When the refund program for Michael Jackson concert tickets went into effect today, July 1, concert promoter AEG Live released extra details for fans hoping to recoup the cost of their tickets or gain a memento from the concerts that might have been.
As outlined in the company’s June 29 announcement, the plan primarily allows fans to choose between receiving either a full ticket refund (plus service charges and booking fees) or their original concert ticket, billed as a commemorative souvenir designed by Jackson himself. Most ticket prices ranged from £50 to £75 on the primary market, or approximately $70 to $105.
The late performer’s official “This Is It” event Web site, MichaelJacksonLive.com, provides links to specific refund programs for the concert series’ main authorized ticket sellers Ticketmaster, See Tickets, Ticketline and viagogo.
The site also directs fans who made their purchases elsewhere to contact their ticket provider for more information. As previously reported, many secondary ticketing companies and brokers have already developed their own refund programs.
However, in an update to AEG Live’s original statement, fans who booked multiple tickets can, in some cases, receive at least a partial refund along with their souvenir ducats. The Ticketmaster refund form specifically allows ticketholders to select how many tickets they would like to receive, automatically issuing refunds for any remaining tickets on the order.
Meanwhile, customers with VIP or premium ticket packages can opt for a full refund of the order or a partial refund minus the ticket price if they would like to receive their original ticket as a keepsake.
“The world lost a kind soul who just happened to be the greatest entertainer the world has ever known,” said Randy Phillips, president and CEO of AEG Live, in the company’s refund statement. “Since he loved his fans in life, it is incumbent upon us to treat them with the same reverence and respect after his death.”
Despite any reverence and respect intended by the offer, tension has been high among fans who feel the refund is more of a rip-off. Since the announcement of the refund program, fans have flooded Internet message boards to protest parting with the full concert fee in exchange for their souvenir ducat.
A petition protesting the refunds has been organized by fan site Maximum-Jackson.com. Referencing Phillips’ statement, the petition asserts, “Many fans who were due to attend the show would love the opportunity to keep their existing ticket, however feel if AEG Live really wish to treat the fans with ‘reverence and respect’ after Michael’s passing, any tickets offered to us should be priced reasonably lower.”
Since it was posted on June 30, the petition has garnered nearly 700 comments, many from fans who wouldn’t oppose paying a much smaller fee for their tickets. One fan signing the petition said in part, “Michael would be stunned to see this and very unhappy… I ask if you could send tickets out to fans for a portion of the ticket value, perhaps £10 or £20 at the most.”
Others voiced frustration at being charged in full for a concert they would never see, while a few fans questioned why AEG Live hasn’t offered to sell concert merchandise to recoup costs instead. They reasoned that, with the series slated to start July 13, the promoter must have at least a portion of Jackson’s concert merchandise on hand, which fans said they would gladly purchase.
Fans who would like to receive their concert tickets in lieu of a refund must place their requests by the end of the day on August 14. There is no deadline for customers seeking only a refund.
About 750,000 tickets were purchased for the 50-date London residency, totaling about $85 million in sales.
The picture accompanying this story was taken during the last concert rehearsal before Jackson’s death. Credit: Kevin Mazur/AEG.
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The tickets should be priced at face value.
The only reason the fans are complaining is because now they won’t be able to re-sell the tickets on ebay and make a profit.
I think AEG is quite smart to leave the price high.
You make zero sense. One pays for a ticket to sit in a specific seat and watch the event. Face value is not the cost to print the tickets, it is the cost to watch the given event and seating location. I am a broker, not a pissed off fan and what AEG is doing here is ridiculous.
Fact is broker, that this ticket will have value, since the headliner passed. That ticket has the potential of being worth more than the face value. That is what AEG is looking expecting would happen. Don’t tell me you would not consider selling for more. True some may keep, there are many who would sell as well. So broker it does make sense, and AEG is not being ridiculous, you would do the same.
Not only is the ticket “offer” ridiculous but it is incredibly rude. I plan to ask for my full refund and donate it to one or more of the charities Michael Jackson supported during his life, in his honor. There are several websites encouraging people to do this including The Man in the Mirror Project (maninthemirrorproject.org). It would be wonderful if we lined the pockets of those less fortunate, rather than a concert promoter.
I’m also a broker…I agree the stubs have a value. I also think the value is way less than $100/ea US. That’s why we’re asking for full refunds instead of the ticket stubs. If I believed the stubs had a value of over $125/ea, I’d gladly pay that for the stubs and resell them. Had AEG offered the stubs for $20/ea, I would gladly take my 50 stubs for $1000 and resell them on ebay, as would many others.
Now they’ll AEG will simply sell maybe 10,000 stubs for $100/ea, recouping $1 million. They’ll then find a way to sell the other 740K stubs for $10/ea, making another 7.5M and infuriating the people that paid $100 for them.
the tickets went on sale in March…3/11 to be precise (that’s almost 4 friggin months ago!!!) it’s almost if AEG knew that something was up and never sent the tickets out…They got really lucky they didn’t send out the tickets in a timely matter. it makes no sense why they didn’t send them out except that they knew something was wrong with the tour or dun dun dun dun dun dun michael jackson….
