PAPERLESS TICKETS For 2009 Tour!

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I've been arguing for the credit card swipe plan for some time.

Movie theaters have done it successfully for some time, it's time concerts did the same. If you can't make it and have friends who can go, give them your credit card for the night. Hopefully you can trust them. :wink:
 
How do scalpers manage to get hold of huge amount of tickets anyway?

It's heart-stopping enough just trying to buy them for yourself!!?
 
Axver said:
Well, this thread has become predictable, right down to the implicit "U2 shows should be the centre of your life" attitudes.

At the moment, the current system allows anybody capable of affording a ticket the ability to purchase it. This potential new system, to some extent or another, excludes some of those customers. That is bad business. It excludes various groups whose attendance at each concert would number at least in the hundreds (i.e. not an insignificant minority). This exclusion is in some cases from buying a ticket in the first place, in which case U2 miss out financially, or from attendance, in which case a purchased ticket goes to waste and fans miss out (and I am sure U2, through statements in the past about the importance of a crowd to them, also value each person who actually passes through the door, not just the fact a ticket was sold). These groups include:

1. People who, for whatever reason, do not have a credit card. This idea that people must have a credit card is absurd and conformist. Yes, I have one, almost solely to purchase tickets and order CDs/books online, but numerous friends do not. If you don't, and you don't happen to know somebody with a card who actually wants to go to the show, you are stuffed.
2. People buying tickets with their parents' credit card. Their parents have to go now? Great, let's rule out the young crowd! Oh, wait, I thought that's who U2 want to appeal to?
3. People buying tickets as a gift for others. We should quash generosity now? I've seen multiple U2 concerts not on my own money, but as birthday or Christmas presents from relatives who not only had no intention of going, but were, in some cases, up to 14,000km away from where the show was actually being played!
4. People who want to do one-for-one trades, or any other kind of trade where the original purchaser does not attend the concert. Shitloads of trades, including hundreds conducted on this very forum last tour, would be impossible. Say you miss out on tickets for the first show in your city, but can buy tickets for the second show, even though you can't make it to the second night. Under the current system, you could buy tickets anyway in the expectation that you will have a high likelihood of being able to do a swap with somebody who holds tickets for the first night. Under this potential system? Forget it.
5. People who, for whatever reason, buy a ticket and then cannot attend. U2 concerts have a habit of selling out MONTHS before concerts. Sometimes even over half a year. You can't predict the future with absolute certainty. It is absolutely delusional to expect every purchaser in audiences as large as U2's to not have life intrude in the thousands of ways it possibly can, and to expect every purchaser to not want to give their ticket to somebody else as they themselves can no longer attend. If you're playing to 500 people, then maybe you might get lucky, but 50,000? Let's be serious. Numerous people are going to become unable to attend despite their best intentions to keep the date clear, and they will want somebody else to use their ticket rather than let it go to waste. Why the hell SHOULDN'T you be able to give your ticket to somebody else?

Now, you can go ahead and take issue with people in these five categories for not meeting your criteria of expected behaviour (don't waste your time; you're refuting examples, not the actual argument), but the point stands that they are nonetheless a paying customer excluded from the concert and that is a bad business model.

So why even propose a ticket model that will cause headaches, hassles, and potentially exclusion for hundreds of concertgoers? The "scalpers" justification is absurd, yet nobody has responded to this point I made in the very early stages of the thread:

Who are to blame for scalpers? IDIOTS AND DESPERATE FANS.

Scalpers exist purely because there is a niche in the market for tickets being sold for above face value. If you don't want stupid systems such as what's put forward in this thread, here's the simple solution: don't buy tickets from scalpers. If the market for scalped tickets dries up, scalping dries up. Address the cause, not the symptom. Trying to bar scalpers inevitably leads to genuine fans getting the run-around, while the smarter scalpers quickly figure out how to bypass the system and continue to make a killing.

