Gilt City Presale

[Stevie]

Do we know for a fact that those tickets would have been in the roll call presale? 

[millerjustin]

I dont know.... I had similar feelings of anger after seeing that the tickets I would have bought from Gilt were sold out.  But I have come to realize that I'm only mad because I didn't get tickets.  Many around here were able to take advantage of that so good for those people. 

We go through the same song and dance every time tickets go on sale.  Some people don't get exactly what they wanted and they blow up and we get 10 to 20 page threads about it.  But then the public on sale happens and low and behold the vast majority of people got what they needed. 

By the way, what happened wit the OBH sound check?  I was there but the only sound check i caught wind of was BOH.  There were a good amount of security guys down there and you couldn't stand right up on the stage but the guy i talked to was kind about it and told me to watch from near the soundboard.

In contrast to 2014 MMJ soundcheck, which was totally chill and organic, the 2015 soundcheck was highly guarded.  Right before the guys came down in golf carts to their room, the "Safety" team pushed everyone out of the courtyard at least half way back - one guy in particular was in a gold cart and literally herding people away and doing circles, being a jerk, etc - really set a bad vibe.  This had to be driven by A/R guys, as they sound checked half of Big Decisions before quitting

[ericm]

Do we know for a fact that those tickets would have been in the roll call presale?

Where else would they come from? The band is only allotted a certain amount of tix, and can distribute them however they want. It's not like they get X amount for every type of presale they want to be involved in. They get X total. If they didn't go to Gilt it stands to reason there would've been more RC tix available.

Not cool.

[Stevie]

Sorry but what is A/R?  Yeah I agree, that does sound like an abrasive way to go about things.

[CountSA]

Sorry but what is A/R?  Yeah I agree, that does sound like an abrasive way to go about things.

Artists and Repertoire, basically "handlers" for the band.

[Penny Lane]

HEY BAND! BAND MANAGEMENT! CC!  This gilt pre-sale is bullshit. You ask your long time fans to join your fan club for a pre-sale that has very few tickets. Then a day or two later you have this pre-sale with a copy of the album tacked on. An album lots of us have already fucking bought,  I might add, just to up your first week sales of it. Plus,  you don't send us an email letting us know it's happening, so we might be able to get tickets. Maybe because you are too embarrassed to admit that you  roofied all of us with roll call (which has always sucked in the customer service dept btw) and now you are just straight up having your way with us and taking selfies while you do it.

Yeah,  it's nice you guys are making money. I'm going to keep letting you find new ways to convince me to part with my school teacher big dawg salary. Just know that this is a sad way to exploit your fans. I understand pre-sales are a great way to make more money for everyone,  but exactly how many tickets are going to be left for us on Friday. How many of us are going to be forced to go to stubhub.  I know pre-sales aren't always held by the band, but for a company to have every non festival date up for sale with an added non optional digital download tacked on, this has to have been ok'd by the band. This is just bullshit.  Go do some transcendental meditation and a couple of sun salutations to that.

DITTO

/echoes BigHerm's slow clap/

Nicely said, Fully.

[Santo]

I dont know.... I had similar feelings of anger after seeing that the tickets I would have bought from Gilt were sold out.  But I have come to realize that I'm only mad because I didn't get tickets.  Many around here were able to take advantage of that so good for those people. 

We go through the same song and dance every time tickets go on sale.  Some people don't get exactly what they wanted and they blow up and we get 10 to 20 page threads about it.  But then the public on sale happens and low and behold the vast majority of people got what they needed. 

By the way, what happened wit the OBH sound check?  I was there but the only sound check i caught wind of was BOH.  There were a good amount of security guys down there and you couldn't stand right up on the stage but the guy i talked to was kind about it and told me to watch from near the soundboard.

People are mad because they dropped a decent chunk of $$ to have access to presale tickets.  When the supply of those tickets are drastically cut (as it seems in this case) in order to supply a groupon-esque presale open to anybody, fan club members have the right to be pissed off.

The biggest issue with the pre-sale is the customer service. Its been four days since the pre-sale and some are still trying to get money back from tickets they didn't get. In most cases its hundreds of dollars. It doesn't sound like it will be resolved before the public on-sale, So yeah, I'd be furious too.

