U2.com apologises, offers refund to members
U2.com has issued an apology to both U2.com members and those attempting to buy tickets during the general sale in a statement entitled “‘Vertigo Tour’ tickets: Latest News“. U2.com also offers a refund to members holding unused presale codes. (Details to follow on Feb 2nd.) Unsused codes may also be used for upcoming pre-sales for the as yet to be announced 3rd leg of the tour.
Although we realized that some subscribers might be scalpers using multiple email addresses and reserved the right to cancel any ticket order, we underestimated the potential numbers of such scalpers/subscribers.”
U2.com further state they are sorry if they
“…inadvertently gave the impression that the $40.00 subscription guaranteed you the tickets of your choice.” 1)
Throughout today, we have learned of more and more American fans contacted by Ticketmaster reps and offered better seats or GA tickets to a show of their choice. It seems the parties involved are making an effort to help those affected by ticketing mishaps. If you were left with a faulty code, or were forced to buy limited view tickets, we recommend you contact Ticketmaster a.s.a.p.
Footnote:
1) That’s not what fans thought they had been promised. They were told: “U2.Com have secured the best tickets available for our Subscribers”. During pre-sales however it became obvious that what was on offer was mostly limited view seats. For a clear explanation of the fans’ point of view read Laura Page’s Vertigo 2005: Anatomy of Marketing Disaster, at atU2.com.
No tickets? Blame U2 management, says promoter
Who’s to blame for the U2 fan club presale debacle? A Clearchannel representative points the finger squarely at U2′s management.
U2log.com has learned some interesting information from a Clearchannel representative who has been employed by the company for more than 15 years. This rep, whose job duties include reserving tickets for bands’ use, tells us that the quantity and location of the tickets held by bands for their personal use (i.e., for band guests, promotions, and fan clubs) are always approved in advance in writing by the band’s management. A seating map of each venue, indicating the precise location of band-reserved tickets, is sent to the band’s management to sign off on before remaining tickets are sold to the public.
In U2′s case, the Clearchannel rep believes that band management apparently reserved and approved tickets for ETS’ and American Express’ use, but failed to account for the fan club properly. She suggests that band management either did not pay attention to the number and location of the tickets reserved for the fan club presale as indicated on the venue seating maps sent for approval, purposely chose the worst and fewest number of tickets possible for the fan club presale, or forgot to reserve tickets for the fan club presale.
BBC’s ‘Watchdog’ reviews U2′s U.K. ticket sales
The BBC’s consumer complaints programme, ‘Watchdog‘ will be doing a feature on ticketing arrangements for U2′s shows in the U.K. on Tuesday night’s programme (Feb 1, 7pm GMT, BBC1). The show’s producers hope to interview a representative from Ticketmaster and will apparently discuss complaints from U2 fans regarding U2.com’s $40 membership charges. (source: M.C.)
Ticket ‘brokers’ in the U.K. are selling tickets for prices between £200-500.
Second Dublin date added during presales
We’re not entirely sure what changed, but the Dublin presale through Ticketmaster.ie seems to be running by far more smoothly than the US and UK sales last week. During the presale for the June 24 date, a second Dublin date was added. Tickets for the June 25 concert at Croke Park can now be ordered in the U2.com presale. Dare we hope a third date will be added?
We predict some serious swapping following in the next couple of days…
Ticketmaster accomodates unlucky U2.com members
Ticketmaster are e-mailing fans ‘whose records show’ they ‘unsuccessfully tried to use their presale passcode’. They are encouraging these fans to contact Ticketmaster with their code, phone number, venue and date.
The e-mail further states Ticketmaster can’t guarantee availability but they’ll ‘try to accommodate legitimate requests. on a 1st-come, 1st-served basis’.
Our sources say the e-mail appears to be legitimate and fans have already been contacted and received the tickets they wanted. To which we can only say: hurrah!
U2.com swap forum
Thumbs up to the U2.com Zootopia moderators for encouraging ticket swaps on the Live forum on the U2.com site. In this forum, you’ll be allowed to swap, buy and sell your U2 tickets at face value only. We’ve had many people mailing us, asking us if we can help them obtain tickets. Unfortunately, we really can’t. We’re having a hard enough time even organising any sort of tickets for ourselves! Therefore, we highly encourage an initiative like this… saves us a lot of work.
If you’re a U2.com subscriber, you can find the Live forum here.
In the port of Amsterdam…
A lot of speculation has been going on about the stage setup for the Vertigo tour. There are rumours abound claiming the stage will be located in the middle of the floor. We can’t deny or confirm for all the show, but the website for the Amsterdam ArenA clearly states that the stage during the U2 shows will be located at the northside of the stadium (see picture below).
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