Fans Accuse Ticketmaster of Scamming Them With Marked-Up Prices

Fans' joy at getting tickets turned to anger when they discovered a change in tickets still on sale.

Ticketmaster faces heavy criticism once again from fans who believe that they were "scammed" with marked-up standard ticket prices.

Earlier this month, fans of the popular K-pop group NCT Dream went to Ticketmaster to try and get tickets to the group's U.S. tour.

Once the tickets officially went on sale, fans were shocked to discover that prices were much higher than expected, with general admission standard floor tickets around $420 plus fees at some venues.

As they were not marked "Official Platinum," many bought the tickets, assuming that this was the set standard price, only to look back a few hours later and find the ticket prices lowered by almost half.

Now, fans are furious at Ticketmaster, calling the company "deceitful" and asking for a refund of either the full ticket price or the difference.

One fan took to Twitter to share their anger, posting photos of the ticket prices for GA in Newark, New Jersey, three hours apart. With fees included, the cost went from $513 to $325.

They wrote, "Dead wrong for this. Ticketmaster won't let you exchange the ticket and get a refund either. Raggedy and deceitful company."

Seated tickets also saw a price drop, with fans recounting their experiences in the replies.

A similarly dissatisfied fan said, "Yah same for me in Chicago. It’s $75 cheaper now for my seated ticket."

One of the big issues for fans was the fact that these tickets were not part of Ticketmaster's "dynamic pricing," which changes the ticket price based on demand and labels it Official Platinum. Instead, the standard ticket price changed.

"Okay who is going to file a lawsuit bc why are ticket prices less now than what I paid for in similar sections for nct dream newark......and my tickets werent official platinum I double checked before buying its standard admission and even says standard admission," a frustrated fan noted.

Another tweeted, "I will never stop calling out Ticketmaster because why the hell did standard ticket prices DROP for NCT Dream two hours are [sic] sales opened. They’re falsely advertising their products and getting away with it."

Many fans attempted to get refunds for the tickets from Ticketmaster, and while some said they were successful, others shared the responses they got from Ticketmaster as to why the prices kept changing.

One alleged response from the company read, "Unfortunately the Event Organizer has not given us authorization to process your [refund] request. Information about dynamic pricing was available on the event page."

Another customer service representative apparently told a fan, "I'm sorry but we cannot refund the price difference. Ticketmaster sells tickets on behalf of Event Organizers, which means we do not set ticket prices."

The recent incident comes after disgruntled Taylor Swift fans sued Ticketmaster for issues during the sale of her The Eras Tour tickets.

The company was also the subject of a Senate Judiciary hearing in January, with many arguing that Ticketmaster, which merged with LiveNation years ago, has a monopoly on ticket sales that harms fans and artists.

Rolling Stone even recently reported on how the band The Cure made efforts to keep their tour tickets very low, yet fans found themselves paying more than the ticket price in fees to Ticketmaster.