U2ITNOL
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Boston Globe : U2 Presale Draws Complaints
There's a story about the U2 presale debacle in the Boston Globe today with comments by a U2.con employee named Brad. Pretty lame excuses given if you ask me!
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/li...ts/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Living+/+Arts+News
There's a story about the U2 presale debacle in the Boston Globe today with comments by a U2.con employee named Brad. Pretty lame excuses given if you ask me!
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/li...ts/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Living+/+Arts+News
U2 presale draws complaints
By Steve Morse, Globe Staff | January 27, 2005
An Internet presale deal has some local U2 fans up in arms. They claim the so-called "preferred seating" offered for the band's May FleetCenter shows was no such thing.
The sale, which began Tuesday, gave members of the band's subscription service, U2.com, the chance to buy tickets through Ticketmaster before they go on sale to the public Saturday. But fans said the seats available to the May 24 and 26 concerts were no better than those that will be offered this weekend. By the time fans got online, they said the better seats had all been snatched up.
"I found out I could get 10th row in the balcony on the opposite end of the arena for $95. How is that preferred seating?" said Stacy Bartko of North Easton. Bartko was hoping that her $40 membership in U2.com would get her access to better seating at U2's upcoming Boston dates.
No such luck. "Right now, if you gave me the tickets for free, I wouldn't take them," a frustrated Bartko added.
The presale was arranged between U2.com and Ticketmaster. A members-only password got fans onto Ticketmaster's website. A U2.com spokeswoman said the sale was an "opportunity" to purchase a ticket but that it "didn't guarantee you a ticket."
A U2.com representative named Brad, who wouldn't provide his last name, refused to divulge numbers but said there was "a huge body of people who still got tickets" and that fans will have another shot at the best seats when U2 returns for a second leg of the tour after playing in Europe this summer.
"This is the Internet age," Brad said. "When you have several hundred thousand people clicking on their computers at the same time in search of tickets, not everyone is going to be happy."
Ticketmaster posted an apology on U2.com yesterday for "technical difficulties" in the presale of tickets for the European dates, but said nothing about any US problems. And a band spokesman said the bulk of the US problems appeared to be in Boston and Chicago and noted online delays. Ticketmaster representatives could not be reached yesterday.
Bartko said she used to subscribe to the band's fanzine, Propaganda. Through the fanzine, she was able to get fourth row tickets to a U2 show at the Worcester Centrum in the early '90s, and eighth row at a Foxboro Stadium concert. But the fanzine was discontinued in favor of the U2.com service, she said.