Fox News: Concert Ticket Controversy
Fox News
Feb 26, 2008
Whether it's Billy Joel at Shea Stadium or Hannah Montana, if you've tried getting tickets to any hot concert recently, this probably sounds familiar: sold out in minutes. It's enough to make you furious wondering where all the tickets go and how!
Fox 5's John Deutzman exposed the company accused of causing a lot of grief! As he roamed through the halls of a giant building in Pittsburgh he spotted a tiny sign. It said RMG Technologies “secret evil laboratory.”
We don't know if the small office is really a secret evil laboratory but they're being pegged as huge party poopers, preventing thousands of people from seeing their favorite concerts.
WATCH JOHN DEUTZMAN'S INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
WATCH JOHN DEUTZMAN'S FOLLOW-UP STORY
Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, The Police, for all of the thousands of happy people who got to see their stars live and in person, there are thousands more heart wrenching scenes.
Sean Woods, 12, of New Jersey got a raw deal. His mom promised him she would buy Jonas Brothers tickets for his birthday if he worked harder at school. Sean kept his end of the bargain but it didn't work out.
She says, “I knew they were going on sale at 10 o'clock. I had the computer all set up.”
Sean's mom had punched up the Meadowlands site ready to grab those precious tickets being sold through ticketmaster.com but even though she tried the second they were on sale they were gone. Making matters worse, within minutes, tickets to the very same concert were being resold on other sites like stubhub.com.
Tickets that were supposed to go for between $27 and $47 were now as high as $1,000.
Barbar Stoudt of North Bergen got stomped on trying to buy Jonas Brothers tickets for her 12-year-old niece. Stoudt says, “I was so frustrated I punched my monitor because I refused to curse. I punched my monitor. I was like, 'what is wrong with this computer?'“
We don't know for sure who snagged all the Jonas Brothers tickets but we do know that this company, RMG Technologies the one with the “secret evil laboratory” in Pittsburgh is catching lots of flack for ticket trouble all over the country.
RMG is being sued by both Ticketmaster and a guy in New Jersey who claims he paid three times the face value for nosebleed seats to see The Police this summer.
Attorney Peter Overs says, “You gotta take out a second mortgage on your house just to see a concert. That's just not right.” Overs has just filed a class action lawsuit on behalf his client.
RMG is being accused of allowing its customers, ticket brokers, to illegally enter Ticketmaster's Website and look for tickets, scarf up hundreds even thousands of tickets within seconds, violating ticket limits per customer designed to let only humans not machines buy tickets.
In court papers in support of Ticketmaster's case a former ticket reseller explained how he used the system. Chris Kovach said in the papers that he reached an agreement to work with RMG to use their automated devices to enable him to access Tickemaster's Website. He said he would log into www.ticketbrokertools.com to access software hosted on their site. That software included “workers” that can automatically navigate the Ticketmaster Website.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE OF THE TICKET BROKER'S “CONFESSION”
Ticketmaster's Joe Freeman says, “By using their technology and through unscrupulous folks who use their technology, they are making an effort to beat our cutting-edge security systems to in effect cut to the front of the line to get tickets.” And while they're not talking now, the Pittsburgh - based company has maintained in the past, in court records, they are doing nothing wrong, just providing a service.
In court papers Cipriano Garibay, President of RMG Technologies and software designer, declares that his company created, marketed, sold and provided technical support for one product called Ticket Broker Acquisition Tool (“TBAT”). Garibay says his company would be “run out of Business” if it is not allowed to sell TBAT.
CLICK HERE TO READ RMG'S OPPOSITION TO TICKETMASTER'S MOTION FOR RELIMINARY INJUNCTION
In October, U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins judge issued an injunction to stop RMG from selling and using their ticket technology saying Ticketmaster has demonstrated that it will likely succeed in its claims that RMG violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and breached a contract (the Website's Terms of Use).
CLICK HERE TO READ THE INJUNCTION
WATCH JOHN DEUTZMAN'S INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
UPDATE 2/27: After John's report came out, he received a call from the manager of the Jonas Brothers. The band decided to help out the people featured in the story by getting them tickets to the show.