UPDATE (29 Nov, 11.30am): In response to queries from MS News, a Ticketmaster spokesperson said that the customer was clearly attempting to resell their Coldplay tickets, which goes against the terms and conditions for the event. Therefore, they cancelled the tickets and provided a refund. You may read their full statement below.
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When the famous British band Coldplay announced multiple shows in Singapore, fans scrambled to secure the highly coveted tickets. One lucky customer managed to do so via Ticketmaster, only to later learn that her tickets had been voided.
The turn of events started with an email informing her of the suspension of her account due to a “violation of policy”. More than a month later, she discovered that she had also lost the Coldplay tickets she had bought using that same account.
Eventually, after several enquiries, Ticketmaster notified that she would receive a refund.
Despite getting her money back, the customer was upset as she really wanted to go to the Coldplay concert, especially after waiting two hours online to buy tickets.
The MS News reader, who requested to be anonymous, first received an email from Ticketmaster notifying her of the account suspension on 30 Sep.
Image courtesy of MS News reader
This was over three weeks after she purchased tickets to a GI-DLE concert on 6 Sep.
The alert didn’t faze her much at first as she thought the suspension didn’t affect her tickets.
After receiving the email, the customer also tried to log in to her Ticketmaster account but failed, confirming the suspension.
Image courtesy of MS News reader
Hoping to get some clarity, she emailed Ticketmaster later that day to ask how she may have breached any policies.
She received a reply over a week later, with the company providing the same reason they did before:
Tickets in the account have been intended to be resold or have been resold.
They also allegedly told her to print physical tickets for her upcoming GI-DLE concert, for which they had updated the barcodes.
Wanting to enjoy the concert, the customer thought nothing else of the matter at the time.
“I thought it’d be fine since we could still go for the GI-DLE concert,” she told MS News.
But a week passed and her concern only grew, so she called Ticketmaster on 13 Oct to ask if her Coldplay tickets, which she purchased in June, were still valid. To this query, she claimed that Ticketmaster confirmed that they were.
Image courtesy of MS News reader
Since she opted for physical tickets, she also asked if she would have to reprint them as she did for GI-DLE.
As for a detailed explanation for her account suspension, the customer allegedly failed to get any.
“The staff could not disclose any information about the suspended account and only told us that the tickets had to be reprinted at Ticketmaster HQ on the concert day,” she said. “I did try to fight for my case as no such attempt of reselling the tickets was made, but to no avail.”
Thinking that she could still attend the GI-DLE and Coldplay concerts, the customer assumed that her tickets were all valid and usable.
I did not think much or urge Ticketmaster for further clarifications as my plans were not compromised.
The plot twist came on 4 Nov when the MS News reader received yet another email from Ticketmaster. This time, they had devastating news — her Coldplay concert tickets would be voided.
Image courtesy of MS News reader
As they had already suspended her account earlier that week, the new notification came out of the blue. Moreover, the customer told MS News that she was unable to make any new ticket purchases after the suspension.
Confused, she replied to Ticketmaster, noting that a staff member previously told her that her tickets were still valid.
In response, she claimed that the company told her that they detected “new irregular activities” involving her suspended account since 13 Oct.
This apparently resulted in the tickets becoming invalid.
Still baffled by the situation, the customer probed for details about the investigations. She even offered to come down to Ticketmaster’s HQ to settle the matter.
However, they allegedly told her that the staff would not entertain her.
Image courtesy of MS News reader
The company also claimed that they were “unable to release any details of their (our) investigations to protect the integrity of their (our) investigation processes”.
Eventually, after some time passed, Ticketmaster emailed her again.
Image courtesy of MS News reader
They explained that investigations into her account for potential breaches were ongoing when she made the call on 13 Oct. Therefore, they hadn’t reached a “final decision” on her Coldplay tickets.
For that incident, Ticketmaster apologised for what they deemed was “inaccurate information” that their Fan Experience Specialist provided.
In light of their investigations, however, the company claimed to have evidence that the customer’s tickets were either intended for resale or had been resold.
“Due to this serious breach of our purchase policy, all ticket(s) in the said account will be voided and your Ticketmaster account suspended,” the email read.
Nonetheless, they offered a refund for the Coldplay tickets “to resolve this dispute, and on this occasion only”.
Understandably, the MS News reader was not very happy about this.
I don’t think [a refund] was the point as I really wanted to go for the concert.
“Honestly, I was quite shocked at this entire case as I am an avid Coldplay fan,” she said. She told MS News how she waited for two hours to buy her tickets in June from the official Ticketmaster website.
Image courtesy of MS News reader
She was looking forward to watching Coldplay for the first time in Singapore with her partner on 26 Jan. Furthermore, she managed to secure good seats overlooking most of the National Stadium.
Sadly, due to circumstances beyond her control, she has to miss the golden opportunity.
A search online by MS News revealed that the reader’s issues with Ticketmaster aren’t unique.
Users in other countries have similarly reported that their tickets, which they purchased directly from the company, had suddenly been voided.
This happened to a wide range of concert events under Ticketmaster.
Source: Reddit
Given the troubles customers have had with Ticketmaster, combined with them being the sellers of extremely popular artists such as Coldplay and Taylor Swift, we hope everything goes smoothly during the concert days.
Responding to MS News, a Ticketmaster spokesperson explained that they were acting on the local concert promoter’s instruction.
The local promoter sets the resale rules for their own shows, and we act at their instruction. It was clear that this customer was attempting to resell their tickets which goes against the Ts & Cs set for the event. As such, the tickets were cancelled and refunded.
They also cited a clause in Ticketmaster Singapore’s purchase police which states, “Any resale or transfer (or attempted resale or transfer) of a ticket in breach of the applicable law or any restrictions or prohibition imposed by an Event Partner is grounds for seizure or cancellation of that Ticket.”
In view of the above, the local promoter thus instructed Ticketmaster to cancel the customer’s tickets and issue a refund.
Also read: Coldplay Ticket Presale Sees Major Glitch, Some Users Redirected To General Page After Queueing
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Featured image adapted from @coldplay on Instagram and courtesy of MS News reader.
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