Robert Smith reports 7,000 scalped tickets have been canceled for upcoming Cure tour
The frontman has been working to ensure that fans buy tickets, not scalpers
The Cure’s upcoming ‘Songs from a Lost World’ tour is set to begin next month, but the drama to buy tickets at a reasonable price has been at the forefront of many fans’ minds.
Over the past two weeks, Robert Smith, frontman and lead guitarist for the band, has been in talks with Ticketmaster to put an end to unfair ticket price gouging.
After he managed to get the ticket company to refund fans a portion of the high fees added to ticket prices, he’s now reporting that 7,000 scalped tickets have been canceled for the upcoming tour dates.
‘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
Scalpers begin selling Ticketmaster accounts with tickets
Despite the band’s efforts to stop scalpers, it appears that many were still able to get their hands on tickets, getting through the system by selling entire Ticketmaster accounts (usernames and passwords) to fans at exaggerated prices.
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
As of March 31, Smith reports that 7,000 of these fraudulent tickets have been canceled, going back into the system to be purchased by legitimate fans.
The Cure’s attempt to avoid scalpers
For their upcoming North American tour, The Cure opted to use Ticketmaster’s new Verified Fan service, which aims to stop scalpers from purchasing tickets and reselling them for three times the original ticket price.
But on March 14, when fans who were lucky to receive a code granting them access to the early Verified Fan ticket sale, many were shocked to find that Ticketmaster’s fees doubled or more than doubled the total cost of the actual tickets.
Ticket prices were set by the band and were kept deliberately low, with the lowest-priced tickets going for $20. This marks a change from other artists who use dynamic pricing which is based on demand, resulting in ticket prices that go up to thousands of dollars.
WE HAD FINAL SAY IN ALL OUR TICKET PRICING FOR THIS UPCOMING TOUR, AND DIDN’T WANT THOSE PRICES INSTANTLY AND HORRIBLY DISTORTED BY RESALE - WE WERE TOLD "In North America the resale business is a multi-billion $ industry.
— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) March 15, 2023
Smith kept fans up to date, eventually informing them that they would be receiving refunds of either $5 per ticket, for the lowest-priced tickets, or $10 for other tickets. When fans bought tickets in cities where Ticketmaster mistakenly allowed dynamic pricing, they were also refunded to face value prices.
2 OF 2: ...AND A $5 PER TICKET REFUND TO ALL VERIFIED FAN ACCOUNTS FOR ALL OTHER TICKET PRICE TRANSACTIONS, FOR ALL CURE SHOWS AT ALL VENUES; IF YOU ALREADY BOUGHT A TICKET YOU WILL GET AN AUTOMATIC REFUND; ALL TICKETS ON SALE TOMORROW WILL INCUR LOWER FEES
— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) March 16, 2023
2 OF 2: ALL OF THESE BUYERS ARE IN THE PROCESS OF BEING CONTACTED AND WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY REFUNDED TO FACE VALUE
— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) March 17, 2023
THE FOLLOWING TWEET HAS BEEN POSTED BY TMhttps://t.co/xI9dP0Ep4k