That didn’t take long, did it?
After news broke last week that Ticketmaster and its parent company LiveNation would NOT be issuing refunds for any postponed concerts or events, due to Coronavirus, people were PISSED.
In light of the Coronavirus news, they quickly changed their refund policy to only include canceled events, not postponed ones. And now, they’re backtracking on that policy change.
Ticketmaster president Jared Smith released the following update on their website:
“For the 30,000 events that have already been postponed or canceled as a result of COVID-19, we have already sent more than $2 billion to event organizers, making it impossible to issue refunds to fans before recouping sales receipts from the organizers, as we’ve done in the past…. to be clear, Ticketmaster intends to refund as many tickets as possible in as timely a fashion as is feasible. We are working every day towards that goal.
Let me reiterate: neither our clients, nor Ticketmaster, intend to withhold refunds on postponed shows. In fact, as of today, both Live Nation Entertainment and AEG Live, two of our largest event organizers, have announced they will begin to provide refunds, on a rolling basis, for all events impacted by COVID-19.”
Gee, thanks…
I can’t help but feel like this had more to do with pressure from lawmakers than it did the desire to do right by the fans, but either way, it’s a win for those that wanted a refund.
Stay tuned.
