Robert Smith ‘Sickened’ By Ticketmaster Fees More Expensive Than Cure Tickets

Robert Smith says he is “sickened” by reports from Cure fans showing they paid more in Ticketmaster fees for their upcoming tour than the face value of the ticket.

A screenshot from a ticket sale started making the rounds on Twitter. It showed a fan buying four tickets priced at $20 each. Then came the fees. First, there was an $11.65 “Service Fee” on each ticket adding $46.60 to the total. Then, a “Facility Charge” of $10 per ticket added an additional $40. Finally, there was an “Order Processing Fee” of $5.50. This took a ticket sale from $80 to $172.10.

Smith took to Twitter writing, “I am as sickened as you all are by today’s Ticketmaser ‘fees’ debacle. To be very clear: The artist has no way to limit them.” He continues, “I have been asking how they are justified. If I get anything coherent by way of an answer, I will let you all know.”

This statement from Smith is the latest regarding tickets for The Cure’s first North American tour in seven years. When the tour was announced, the band noted, “The Cure have agreed all ticket prices, and apart from a few Hollywood Bowl charity seats, there will be no ‘platinum’ or ‘dynamically priced’ tickets on this tour.”

Smith then said on Twitter, “We didn’t agree to the ‘dynamic pricing’/’price surging’/’platinum ticket’ thing…because it is itself a bit of a scam? A separate conversion!”

He added, “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. And/or we should play more/bigger shows? Ha!!! Onwards…”

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