Ticketmaster can apparently dish out asinine and pointless service fees on a whim, but can’t stomach refunding their overcharged fans a measly $10. Thanks to a Twitter thread written by Robert Smith of The Cure, it’s clear that the ticketing mogul’s stranglehold on ticket prices wasn’t as tight as we believed, as they have reluctantly agreed to give partial refunds to Verified Fans due to their unrealistically high fees. And based on the refund emails, Ticketmaster is not happy about it.



“You are getting a partial refund” their clearly butthurt email reads, without any punctuation whatsoever. “You will receive a partial refund of $5.00 per ticket” the email states, which according to Smith is conveniently less than the $10.00 per ticket refund the two parties had agreed upon.



The absolute gall of Ticketmaster to close the emails with “This is all thanks to Robert Smith.” Could you be any saltier? It’s no secret that Ticketmaster has been robbing music fans in broad daylight for years. “Service fees,” “facility charges,” order “processing fees,” and taxes, have proven in some cases to be more expensive than the actual price of a ticket. Not to mention bots getting the first crop of tickets and the absurd wait times when tickets do become available. How dare Ticketmaster be upset over a $5 refund?


Kudos to artists such as Pearl Jam, Taylor Swift, and now The Cure, who have fought and will continue to fight the good fight. For now, we’ll take this as a small victory, and though $5 isn’t a ton of money, seeing Ticketmaster begrudgingly return fans’ hard-earned money, that’s priceless.