Good for you MAcPhisto.
I agree that it is Clear Channel's fault more than anyone. They bought out SFX 2 yrs ago and now have a virtual strangehold on radio AND the concert biz. U2 have no choice but to do business with these people. They may have wanted to back out of the "up fromt cash" deal (MAYBE) but maybe now they can't, without a loss of tour support.
There are people on WIRE who are actually calling the complainers spoiled babies and telling us to grow up. To which I replied:
The fans who think they deserve tickets b/c they are longtime fans ARE spoiled in a sense. THe issue is not that longtime fans are left out in the cold, but that this hurts EVERYONE.
I said: I am amazed, shocked, and appalled that you would shrug this off to TM's past and call us spoiled complaining. How can you excuse such practices as flipping the seating chart? The issue is QUALITY OF SERVICE.
If you got this kind of "customer service" from a hospital, a department store, a car repair place, or a bank, would you brush it off and say "que sera, sera"? If you made a deposit in a bank, and suddenly an emergency came up and you had to withdraw money from the bank the next day, but the teller says to you, 'I'm sorry, the company vice president decided to throw a dinner for the Boardof Trustess, and we had to draw from your account"? Or you went to an ATM and found your account depleted? Would you sigh and say, "What can you do'?
NO you
WELL WOULD NOT.
I can't understand how we do not hold TM up to the same stabdards of performance and accountability as other companies who provide us with public services. People these days sue for emotional distress. They sue at the drop of a hat. WHY should an entertainment comapny like TM be any different?? Why do we accept--AND ENDURE--corruption a the highest level from a campany that provides us a service as imprtant as any other? Why do we accept a state of corruption to exist in this company, and not in a store?
If there are serious rumblings against a class-action lawsuit against TM by U2 fans, I'm all for it. People have taken on WAL-MArt and won.
Before this, however, we can NOT let this die down. TM and Principle are probably hiding behind a wall of silence right now because they think that fans not getting tickets is the main issue. IT ISN'T. It's an issue of TRUST. It's an issue of a compant--TM--thinking it can lie, cheat, and betray its customers openly just becuase it has the sole monopoly of the biz.
What we need to do, AFTER public sale next week, is to keep this alive. We need to CALL, ON THE PHONE, (NOT email or fax), all the major media outlets. DON't send articles to websites--get fax numbers, fax articles, THEN contact all the biggies. IN the USA: Fox, CNN, all the networks, etc. One good TV segment on this on FOX, ABC, a special "60 Minutes" degment on corruption in the ticket biz, an E! special or segment, will do wonders. And make it clear that while we are U2 fans, this affects ANY type of fan who buys from TM, for ANY event.
Secondly: we must also get this on the papers as well. U2 have a few very high-profile "friends" in the print media whom they use to do write about them. Edna Gurdensen of USa Today, Jon Pareles of the NY TImes, and esp Robert Hilburn of the LA Times need to be contacted personally, and informed of the TM fiasco. They may be afraid to take on TM (they know where their bread is buttered) but at least they can make some behindthe scenes phone calls. itisn;t just the fans that are screaming.
The issue here is not necessarily that we didn't get tix (although that is a scandal), but that the corruption level at TM and CC has gotten to such a point that it will be self-destructive to both companies' business if it goes on. It would be good to point out that due to such TM tactics as flipping the seating chart around, it appears that the band's most rabid fans--and the ones who would normally snap even the nosebleeds up beucase they were desperate--and going unbought, and a day later, there are lots of tickets left. Nomatter if this is not entirely accurate--(used codes) but the importnat thing si that that we start a ball riolling. It could also be privately communicated to the media honchos that there are rumors that the fans will file a class-action lawsuit if some issues are not addressed by TM IN PUBLIC and in a subsantive way.
It is highly important that it be siad we are using this unfortunate event to try to get TM ti address issues that willlead to CONSTRUCTIVE changes in the biz.
Pearl Jam were naieve. They went o COngress, never dreaming that the gov't could be bought off. It got a lot of media attention but no change. Better to do Bono's way. Get the right people..and after a brief but intense media scare (the stick) go for private negotiation (the carrot.)
and bitching about the band. I think the only thing U2 have done wrong is to allow U2.com to be their official website and Ticketbastard to be their official distributor - both organisations are tarnishing the band's image and besmirching their name (that last bit was supposed to be ridiculously dramatic, I thought it would be appropriate for this topic). 
