MERGED --> I don't know what to say... + Lost the love

[beatlesboy]

I don't know what to say...

Like many others, I'm quite upset right now and I don't believe that I need to go into any specifics anymore as everyone knows how sour things have been getting with the whole Prop issue and now the great ticket fiasco. Everything that has gone on the past few months has been just one stomach turning incident after another and I'm finding myself really turned off about the whole thing. I feel really bad that I'm actually thinking differently about seeing the band now. I have been a hardcore fan forever, but it just seems like every tour gets tougher and tougher to see and it seems like the 'suits' are coming between U2 and their fans more now than ever. My cash and patience seems to be running low and it's becoming less and less important to me to see this tour as events unfold. I know it's petty to let some cash and inconvenience get in the way of my love of the band, but it just seems to be getting more ridiculous everytime. I don't know what to think anymore...

Thanks for letting me vent a bit.

 

[U2girl]

What bothers me is the price difference between ticket prices: US - 50 dollars, Europe - 85 EUR, and UK - 85 GBP!

I was expecting something along the lines of 50 EUR, not more. These kind of prices make me think I won't be seeing the band on this tour.

 

[boystupidboy]

Lost the love

After 'you know what' today i feel different about u2.Maybe i should'nt but its pissed me off.So much so that i don't want to put their music on.I ALWAYS play their music when i'm pottering around the house.Not today,somehow i don't want to hear it

 

[boystupidboy]

Re: I don't know what to say...

Like many others, I'm quite upset right now and I don't believe that I need to go into any specifics anymore as everyone knows how sour things have been getting with the whole Prop issue and now the great ticket fiasco. Everything that has gone on the past few months has been just one stomach turning incident after another and I'm finding myself really turned off about the whole thing. I feel really bad that I'm actually thinking differently about seeing the band now. I have been a hardcore fan forever, but it just seems like every tour gets tougher and tougher to see and it seems like the 'suits' are coming between U2 and their fans more now than ever. My cash and patience seems to be running low and it's becoming less and less important to me to see this tour as events unfold. I know it's petty to let some cash and inconvenience get in the way of my love of the band, but it just seems to be getting more ridiculous everytime. I don't know what to think anymore...

Thanks for letting me vent a bit.

same as...same as my friend.I've invested alot of time,money and emotion in this band...................don't feel like it at the moment though

 

[BigMacPhisto]

U2 had nothing to do with this.........the fan club only made ONE mistake (although I do think they said things vaguely earlier about how many tickets we could get).....the only thing the fan club did wrong was to have nosebleed seats and such for presale.....if they were fair, all of the GA Floor seats would've been made available.

It's ticketmaster that fucked up....

1) Poor servers

2) Password problems

3) Ticketmaster (or its employees) hacked into the system and took all of the GA seats, hence why guys on eBay had 80 floor seats before shows even went on sale.

I have nothing but respect for this band.....I'm sure their fan club will add more shows and we'll have better odds next time around. Blame the ones selling the tickets, not the band performing.

 

[username]

I was fine until this online ticketing shit-storm this morning. I was screwed by Ticketmaster and their server error messages. By the time I was actually able to get through (mind you, I was online for 30 minutes prior to the start) the GA tix were gone and I am stuck in the upper level terrace for $98!!!

I agree with you about being disillusioned. I am pretty damn upset right now - not with the band, of course but with the way that this was all handled.

 

[boystupidboy]

Unfortunately,wether you like it or not, the band are tied up with ticketbastards and u2 actions concerning this fuck-up will show me if they really do give a toss about the people who put them there in the first place.

 

[Celticfc]

I am feeling the exact same way.
I feel like u2 have stuck a knife in my heart.

 

[Celticfc]

Im sorry but U2 chose to go down the path of ticketmaster therefore the blame lies entirely with them.

U2 had nothing to do with this.........the fan club only made ONE mistake (although I do think they said things vaguely earlier about how many tickets we could get).....the only thing the fan club did wrong was to have nosebleed seats and such for presale.....if they were fair, all of the GA Floor seats would've been made available.

It's ticketmaster that fucked up....

1) Poor servers

2) Password problems

3) Ticketmaster (or its employees) hacked into the system and took all of the GA seats, hence why guys on eBay had 80 floor seats before shows even went on sale.

I have nothing but respect for this band.....I'm sure their fan club will add more shows and we'll have better odds next time around. Blame the ones selling the tickets, not the band performing.

 

[sharky]

 

[zoo99]

ticketmaster is the best of a bad bucnh, if you think this was bad it would have been 100x worse if a smaller company handled it.

