Ticketmaster to Refund 11.25 million in Fees

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Lawsuit, Settlement, Ticketmaster

After 8 years, the lawsuit is finally over… Well, almost.  On November 29, 2011, Ticketmaster announced the terms of the settlement to their customers.  The lawsuit claims that Ticketmaster’s order processing fee and UPS delivery charge are both “excessive and deceptive.”

Basically the terms of the settlement are: if you purchased tickets from Ticketmaster.com between October 21, 1999, and October 19, 2011, you are eligible for a refund of $1.50 per ticket up to 17 tickets.  If you had purchased 17 tickets between that time, you would receive $25.50 in credit on Ticketmaster.com.  That doesn’t seem like that much, but it does add up to $11.25 million.

Another thing about the settlement is that Ticketmaster does not admit any wrong doing, and they do not have to stop charging the fees.  They just have to be upfront and explain them.  Ticketmaster got off pretty easy I think.  They just got a slap on the wrist to the tune of $11.25 million!  That is a lot of money, but they aren’t shelling it out in cash form.  It is a credit on their website that has to be used with them to purchase more tickets from them.  Another kicker is the credit has to be used within 4 years.  I feel like the entire settlement will benefit Ticketmaster.  In the end, it will just drive more business their way.

I am a Ticketmaster customer, and I have purchased 17 tickets during that time period.  I was totally unaware that this lawsuit was going on.  I checked on their website to see if it said anything about it on the home page.  No, not one single thing about it.  Ticketmaster is being very shady about the entire thing.  The shadiness is what got them in this predicament in the first place.  I don’t think they have a good PR person to say “Hey, maybe we should try to be more open and honest about what is going on.”  It doesn’t even have to be a PR person.  Anyone with common sense knows being sneaky always comes back to bite you in the butt one way or the other!

http://www.ticketfeelitigation.com/

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Kim Just Out For MORE Publicity?

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Kim Kardashian

Whether a fan or not it is practically impossible not to know whom Kim Kardashian is.  She is everywhere, on national news, Facebook, Twitter and TV constantly!  What I find interesting about her is whether you like her or not, you know who she is!  This is how she makes her money, and I think she is very successful at it.  She is almost too good at making money off of constantly doing ridiculous things.  It does make me wonder just how far she will stoop to keep her career going.

In saying that, her career consists of 1 publicity stunt after another, in my opinion.  Which brings me to the question: was the wedding and divorce all simply for TV and publicity?  I would have to say yes.  She has received more attention than ever with the wedding and just when it started to die down a bit BAM!  She is getting divorced after only 72 days.  I bet the next publicity stunt will be she is pregnant with her soon to be ex’s child.  Can you only imagine the attention that would bring?!?!

Whether Kim is getting good or bad PR/publicity apparently she knows what she is doing.  If she didn’t then we wouldn’t have all been talking about her today during class.  I bet her PR person is a nervous wreck 24/7 wondering what crazy thing she will do next.  Or maybe they do not have much work to do because Kim is pretty good at getting attention on her own.

Job’s Death

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Apple, Steve Job

Only one day after Apple introduced their iPhone 4S and ISO5 they announced the sad news that Steve Jobs had died.  To many this came as a complete shock.  He had just stepped down as CEO in August.  Stocks fell then and have now too.  According to an article from The Wall Street Journal, Apple’s shares fell 1% after Steve Job’s death.  Here is the link to the article discussing further the implications of his death.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203388804576614662746728314.html

The news of his death created a huge chatter around the world.  So many tributes have poured in about his life and how he touched millions.  Some have called him the Edison of our time.  One thing is true he did truly change the way we connect with the world in so many ways.

But now the question becomes will Apple die with Jobs?  I think only time will tell, but from all accounts Jobs had already placed the timeline and direction of his beloved company.  The other question is will Apple be able to actually achieve their goals without Jobs.  Will they become more or less secretive?  I think part of why people are so interested in Apple is because of how they keep things such a huge secret.  This secretiveness keeps the public on edge and constantly digging to uncover the next huge Apple thing.