Ed Sheeran Fans Outraged Over Concert Refund Trouble

Tony (0:07)

Hey, everybody, welcome to The TMZ Podcast. My name is Tony, filling in for Brancet Today, and I'm joined by Talia. How are you doing, Talia?

Talia (0:15)

You know what? It's the end of the day. It's Thursday.

Tony (0:18)

I always say on Thursdays, it's Friday Eve.

Talia (0:20)

So it's Friday Eve.

Tony (0:21)

We got to get into the, you know, we're at the end of Thursday. We're almost into Friday. So we got to get into basically Friday.

Talia (0:27)

We have to be in better moods.

Tony (0:28)

Exactly.

Talia (0:28)

We got to lighten it up in here.

Tony (0:30)

Yes. So we do have a couple serious stories to get to. We'll get through those. It's the Ed Sheeran updates. It's a massive story. You've probably seen it by now. We'll get into that. And we are ending on a couple lighter stories. So hopefully that'll lighten the mood.

So.

Talia (0:47)

Wrapping it all up.

Tony (0:48)

Yeah. Going into Ed Sheeran. So fans who purchase tickets, they are absolutely outraged at Ticketmaster. So they're criticizing them over the difficult refund process following Macklemore's removal from the tour.

Talia (1:02)

I feel like Ticketmaster is notorious for having problems.

Tony (1:05)

Really?

Talia (1:06)

I feel like everyone all the time is like, oh, the errors tour, we had problems getting tickets from Harry Styles. Tickets were $30,000 in Ticketmaster.

Tony (1:15)

$30,000?

Talia (1:16)

There was a glitch and Ticketmaster couldn't fix it. And then you couldn't get a refund and the Amex presale. It's always a mess. So this does not shock me.

Tony (1:24)

It's funny bringing that up because I remember I seen this. I was on Instagram doom scrolling as a lot of people do. And I seen a Kirko Bain clip from 30 something years ago, where he's talking like he's outraged about tickets being $60 30 years ago.

Talia (1:42)

$60? I would kill someone for a ticket to be $60.

Tony (1:45)

Oh my gosh. Anyway, so Ticketmaster, we've known, like we said, we've seen that.

They have run into problems. And a Ticketmaster spokesperson told TMZ that under the company's policy, Ticketmaster does not issue refunds. And some fans trying to receive refunds have actually contacted the stadium to get their money back.

Talia (2:07)

That feels fair. Something I think we need to normalize, getting your money back.

Because if I don't want to go, or if I don't want this ticket anymore, I don't want to resell it on Ticketmaster or wherever for $5,000. Just give me the money back.

Tony (2:23)

So one of the fans who contacted the stadiums, that fan stated, it took some pushback in multiple calls, but I did eventually get refunded just now. I suggest everyone else do the same for all of the upcoming shows. So like I said earlier, we did a podcast on this earlier in the day about Macklemore and the whole outrage surrounding that. There's a protest going on in a couple of days, and it's gonna be really interesting to see the fan response, the response to this protest, and just all the updates over these next couple of days.

Talia (2:57)

I also think two people who I haven't heard a ton about musically, also maybe two of the worst people for spokespeople of issues in the Middle East.

Tony (3:11)

Yeah, yeah.

Talia (3:11)

You know what, I'm a firm believer of like, if you have an opinion, you have the right no matter what your job is. If you're a musician, if you're an artist, if you're an actor, I hate when people are like, actors and musicians shouldn't get political. You absolutely should.

Tony (3:23)

I mean, we live in America, it's free speech.

Talia (3:25)

It's free speech. But it's also like, Macklemore and Ed Sheeran are now the voices of political conflict in the Middle East. Never thought this would happen.

Tony (3:34)

Yeah, and this story really, like as far as like coverage and everybody talking about, I did not see, because like, I remember ever since this conflict started, I believe three years ago now, people were just mentioned, like people were coming out and speaking out for whoever they were for.

Talia (3:53)

Yeah.

Tony (3:53)

And usually like artists and musicians, usually after they would say something at a concert or wherever they were, usually would die down by now.

Talia (4:01)

But this, this feels different. Ramped up.

Tony (4:03)

This feels different.

Talia (4:04)

And I know he, Macklemore was removed from the tour, and he pledged to donate like a million dollars that he received to the Palestinian Relief Groups. And then Robert Kraft said Ed Sheeran called him before Macklemore like publicly challenged him to match the donation. And Kraft said that he committed two million dollars to donate as well.