Call Kurtis: Singing The Ticket Broker Blues

What's the difference between "postponed" and "cancelled"?

In this case it's about $250.

Maggie Hart, a viewer in Sacramento, spent her hard-earned money to see Barry Manilow.

He postponed the show more than a year ago and she's been fighting to get her refund ever since.

"This is one of my bucket list things," she says. "I want to see Barry Manilow, but I haven't yet."

Maggie paid online ticket broker Easy Seat $245 to see Manilow, live, but Manilow postponed the October 16th, 2009 concert just days before the show.

"It was very disappointing. It was something I really, really wanted to do."

About a week later Maggie called Easy Seat about her refund on the tickets.

"It didn't make any difference how high up I went, how many people I wanted to talk to, it was always the same thing.  The promoters haven't officially cancelled it."

The promoter, Live Nation, had only "postponed" the show.

And the broker's policy states "if an event is postponed, tickets will be honored for the rescheduled date ... if an event is cancelled without a rescheduled date, you will receive a full refund."

A year went by and Maggie called at least once each month trying to persuade Easy Seat to give her a refund.

And each time it was the same response: no refunds for a postponed show.

"I would have thought six months would be a reasonable amount of time."

We got on the case for Maggie.

We wanted to know how long can this show, and tour, be considered postponed, and at what point will they declare it cancelled?

We worked with Live Nation for several weeks.

They sent us the announcement they gave to Ticketmaster.

It says in part "this event has been postponed from its original show date ... a new date will be announced shortly."

But so far the likelihood of a new date is slim; it hasn't happened.

We sent the announcement to Easy Seat and talked with company honcho David Evans.

We told him Live Nation & Ticketmaster have been giving its customers refunds if they mailed-in their tickets; we asked them to do the same.

But Easy Seat refused to refund Maggie's money standing by their policy on postponements.

We called Barry Manilow's management, Stiletto Entertainment, and publicist Howard Bragman.

Each pawned us off on the other and Live Nation, refusing to address the issue of fans like Maggie who are on the hook for hundreds of dollars worth of tickets with no concert scheduled over the last year or in the foreseeable future.

As the promoter, Live Nation is the one to declare the show postponed or cancelled.

So far they haven't cancelled it; they say it's up to Barry Manilow.

Live Nation also hasn't responded by deadline to our numerous requests for an explanation or resolution.

Maggie hopes another show will be scheduled and says she's learned a lesson about buying from ticket brokers.

"This was a first for me, so I'm cautious. I don't do it quite this way anymore."

Caveat emptor: let the buyer beware; it certainly applies when buying tickets from a broker.

Generally speaking, you'll have a slimmer chance at a refund when buying through ticket brokers, so carefully read their policy before paying them any money.

Live Nation/Tickemaster told us they can only give refunds on tickets they sell, not those sold by third party brokers.