Robert Smith wants to change ‘the system that values profit over people’ after he has 7,000 scalped The Cure tickets canceled
The Cure’s Robert Smith continues his ongoing fight against the numerous financial challenges within the ticketing industry. We previously reported that The Cure is frustrated with Ticketmaster’s ‘deceptive’ ticket pricing, and earlier this month, Smith convinced Ticketmaster to provide modest refunds to verified ticket buyers due to the “excessively high” service fees.
On March 16, following the release of The Cure’s US tour tickets, he wrote on Twitter: “After further discussion, Ticketmaster has agreed with us that many of the fees being charged are excessively high, and as a gesture of goodwill, they have offered a $10 per ticket refund to all verified fan accounts for Lowest Ticket Price (‘LTP’) transactions.”
Now the band’s frontman is taking things even further. This time, he’s targeting secondary resale websites. Just a few weeks ago, Smith managed to obtain several refunds from Ticketmaster for fans hoping to see the British band during their upcoming “Lost World” tour. Smith now reveals that they have cancelled 7,000 scalped tickets and announced a plan to resell these tickets and donate the original fees to the charity Amnesty International.
When the tour—the band’s first North American venture in seven years—was initially announced on March 9, The Cure explicitly stated that they had opted out of Ticketmaster’s “platinum” and “dynamically priced” ticket options, both of which have notoriously contributed to a significant increase in ticket prices. Consequently, thousands of scalpers took advantage, with Smith tweeting on Monday morning that “Approximately 7k tickets across around 2200 orders have been cancelled. These are tickets acquired with fake accounts / listed on secondary resale sites.”
‘IHBT’ #? “Approx 7k tickets across approx 2200 orders have been cancelled. These are tickets acquired with fake accounts / listed on secondary resale sites. TM have identified specific locations from secondary postings” #ShowsOfALostWorld2023
— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) March 31, 2023
The night before, Smith advised ticket buyers not to attempt exploiting loopholes in ticket transfer regulations, and cautioned, “Offering to sell or send account login details to bypass Ticketmaster’s transfer limitations… any and all tickets obtained in this manner will be cancelled, and the original fees paid on those tickets will not be refunded.”
1 OF 2
— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) March 31, 2023
BEWARE ANOTHER SCALPER SCAM: OFFERING TO SELL/SEND ACCOUNT LOGIN DETAILS TO GET AROUND TM TRANSFER LIMITATIONS… ANY/ALL TICKETS OBTAINED IN THIS WAY WILL BE CANCELED, AND ORIGINAL FEES PAID ON THOSE TICKETS WILL NOT BE REFUNDED… #ShowsOfALostWorld23
2 OF 2
— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) March 31, 2023
…ORIGINAL FEES PAID ON THOSE TICKETS WILL BE DONATED TO @amnesty AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, AND THE TICKETS THEMSELVES WILL BE RESOLD TO FANS #ShowsOfALostWorld23
Smith concludes with a post stating, “This ongoing Ticketmaster ‘conversation’ is not happening in isolation… the system that prioritises profit over people is what truly needs to change… x.”
Here is the tweet:
A WEEKEND THOUGHT… THIS ONGOING TM 'CONVERSATION' IS NOT TAKING PLACE IN A VACUUM… THE SYSTEM THAT VALUES PROFIT OVER PEOPLE IS REALLY WHAT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED… X
— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) March 31, 2023
Welldone Robert !
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can - and we refuse to add annoying advertising. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.
Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
