Muse Member Ticket Application

[Bai-Lee]

And this is why we love Muse.

 

Twas a good idea, just didn't work amazingly.

[nirajp]

It is wholly understandable, because demand outweighs supply for any European tour, for the band/management to desire to tip the scales towards fans. As musicians, I'm certain it's in their interests to perform in front of those who adore their music.

 

Muse are neither a small or a young band. Consequently, I expect them to shoulder more responsibility when it comes to dealing with fans as they grow older. As others have mentioned, signing up with promoters like SJM is profitable, but makes fans bitter as thousands of tickets inevitably end up on eBay and numerous reseller sites.

 

If Muse (from here on, I mean both the band and management) want to be remembered for rewarding fans for their loyalty, they simply need to do more. An ID system is neither beyond the logistics or expense of a band like Muse. As an example, see Radiohead's recent tour announcement and subsequent sale. Or make it collection only. Or set a lower maximum per person, per order, per email. In short, Muse need to take control.

 

Muse are an exquisite live band, but, now that most tickets have sold out, I refuse to see them by giving money to those who take away from music fans.

[balch1974]

I've not read all the posts, but there's a general dislike of this system of applying in a lottery style and not being informed until days later and money being tied up.

 

I applied and failed to get tickets and missed out on general sale due to the fact that I have to work during the day to pay my mortgage, buy food, clothe my baby and (attempt to) buy tickets to see my favourite bands, I now read that there was a pre-sale too of which I had no clue! If that is wrong I apologise, but, it's such a complicated way to sell something that is popular. I would have gone to 1 of 3 shows, but didn't want to apply for all of them because I couldn't afford to to pay if (by a miracle) I was successful!

 

Surely the band would like to get the tickets to the people who want to go to the shows, not those who sell on for profit. I would prefer a system which names the ticket holder on the ticket and requires i.d. and if you need to change a name then it should be possible. but not "easy" to do, like a plane ticket, charge a small fee even. Limit the sale to 4 tickets per (informed by email) muse member and make it simple again.

 

Regarding the touts, if the tickets are on sale on a website within minutes of the official sale, then retract the tickets and ban the buyer, do it by their address, their passport number, their social security number or however you like to track the destination of tickets, it doesn't matter. Your system should be better thought through than theirs is, especially since it costs us so much each time we buy a ticket.

 

FINALLY, before I go rock gently (to Hysteria) in a dark corner.....

I have been very lucky to get tickets in the past for Wembley (both times), Teignmouth, UK festivals and abroad, and I've missed out before too, however, this has left me feeling somewhat sour, I hope that someone can restore some sanity, that or put on another show:D

[scifigeekgirl]

Hmm there's a lot of sense being spoken here . But I thought I'd repost my rant from the first ticket application thread:

 

 

WARNING: RANT AHEAD

 

Argh. Am quite pissed off with this whole shenanigans now. Apart from anything else, it's described as a "pre-sale" which it bloody well isn't, it's a shambolic lottery, as you don't "buy" tickets, you win the opportunity to buy them. Maybe. They might take your money. At some point over a period of time.

 

This "look out for an email saying yes (or not)" thing is a nightmare. I keep thinking I've got incoming, when it's just people spamming my inbox with FB posts about what they've planned/swapped/won/lost! Couldn't the emails have gone out in a tighter timeframe instead of dribs and drabs?

 

Buying musetix is stressful at the best of times. All this does is stretch the agony out over a number of days, and is harmful to people's health/sanity. I much preferred the code system like Teignmouth (ah Tinmuff *goes all wistful*) it was more selective. This application process wasn't exclusive - any bandwagon-jumper could take advantage ffs.

 

Even the local school fair raffle would be better organised. At least everybody knows the results at the same time. Pah. And double Pah.

 

*grumble*

 

PS I reserve the right to change my mind if/when I actually get any flipping tickets

 

 

I'd also add:

 

:mad:Point 1: This was NOT a pre-sale, please stop calling it such, it is misrepresentation. A sale is an exchange of money for goods/services. In this case people were effectively handing over money for a possibility - not a proper transaction. This was a LOTTERY - and not a good one, either.