 

[Judah]

Given the system that they're working within, i'm not sure what else U2 can do...unless it's another Pearl Jam-type fight with the ticket-selling monopolies of the world.

If U2 had made all GA tickets available for u2.com subscribers only, the band would've been accused of profiting even more on tickets, since that many more people would've signed up to u2.com for a crack at all the available GA tickets. Plus, there'd be no guarantee that the tickets would still be available to us non-insiders (the fact that scalpers are selling hundreds of GA tickets means these people always have the first crack).

The band is too huge...too many people wanna see them. But, yes, they SHOULD'VE done more to make sure that a higher percentage of u2.com subscribers got access to the tickets...i'm just not sure how.

 

[yimou]

I am really not into these big concerts anymore. The place U2 will be playing at in Denmark will have 40.000+ tickets atleast. But somehow i lost interest in standing in that big f..king crowd for so long.. I saw McCartney play the same stadium from the nosebleed section some time ago and it was frigging awful. I saw U2 there in 1997 and bought an upper level seat and it was great... But since this is a U2 concert then i will go nomatter what..
But i feel sorry for all of you who have been let down or disappointed by the ticket screw up.

Well hopefully we will have a DVD sometime next year from the tour, and then we will have the best seats in the house.

 

[NamelessStreets]

On-line ticket companys have been selling tickets for ages now. My girl friend bought two tickets for the Twickenham gig last OCTOBER! They were a birthday present for me and she paid £195 EACH. She had no idea that the official tickets were not for sale, and I was starting to worry that we were gonna get ripped off. When the dates were released on Monday, we received an e-mail from the ticket company stating that the date had changed. The original date that was advertised was two weeks ahead of the date that has been confirmed by u2.com. So it was reasonably accurate. I saw them on the POPMART tour, a tour that must have cost a fucking fortune, and I paid £40 for a ticket! I have seen tickets selling for as much as $1500 dollars on some sites. I cant explained what has happened. If U2 really wanted to, Im sure they could have avoided this ticket fiasco. Though you have to remember, getting hold of tickets to see the world biggest band is never going to be that simple.

 

[Celticfc]

They had a system with Propaganda that worked. You received in the mail a list and you checked what gigs you wanted to go to.
You were guaranteed GA tiks.
Why did they change something that worked?

On-line ticket companys have been selling tickets for ages now. My girl friend bought two tickets for the Twickenham gig last OCTOBER! They were a birthday present for me and she paid £195 EACH. She had no idea that the official tickets were not for sale, and I was starting to worry that we were gonna get ripped off. When the dates were released on Monday, we received an e-mail from the ticket company stating that the date had changed. The original date that was advertised was two weeks ahead of the date that has been confirmed by u2.com. So it was reasonably accurate. I saw them on the POPMART tour, a tour that must have cost a fucking fortune, and I paid £40 for a ticket! I have seen tickets selling for as much as $1500 dollars on some sites. I cant explained what has happened. If U2 really wanted to, Im sure they could have avoided this ticket fiasco. Though you have to remember, getting hold of tickets to see the world biggest band is never going to be that simple.

 

[Erin go bragh]

Im sorry but U2 chose to go down the path of ticketmaster therefore the blame lies entirely with them.

We agree!!


Sincerely,
Pearl Jam

 

[ImOuttaControl]

Re: Lost the love

After 'you know what' today i feel different about u2.Maybe i should'nt but its pissed me off.So much so that i don't want to put their music on.I ALWAYS play their music when i'm pottering around the house.Not today,somehow i don't want to hear it

I've started to feel the same lately...

- forcing websites to take down lyrics and guitar tablature

- Ipod and it's ripoff "Complete U2"

- Having to pay $40 to sign up for a shit website for "priority booking" What a joke that turned out to be. And all that "exclusive content" that used to be free that we now have to pay for.

I've lost a lot of respect for U2 in the last half year or so, which is sad to say.

 

[Celticfc]

Re: Re: Lost the love

feeling the exact same way.

I've started to feel the same lately...

- forcing websites to take down lyrics and guitar tablature

- Ipod and it's ripoff "Complete U2"

- Having to pay $40 to sign up for a shit website for "priority booking" What a joke that turned out to be. And all that "exclusive content" that used to be free that we now have to pay for.

I've lost a lot of respect for U2 in the last half year or so, which is sad to say.

 

[Erin go bragh]

Re: Re: Lost the love

And all that "exclusive content" that used to be free that we now have to pay for.

