This morning, at 9am, the Bon Jovi – Because We Can Telstra pre sales for the December 2013 Australian tour went on sale via ticketing website, Bang Tango. By 9.01am, the site crashed. Within an hour, Telstra and Bang Tango both posted an update. It was the clichéd “due to high demand or high volumes, you may experience delays in accessing this website”.
Fans went into a panic and then they became angry. The Bon Jovi Facebook page had thousands of comments about the disaster. Telstra’s page experienced the same rage, along with the Bang Tango Facebook page. Fans also vented their anger on Twitter.
A lot of the blame is directed at Telstra and Bang Tango. Both of these organisations have a lot to answer too, however the main blame stops with Jon Bon Jovi and his management team. They are the ones that signed these arrangements due to the monies offered to them.
What fans seem to forget is that Bon Jovi is guaranteed an upfront fee from the promoter for coming to Australia, regardless of ticket sales.
They (Bon Jovi and the promoter) then license out the sales of their tickets to different ticketing bodies within Australia, based on what those ticketing systems want to pay for having the privilege to sell Bon Jovi tickets. In most cases, Ticketek or Ticketmaster are the players, however in this instance, there was another player in Telstra/Bang Tango. The actual winner in all of this is Ticketek, as it seems to cement their reputation as the best seller for these kind of events. Bon Jovi then licenses out the manufacturing and sales of their merchandise to another organisation, and that is why we, the fans are slugged with the high prices we see. $50 for a T-shirt, $300 a concert ticket and so on.
Furthermore, from looking at all the comments, I started to see a trend. Fed up and frustrated fans then started taking out the $60 online Backstage JBJ fan club membership, just so that they can purchase tickets. Was this the intention of Jon Bon Jovi all along, to get people over to his fan club. As a Bon Jovi fan, I don’t believe that is so, however it makes you wonder. Throughout the whole debacle, the Backstage JBJ website was up and running and selling tickets, while Bang Tango was bleeding. However, being a Backstage JBJ member only limits you to two tickets, so if you need four or three, you are screwed.
Then within the hour, EBAY had tickets on sale for the Bon Jovi Australian concerts at a $1,000 each. Can someone please explain how fans got the middle finger, and scalpers or resellers got tickets to sell.
My view is that NO FAN should have to pay to join a website to purchase tickets. The purchase of the TICKETS is enough of a transaction to satisfy the band. Jon Bon Jovi is all about greed these days, and he should be ashamed for the way he disrespect his fans; the same fans that have allowed him to live a life of luxury through their devotion to his band and music.
Here are some more comments from the Bang Tango Facebook page (I actually feel very SORRY for the band Bang Tango);
· Trying to pay for mine and all it says processing your payment it has been on there for awhile
· I finally was able to purchase some tickets, we decided on a package (yippee) … my question is, during processing payment it said that my transaction had timed out and to try again – but first I checked online with my bank and the money had already gone out of my account … so do I have tickets or not? Will we be sent confirmation emails?
· What a joke you are. After sitting here for almost 3 hours refreshing my screen I then get through to find out that I have to sign up for an account (will look great for your numbers hey) only to progress to the screen where I select the tickets I want, wait 5 minutes for it to ‘reserve’ my tickets to get a message that says: sorry but computer says no: 0-…On a screen full of automated selections where I can’t input anything. What the hell is going on? Are you a real company that deals with this daily? And how the hell did YOU get the presale for Bon Jovi with this stupid set up? Annoyed much? Yeah to say the least. Are there any tickets left for the Adelaide show?
· I’m not bothering now, finally got on, and couldn’t get the tickets I wanted as I’m guessing they are nearly all gone, what a joke, nasty email sent to Telstra and I’m going to give my money to Ticketmaster, at least they are professional, I can’t believe you guys want to charge a $15 booking fee for this stuff up – RIPPED OFF, I have completely wasted my day, thanks guys Not!!!!!!!
· What a joke. Finally get through and could only buy 1 ticket! Was taking my daughter. What use is 1 ticket!
· How many tickets to Melbourne do they allocate to the pre-sale ? Whole lot of marketing and a whole lot of disgruntled fans. Great PR exercise Bang Tango !! I may not see Bon Jovi – “Because I Can’t ” book any tickets for Melbourne via Bang Tango.
