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I'm not a Ticketmaster fan from back in the Pearl Jam days, but I think there's a misunderstanding in a lot of these comments. If you are just the platform that

by rapind 7y ago

I'm not a Ticketmaster fan from back in the Pearl Jam days, but I think there's a misunderstanding in a lot of these comments. If you are just the platform that venues use, and someone asks for a refund, it's pretty heavy for the platform to be on the hook for the full cost right now (due to a massive amount of refunds). In the short term it can effect your cashflow (covering refunds to consumers while you try to collect from the venue), and in the long terms it could be a huge loss if you're unable to collect from a significant amount of your venues (money already spent). In general you probably wouldn't want to hold excessive amounts in reserve from the venues because it could be a huge negative factor for them (money needed to setup the event), but right now with Coronavirus it's gotta be really messing with them.

grawprog 7y ago
>If you are just the platform that venues use, and someone asks for a refund, it's pretty heavy for the platform to be on the hook for the full cost right now So, Ticketmaster should make profit off of distributing tickets for venues and events, but not be responsible for issuing refunds for the tickets they sold? Seems like that should be part of the risk of operating as a middleman whose sole purpose in existing is to sell something for somebody else, that basically would sell itself however it was being sold while sitting in the middle just sucking up money.
sciurus 7y ago
This is why Eventbrite has stopped issuing advanced payouts to venues. Given the increased risk, they need to keep the money on hand for potential refunds. I wonder if Ticketmaster has done something similar. https://www.eventbrite.com/blog/advanced-payouts-changes-related-to-covid-19/ https://www.eventbrite.com/blog/advanced-payouts-changes-rel...
- rapind 7y ago
  No doubt. Typically they would hold a reserve based on a risk calculation. This epidemic would have completely invalidated the old math on how much to reserve and I suspect has therefore left a lot of platforms in a shitty position or cash strapped.

by rapind 7y ago

grawprog 7y ago

>If you are just the platform that venues use, and someone asks for a refund, it's pretty heavy for the platform to be on the hook for the full cost right now So, Ticketmaster should make profit off of distributing tickets for venues and events, but not be responsible for issuing refunds for the tickets they sold? Seems like that should be part of the risk of operating as a middleman whose sole purpose in existing is to sell something for somebody else, that basically would sell itself however it was being sold while sitting in the middle just sucking up money.

sciurus 7y ago

This is why Eventbrite has stopped issuing advanced payouts to venues. Given the increased risk, they need to keep the money on hand for potential refunds. I wonder if Ticketmaster has done something similar. https://www.eventbrite.com/blog/advanced-payouts-changes-related-to-covid-19/ https://www.eventbrite.com/blog/advanced-payouts-changes-rel...

rapind 7y ago
No doubt. Typically they would hold a reserve based on a risk calculation. This epidemic would have completely invalidated the old math on how much to reserve and I suspect has therefore left a lot of platforms in a shitty position or cash strapped.