I agree with you there. What the hell....u want me to pay $40.00 to read an article??

Puh-leeze

 

[username]

I think that it is important to realize that this is not the bands problem. Meaning that this is not the fault of Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry. This IS the problem of their management, u2.com, and Ticketmaster (their partner in business). I just wrote a letter to U2.com and I hope that they, the band and Ticketmaster issue an apology and attempt to rectify the situation - although I am not sure how that would be done at this point.

I am trying not to begrudge the band for this. I just hope they are made aware of what has occurred here today and do something about it.

There are bigger problems in the world right now than not getting the seats we wanted. However, that is no excuse for failure on the part of management and the ticket outlets to conduct business in a fair and proper manner. They owe it to their fans to solve this problem in professional manner.

 

[dsmith2904]

I've started a thread where you can share your presale stories...

http://forum.interference.com/t110679.html

 

[doctorwho]

They had a system with Propaganda that worked. You received in the mail a list and you checked what gigs you wanted to go to.
You were guaranteed GA tiks.
Why did they change something that worked?

This is incorrect.

Yes, Propaganda had a nice system. However, there was NO guarantee you would get either good seats or the seats you requested.

I experienced this on the last tour when I requested GA tickets and was turned down. Also, while I did get great Golden Circle tickets, I heard many Propaganda subscribers did not. These people were paying $135 for tickets in the back of the arena - not exactly worth it.

Also, Propaganda required you to send them a money order in advance along with the order form. Then you waited and waited, hoping that the mail wasn't lost or that you'd get tickets. If you didn't, they'd return the money order, but by that time it was too late to get tickets through normal means.

The only time Propaganda worked well was on huge stadium tours, like PopMart or the stadiums in Europe. Then, there are far more tickets and a better chance of getting something reasonable. But for arenas, they were no where near as good as people think they were.

I admit, there were tons of problems with today's presale, but selective memory does little good. There were also problems last tour as well, but with the presale and with Propaganda securing good tickets.

 

[beatlesboy]

Sorry Double post...

 

[beatlesboy]

I think that it is important to realize that this is not the bands problem. Meaning that this is not the fault of Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry. This IS the problem of their management, u2.com, and Ticketmaster (their partner in business). I just wrote a letter to U2.com and I hope that they, the band and Ticketmaster issue an apology and attempt to rectify the situation - although I am not sure how that would be done at this point.

I am trying not to begrudge the band for this. I just hope they are made aware of what has occurred here today and do something about it.

There are bigger problems in the world right now than not getting the seats we wanted. However, that is no excuse for failure on the part of management and the ticket outlets to conduct business in a fair and proper manner. They owe it to their fans to solve this problem in professional manner.

I agree 100%. I do feel that the band should be involved in this whole situation just a tad, after all it is THEIR management and U2 (aka the fans) puts the funds behind their paychecks. I'm not saying the band should be running the website or monitoring what ticketmaster is up to, but they should at least listen in on what's going on once in awhile. I'm all for Bono travelling the world and his work with worthwhile causes, but it wouldn't hurt to take a second or two to listen to the loyal fans who have shelled out the bucks over the years and made it possible for him to jump around the globe in the first place. I know there are far more important things going on to be worried about but I don't think an opportunity to see a rock show every few years is asking too much. I (like most) don't live in a fancy mansion on the hill or have a yacht or an expensive car and I really don't mind, I'm just an average Joe who works, does his bits for charity, and looks forward to a concert every once in awhile. I believe that it's getting to the point where the average Joe will no longer be able to afford or put in the time it takes to obtain a ticket. It seems there's FAR too much BS going on in between the band and it's fans and the band really doesn't seem to care...

 

[U2Kitten]

I didn't even try since there are no shows near me and I'm broke, but I totally expected something to go wrong. Sorry for all those who are disappointed.

 

[isabelle_guns]

I know what to say and I will say what I've said in most threads.....

I knew that this would happen. A similar situation happened on Bowienet for some shows. This is why I didn't buy membership 'cause I learnt my lesson the first time. I feel sorry for those who did pay for their membership and had to go through this BS. I could not afford $40 at the moment for a password but I will be honest in saying that I'm glad that they didn't release all the GA floors to the members 'cause now I have an equal fair chance with the rest of the public. I may not be an exclusive member to U2.com who can afford or happen to have a spare $40 but I'm still a bug U2 fan non the less and so will be the people who are purchasing tickets. What I'm really upset about is that GA's are already on e-bay from un-honest fans, this I knew was going to happen.

