Experience and Innocence Presale Update

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2017-11-16)

U2.Com Presale

We have heard from a lot of people that are disappointed in the presale this week. We’ve also heard from a number of people who had a smooth transaction and are happy owners of 2 tickets to see U2. If you are in the disappointed category please remember that there are other opportunities to buy tickets, and general sales are next week on November 20th. There also may be an opportunity to try a presale again if second shows are announced in some markets. Don’t give up yet. We wish you luck in finding the tickets that you want.

But to participate in the general sale, you HAVE to go to Ticketmaster and register for the opportunity to buy. And you have to register for each individual city you wish to buy in. You can complete those steps at https://u2tour.tmverifiedfan.com/ and this must be completed by Saturday November 18 at 10pm PT.

A word of warning, callers to U2.Com are being told if they were not verified in the pre-sale that they will not be verified in the general onsale. If this has happened to you, we suggest you contact Ticketmaster directly at verifiedfansupport@ticketmaster.com and ask for additional information. Please note that registration does not guarantee a code, and only limited numbers of codes will be generated for each venue.

Many fans were able to buy two tickets today. You may have some luck finding a fan who has an extra as well. Good luck on your searching. Its easy to get discouraged, but there are other avenues still open.

Still Unhappy?

Operators at U2.Com are informing people that the codes sent out were done randomly, or in some cases that the whole thing was like a lottery. This meant a lot of people did not get codes ahead of the Experience presale who expected codes. Users are being informed when they call that it was not because of some flag in their account, and many users who had one subscription, completed the application for verification correctly, resubscribed and got the green box, are reporting they did not get a code, and did get an email stating they weren’t eligible to get a code.

Refunds on U2.Com memberships are being offered to fans. To obtain a refund you have to call them and request a refund. They will review your account and you will not be eligible for a refund if you have:

bought a ticket for The Joshua Tree tour, or this current tour using a presale code from this subscription
if you have used the 25% discount on merchandise

Please be advised that requesting a refund will end your current subscription early, and will result in loss of your ‘experience’ status if you do decide to resubscribe at a later date as you will be considered to be a lapsed subscriber.

What Happened Anyway? Experience Issues

On Monday night most experience Subscribers recieved an email stating they were eligible for the presale and codes would be sent in the morning. These emails started coming in around 10pm ET. A couple of hours later, around 12am ET, another round of letters arrived for a number of subscribers that stated:

Thank you for registering for the U2.com Verified Subscriber presale. Unfortunately, we mistakenly sent you a confirmation email earlier tonight. Contrary to the email you were sent earlier, we are unable to offer you access to the presale. While presale access is only one benefit included with your U2.com subscription, we recognize that it is important to many Subscribers. If you would like a refund of your subscription, please contact us using the Contact Us form on the Help page, and select ‘Verified Subscriber Refund Request’ from the dropdown menu. We apologize for the confusion. The U2.com Team #U2eiTour

Yes, users receiving the email may have done something wrong in the registration process, or may have been flagged for some reason, but there are hundreds of fans who have no idea why they may have recieved this email. Calls to U2Com resulted in the fan community being told that this presale was never a guarantee of codes, and that there was a random process used, ‘like a lotto’ to determine who got codes. Dozens of fans have reported on various social media sites that this is what they are being told, and that their accounts were set up and had recieved the green ‘setup complete’ and no reason to be otherwise removed from the sale.

During the first day of Experience sales, fans were having some success with obtaining help by contacting the moderation team at Zootopia.U2.Com. Callers to the U2.Com help line were told they could have a refund since they did not get selected for a code. Hearing that the way to obtain a ticket was to go to Zootopia, most fans flocked to that area, and late in the day the Zootopia site was shut down completely, and it was not opened again until the next morning. A note has now been posted to Zootopia.U2.Com from the moderation team that states: “Regretfully due to the number of people affected by the current presale issues, we have been directed to point people towards the help page. (http://www.u2.com/help)
We will be unable to assist you directly as the presale issues fall out of our scope of work.”

At the start of the second day, many of those subscribers who were told they were ineligible for codes still had not received any code.

Happily we can report that those receiving a code, generally reported that there was good ticket availability for the Experience sale when it opened. The one exception appeared to be the sale for Washington DC where no GAs would appear for anyone until about twenty minutes into the sale. We are not sure what delayed those appearing.

A few notes on the sale that may help for the general onsale:

Many locations offered a hard ticket option as well as electronic options, entry by credit card seems to have been dropped this tour.
In Las Vegas only a “Flash Ticket” option (an electronic ticket) was offered.
Also in Vegas, users had to create an account for T-Mobile Arena, and not just AXS, which was stressful when faced with limited time.
In Philly you are directed to the Wells Fargo Center Site and not to Ticketmaster. Again, this is stressful to set up an account when faced with limited time.
Be cautious when following links. “Packages” will get you to VIP packages and Red Zone in many cases, but may mean other options are not available at that link.

What Happened Anyway? Innocence Issues

The Innocence sale started on November 15, at 1pm ET, and like the previous day, codes were sent via text message a few hours before the sale began. Emails had been sent to most users the night before. A number of people report not receiving a code at all, and like the first day, calling to inquire at U2.com they were informed that the codes were sent randomly and not everyone would get a code. Unlike the first day, users did not get an email saying they would not get a code, they just were not sent a code.

