Madonna concert promoter pulls stunt on fans who paid $188 for standing tickets more than a month prior

The early birds did not catch the worms.

Martino Tan| Jeanette Tan| February 26, 06:39 PM

By now, most of you will have heard about Madonna's concert this Sunday, as well as the stir it's caused among Christians.

Here's yet another spanner in the works: we learned on Friday that Madge's show promoters — East West Best Inc. and King Lun & The UMS Group — have successfully pissed off some of her own fans (concert goers, mind you) by creating a new category and adding more seats that, well, pretty much completely blocks the view of hundreds of people who paid $188 for the Standing Pen A tickets.

Check out the image below that was shared with us:

Before (left): Standing Pen A (Standing zone tickets — the olive/khaki-coloured area)

After (right): Standing Pen A+ Standing Pen A1 (note the new green zone added in front of Standing Pen A)

Photo provided by reader. Photo provided by reader.

Anyway, this is how much a Madonna fan would have paid for his/her ticket:

Source: Sports Hub website Source: Sports Hub website

"Standing Pen A" costs $188 per ticket, while the newly created "Standing Pen A1" costs $388 per ticket.

According to The Straits Times on Feb 22, the $388 tickets were only released last week.

And these were the reactions from fans who probably bought the $188 tickets.

28th SEA Games Singapore 2015 - OCBC Aquatic Centre, Singapore - 7/6/15 Swimming - Men's 4x200m Freestyle Relay - Final - Singapore's Quah Zheng Wen (L), Pang Sheng Jun (2nd L), Yeo Kai Quan and Joseph Schooling (R) on podium TEAMSINGAPORE Mandatory Credit: Singapore SEA Games Organising Committee / Action Images via Reuters Source: MediaCorp VizPro Facebook

28th SEA Games Singapore 2015 - OCBC Aquatic Centre, Singapore - 7/6/15 Swimming - Men's 4x200m Freestyle Relay - Final - Singapore's Quah Zheng Wen (L), Pang Sheng Jun (2nd L), Yeo Kai Quan and Joseph Schooling (R) on podium TEAMSINGAPORE Mandatory Credit: Singapore SEA Games Organising Committee / Action Images via Reuters Source: MediaCorp VizPro Facebook

Ivan De Luna-Sison, 29, a digital marketing director, wrote to the promoter's gmail account accordingly, expressing his displeasure with the last minute intervention by the concert promoter.

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And here is the reply he received.

Email 1

In other words, the concert promoter has taken his "feedbacks" but will do nothing to remedy the situation.

Their explanation, it seems, is that Pen A1 is a reconfiguration of the existing Cat 1 section ($688), which got us all puzzled:

1) If 80 to 90 per cent of the tickets have been sold so far according to earlier press reports, why did Madonna's concert promoter choose to reconfigure the seats and sell these expensive Cat 1 tickets at a cheaper price? Did they suddenly decide to be generous and earn less profits?

2) Wouldn't this move also irritate the early-bird Madonna fans who bought the $588 and $488 tickets? In fact, one can pay $388 for the new last minute seats and will get to be closer to Madonna.

28th SEA Games Singapore 2015 - OCBC Aquatic Centre, Singapore - 7/6/15 Swimming - Men's 4x200m Freestyle Relay - Final - Singapore's Quah Zheng Wen (L), Pang Sheng Jun (2nd L), Yeo Kai Quan and Joseph Schooling (R) on podium TEAMSINGAPORE Mandatory Credit: Singapore SEA Games Organising Committee / Action Images via Reuters Source: Sports Hub website

Unfortunately, the concert promoter may not have done anything illegal.

T&C agreement Source: Sports Hub website

This is because every concert goer would have agreed to and accepted the terms and conditions of the transaction which include the following:

"4.2 The Promoter may add, withdraw, reschedule or substitute artists or players (where applicable) or vary advertised programmes, prices, Event times, venues, seating arrangement or audience capacity without any compensation of the Ticket Holder.

4.3 The Promoter and/or SportsHub may postpone, cancel, interrupt or stop the Event, or deny access to the Venue due to adverse weather, dangerous situations or any other causes without any compensation of the Ticket Holder."

In that case, let's hope our consumer watchdog can step in and help the group of aggrieved Madonna fans.

After all, the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) is an "organisation that is committed towards protecting consumers' interests by promoting an environment of fair and ethical trade practices".

Surely there is a case for CASE to investigate?

 

Top photo from here.

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