us to ear damage, certainly, we would have requested refund in advance. I think it's time people stand up to monopolies like Ticketmaster and the "artists" who take money and advantage from patrons who were subjected to noise abuse and a very tardy appearance. I, for one, will never use Ticketmaster and their price gouging, ever again.

I sent the following to Ticketmaster requesting a refund because I could not get what I paid for. I bought the tickets 3-4 months earlier online.

I called that night to request/demand a refund because I could not get the tickets printed even when they were sent to another e-mail address. Then I called to request another route, of course it was minutes from the start of the show which was a 25 minutes drive to the parking lot & another 15-20 minutes to the entrance gate/will call window. When we arrived to the window at 8:10 the window was closed & the concert was half over. I called to your office to request a refund. This was supposed to be a fun & relaxing night. However, it was extremely frustrating--whatever was encrypted & wouldn't change no matter what from the very beginning when I purchased these tickets. I have felt so frustrated & upset that it has taken me this long to be able to communicate with you. I have never had a problem before. I hope that I never have another problem like that again. I really feel burned from this experience re: Kenny Logins tickets.

I have purchased Dixie Chics Tickets for November a few months ago but wasn't able to print them. I will try soon.

I appreciate your attention to this matter. Jo