Rescheduling a concert that’s exclusively using paperless ticketing isn’t that big of a deal, at least as far as the Qwest Center in Omaha is concerned.
When Disney starlet Miley Cyrus fell ill at the beginning of the month, she was forced to postpone an October 2 show at the Nebraska venue until October 13. The date change — from a Friday to Tuesday evening — had some wondering whether some fans might be shut out from the show due to its paperless ticketing.
Paperless guidelines require the original buyer to flash the credit card attached to their order, as well as a matching photo ID, at the doors of the venue. For young Cyrus fans without their own piece of plastic, that means relying on the pre-concert availability of a parent or other adult chaperone.
When the concert postponement was announced on October 1, the Qwest Center was ready to field questions and concerns from parents who might be unable to attend Cyrus’ new show date. Ultimately, though, ticketing for last night’s family friendly extravaganza went smoothly.
“It went fine last night; there were no problems,” Doug Parrott, official spokesperson for the Qwest Center, told TicketNews. “There were some people whose credit cards had expired since the tickets were purchased, but Ticketmaster is used to handing that type of issue.”
Customer service representatives from Ticketmaster were on hand through the entire postponement process, both fielding calls in the days leading up to the new concert date and handling potential issues as they arose at the doors for last night’s event.
“We always were referring and urging people to to go Ticketmaster’s customer service if there were problems,” Parrott said, adding, “There were some calls, but it wasn’t huge.”
Right after the postponement, Parrott told TicketNews that Ticketmaster would most likely handle claims on a case-by-case basis. Following up on last night’s concert, he said that some tickets were refunded and put back on sale, but most customers walked away from the show satisfied.
“The biggest problem we had was that it was raining last night,” Parrott joked. “There were a lot of umbrellas as people were waiting to get in.”
But get in they did, as more than 14,000 attendees packed the Qwest Center for the October 13 gig. What could have been a date-change debacle was little more than a speedbump for most concert-goers.
While Parrott couldn’t comment on the big picture of paperless tickets and unexpected postponements, in the case of the Qwest Center and Miley Cyrus, he said the process was a success. He credited the venue’s preparedness for the smooth sailing.
“We had 11 days [since the postponement], and urged people to use the customer service [phone] lines,” Parrott noted. “It wasn’t an issue for us last night.”
In addition to her concert in Omaha, Cyrus was forced to postpone a couple other dates on her fall 2009 tour of the United States. Shows were also rescheduled from October 3 to October 17 for The Sprint Center in Kansas City, MO, and from October 4 to October 28 for Scottrade Center in St. Louis, MO.
Cyrus’s next show is October 15 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX. Her final national performance will be December 2 at American Airlines Arena in Miami, FL.