AEG is a concert promoter, not an entertainment memorabilia dealer. Their job isn’t to assess the value of the commemorative ticket and resell at any price they want. People reselling at higher prices shouldn’t matter to them because they are the distributor of the product, not the reseller.
When you buy a concert ticket, you are paying for the opportunity to experience the concert from the seat you payed for. Nobody payed $125 just to keep the ticket and not go. Now all of a sudden AEG takes away the concert experience part of what you agreed to buy the ticket for, and charges you the full amount for only the stub. That doesn’t add up. Part of the full ticket price should be refunded because they are no longer providing for the full price of the ticket everyone agreed to pay (the concert experience).
What if they had already sent the tickets out to everybody? Would they be demanding them back in order to receive a refund because the tickets are so valuable? No, they wouldn’t. No ticket vendor does that for canceled events. AEG has gotten away from their normal business practice of concert promotion, and become an entertainment memorabilia dealer.
If you don’t like it, or think it’s “evil” or “greedy”, just ask for your money back. They are offering 100% refunds – take it and move on.
This subject line really hit me, thanks for pointing out this fact.
When Micheal died last week and ever since- I keep getting haunted by an intuition that this was not an accident and that somebody overdosed him on purpose. I also feel like the truth will not be exposed, which has been bothering me non-stop, making me sick every time I think of it. How sad and twisted this may really be. (It is also really strange that I keep getting these thoughts, because I have not been a fan since I was little kid listening to his 45 records a million times.) This comment makes perfect sense to me and fits with my concerns, this is really ODD that tickets where not mailed out yet. I had no idea the tickets where not mailed out! So now it is easy for ‘them’ to make money from the tickets even though he died, plus money from DVD shows of rehearsals etc. Who else will be making money from all his unreleased songs and licensing of products etc?… not just his children the actual artist or estate gets only a small fraction of the profits.
When Michael died, then he (his estate)loses the money he was supposed to get for the contract for these shows, because he does not fulfill his contract. But the company can make a profit from his death and keep the money by using tickets a memorabilia- that thought really makes me sick.
I would look into anyone in the business that will profit or benefit from his untimely and tragic death. It is a well known fact that many artists become more valuable after they die. I just hope that nobody took advantage of him, falsely befriending him and slowly medicating him so that he could not think clearly. Then giving him more medications just before the concerts to benefit themselves with his death. I hope I am wrong or if I am right that the truth is discovered. If people download tracks, buy his new DVD of rehearsals and don’t return their tickets is this just what someone wanted? It is too odd that the tickets were not mailed out- this makes it so easy to not have to mail them back and make a profit now.
I don’t usually leave comments online, but I am hoping that someone will share opinions on this and I would like to know if my thoughts are just ‘off the wall’ or if there may truth to this haunting thought- does anyone has more facts to support the creepy feeling I have that is almost as if many people somehow knew this was going to happen.
AEG has come out looking like an opportunist scumbag on this one. I could see them offering the ticket for a nominal fee (maybe $ 20 a stub), but making customers essentially forfeit their refund for a souvenir is greedy and taking advantage of the situation. For one thing, if the ticket ranges from $ 70-105, let’s say, then wouldn’t the stub be worth $ 70? A buyer forfeiting a $ 70 refund gets the same souvenir as one forfeiting $ 105, so the latter should be able to, at the very least, opt for the ticket and a refund of $ 35? Secondly, the whole thing is just sleazy. AEG is only getting whatever they’re getting because Michael Jackson is dead. I realize AEG is going to lose money because of that, but to essentially try to limit that loss by capitalizing on his death is a little morbid and sleazy. Why isn’t Chuck Schumer jumping all over this one?!?
Oh, and for people debating the worth of these tickets, just an FYI…I have four Yankees season tickets. Last year, I kept two of the stubs from the final game at Yankee Stadium and sold the other two for $ 100 each. Now, if you figure the O2 holds 16-20,000 and he was set to do 50 shows, that means there were about a million tickets printed. The last game at Yankee Stadium held about 55,000. Even if you think a ticket the last game at one of the most historic stadiums in the world is on par with a ticket from a concert that never happened because the pop icon died, the sheer difference in supply would indicate that the Jackson tickets, on the open market, would not be worth anywhere near $ 100. AEG is purely profiting from Jackson’s death by charging $ 70-100 for these tickets, and for that they should be ashamed.
Did u guys all hear about what’s happening with MJ and AEG?? They’re calling it “the biggest mess in the business”…http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/exclusive-aeg-s-randy-phillips-talks-about-1003990387.story
There is following group set up regarding the tickets and are trying to fight AEG on the refunds and tickets! Your support is appreciated, if you have tickets or not.
Thanks, http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=109656939448&ref=ts