Brown Paper Tickets Emails Insults to Customers Waiting on Missing Funds

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been following the issue with Brown Paper Tickets not being able to pay funds owed to their customers for their events. I’ve read stories of theatre companies, schools, non-profits and individual performers who were counting on thousands of dollars in ticket revenue that would help them through the COVID-19 crisis.

One theatre company I spoke to is owed over $14,000 for an event that occurred in February. Of all the customers I’ve spoken with, the total tally owed to them is $207,831,

But these folks haven’t received their payments yet and instead of getting answers, they’re being insulted by the very company that can’t seem to come up with their money.

In an email sent over the weekend, Brown Paper Tickets tried to update customers on changes they’re making to deal with these issues. They mentioned how they would reduce their 24/7 customer service line to 16/7. They also increased the timeline of when people could expect payments from 14-21 days to 14 days to six weeks. I had been previously told that the timeline would be changed.

But towards the end of the email, they decided to throw a jab at angry customers waiting on funds. The company said,

“Our front-line support specialists have been actively working with many of you to help with event changes, communication with buyers, and payment inquiries. Most of our customers and clients have been very understanding of the larger factors at play. Some have not. We ask that you please be patient and respectful of our front-line support staff while our back-office team continues to work through our backlog of COVID-related event postponements, cancellations, and other requests, while simultaneously trying to adapt to life under the current pandemic, both professionally and personally.”

I didn’t go to business school. I’ve never run a major company. But it doesn’t take either of those things to know that insulting customers isn’t a smart communications move, especially when those customers have EVERY right to be angry.

To the leadership at Brown Paper Tickets, I don’t know if you realize this - you took money promised to these customers and it’s somehow vanished. How does that happen? An explanation would have been most welcome in this email, but instead, Brown Paper Tickets decided that cheap jabs were the better route.

And for those thinking that the COVID-19 crisis impacts a lot of businesses and that BPT isn’t excluded from that, that’s not how the model of these ticket management companies work.

Speaking with sources at other ticket management companies, ticket revenue collected from these events typically go into accounts protected for these customers. These companies charged service fees which are separated into a different account. For instance, BPT charges $0.99 + 5% of the ticket price for their services. Those are the only revenue that BPT and other companies should be getting. They shouldn’t be dipping into other ticket revenue to pay their employees or other costs. Many have suggested that this is exactly what was happening at BPT.

Under this scenario, BPT could continue to dip into ticket revenue to pay their own costs as long as more ticket revenue was coming in. So if Event A was owed $10,000, BPT could delay payments or send in installations and pay them with revenue coming from Event B. And then Event B would be paid from Event C.

With the mass shutdown and dramatically less revenue coming in, the plan falls apart.

But now the problem is starting to spread to other companies. The Chicago Tribune reported that OvationTix is having similar issues. One theatre is still waiting on more than $3,000 in emergency donations that OvationTix collected for them. Worse yet, OvationTix is making them fill out a settlement process form. That shouldn’t be happening at all. Those funds some come in and directly be paid out to these theatres.

As time goes on, these problems are getting worse and the reasons why are becoming clearer. Thankfully, I’ve heard that many customers are contacting state attorney’s offices and the Better Business Bureau.