Roots, Toots n' Hoots Blog

Chesney's tough luck

Jeffrey Remz  |  November 23, 2010

Kenny Chesney has a good rep. He seems like a nice guy, who has obviously connected extremely well with his fans.

Now, Chesney has gotten involved, unfortunately, in a difficult situation thanks to the good folks at Ticketmaster, who somehow gave out the wrong price for tickets to his June 18, 2011 gig in the City of Brotherly Love.

Ticketmaster said it made a "pricing error" in selling tickets for $25 tickets because the tickets were supposed to be priced at $99.50 each. It was not clear how many tickets Ticketmaster sold to the Lincoln Financial Field show. The seats at the wrong price were in the upper deck of the club level sections.

The company started selling tickets Nov. 13. Chesney fanatics who bought the $25 tickets received an email last weekend notifying them of the mistake. Ticketmaster apologized and gave buyers the option of either receiving a full refund or buying the tickets at the new price.

The email said, "Unfortunately, the wrong price was placed onto the system due to an inadvertent error by the venue's box office. The ticket price you paid was $25.00, plus applicable service charges, however the correct price for your seats is $99.50, plus applicable service charges."

"If you'd like to keep these seats for the show, please reply to this email by December 3rd at 7:00PM EST with authorization to charge your credit card the correct price (an additional $74.50 per ticket purchased), and please include the following account number x-xxxxx. Your current tickets will still be valid for use on the day of the show."

"Prefer a refund? You don't have to do anything - if we don't hear from you by December 3rd at 7:00PM EST, we'll refund your card the full amount automatically. If you prefer a refund, please discard the tickets we sent you - they will be canceled and won't get you in."

"Please accept our sincere apologies for this error."

Ticketmaster said in its purchase policy that it could cancel tickets when errors arise.

However, as you can imagine, fans probably are not exactly jumping for joy at the news. It also makes Chesney look real bad, even though he presumably had zilch to do with the mistake. Yet, the situation does not leave a good taste in the mouths of Chesney fans. I'm not sure what Chesney can do to rectify the situation. It's not as if he should eat $74.50 per ticket for someone else's mistake. And Ticketmaster isn't likely to do an about face and change its mind and let fans in for $25 either. Too bad for Chesney fans because they're going to either have to pony up or sit at home.

Let's hope that Chesney puts on one great show, particularly for those who forked over the extra money.

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