The Cure fans who were disappointed with the Ticketmaster fees for the band’s upcoming North American tour received some good news. After frontman Robert Smith’s tweets about the ticketing giant’s fees “debacle,” the company agreed to refund $10 of service fees to those who had bought $20 seats for the British band’s upcoming U.S. tour.
According to Smith, the band offered the $20 seats to keep prices low, but Ticketmaster added on fees that more than doubled the cost. The issues emerged when tickets were made available to those who had registered for Ticketmaster’s “verified fan” sale. In some cases, the added-on service fees, facility charges, and order processing fees added up to more than the cost of entry.
Smith expressed his outrage on Twitter, stating, “I am as sickened as you all are by today’s Ticketmaster ‘fees’ debacle. To be very clear: the artist has no way to limit them. I have been asking how they are justified. If I get anything coherent by way of an answer, I will let you all know.”
The good news came in a tweet on Thursday, after Smith’s conversation with Ticketmaster executives. “Ticketmaster has agreed with us that many of the fees being charged are unduly high, and as a gesture of goodwill, have offered a $10 per ticket refund to all verified fan accounts for lowest ticket price (‘LTP’) transactions,” Smith announced. “If you already bought a ticket, you will get an automatic refund; all tickets on sale tomorrow will incur lower fees.”
Smith confirmed that “Verified Fan” ticket sales have now ended and a number of tickets for all Cure shows (except L.A. and Detroit) were held back for “general” sale on Friday, March 17th.
The Cure’s American tour runs through July, and fans who bought tickets for the LTP transactions can expect a refund of $10 per ticket. For all other ticket price transactions, Ticketmaster has promised to refund $5 per ticket.
