Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate why TM’s Web site directed Boss fans to its secondary ticketing site, TicketsNow, during the Springsteen onsale when primary tickets were still available.
“We can’t let the screen doors slam on die-hard Boss fans,” Schumer said at a press conference. “Fans who thought they were going to the promised land of regular-priced tickets found themselves in the badlands of ticket scalpers.”
Truly, it is a Jungleland of controversy, and it has no signs of stopping, running full throttle like a ’69 Chevy with a 396, Fuelie heads and a Hearst on the floor.
Schumer called it a classic “bait-and-switch,” according to Fox News. “We don’t have the tickets at $75, but maybe this site has them at $200.’ Guess what? The same people owned both sites.”
A Ticketmaster spokesman recently gave Pollstar the company’s side of things. During a heavy-traffic onsale such as Springsteen’s, primary tickets will get sold out at once, and secondary tickets will be the only ones available.
Still, not all ticket buyers make it through the process – sometimes credit cards are denied and other scenarios occur that put tickets back on the market, at least for a couple minutes.
Hence, a “sold out” show can wind up with a few seats available again, at least for a little while.