Ticketmaster and Stubhub Change Refund Policies, Angering Fans

With coronavirus forcing the cancellation or indefinite  postponement of thousands of concerts, musicals, plays, sporting events etc, one would expect the largest ticket American ticket sales and distribution company to make it easy to receive a refund for your event which has been canceled or postponed due to coronavirus.

Ticketmaster has quietly changed its refund policy to cover only canceled events — not the many functions that promoters have indefinitely “postponed” or rescheduled to a date/time that some ticketholders cannot make, Digital music news reported.

Previously, Ticketmaster’s refund policy stated: “Refunds are available if your event is postponed, rescheduled, or canceled.” This has infuriated customers , and rightfully so .

It’s not only Ticketmaster, the popular ticket reseller site Stubhub is adjusted their refund policies as well.

According to the NY Times: last week a Wisconsin man sued StubHub — the biggest marketplace for ticket resales — after the company recently dropped its refund policy, offering instead coupons worth 120 percent of what customers had paid for canceled events.

In other words, they are not differentiating between cancelled or postponed events  and instead offering coupons.

People buy tickets to an event &  put aside time from their busy lives to attend. Obviously if something is postponed to an undetermined date, there is a good shot you might not be able to attend. A refund would be perfectly expected due to these circumstances.

The NY Times reported: fans have drawn attention to the fact that Ticketmaster recently adjusted the language on its website. Whereas a few weeks ago, it said that people can get refunds “if your event is postponed, rescheduled or canceled,” now it only lists cancellation as a basis for getting your money back, though it suggests there may be other circumstances in which refunds might be considered.

Let’s not jump the gun yet, hopefully for the thousands of people with tickets to postponed events ,  the “other circumstances” will cover deadly pandemics.  It is important  to keep in mind the live entertainment industry has come to a grinding halt .

The NY Times points out:  20,000 events have been  suspended in the last few weeks. If the pandemic does not subside soon, the peak summer touring season could be delayed as well.

Meanwhile social media is filled with angry music fans, wondering what will happen to their money.