 

:mad:Point 2: Lotteries are inherently NOT fair. Hence the term "postcode lottery". Random allocation does not help deserving fans get tickets - the process needs to be more selective/exclusive. It is really galling to watch opportunists get tickets whilst (longer term) fans get nothing. In a proper (pre)sale at least it is a fairer fight.

 

:mad:Point 3: The timing absolutely sucked. The allocation results took ages to come thru, and the sudden announcement of the (proper) presale gave people hardly any time to organise themselves. Crappy communication left people wondering what the hell was going on - whether they would have to try gensale or not.

 

:mad:Point 4: I have a BIG issue with the "pre-authorisation" process. It was un-necessary - winners could have been given codes to use to buy actual tickets. It was botched - monies being taken twice etc. I don't know if everybody has got their funds released yet or not - but refunds should have been done immediately. This cockup/process was NOT the same as when a hotel pre-authorise your card as you check in; again, that is a proper transaction - you KNOW what you are going to get (a room). Holding onto people's money in this way is shoddy and unethical. I am very disappointed as I expected better from Muse...:noey:

 

What's answer? I don't know (except for PLEASE DON'T DO THIS AGAIN). It's been a helluva day. I've bought 4 sets of tickets today (1 non-muse), in between seminars at a conference, plus usual school runs. It's late and I am knackered. Maybe I'll come up with the perfect solution in my dreams. Literally.

 

Goodnight!

[RetroShout]

I appreciate the effort made to give fans a chance before other, but this was the worst experience I've had with buying a ticket or anything else online for that matter. I had payment taken three times in my account for one ticket in the pre-sale, before any money was meant to be taken from any account according to the information given in the News section.

In the end, I "won" a ticket, but even after I received my confirmation email at 4 in the morning, money was still being held from me and another payment was taken out, bringing the total to about £260 being made unavailable for a £65 transaction.

I'm lucky I had the funds available at the time, because I doubt they'd have taken the payment if they'd sunk me so far into an overdraft.

 

I like the idea of stopping new memberships being created during a presale, but that seems a little redundant, seeing how many touts will have made accounts by now. But that could be remedied with a verification question a Muser would likely know the answer to, as mentioned above.

As for having this pre-sale as a lottery, I think that was the best way to do it, as a first come first serve service is hardly fair on fans without access to the internet at the time it starts.

 

If, as many people are claiming, money was withdrawn from their accounts and/or still being held after their applications were unsuccessful, it would also be interesting to know if that money was held in an interest-bearing account.

 

That is a very interesting idea. Unfortunately.

[FabriPav]

To scifigeekgirl: I agree with basically everything you said, except this:

 

I don't know if everybody has got their funds released yet or not - but refunds should have been done immediately.

 

The timing of refunds has nothing to do with CrowdSurge, I think.

 

Oh and I hardly think they'll do this kind of pre-sale/lottery/shit/whatever again, they're probably aware that 80% of the fans hated this system

[Tom//P]

That was a horrible experience that left me without a single ticket. Immensely frustrating after failing the lottery (fair enough), failing the pre-sale and failing the general sale to find they're all on ebay and other tout breeding websites for 2 -3 times the price.

 

The number of tickets on viagogo & GetMeIn is disgusting so we should conclude that the new system failed.

 

Why can we not have the ID system? If a person needs to legitimately sell the ticket then they can only do so through authorised websites who would void the ticket's barcode, pay them back and go on to sell a new ticket to someone else at face value.

[a-museing]

 

The timing of refunds has nothing to do with CrowdSurge, I think.

 

 

It does.

[FabriPav]

It does.

 

I thought it depended on your bank

[Guest Batman.]

They shouldn't have taken the money in the first place, to be fair. Surely there must be some way of checking that you have the money without taking it?

[Buxomflirter Queef]

But again it's no point checking if you've got the money, placing a hold on that money and when finalising the transacting taking a new lot of money instead of the money they placed a hold on!

[Clunge]

Would just like to say Sam has been brilliant helping me sort out why my money was still being held despite not getting a ticket.

