leonardcohenforum.com

i guess there are a lot of us pissed off/depressed cohen fans. yeah i also got to a computer a half hour before tickets went on sale. i also have a sore finger from repeatly hitting refresh. for what? as they say money talks! i have VERY limited means and could barely afford the cheapest tickets but when nothing was available i was prepared to bit the bullet and go for any price tickets. i can not, however, afford $2100 which the ticket brokers who were "lucky" enough to obtain tickets for resale are charging. how all this isn't considered scalping i don't understand. my 60's mentality screams boycot ticketmaster but they will still make their millions and we still will be out in the cold. i'm sure if acts would only sell tickets thru their websites it would still not solve this cancer. greed rules america, if not the world!
thanks to ticketmaster this will be the first time Mr. Cohen plays ny that i'll miss.
at the very least he, altho faultless, should schedule another date with a fair method of selling tickets.

suwalsh wrote:Hi all,

I also am very upset about this. I was online before and after 9 am EST and could not get tickets. At 9:20, I went to ticketmaster's brokered site, ticketsnow.com, and there were 80 available at $200 to $1200. Ticketmaster is doing its' own dirty business. I am going to report them to the Better Business Bureau.

Sue

Good for you! I am sooo sorry you were not able to get tickets . From reading all the posts from all the ticket sales from all the concerts, it seems like the pre-sales with a password offered the best chance for Forum members to get tickets even though passwords were leaked and it allowed scalpers to also get tickets. Maybe someone out there has an idea on how to better protect these passwords. Emailing Jarkko in advance for information does not seem to be the way to go unless you would like to do this Jarkko on top of all else that needs to be done .

Kindest regards,
Mary

I was fortunate enough to get four seats in the pre-sale and I will be attending with three other longtime fans of LC. I will not sell these tix on stubhub, craigslist, ebay or any other outlet. To trade on LC's good name to make a profit is an insult to the artist and those who love him. I have been waiting for this show for years and couldn't imagine not inviting three friends to join me on this historic night. That being said, I fear that I would have had to buy an aftermarket seat had I not been so lucky...it would have been too costly to miss it.

I am so dissapointed, but see that I am not alone! seeking 2 tickets, will there be other tours??? Francine

This was disgusting. And yet there are hundreds of tickets at the scalpers. Leonard do something, give another concert. This is not what you stand for.

I was lucky enough to grab a ticket in the pre-sale but have had problems with Ticketmaster before. Something really needs to be addressed and I applaud the person who said they were going to report them to the Better Business Bureau. One thing I found interesting was that one website (I think it was coasttocoasttickets.com) was offering tickets from $400. to well over $800. and that was 4 hours PRIOR to the pre-sale!

I feel so badly for all those who tried so hard for tickets, especially those who were willing to travel thousands of miles for the concert. Hopefully when the US/Western Canada tour commences this ticketmaster problem will be resolved but I don't hold out much hope for that. And, so what happens when the scalpers and touts can't sell all their tickets? Empty seats. It's just not fair to so many fans who could be filling those seats.

I managed to get 2 tickets, but only way up in the balcony. I was online at 1:25 on Wednesday, and there was nothing else available the second the first password came through: it took me twenty minutes to get my 2 tickets. I've seen so many tickets available on sites for hundreds and hundreds of dollars. So sorry so many people on the forum couldn't get tickets.
Is there anything that can be done to prevent this from happening for the other concerts (hopefully) in April?

I feel so sorry for you - trying to get tickets - then other grab them.

compare -
In sweden you can buy very cheap railway tickets 90 days ahead. some people bought tickets and later tried to sell them on ebay (o its called tradera here). But NOw the railwail company changed its policy - You have to have YOUR name on it to use it. Thats take this odd market away (hopefully). Today I travelled by train - and the personal almost stopped one person with a cheap ticket with another name on it. It could be a solution in the future - but I cannot see how they can have the time to check all tickets. But something has to be done.I remember trying to buy tickets last automn in Gothenburg. I logged on before the time 9 oclock - nothing happen - could not reach the booking - then 9 oclock it opened - and I could not get a ticket on the floor. Later the tickets were sold from those other not so nice guys.