Of course, people are stupid and the market for scalping will continue to exist. But the next time you find yourself unable to purchase a ticket because a scalper snapped them up or because the system has been changed in a way that excludes you, go get annoyed at the idiots and desperate fans paying massively inflated prices for a simple rock concert. If they hadn't allowed a niche in the market to develop, the scalper wouldn't be buying tickets from under your nose. Simple as that.
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The paperless system will likely only involve the fan club. If you do not have a credit card or if someone else is purchasing tickets for you, you will still be able to BUY paper tickets. Anyone who is a fan club member has to have a credit card or at least access to one. If you can't take a credit card with you to the concert, then purchase a paper ticket in the general sale instead of one through the fan club.
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:
In the states there are very few markets that still have live service for concerts the morning of... Most sales are online or over the phone.
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There's like a dozen ticketmaster outlets in dublin that you can go to at any time for tickets; I prefer it that way. Online booking just means more fees and I waited 2 hours in a queue (after tickets when on sale) for Springsteen tickets so there's still people who like it that way so I'd rather not have a solely online sale
 
Maoilbheannacht said:
The paperless system will likely only involve the fan club. If you do not have a credit card or if someone else is purchasing tickets for you, you will still be able to BUY paper tickets. Anyone who is a fan club member has to have a credit card or at least access to one. If you can't take a credit card with you to the concert, then purchase a paper ticket in the general sale instead of one through the fan club.
Click to expand...

I don't know if this is true. In Netherlands the complete AC/DC concert will be sold via the paperless system...

As I said before, I think this system is great. Only worry is the capacitiy of internet-website...
 
i really don't understand the outrage directed at people who are saying "what's the big deal just use a credit card" like BVS... i completely agree. maybe it's a cultural thing here in the states, but i didn't even know it was possible to buy a ticket with cash anymore, unless it's day of show at the box office.

the last ticketmaster outlet around my area that i knew of closed like 10 years ago.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
i really don't understand the outrage directed at people who are saying "what's the big deal just use a credit card" like BVS... i completely agree.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I thought I may have stepped in some weird time warp in interference where the internet was common place but debit cards were something of the future...:shrug:
 
they should do this for GA tickets and sell regular tickets normally

there ya go, the perfect system

you could even implement the "lottery" when the card is scanned.
 
Chizip said:
they should do this for GA tickets and sell regular tickets normally

there ya go, the perfect system

you could even implement the "lottery" when the card is scanned.
Click to expand...



OMFG.. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN MISTER! haven't seen around here in a longgggggggggggg timmmmmmmmmmme!!!


how the hell are ya? :hug:
 
I think the paperless system could work but, how do you get a reserved seat? I would imagine you'd have to show something to prove where your seat is.
 
Axver said:
Honestly, people really only have themselves to blame for scalpers. If idiots and desperate fans weren't willing to pay over face value for scalped tickets, the scalpers would go out of business.
Click to expand...

How would some people get tickets then?? There are desperate fans who missed out through no fault of their own.

And what about those of us who want the ticket?
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
i really don't understand the outrage directed at people who are saying "what's the big deal just use a credit card" like BVS... i completely agree. maybe it's a cultural thing here in the states, but i didn't even know it was possible to buy a ticket with cash anymore, unless it's day of show at the box office.

the last ticketmaster outlet around my area that i knew of closed like 10 years ago.
Click to expand...

Ditto. Long gone are the days when we'd camp out in front of the TM register in the campus grocery store in college.


If it's really an issue that people in Europe don't use credit cards as much as we do, I say use the credit card approach here in the States and use something else abroad. :shrug:

Seriously, it's the best way to cut down on scalpers. How many of us would really pass up a U2 show that you already bought tickets for, for anything other than a death in the family?
 
Chizip said:
they should do this for GA tickets and sell regular tickets normally

there ya go, the perfect system

you could even implement the "lottery" when the card is scanned.
Click to expand...


Yes. This is similar to the Pearl Jam model, although you can get rid of your fan club tix between picking them up and entering the show, which is good for trades etc. Ten Club members are pretty savage about reporting anyone else they see scalping the fan club tickets for higher prices, so it really limits it to just trading with other fans, which is good.
 
