To the Rolling Stones, Clear Channel and Michael Cohl The Rolling Stones 2002/2003 tour is affiliated with two different fee-based ticket-access programs, both of which were marketed to the public as a way to gain advantageous access to concert ticket sales for this high-demand tour. The Sam Goody Get Access program promised that 60.00 would get one access to a single Ticketmaster based \"pre-sale\" of the customer\'s choice. The official Rolling Stones fan club sold 95.00 \"premium memberships\" which included the right to purchase a limited number of tickets to exactly one show, from a reserved pool touted as GREAT (emphasis in the original) seats. We believe that the promises made by both the Sam Goody Get Access membership program and the official fan club at www.rollingstones.com border on fraudulent. Access was promised =================== In the case of the Sam Goody Get Access sale, the scheduled service kickoff found the servers so overwhelmed by demand that many users were unable to access any TicketMaster presale for five to seven hours despite persistent efforts. In another Sam Goody Get Access presale, involving the September 20 show, the service malfunctioned, effectively shutting out some (but not all) users, in fact creating a worse situation than the notorious complete and total failure of the service kickoff. In the former case, no one had access. In the latter, a consumer\'s 60.00 purchased what amounted to a lottery chance at TicketMaster presale access. While the Sam Goody Get Access program did not guarantee tickets, or the suitability of any tickets a consumer eventually purchased through the program, it did guarantee access to TicketMaster presales. Bait-and-switch =============== The inclusion of the very small theater concerts on the official list of shows available through the Sam Goody Get Access program was a strong consumer inducement to sign up for the program. Yet in a Los Angeles Times article published on May 10, 2002, Chris Hearne of Clear Channel is quoted as saying the number of theater tickets offered through Sam Goody Get Access was \"minuscule\" - such a small number, in fact, that \"we shouldn\'t even have bothered.\" Well, they bothered to take the money. Hidden facts ============ The Sam Goody Get Access membership was announced before the RollingStones.com membership. People bought the Sam Goody Get Access membership and did not realize there would also be a RollingStones.com membership that would include a Get Access membership and permit people to buy tickets through the Rolling Stones fan club pre-sale. Many people would not have bought the Sam Goody Get Access membership if they had been aware that the RollingStones.com fan club membership was also going to be selling tickets on the same day as the Sam Goody Get Access membership sale. The www.rollingstones.com fan club membership was a fiasco too. It went on line the night before the Sam Goody sale and after people had purchased the Sam Goody membership. It said to check back at 9amEST (an hour before the Sam Goody sale) to buy a membership and be able to purchase tickets. The Rollingstones.com site was not fully operational until much later in the afternoon. It\'s failure to materialize after one, two, three hours was an inducement for many consumers to get \"get Access\" while the getting was supposedly good. Representation of Inventory =========================== The Fan Club\'s website made and continues to make misleading claims about the quality of the ticket inventory a premium membership will provide you access to. The website continues to publish this claim about the highest-priced (350.00) tickets for the concerts: The 350.00 seats are pulled from the section that is considered to be the best in the house. Elsewhere on the website, the ticket inventory was touted as GREAT (in caps), and from the fan club\'s reserved block. Many people who participated early in the Fan Club\'s website promotion and paid the 95.00 in hopes of access to GREAT 350.00 Madison Square Garden tickets in the first 2 days of operation got a rude awakening a month later (June 11) when they discovered that they had been issued tickets which were in fact just about the worst you could buy at the price. In many cases, they were tickets which were inferior to what a customer had been offered (and rejected) in the public sale. Theater public sales ==================== There was no advance notice given by TicketMaster.com that there would be geographic restrictions on online purchases of tickets for the Tower Theater and Wiltern Theater shows. By the time a successful person online was notified of the geographical restriction, it was too late to attempt to buy tickets via the Ticketmaster phone center. Many non-scalping fans who were hoping for access this way - the _only_ way that does not involve a 95.00 or 60.00 premium - There is also another problem with theatre sales. To pick up our tickets at Will Call, we have to have a letter that is being sent out a week before each theatre date. Many people (your real fans in which these shows are supposedly directed towards) will be on the road traveling to Stones concerts and will not be home to receive this letter. Not to mention one week leaves no room for error. Neither Ticketmaster or Rollingstones.com have been cooperative in permitting traveling fans to obtain the letter earlier than one week prior to the concert. We are very disenchanted and this is who we are!