· If you’re only after 2 tickets max, save yourself the hassle and get JBJ membership, then get tickets there. You end up paying a little more but at least the tickets are in the bag and you don’t have to put up with this shambles. Someone mentioned re the extra costs on members tickets too… It’s pre-sale, obviously there is a little on top. Wait till the lottery of general public sales is the other option.
· can’t get tickets but they can sell them on eBay for $1000 what a joke
· I can’t even get allocated 1 ticket, not that 1 ticket is any good to the group of people wanting to attend. Very bad organisation. Never EVER had a pre-sale hiccup, and I go to at least 2 concerts a year.
· hi, I still haven’t received my confirmation email…but my order is listed under my account….is there a problem with this???
· Been a fan since 85, the page finally loads and now can’t buy tickets wtf ?????????? I’m so angry!
· I want diamond section tickets to Brisbane but it keeps telling me that my code has been used too many times unless I choose the platinum ones!! I don’t want platinum ones I want the diamond ones!!!
· Accidentally only got 1 ticket through not being able to review purchase before preceding
· Might of taken all day and retry again that many times not fun but finally got tickets. Yeahhhhh
· BIG THUMBS DOWN!!
· I can’t understand how all tix are gone !! When no one could get through . I did get tix but took like 3 hrs. and didn’t get to see where I am sitting .
· Kira – I had the same problem and called Telstra who said to get another code by calling #820# on your mobile. (In the end I got tickets with my original code as but it might be worth trying)
· If you are after the bronze tickets you can only get 2 but if you try the others like silver the max is up to 10
· Frustrated!! Trying to get Adelaide tickets and can’t!!! One minute u can’t even get on the website and next they are sold out!! Not happy!!
· Just wasted more time trying to get tickets. Can only afford silver but looks like none are available. What is the point of a pre-sale if it is friggin harder to get tickets then when they go on sale to the general public.
· I got tickets. Wasn’t sure.. it crashed doing payment, but money has gone through credit card and it is listed in order details (Gold Sydney). This was probably 40 mins ago. Pretty sucky seats for a gold price, but the sound should be great!!
· What’s the go why won’t it process payment : ( disappointed
· My Mum selected 2 tickets and has only been sold 1- what use is that? What is the process for fixing all these single ticket transactions that seem to have occurred?
And from the Bon Jovi Facebook Page;
· And Telstra is supposed to be the best communications company in the country, What a JOKE!!!!
· Bang tango fb saying trying to fix it
· Bang Tango you suck!!!!
· This is so depressing. Has anyone even got tickets through bang tango? My computer got through to the tickets but still loading. Been a whole hour. Too scared to refresh
· waiting for an hour now…this sucks….absolute joke!
· Well of course they charge you to become a member that’s the point. There are many perks to being a member advance ticket sales being one
· I can barely afford the tickets little own membership broke full time uni student once I have money then I will become a member
· Well done Telstra, you did it again.
· Good to know I’m not the only one who couldn’t get on this morning as the server had crashed. NOT HAPPY JAN!!!
· I feel like such a failure, my poor friends putting their faith in me!!
· Yeah…. Got my tickets for Melb and Adelaide show through the JBJ fan club page! Amazing diamond seats!! Bring it on I’m so excited!!
· Ended up paying for JBJ membership to get my tickets, but got AMAZING seats so it was worth the extra $50!! If you have the spare cash just pay to join and get your tickets straight away!
· I need 3 tix so membership won’t help
· Another fine association Telstra… well done great when an ISP can’t offer better server capacity…
· Bang Tango website useless waste of two hours no tickets. Joke, get it sorted.
· They should have had different presale dates for each gig not all at once
· Wish it was presale through ticketek
· has anyone got tickets though bang tango? I have been trying to get them since 8:30am when the site crashed , starting to wonder if this stress is worth it
· Why can’t Bon Jovi, Telstra, bang tango or dainty group post some sort of announcement/apology so we can all get on with our lives?? This is f’ing ridiculous!!
· Been trying since 9.00 am also, don’t promote what can’t be provided! Poor service, just saying
· Yeah I tried to log on 11.09 and nothing… Typical Telstra.
· This is just a joke….l am stuck on the tickets screen…..has to be a better way to get tickets. Sorry but this is not good enough
· This is a joke, all I want is 2 tickets !!! , there better be some left
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