Irishteen said:
Scalpers exist because U2 tickets are too cheap; Supply and demand peopel!
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Scalpers would exist no matter how much or how little U2 tickets cost. If prices go up for the next tour, which I fear they're going to, we'll just have people complaining about scalpers AND ticket prices :|
 
U2 should just have fans line up, count off from one to a million and do a lottery or something...I don't know.

This whole scalping thing is ridiculous. I think I'll wait for the concert DVD.
 
You never know, if U2 sets prices too high next year when the economy is in the dumps, you might able able to get tickets for less than face value from scalpers.
 
Irishteen said:
Scalpers exist because U2 tickets are too cheap; Supply and demand peopel!
Click to expand...


too cheap? seriously? I saved up for the best part of a year to afford b grade seats that were a good half stadium away from the stage. I'm a poor struggling student! Don't make me pay more!!! I don't know about the rest of the world, but in Aus, big name acts are charging ridiculously high prices. Sure maybe the Stones, U2 and JT are amongst the handfull of acts who can get away with it, but then they just drive up prices of smaller bands. :down:

As for the "paperless tickets" issue, I am just over 18, and do not own a credit card, nor do I see any prospect of owning one for the next few years. Maybe the sytem has its merits but I think it would prevent to many fans from getting tickets. I want to be able to see them from the GA pit without having to own my own credit card, or to attempt to scab one of a friend. Scalpers or no, the current system has got me to plenty of concerts in fine form.
 
U2 should have a Survivor-like contest, where only winners of physical challenges get to buy tickets.

Push another person off a log over a pit of crocodiles? Get to buy a ticket.

Bungee jump off an elephant? Get to buy a ticket.

Whack-a-Bono champion? That's five tickets.
 
Assuming it's a feature available to u2.com subscribers only:

- Isn't a credit card required to pay for a u2.com subscription? Use the same credit card for the ticket.
- A guaranteed GA or premium seat outweighs any drawbacks and takes luck and scalpers out of the equation. Only u2.com subscribers would actually receive and be able to use the tickets, which would be among the best available in the venue (unlike last time).
 
luna_lovegood said:
too cheap? seriously? I saved up for the best part of a year to afford b grade seats that were a good half stadium away from the stage. I'm a poor struggling student! Don't make me pay more!!! I don't know about the rest of the world, but in Aus, big name acts are charging ridiculously high prices. Sure maybe the Stones, U2 and JT are amongst the handfull of acts who can get away with it, but then they just drive up prices of smaller bands. :down:
Click to expand...

Too cheap? Let's see do all the venues sell out? Yes? Well then they can't be too expensive from a business point of view. Would the venues sell out still if they charged more? Yes? Then technically they are not charging enough. Honestly if U2 were as business and money driven as people here seem to think they were the band would be charging a lot more; why? Because they'd make more money.

And I can't stand when people complain about ticket prices; think tickets are expensive? move to bloody Ireland bands charge twice as much here as anywhere else on their tours; you know why? Because people will still buy the tickets.
 
Irishteen said:
Too cheap? Let's see do all the venues sell out? Yes? Well then they can't be too expensive from a business point of view. Would the venues sell out still if they charged more? Yes? Then technically they are not charging enough. Honestly if U2 were as business and money driven as people here seem to think they were the band would be charging a lot more; why? Because they'd make more money.

And I can't stand when people complain about ticket prices; think tickets are expensive? move to bloody Ireland bands charge twice as much here as anywhere else on their tours; you know why? Because people will still buy the tickets.
Click to expand...

I respect your point of view, but I want to be able to afford to see my favourite band. I'm not saying their finanace driven - I couldnt give a flying fuck what their motives are - I'm in no position to know or judge, but I wouldn't think it'd be too much to ask to keep the prices at an afforadble rate. I have rent to pay, savings to save etc etc - there's only so much extra room for concert tickets. I'm, as far as I can tell, part of a pretty decent size demographic of the U2 fan base and it might be wise to continue to cater for me ... thats all I'm saying.

martha said:
:reject:

He never even occurred to me.
Click to expand...

I wasn't laughing at you! just laghing at Jethro Tull :D
 
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