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Ticketmaster goes "paperless"
Fri, May 16th 2008 4:21 pm EST
By Petrina Crockford
Beginning with Tom Waits’s Glitter and Doom Tour, Ticketmaster will start implementing a new Paperless Ticket™ technology, giving fans a more convenient event experience.
According to David Marcus, Ticketmaster senior vice president, Music, the Paperless Ticket™ will be introduced at major venues across North America and Canada over the next 12-18 months.
“Fans want more convenience, and this is a more convenient way of attending a show than standing in line and waiting for your tickets on the night of the show,” he said in a statement.
Paperless Tickets must be purchased (limit two per customer) at Ticketmaster website, or Ticketmaster charge by phone, using a credit card. Paperless ticket holders will bypass lines at the will-call window, instead presenting venue doorstaff with the purchasing credit card and a photo ID. Door staff will swipe the credit card to confirm the tickets, giving paperless ticket holders easy access to the event.
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Comments represent the opinions of users and do not necessarily reflect the views of TicketNews.Ticketmaster should offer "paperless tickets" as an option, not a requirement. This hurts consumers. Tickets must be bought months before an event, so it's difficult to be absolutely sure the buyer can attend. If something comes up, there is no way to sell or give the tickets to someone else. It also means that parents must spend additional money to park and go into the venue with their teenagers to get them into the concert since most teenagers don't have their own credit cards.
The new system is terrible and will only benefit Ticketmaster -- not consumers.
Gee, this wouldn't be the beginning of freezing out non-ticketmaster sanctioned scalpers to increase profits. Another wonderful convenience for the end customer. thanks TM.
Yes, and putting more people out of work. What will happen to the poor people at Will Call? Yeah, thanks Ticketmaster. Don't upgrade the software, just increase unemployment.
Thank you very much Mr. Marcus. You have finally succeeded in cutting the jobs of hundreds of people in your excessivly greedy search for the all mighty dollar. As this policy goes into effect and your customer service department is swamped with Emails and phone calls about confussion and problems at the gates, you will realize the lack of the Human contact will not be appreciated by your customers in the long run. As a true American working for an industrious and successful company, I should again thank you for cutting jobs out from under people who have made your business what it is today. You are a truely misguided American. On the other hand what do you care who you hurt? You are probably the type of man who will give a homeless man a dollar and feel good about yourself. Meanwhile, all along it is people like you who invoke business practices like this that create the people who are begging for a dollar on the street. ps...I am not a Liberal, just a voice of reason. Hope you can sleep well at night MR. MARCUS. pss...how much of a Service Charge will be put on top of all your other BS "convience fees" the customers already pay? $10-15 PER TICKET to save a customer 2 minutes in a will call line. I only wish the public understood what you are doing and come after TM and all you other crooks in this industry.
At first (before watching the video) I thought that this may work for just general admission performances because if there is no ticket (paper) how would the patron or usher for that matter know how/where to direct you to your seat. Well, when watching the video, you will notice that after the "ticket taker" or ("credit card taker") swipes your card, a ticket (paper) prints out of the printer holster. This is not a paperless admission! I actually called a Ticketmaster customer service department, and the agent confirmed that indeed a confirmation receipt prints out, confirming your purchase. I asked her "If the event is a reserved seating event, does this "confirmation receipt" print out with your reserved seat location/s on it so that you and/or the ushers know where to guide you to your seats"? Her answer was "Yes". So I said "then, it really is not a paperless ticket, is it? She hung up on me...
So, this is just a way of cutting back on paid box office staff thus increasing profits in the disguise of environmental conscientiousness and for the convenience of the patron. If any of these venues box offices have any representation (such as a Union) you need to fight to have anyone who would usually be at will call, be reassigned to be a "credit card taker" so that they can still "print" the "paperless" ticket which then indeed DOES exchange hands.
You can put lipstick on a "paperless ticket" but, in this case it really is still a "paper ticket"...