 

Thanks .

[Clunge]

Oh, and in future, any scheme or initiative like this should be made available only to those who were registered BEFORE it became active. Otherwise, it defeats the point of the whole system.

[Arcade]

Maybe they should have a sort of 'security question' that you have to answer correctly in order to get a presale ticket.

 

For example, 'Which of the following songs do members of the Muse Messageboard complain about most - Knights Of Cydonia, Supermassive Black Hole, Feeling Good, Uprising, or Unintended?'

 

Muse fans who actually use their membership will know that pretty much everyone here has a massive hissy fit at anyone who even mentions Feeling Good.

 

this mechanism wont work because there will be a little gang of people with scripts or who will use google to search for the answers.. much like criminal gangs using hoards of people to type the regotchya security codes and numbers.

 

It may seem unfair but the best way to do a presale is to issue an unique ID code matched against your .mu username, used in tandem with only allowing forum members with 'x' amount of years under their belt, who are active. And regularly weeding out the old forum accounts who havent logged on for a year. It may seem harsh but if you are a guest and only like to browse forums you can still do that without having a user account.

[a-museing]

I thought it depended on your bank

 

 

No, my bank would have released it within a few hours had they received the money back from their merchant bank. The money was still being geld by their bank anytime i've checked over the last day or two

[FabriPav]

No, my bank would have released it within a few hours had they received the money back from their merchant bank. The money was still being geld by their bank anytime i've checked over the last day or two

 

Oh. Shit

[helenw]

this mechanism wont work because there will be a little gang of people with scripts or who will use google to search for the answers.. much like criminal gangs using hoards of people to type the regotchya security codes and numbers.

 

It may seem unfair but the best way to do a presale is to issue an unique ID code matched against your .mu username, used in tandem with only allowing forum members with 'x' amount of years under their belt, who are active. And regularly weeding out the old forum accounts who havent logged on for a year. It may seem harsh but if you are a guest and only like to browse forums you can still do that without having a user account.

 

This does seem a bit unfair, I'm a massive Muse fan, allbeit older than most, I browse the forums sometimes but find that half the time I have no idea what everyone is on about and the other half can't be doing with all the swearing!!

[Arcade]

This does seem a bit unfair, I'm a massive Muse fan, allbeit older than most, I browse the forums sometimes but find that half the time I have no idea what everyone is on about and the other half can't be doing with all the swearing!!

 

I can see you registered this week, probably to get presale tickets, which is fair enough as a fan, but what about ensuring those people that have been on this fan board for several months, a year, seveal years.. many many years.. get tickets first?

 

Those existing active members can wholeheartedly say they are fans.. id have to agree, not to say you are any less of a fan.

 

The problem here is stopping touts or small resellers who want to make a profit from selling pre-sale muse member tickets at high prices.

 

.Mu should freeze new registrations for a month at least before tickets come to market. This will protect those who already are members and stop opportunists from joining, it would also have the downside of impacting people like yourself from joining, albeit until the pre-sale ticket allocations are gone when the freeze is lifted.

 

Also If you had friends who are already on this board then they could get tickets for you. These are just ideas im throwing out here.

[Calimori]

I appreciated the opportunity for the lottery draw and the pre-sale though failed in both despite getting to the point where I was able to enter my details and card number, only to be informed they had sold out whilst I was filling in my details. Same happened during the public selling, I got to entering my details which were saved for a quick copy and paste yet still I was not quick enough.

 

I would be interested in the % of tickets that were allocated to the lottery and subsequent pre-sales. I would hope that any band would want the house full of real fans yet my experience would indicate that tickets were allocated outside of the lottery draw. This is obviously not down to Muse but sad that this is happening to real fans.

The cost of tickets is also very high, I will dig out my stubs from previous years and see what inflation is. But as a fan who knows the value of their gigs, I will pay that but I won't buy from someone who claimed to be a fan and then doubled the price and put them on eBay before even the pre-sale.

Come on, someone has to stop this ridiculous resale business that is stopping genuine followers being at gigs.