Once the presale started a number of people also reported that their codes would not work to access the sale. The codes resulted in a message saying that fans were entering an invalid code, and resulted in people not being able to access the presale. Some users continued to try and made so many attempts to enter the code that they were flagged as bots and their IP address was blocked from accessing the site at all. Getting a code that could not access the sale could be resolved by contacting U2.Com through the help page, or by contact with Ticketmaster directly, but many fans were left entering the sale quite late.

Although many fans entering the Innocence sale did find tickets of all types available, some types such as GA were sold out almost immediately at some venues. If you did not enter the sale right as it started finding tickets of the GA type were difficult, and in some cases, going in immediately at the start did not get you these tickets either.

Experience Codes Again

An hour into the Innocence sale, on the second day when most desired tickets were no longer available, long time subscribers who had been told they were ineligible for a code on the first day of sales started receiving codes by text message. These codes worked to enter Innocence presales on Ticketmaster, but most fans found the selection of seats an hour into this sale to be less than desired. Also, these codes were not working on partner sites such as Evenko (Montreal) and AXS (Las Vegas) and would only work for sales through Ticketmaster proper.

Will I get to Use My Code?

In the past U2 has added additional shows in a city. These are generally announced the same day or a day after the general onsale for that city. During the past two tours (Innocence and Experience, and The Joshua Tree 2017) when shows were added, subscribers were granted a chance to enter a presale and could use their code there. We hope that they will do the same for this tour. During the 360 tour, most, but not all added shows had a presale opportunity. During the Elevation and Vertigo tours many shows were added immediately and there was not a presale opportunity for these shows. Until some of these shows do get added we do not know if there will be a presale or not.

CitiBank Presale

Today is the start of the CitiBank presale. You had to register and be verified in advance, and it is too late to do this at this point.

Fans who have registered received a letter last night telling them they would have an opportunity to enter the sale or that they would be placed on a wait list and if tickets do not sell out among the fans who have been granted an opportunity to enter the sale, they might be able to buy at a later date. Codes have now started to be sent out and these codes are city specific and will only work in the city originally registered for. Some fans have been successfully approved for more than one city and have received multiple codes, so use caution and make sure you know what city they are for.

The limit on tickets is 4 tickets in the Citibank sale. Subscribers to the fan club were limited to just two tickets. This is an additional sore point with subscribers to the fan club. But tickets are usually quite limited in these bank card sales, and ticket types are often limited as well. However, today it appears that GA, Red Zone, and a variety of other ticket options were available in the CitiBank Presales.

General Sale

We’ll repeat what we said above.

To participate in the general sale, you HAVE to go to Ticketmaster and register for the opportunity to buy. And you have to register for each individual city you wish to buy in. You can complete those steps at https://u2tour.tmverifiedfan.com/ and this must be completed by Saturday November 18 at 10pm PT.

A word of warning, callers to U2.Com are being told if they were not verified in the pre-sale that they will not be verified in the general onsale. If this has happened to you, we suggest you contact Ticketmaster directly at verifiedfansupport@ticketmaster.com and ask for additional information. Please not that registration does not guarantee a code, and only limited numbers of codes will be generated for each venue.

Still Unhappy?

Please let people know that you aren’t happy with the sale. Saying so on social media, or on fan run message boards is great but that often will not reach people who need to hear the message. If you are unhappy:

Contact U2.com, call their help line, let them know you aren’t happy. Contact options by phone and by email are available at http://www.u2.com/help
Log in and leave a post on Zootopia outlining your experiences. The mods have done nothing but try to help, and having the experiences written down in a place where they can share will be helpful. We suggest using this link: http://zootopia.u2.com/forums/topic/37326-u2com-2018-subscription-faq-thread/
Some fans reported meeting with Guy Oseary yesterday and communicating issues, and he told people to send him a message. He can be found on twitter at https://twitter.com/guyoseary – if you are having issues, copy him on them as well as the U2 account.
Try to have patience and be calm and state facts of what happened to you.
Let Ticketmaster know as well. Some fans had luck yesterday getting help from the accounts TicketmasterCA (Ticketmaster Canada) and TMfanSupport (USA Based Help Account)

And don’t just do one. Use your voice and let people know what happened to you, and why you are unhappy.

Ticket Prices

For the show in Oklahoma, the floor GAs were $76.00 plus fees. RedZone were $392.00 plus fees. Seats were at a variety of price levels. VIP packages ranged from $292.00 – $652.00. [Prices in Canada were similar, with GA tickets at $97.00 including fees in Montreal]

All seat maps seem comparable to the maps from the IE tour.

Where is My Album?

A copy of the album is being sold as part of every ticket purchase. So if you bought two tickets in the presale you should be hearing at a later date about how to redeem your album. The offer is only for residents of the USA and Canada, and those people buying from another country will not receive the album. We have been told that we will be notified closer to the release date of the album about how to redeem this album, and that tickets bought prior to December 1, will allow you to choose between CD and digital options. The version of the album is likely the base version and not the deluxe one. We will let you know when we hear of these offers going out.

< Next News Entry | Previous News Entry >

u2songs.com was formerly known as u2wanderer.org. Follow us on Twitter | Facebook