 

[Matthew_Page2000]

This is incorrect.

Yes, Propaganda had a nice system. However, there was NO guarantee you would get either good seats or the seats you requested.

I experienced this on the last tour when I requested GA tickets and was turned down. Also, while I did get great Golden Circle tickets, I heard many Propaganda subscribers did not. These people were paying $135 for tickets in the back of the arena - not exactly worth it.

Also, Propaganda required you to send them a money order in advance along with the order form. Then you waited and waited, hoping that the mail wasn't lost or that you'd get tickets. If you didn't, they'd return the money order, but by that time it was too late to get tickets through normal means.

The only time Propaganda worked well was on huge stadium tours, like PopMart or the stadiums in Europe. Then, there are far more tickets and a better chance of getting something reasonable. But for arenas, they were no where near as good as people think they were.

I admit, there were tons of problems with today's presale, but selective memory does little good. There were also problems last tour as well, but with the presale and with Propaganda securing good tickets.

Good point doc but your experience with Prop was the exception. You could always have chosen an alternative choice for shows with the Prop system. Perhaps your shedule made that impossible?
Most Prop members got the tickets they wanted to the shows they wanted. A great deal of the problems with the Prop system on the Elevation tour was due to confusion about what "Gold Circle" and "General Admission" constituted.

With the Vertigo tour we have a large percentage of people who can't even get tickets. Not good.

 

[intedomine]

To be frank with you all I dont even understand what's going on. Sounds like some problem concerning ticket sales and price of tickets. All this economical business ticket rights stuff goes right over my head, so I dont even understand what the band has done that is wrong.

All they do is write and play music, arent ticket sales all down to management and companies and stuff?

I'm so naive about the whole thing.

Yet maybe U2 are complete ignoramuses like me when it comes to economics and business and ticket distribution? They don't understand what's happening either.

The internet is rubbish anyway. Causes all sorts of problems. Propaganda should have stayed as a fanzine and tickets should be sold at ticket windows.

 

[U2girl]

Intedomine, from what I understand - I'm sure Americans and Propaganda members and U2.com 40 USD payers will explain better - the plan was that the people who payed the subscription to U2.com and ex-Propaganda members would be first in line for tickets, when the pre-sale started. Special codes were given to those who were subscribers on U2.com.

Ticketmaster (Fanfire? what's the difference between those two?) was in charge of handling the pre-sale, as Propaganda was no more. Unfortunately, their site appears to have crashed with the demand of fans, the earlier mentioned codes (I don't know how many of those were compared to the number of U2.com subscribers) didn't work and people had to keep refreshing it. Also, in a mysterious way, several people said at some venues GA tickets were gone even right at 10 am when the pre-sale started. Most people so had to buy different, more expensive tickets. (there were several reports scalpers got GA tickets and are now selling those on Ebay) Also an issue was the price of tickets, especially UK ones, and the higher ranges of US ones.

I think U2.com and their management are more involved in ticket sales/tour plans than Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry are. I don't know who decides ticket prices, apart from inflation and demand/supply.

 

[intedomine]

Thannks for the explanation U2girl.

It seems that all the anger at U2 seems a little extreme. I know that if I was in a band as big as U2, the last thing I'd wanna do is involve myself in the whole distribution of tickets and the jargon that is associated with the whole business. I'd leave that up to management. I'd be totally ignorant of thr whole deal.

Edge, Bono, Sparky and Larry just wanna write and play music. They are U2 and that is their job. They aren't economic or business experts.

The management are not U2. They merely manage a group of people called U2. If they have put their wallets ahead of everything else, that is a discredit to them.

And the complaints about ticket prices, well they were never gonna be cheap anyway. It's the way the modern capitalist world operates. It's shite but we have to live with it.


I'm sure Bono, Adam, Larry and Edge, didn't say beforehand

"Ha ha. Let's be really cruel to our loyal fans and betray their faith by making a mockery out of the fan club they had to pay for."

Personally, I'd be looking to blame the internet. It's an absolute farce and has caused more harm than good since it became so easily accessible to everyone.

It causes unemployment, is saturated in explicit child porn, rips people off with it's reliance upon credit cards, and causes many individuals to become addicted to the world wide web, severely extinguishing their social life and potential.

This whole fiasco would not have happened in 1985.

I may sound like just another fan not wanting to accept that his heroes aren't as pure as they make out to be, but I just don't think it is feasible for anyone to start treating U2 (the band, not the management) as if they just committed a mass murder.


Sparky should have stayed manager.