Travel advisory for any demons in our reading audience tonight, as hell has reportedly frozen over, with Rolling Stone reporting this evening that Ticketmaster is giving money back to consumers. The ticketing company—which has come under fire again lately for both instability in its ticketing system, as well as ticketing fees that sometimes charge more than the actual tickets in question—is reportedly offering partial refunds to customers who bought tickets for an upcoming tour by The Cure.
News of the refunds was announced by Cure frontman Robert Smith, who’s been very vocal on social media over his unhappiness about working with Ticketmaster, especially since the band has apparently been trying to move heaven and earth not to gouge its fans with this latest tour. That includes ignoring Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing plan,” which Smith called a “scam,” and setting a price point of just $20 for some seats—only to have Ticketmaster’s attached fees more than double the price.
Tonight, Smith announced that Ticketmaster has agreed to give $10 back to anyone who bought seats at that lowest price point; meanwhile, the company is also issuing “A $5 ticket refund to all verified fan accounts for all other ticket price transactions, for all Cure shows at all venues.” (Not huge amounts, but still better optics than no refund at all.) Smith, who previously said he was sickened at the company’s behavior, called the refunds a “goodwill” gesture on Ticketmaster’s part.
And they certainly do need some goodwill at the moment: Anger about the Cure tickets—to say nothing of the Taylor Swift ticketing debacle from last year—has swelled always-active anti-Ticketmaster sentiment. Meanwhile, the Department Of Justice is still looking into the company from an antitrust point of view, something it’s been getting threatened with for pretty much the entirety of the decade-plus since it merged with venue owner Live Nation back in 2010.