Maybe the tour promoter would consider doing something for the other forthcoming shows like the folks at the Elton John fansite (eltonjohn.com) does for their presale tickets. They give each registered user a unique passcode days before the presale that they have to enter to buy the tickets. The passcode is matched up with the person's account which must be used to purchase the tickets (so nobody can sell the passcodes). The passcode is able to be used to buy tickets for any/all shows up for presale, but, the code can only be used once for each show and only for 2 tickets to each show. Then to top everything off the tickets are not mailed out or sent via email, they're held at the boxoffice and can only be picked up no sooner than 2 hours before the show by the person who purchased them (diver's license and credit card used to make purchase required). The best part, they use tickets.com not ticketmaster to do this. The result is I never have trouble getting presale tickets and the presale tickets usually remain availble for days/weeks after they first go up for sale. The cost, a $40 a year membership fee to be a member of the fanclub and a $10 per order service fee from tickets.com. A small price to pay to be able to get the best seats without having to shell out the big bucks to the scalpers. Plus the fansite sends out free gifts when you register/renew membership (usually a shirt and/or poster along with a CD or DVD of an otherwise unreleased live show). In addition to the tickets, the fansite also gives you access to other exclusive things such as interviews, backstage footage, classic concert footage, previews of new songs from forthcoming albums, etc. I'm sure most of us would be willing to spend the few extra dollars for a membership to a LC fanclub to not have to go through the mess often associated with dealing with ticketmaster and to know we are screwing over the scalpers in the process. Just a thought.

I understand the upset of so many here. I can't explain what happened on Friday. However, please know that the show on February 19 will NOT be Leonard's only concert in the US. Dates for the US/Western Canada leg of the tour will be announced and perhaps many of you will find that Leonard will be playing in a venue much closer to you. And there will be other NY shows when the tour schedule is announced. So, even if you didn't get tickets to the Beacon on the 19th, you will have other opportunities.

Secondly, there are a few things you can do about these people selling tickets way over their list price. Below is a list of the state laws according to ebay. If you see a seller on ebay in violation of their state law, report them to ebay. The applicable law is the the state of the seller. Also, hold StubHub's feet to the fire. They also provide sellers with the state laws and say it is the seller's responsibility to comply. Report these sellers to StubHub and demand that their listing be removed. Also, if you are feeling in a particularly foul mood, email the seller and ask them all kinds of stupid questions.

Arkansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Alberta (CA), Manitoba (CA), Ontario (CA)
No more than face value.**

North Carolina
No more than face value plus $3.

Florida
No sale of multi-day or multi-event tickets that have been used at least once for admission.

Georgia
Only the original purchaser, a charity or a licensed broker may sell for more than face value.

Massachusetts
No more than face value plus $2 (except that a ticket broker licensed by the state may charge for certain additional expenses related to acquiring and selling the ticket).

Mississippi
No more than face value for events held on state owned property and athletic contests at Mississippi colleges and universities; no limits on other events.

Missouri
No more than face value for sporting events; no limits on other events.

New Jersey
No more than face value plus the greater of 20% of the ticket price or $3.00 (except that a registered ticket broker or a season ticket holder may accept a premium of up to 50% of the price paid to acquire the ticket).

New Mexico
No more than face value for college athletic events; no limits on other events.

Rhode Island
No more than face value plus the greater of 10% of the ticket price or $3.


**Face value includes the price of the ticket and any service charge and tax charged by the original ticket provider that is printed on the ticket.

That's a really good idea, bigdee. The further I read, the more I liked it.

Marie ~ WoW.
Thanks for sharing all that very helpful information. I know I'm not alone in not even knowing that all that existed. The only idea I had was to ask/urge the site to drop the sale of the tickets, but nixed the idea on the basis that of course they wouldn't do that, as they wouldn't make any money themselves. So thoughtful of you to explain and provide all that. Thanks!


~ Lizzy

bigdee, the ideas you describe are indeed efficient. Unfortunately something like that is not realistic for us. Elton's system is maintained by an office with employees, and he is touring again and again. The websites dedicated to Leonard are run by Marie and me (and Tom and Patrice etc.) as our leisure time hobby, and we can't put any more time and other resources to these activities. It is also possible that Leonard does not want to go back on the road at the age of 75, after this extended tour, so at this point it may be too late for his management to start building systems like Elton's. The concerts in the forthcoming US/W Canadian tour will be at much bigger venues, which means that the scalper problem will not be as bad as in this case.

Jarkko,

Any hints as to when the rest of the tour will be announced?

Not in the near future, but we will have the official announcement on the sites when the time comes.