Ticketmaster came under withering fire this week as recent changes to its refund policy came to light. The interpretation from the masses has been that Ticketmaster will no longer refund postponed or rescheduled shows, greedily protecting their own interests at the expense of the ticket-buying public, many of whom have lost their jobs and savings amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, that sort of hyperbole isn't terribly accurate; Ticketmaster is just trying to survive.
Ticketmaster has confusingly claimed that its refund policy hasn't changed, however, both the verbiage on their website and anecdotes from myriad customers suggest otherwise. Regardless, although Ticketmaster's current policy is much less nefarious than your average Twitter user would care to admit, years of frustration and animus towards Ticketmaster from the general public has yielded an angry mob of pitchfork-wielding citizens (including celebrities and politicians) demanding investigations and class action lawsuits.
In an attempt to blunt the severe criticism of its refund policy, Ticketmaster has issued the following statement (directed to customers in the United States and Canada):
Ticketmaster serves as the sales platform for event organizers worldwide. Our standard practice is for clients to hold the cash from their ticket sales. Clients using our platform also retain the ability to set individual policies for their postponed or rescheduled events.
Typically, event organizers have had the flexibility to offer refunds for virtually all postponed and rescheduled events. However, the unprecedented volume of over 30,000 events impacted to date, coupled with continued uncertainty over setting new dates while awaiting clearance from regional governments, has led to event organizers needing additional time to reschedule their events before deciding to offer refund options.
As of today, over 11,000 events, including over 4,000 postponed sports, concerts and arts events, have already authorized refunds. While we cannot guarantee all event organizers will offer refunds on their rescheduled events, we anticipate the vast majority will make a refund window available once new dates have been determined. In addition, Ticketmaster continues to issue refunds for all canceled events.
The entire Ticketmaster team is working from home and doing its best to respond to all fans and clients. We will continue to keep fans up to date on the status of events via email and via our Covid-19 event portal.
An update on questions about event refunds.
— Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) April 15, 2020
We will continue to keep fans up to date on the status of events via email and our Covid-19 event portals.
US: https://t.co/hh1FGeQHRr
Canada: https://t.co/h2RcwY42qp pic.twitter.com/nKfrxgbf11
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