The Cure's Robert Smith seems to have convinced Ticketmaster to refund their high-priced fees to the band's fans after calling the company out earlier this week on social media.
Smith has since tweeted, “After further conversation, Ticketmaster have agreed with us that many of the fees being charged are unduly high, and as a gesture of goodwill have offered a $10 per ticket refund to all verified fan accounts for lowest ticket price transactions. And a $5 per ticket refund to all verified fan accounts for all other ticket price transactions, for all Cure shows at all venues.”
Smith also said that refunds would automatically process for fans who already purchased tickets while future purchases would “incur lower fees.”
Earlier this week, The Cure frontman explained that they'd be using a “verified fan” approach to avoid the resell ticket market, which comes with unreasonably high prices.
He said, “We were convinced that Ticketmaster’s … ideas could help us fight the scalpers. We didn’t agree to the 'dynamic pricing'/'price surging'/'platinum ticket' thing, because it is itself a bit of a scam? A separate conversation! We know it is a far from perfect system. But the reality is that if there aren’t enough tickets on sale, a number of fans are going to miss out whatever system we use. At least this one tries to get tickets into the hands of fans at a fair price.”
He also tweeted on March 15th, “I am as sickened as you all are by today's Ticketmaster 'fees' debacle. To be very clear: The artist has no way to limit them. I have been asking how they are justified. If I get anything coherent by way of an answer I will let you all know.”