How long until some action is taken against Ticketmaster's constant abuses?

Free market. In theory, it's a great concept. But time and time again historical evidence show that unless some regulation is applied, the concentration of power leads to monopolies or oligopolies which form cartels, thwart the principle of free market and of course, hurt the consumer. 

I will not lengthen my introduction. Below you will find the actual exchange of emails between me and Ticketmaster's consumer service. I am appalled by their attitude and all I can hope is that more people who have been shut out of their online website because it's always congested see this - and ultimately some action is taken to reverse TM's ludicrous behavior. 

On 8/15/2016 1:58 PM, Paula Sroka wrote:

(sent via Ticketmaster's contact form)

first-name=Paula

last-name=Sroka

eventDateRange=Have Not Purchased Tickets

question=Hello, I am not able to access ticketmaster.com from my home computer anymore. I get a "Forbidden You don't have permission to access / on this server." I live in Brazil and travel frequently to the US, so I like to buy tickets for concerts and broadway shows. What is going on and how can this be solved? Thank you.

----------------------

Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2016 14:56:29 -0400

From: customer_support@ticketmaster.com

To: coolpaulinha@hotmail.com

Subject: Re: General Information -> Received error during purchase process

Hello Paula,

Thanks for reaching out to us and for your patience with our delayed response due to a high volume of e-mails. My name is Sabu and I'll be happy to assist you today.

I'm sorry you were temporarily blocked while trying to buy tickets on Ticketmaster.com. Please reply with your IP address so that we can check if it has been erroneously listed as an "automated bot."

You see, automated programs (or “bots”) constantly hit Refresh when some onsales start, which ties up our system and blocks you (the real live fan) from getting tickets. When that happens, we block them.

Unfortunately, we can’t tell bots from human beings so sometimes fans who refresh too frequently get blocked – for about 24 hours.

A way to prevent this kind of block is to wait 2 – 3 seconds between each refresh when trying to buy tickets. That way, only the bots get blocked. 

If you need anything else, just reply to this email or give us a call at 1-800-653-8000.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Sabu

Ticketmaster Fan Support

On 8/16/2016 3:25 PM, Paula Sroka wrote:

Dear Sabu,

My public IP address is 189.XXX.XXX.XXX

Can you please send me confirmation of this?

Thanks and have a great day!

Paula

----------------------

Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2016 15:09:09 -0400

From: customer_support@ticketmaster.com

To: coolpaulinha@hotmail.com

Subject: Re: RE: General Information -> Received error during purchase process

Hi Paula,

Hope your day is going well, let me see what I can do to help out!

I’m sorry, you have been permanently blocked from our site for excessive violation of our Terms of Use. Unfortunately, I cannot reverse this status.  You can still purchase tickets with Ticketmaster over the phone at 800-653-8000. Also, tickets are often available in person at an event’s Box Office

If you need anything else, just reply to this email or click Help on Ticketmaster.com!

Sincerely,

April

Ticketmaster Fan Support

-------------------------------------

On 8/17/2016 4:27 PM, Paula Sroka wrote:

Hello,

I'm afraid that does not help me at all! I live in Brazil and travel often to the USA so it's not a possibility to by via phone.

If your website wasn't always congested certainly I would not have trouble refreshing the window to buy tickets.

Isn't there any way this can be reversed? This is absurd. I don't understand why me as a user needs to be penalized seeing as your tickets always "sell out" and we - the fans - end up having to buy from resale sites at overpriced rates.

I am really extremely disappointed by this. How can this be reversed?

I look forward to hearing from you on this matter and thank you for your attention to it.

Best,

Paula

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2016 15:09:09 -0400

From: customer_support@ticketmaster.com

To: coolpaulinha@hotmail.com

Subject: Re: RE: General Information -> Received error during purchase process

Hi Paula,

Thank you for reaching out to us. Unfortunately we are not able to reverse this. It may be that your Internet Service Provider will not allow you to have access to the website. If you can try to make the purchase from an Internet Cafe or anything like that, make sure that they do not have the same internet provider. <-- nbsp="" seriously="" span="">

If you need anything else, just reply to this email or click Help on Ticketmaster.com!

Sincerely,

Luis

Ticketmaster Fan Support

---------------------------------------

What terms of use? Trying to buy tickets on an overloaded server?
Go buy tickets at an internet cafe is an actual suggestion?
And they pass the buck, it's the ISPs fault? 

So, that's it. Ticketmaster blocks real fans from buying tickets so their resale sites can profit even more by reselling at premium dollar their already overpriced tickets!