In the most plain language available yet, promoter Harvey Goldsmith has just made it clear that anyone who paid for a passcode to the Led Zeppelin reunion concert is out of luck.
An e-mail delivered today to the winners of the first-round ballot process included Goldsmith's bold declaration, "If you have sold or have given away your passcode whomever you have sold / given it to will be denied entry into the concert."
This notification is the first to clarify that ticket orders placed with names that do not match those selected in the pre-registration process will be canceled, making more spaces in the upcoming second round of the ballot drawing.
Some people within the Led Zeppelin fan community have argued that the language used in the original ticket notification three days ago permitted resale of the passcodes. Any such ambiguity is cleared in Goldsmith's stronger pronouncement.
"Unless the original winning registration name and passcode match the ticket booking, the booking will be cancelled and you will be notified," Goldsmith's e-mail reads, in part. "All cancelled bookings will go back into the ballot for reselection."
Shortly following the Oct. 1 notification to ballot winners, more than 100 sellers on eBay claimed to offer passcodes to log in for Led Zeppelin reunion concert ticket purchases. In nearly all cases, the auctions demanded pricetags that exceeded the price of tickets themselves.
Goldsmith first responded to such resale of passcodes in a press release on Oct. 2, stating the following:
"Unfortunately a small number of unscrupulous people have decided to take advantage of the fact that they had been awarded the opportunity to purchase tickets. It is even more unfortunate that eBay and a number of ticket scalping sites have chosen to take advantage of this situation. Please note that unless the ticket, the code and correct identification match, those tickets will be invalid. Anyone who chooses to purchase tickets in this way will lose their money!"Scott Colothan of Internet site Gigwise yesterday posted an article that summed up the opinions of some fans who thought Goldsmith was, in essence, ripping off fans. From that article:
Know what? Cry me a river. Who's forking out the thousands? Who paid the seller? And you're blaming Harvey for shafting you?One wrote: “Why are they making this so hard for everyone? True fans will fork out thousands and travel all over the world for these guys but they are being shafted by this fat git!!”
Another disgruntled fan added: “Unfortunately this policy will hurt the fans who bought the codes not the seller who has already been paid.”
We've known all along:
- It's a charity fundraiser. You should feel ashamed either raking in or shelling out large chunks of money that won't benefit the charity.
- A no-resale policy was announced the very first day.
- Anyone using the pre-registration site agreed to abide by its terms and conditions.
Therefore:
- Anyone selling an authentic, unique code knowing violated not only the terms and conditions but also the specific rules of the confirmation e-mail.
- Anyone buying a passcode, or a ticket, sold in this manner was knowingly violating the no-resale policy.
- Anyone buying a passcode, or a ticket, sold in this manner was knowingly making a scalper richer when the intention was to prevent that from happening all along -- partly because, what? Say it with me: It's a charity fundraiser.
Bottom line:
- If you really want to keep the scalpers from profiting, the last thing you should do is give them money.
- On top of that, if you thought you would be somehow rewarded for helping a scalper make money, you were grossly mistaken.
Posts
It has become clear now that ticket codes are not transferable, so the idea of a fundraiser for charity is still pretty well intact, but I for one would like to know how many 'complementary' tickets are slushing around via O2 and ticketmaster.....
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's unfair, who knows?
But the sheer disappointment at not getting to see the band we loved and still love is the most negative thing to emerge from this whole thing - many are fans who saw them before ( me ) but so many are younger people who never thought they would get a chance - for them this has been a mixed opportunity, with more disappointment ( numerically speaking )than joy.
What of them ?
Perhaps this is the most unexpected outcome of what was basically a nice idea..........
Well what a swizz! I knew my sister and brother-in-law would love to see Led Zep and I entered the ballot on the basis that if I won they could have the tickets. My sister bought the tickets using my code, she paid the face value and there was no exchange of money between us. As the purchaser, she and her husband were entitled to attend – until that is they changed the rules again. Now they can’t go. And me? I have no desire to spend two days of my leisure time standing in a queue with 19,998 other people just because Harvey Goldsmith can’t come up with a more workable solution. So good luck guys – my tickets are going back into the ballot for Round 2! What a load of rubbish…
ReplyDeleteWhat about a kid that enters and has his mom pay for the tickets with her credit card because he's not old enough to have one? What if my name is drawn but I have my husband use his credit card to pay for the tickets because we're both going?
ReplyDeleteThere are viable instances where people are NOT trying to scalp tickets but just trying to pay for their tickets and do not have a credit card or use someone else's to pay for their ticket....so what? Why would it matter who paid for the ticket? That doesn't mean you transferred the ticket to someone, it only meant that someone with a different name paid for the ticket for you. If Goldstein wasn't so paranoid then maybe he would trust the fans that really love the band and just want to see them play one last time!!!
Scalpers will always exist and you will never stamp them out completely. But don't treat the loyal and true fans like dirt or like thieves when we're only trying to pay for a legit ticket the only way we can!! That's not fair to us!
I didn't win a ticket and I'm not buying one off a scalper...I would die a happy woman to be able to go to this show but it's obviously not going to happen...but I can sympathize with the real fans that got the opportunity and had it snatched from their hands by a paranoid money-grubbing promoter Goldstein!!! UNFAIR!!
Jenyfer
Jenyfer, those are examples of the perfectly good exceptions Harvey Goldsmith has thought of when he said fans should contact him with any such stories. Be sure to let him know if you have circumstances like that. And check out http://www.forbes.com/2007/10/09/led-zeppelin-ebay-face-cx_ll_1008autofacescan02.html?partner=msn for a Forbes article on the topic.
ReplyDelete