It bugs me to end though, that the blame is shifted to me, since I only tried to get the "best available" seats by selecting "best available."
It's Moronic? I best not think about it too much or I'll start getting angry again. I even got in a little bit of "heck" from the fan club for of my initial concern about the apparent unavailability of the Vancouver show seats prior to the pre-sales. Remember I wrote to the list because it said "Not available". So obviously I was concerned.
To be honest, I suspect Tina, Dave, and Wendy care a lot more about the fan club than Sting does. If they could, I'm sure they would offer your great idea that Herb wrote of. IF that happened, then I'd probably remain. But Sting, management, or someone with decision making authority doesn't care about club members - at least not enough. What would be helpful for me, is someone admitting they were wrong. But that is human nature.
ON another note, when I joined the premium membership because of the "benefit" of access to pre-sales, it appeared Basic membership did not provide. Tina INSISTED, that indeed basic did provide this, and it was VERY CLEAR and that I was wrong. Am I the only one who remembers this differently? Wasn't it suggested the benefit of Premium membership was pre-sales access to tickets? She says it was clear from the start that the only difference was the CD ROM.
-----Original Message-----That's very nice that she called. I think my issues are more along the lines of how disgustingly expensive the tix were for the Annie leg of the tour. I usually count on the larger venues being less expensive. If I had known, I would have tried for more tickets during the smaller venue tour. Naturally, I was also expecting a better selection of seats since it's a bigger front row. Sting's got enough power, you'd think he'd have the pull to say, "OK, the first XXX rows are for the fan club, screw the scalpers". I don't understand the politics of ticketing I guess, but why do some artists GET the whole front sections for their fans? I've never had gripes w/sting.com, they do seem to try hard to make everyone happy, and really, not everyone in the fan club can BE in the first 3rows. I'm just frustrated with the ticketing procedure, period. I also feel that since they say they have thousands more in the fan club since the first leg, they should have limited our tickets to two each as with the first leg.
From: Stingfan222@aol.com [mailto:Stingfan222@aol.com]
Sent: April 5, 2004 11:41 AM
To: sting@shaw.ca; police@mailman.xmission.com
Subject: Re: [Police] Fan club pre-sale tickets
Will I renew again? Probably, I'm a sucker. Not a great idea since there's probably not too much going on next year with Sting as far as live shows that we may need tickets for! Don't let it taint your love for Sting's music, Ross, it's all just ticketing BS.
Michelle
In a message dated 4/5/04 9:29:57 AM, sting@shaw.ca writes:
The Fan club president was kind enough to call me to explain why, the
fact I did not get "best available" seats, is not their fault.
Defences ran from "tickets were there, I should have navigated better to
get the best seats" to "We do not select what are considered "best
seats."
I've tried reserving my judgement because as you know, many members have
been highly critical of the way the membership is being run. I'm
disappointed the way I've been treated. I feel my $100 premium
membership for "benefits" was a poor investment. In summary, I did
everything right, and still feel screwed. Whether by the fan club,
promoter, venue or whomever. At the end of the day I do feel this was
the fan club's responsibility. Instead everyone I spoke with evades the
responsibility.
For the Vancouver, GM place show, I went online 2 PM EST last Monday, to
get the best seats possible like many others. However ""best available"
seats were section 117. Not being familiar with the the GM place
seating plan, I assumed that section 117 was indeed the best available -
I was wrong. If you selected "section", you are taken to another menu.
>From there you could access floor seats.
Unfortunately, for this fan, I learned about this glitch too late and
was not able to get 1st, 2nd or 3rd row, like I easily would have done
had the website worked properly.
As I said, Tina was kind enough to take the time to call me from the UK,
but I was just re-assured by her the issue was not their fault, and they
do the best they can. We argued for several minutes (at one point I was
told I was "wrong") "agreeing" that the best they can do, simply isn't
good enough (for me and many other fans). I suspect from her
perspective this meant she is frustrated that some fans cannot be made
happy regardless of their efforts.
I'm afraid the only recourse I have is not re-renewing my membership.
So I guess I won't. In future years I'd rather pay the $100 premium for
scalper tickets, with less hassle, anger and frustration. The only
other thing I ever got was the CD ROM and while somewhat "nice" it was
not worth $100.
I think I can say they do care somewhat about the fan club and its
members (evidenced by the call), but I guess their hands are tied and
cannot do much when something goes wrong. Like most human beings, it is
easier to shift responsibility, than accept it. As my Dad says, "The
name of the game is results."
-Ross (out over $100).
PS: Some of you who know me better, also know how I can take issues
to the nth degree when I am convinced I am being wronged. I was
tempted to buy the domain name "stingfanclubsucks.com" but my "anger has
subsided. If that is the worst of my problems, then I'm doing all right
and I don't want to escalate the issue, as it am afraid it will taint my
love for Sting's music.
But I am curious, how many of you will renew?