 

None of my rant is an attack on Muse, for the first time in 8 years I won't see Muse on a UK tour. Instead I have booked tickets to see them in Lódz Poland on the 23.11.12.

[helenw]

I can see you registered this week, probably to get presale tickets, which is fair enough as a fan, but what about ensuring those people that have been on this fan board for several months, a year, seveal years.. many many years.. get tickets first?

 

Those existing active members can wholeheartedly say they are fans.. id have to agree, not to say you are any less of a fan.

 

The problem here is stopping touts or small resellers who want to make a profit from selling pre-sale muse member tickets at high prices.

 

.Mu should freeze new registrations for a month at least before tickets come to market. This will protect those who already are members and stop opportunists from joining, it would also have the downside of impacting people like yourself from joining, albeit until the pre-sale ticket allocations are gone when the freeze is lifted.

 

Also If you had friends who are already on this board then they could get tickets for you. These are just ideas im throwing out here.

 

Yep, I get what you're saying the tout thing is so unfair and then the "fans" ebaying them, I don't get that at all.

 

I was on Ticketmaster at 10 sharp yesterday and the best ticket I could get for Manchester was block 104 at the back, I wanted 102 or 115 so how did all those seats get snapped up so quickly!.

 

Yes, I did only register for the "messageboard" this week cause I had something to say. I have been a member of the site for a while so was able to apply for the presale but I didn't want standing tickets so I didn't feel like everyones Grandma and I also have a bit of a dodgy back.

[leetroot]

... for the first time in 8 years I won't see Muse on a UK tour. Instead I have booked tickets to see them in Lódz Poland on the 23.11.12.

 

It's a bit rough when you have to go abroad because of being unable to get UK tickets. However, the gigs I have been to abroad have been amazing. You will probably have the most brilliant time in Poland

[ktulu]

I have been a fan for 11 years seen them every tour, my teenage boys now like Muse too and I promised them a fantastic concert, but....

 

I didn't use the first pre-sale as we didn't want to stand and I didn't get the 9am link so we got tickets right at the back. Guess I should be grateful I got tickets at all.

 

Not the best way to treat loyal fans.

[Niall]

I can see you registered this week, probably to get presale tickets, which is fair enough as a fan, but what about ensuring those people that have been on this fan board for several months, a year, seveal years.. many many years.. get tickets first?

 

Those existing active members can wholeheartedly say they are fans.. id have to agree, not to say you are any less of a fan.

 

The problem here is stopping touts or small resellers who want to make a profit from selling pre-sale muse member tickets at high prices.

 

.Mu should freeze new registrations for a month at least before tickets come to market. This will protect those who already are members and stop opportunists from joining, it would also have the downside of impacting people like yourself from joining, albeit until the pre-sale ticket allocations are gone when the freeze is lifted.

 

Also If you had friends who are already on this board then they could get tickets for you. These are just ideas im throwing out here.

 

I think a simple cut off at only allowing users who have been members since before the announcement would be sufficient. The idea is only to stop new opportunists and touts who want to try their luck.

 

I've seen so many people I know not get any tickets who it's unheard of for them to not get tickets to anything. Something was definitely going wrong with this sale of tickets for that to happen. And I'm pretty sure lack of standard presale was part of the reason.

 

I really hope these people can get tickets when they announce the third O2 gig, at least.

[leetroot]

I think a simple cut off at only allowing users who have been members since before the announcement would be sufficient. The idea is only to stop new opportunists and touts who want to try their luck.

 

I've seen so many people I know not get any tickets who it's unheard of for them to not get tickets to anything. Something was definitely going wrong with this sale of tickets for that to happen. And I'm pretty sure lack of standard presale was part of the reason.

 

I really hope these people can get tickets when they announce the third O2 gig, at least.

 

third gig? is that definite or speculation?

 

 

Put it on the end of the tour and give the "unsuccessful" lottery people first dibs on tickets (with one set aside for me ;-) )

[Niall]

Speculation (if I knew there was one I'd keep it secret!) but we got one for the TR tour and this sold out even faster. One or two extra gigs would be not at all surprising.