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April 3, 2002Net cost for ticket confusion: $700- TC man paid $270 for concert tickets that sell for $87.50 in possible case of 'cybersquatting'By ALISON VANENGENRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - David Demerchant got his four tickets to a Paul McCartney concert, but the extra "s" cost him an additional $700. The Traverse City resident bought his tickets online for the May 1 concert at the Palace in Auburn Hills. He typed in "www.ticketmasters.com," punched in his credit card number and later received four Ticketmaster tickets with a listed price of $87.50 each. He was billed $270 each. "I always heard people call it Ticketmasters, with an 's' on the end," Demerchant said. "So when I got to the site at that address, I thought I was at Ticketmaster." He was not. Ticketmasters.com redirected Demerchant to a competitors Web site, a "broker" called TicketsNow.com that sells tickets at "market" value. The result: four tickets for $1,080. Only when the tickets arrived did Demerchant realize his mistake. He called TicketsNow.com to complain, but Demerchant said he was told that the tickets were non-refundable. Mike Freund, director for business development at TicketsNow.com, said the problem stems from an affiliated Web site that redirects Web surfers to TicketsNow.com. The affiliated site, CheapTix.com, is the company behind ticketmasters.com. Freund said he does not condone the behavior of the affiliated site and that he would talk with the company about their business practices. He said that the company has thousands of affiliate sites like CheapTix.com and he has not heard of other such cases. He also pointed out that on the last page before a customer confirms a purchase, there is a disclaimer at the bottom of the page: "I am aware that I may be paying well ABOVE the price printed on the ticket because I am buying from a ticket broker, and everything is bought and sold at market prices, not the price printed on the tickets." A customer service representative at Ticketmaster's Grand Rapids call center said the company receives complaints like Demerchant's frequently. He said ticket brokers "are essentially scalpers" and are hurting the company's reputation and costing consumers a lot of money. "There are so many scalper sites out there, and they are misrepresenting our company," he said. "These things get reported to us or we'd never know. We refer this sort of thing to our legal department and they will investigate and may decide to take legal action." Although there is a law prohibiting "cybersquatting," or the registration of a Web site name that is identical or confusingly similar to a company's registered trademark or service mark, the onus is on trademark owners to register as many versions of their trademark or service mark for Web addresses or domain names. "What was going to be a nice night for my family, a once-in-a-lifetime event, is diminished by this," Demerchant said. "I guess I can kiss my $700 good-bye." Alison VanEngen can be reached at (231) 933-1479, or at avanengen@record-eagle.com
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