I got my tickets, so I'm happy this go around, but I've had to deal with Wonderful Union customer service, and its horrific. It takes days to get a simple question answered. They change the terms of the sale or blame you for their technical difficulties. They close call tickets before its solved, so you have to start over if you want to get it resolved.  Its on you to prove them wrong. It really feels like you are being gaslighted when dealing with WU.

EDIT: I started spouting off before I read Fully's Gilt City post. I totally agree. My rant on WU stands though.

[joey_rogo]

Wait so, this was an entirely separate presale, for EVERY show, available to ANYONE?!

When I saw this thread, I thought "Gilt City" was a venue in the UK and you all were discussing what seats you got.

[ultravisitor]

This is bullshit.

I had Roll Call Deluxe, and I nearly missed out on all of those tickets.

I'm on the Gilt City mailing list, so I knew about the presale as soon as it started, but I didn't want to chance not being able to specify GA for those tickets, and people who bought hours after that presale started--and hours after I almost bought tickets--ended up getting GA.

This is the worst managed ticket sale I have ever experienced.

[tdb810]

Wait so, this was an entirely separate presale, for EVERY show, available to ANYONE?!

When I saw this thread, I thought "Gilt City" was a venue in the UK and you all were discussing what seats you got.

Yup, Joey! Insane, right?  So disappointing.   

[APR]

While this presale did help some people, overall it stinks.  The band's biggest fans likely already purchased the album in some form and regardless if they paid or did not pay to be Roll Call, to make them pay extra for tickets that include something they already purchased isn't cool.  No one is has to pay the extra, but how can we not be willing to do so as the sale promises great seats?  Ticketmaster won't have these seats available tomorrow.

I get supply and demand.  I've been thru tons of Pearl Jam ticket sale glitches, but this past week takes the cake.  Please have a better system next tour.

[Woldie]

This is bullshit.

I had Roll Call Deluxe, and I nearly missed out on all of those tickets.

I'm on the Gilt City mailing list, so I knew about the presale as soon as it started, but I didn't want to chance not being able to specify GA for those tickets, and people who bought hours after that presale started--and hours after I almost bought tickets--ended up getting GA.

This is the worst managed ticket sale I have ever experienced.

My feelings exactly.  If there are no remaining GA/Pit options for the upcoming sale, I am going to be furious.

[joey_rogo]

Wait so, this was an entirely separate presale, for EVERY show, available to ANYONE?!

When I saw this thread, I thought "Gilt City" was a venue in the UK and you all were discussing what seats you got.

Yup, Joey! Insane, right?  So disappointing.   

The craziest part is how seemingly nobody knew about this until it had already started.

[Woldie]

And I feel the need to add that I could see the validity of this if there were tickets left after this weekend.  The fact that so many of us have paid significant amounts of money to have access to pre-sales, only to have most of us (and yes, "most" is my estimation) crossing our fingers for the upcoming public and semi-public pre-sales or throwing more money at this ridiculous Gilt City Gamble, makes me furious.  I am now a member of this fan club through twenty-fucking-seventeen, and I am feeling increasingly rooked.

[ericm]

Wait so, this was an entirely separate presale, for EVERY show, available to ANYONE?!

When I saw this thread, I thought "Gilt City" was a venue in the UK and you all were discussing what seats you got.

Yup, Joey! Insane, right?  So disappointing.   

The craziest part is how seemingly nobody knew about this until it had already started.

Yup. Just added insult to injury.   They should have at least let it be known there would be this presale in addition to the RC one,IMO. It comes across as very sneaky, and like they tried to slip this past us by keeping us in the dark about it.

Not to mention the double whammy of tying in the album download purchase. Like Apr said, who wouldn't pay for that again in order to secure a sweet seat, especially if they got shut out of tix in the RC presale?

[ellisintransit]

While this presale did help some people, overall it stinks.  The band's biggest fans likely already purchased the album in some form and regardless if they paid or did not pay to be Roll Call, to make them pay extra for tickets that include something they already purchased isn't cool.  No one is has to pay the extra, but how can we not be willing to do so as the sale promises great seats?  Ticketmaster won't have these seats available tomorrow.

I get supply and demand.  I've been thru tons of Pearl Jam ticket sale glitches, but this past week takes the cake.  Please have a better system next tour.

AMEN

This is what happens when you link up with the major labels.  Synergy!  They leverage the band's homegrown fan base via their vested interests- ground_(ctrl) (I refuse to use their new lie of a moniker), social media and lifestyle blogs.  They're drawing traffic to places they have a stake in or have made deals with, and sell more albums to people who already own them to get to stuff that should already be available to the people they sold fan club subscriptions to.  I'm sure it's cynical, but I imagine a group of label staff sitting around a big table and saying, "what's a few cracked eggs when we're trying to make a golden omelet?", all in the name of moving a few more units. 

This line from the Billboard article about their manager joining Red Light was interesting to me:
http://bit.ly/1AhMdVb

"Jim had the same sense and sensibility as I did," says Martinovich, "basically telling me, 'here we are 10 years on and nothing's gone wrong, they've always been cool people, we love you, we love them, why not? If you think it's going to be good for you and you think it's going to be good for us, give it a shot.

Martinovich does see potential synergies and resources for both his clients and himself in joining Capshaw and a firm with some 200 artists, along with interests in branding, venues, festivals, labels, and other ventures. "In this order of priority, my first goal is to tap into the resources that Red Light has in the spirit of allowing My Morning Jacket to prosper and grow, as well as Pres Hall, Flight [of the Conchords], or whomever I work with."

I'm not a music industry type, but with the management team growing and the licensing deal with Capitol, you can see what they're doing.  Most of us here are going to jump through whatever hoops it takes to get access to our favorite band, so they don't have to worry about us.  They're worrying about all the people who haven't been exposed to them yet.  I saw someone in another thread talking about how much better the Pearl Jam fan club is than what we've been treated to in Roll Call.  I've been a Third Man records Vault subscriber since their very first one.  They used a terrible ground_(ctrl)-style company for the first couple of years (Modlife) before switching to an in-house fan club a couple of years ago.  Since they made that switch the ticket pre-sales have been smooth and any problems with shipping or money is made right with the quickness.  I imagine that's because they don't have to also worry selling Guns N Roses, or Linkin Park, or Backstreet Boys  fan clubs too. 

I just can't wait to finally hear the album, so hopefully all my cynicism washes away with whatever beautiful tones MMJ put on tape for us.

[Sassbox]

This is bullshit.

I had Roll Call Deluxe, and I nearly missed out on all of those tickets.

I'm on the Gilt City mailing list, so I knew about the presale as soon as it started, but I didn't want to chance not being able to specify GA for those tickets, and people who bought hours after that presale started--and hours after I almost bought tickets--ended up getting GA.

This is the worst managed ticket sale I have ever experienced.

Unless it's an all GA venue, no one knows whether they got GA or seats yet via Gilt.

I agree with the overall sentiments here. The seemingly tiny RC presale ticket allotment coupled with this Gilt offering at a premium is a giant FU to those of us who shell out money to join a fan club, only to deal with shoddy customer service and glitchy presales year after year after year.


I can't wait to argue with venue staff about early entry this tour when WU drops the ball yet again

[ellisintransit]

I can't wait to argue with venue staff about early entry this tour when WU drops the ball yet again

Oh lord.  That hadn't crossed my mind, nor whatever the "VIP" experience will be.

[Taterbug]

HEY BAND! BAND MANAGEMENT! CC!  This gilt pre-sale is bullshit. You ask your long time fans to join your fan club for a pre-sale that has very few tickets. Then a day or two later you have this pre-sale with a copy of the album tacked on. An album lots of us have already fucking bought,  I might add, just to up your first week sales of it. Plus,  you don't send us an email letting us know it's happening, so we might be able to get tickets. Maybe because you are too embarrassed to admit that you  roofied all of us with roll call (which has always sucked in the customer service dept btw) and now you are just straight up having your way with us and taking selfies while you do it.

Yeah,  it's nice you guys are making money. I'm going to keep letting you find new ways to convince me to part with my school teacher big dawg salary. Just know that this is a sad way to exploit your fans. I understand pre-sales are a great way to make more money for everyone,  but exactly how many tickets are going to be left for us on Friday. How many of us are going to be forced to go to stubhub.  I know pre-sales aren't always held by the band, but for a company to have every non festival date up for sale with an added non optional digital download tacked on, this has to have been ok'd by the band. This is just bullshit.  Go do some transcendental meditation and a couple of sun salutations to that.

Perfectly worded Fully.  Couldn't agree more. 

[Taterbug]

I wonder if ticket allotment to 3rd parties was agreed to before the Roll call packages
where offered to the fans and they under estimated the demand.  It looks to me like there are a lot more roll call members now.