It was the best of times ... it was the worst of times. That's how this week has felt for me. From the elation of the Innocence + Experience Tour announcement to the anxiety over the fine print of the U2.com subscriber presale, I can honestly say it has been one hell of an emotional rollercoaster week.



As I've shared with you all, I've been with U2's fan club for 25 years now. This isn't my first rodeo. Remembering back to the more simple times of the 1992 ZooTV indoor tour, you had to use a mail-in order form with the hope you'd receive the tickets to the show you wanted, which you wouldn't get in the mail until about seven days before the show.

ZooTV Indoor tour Propaganda order form. Max 2 tix per gig, max 2 gigs. You receive tix less than 1 week before show pic.twitter.com/6kLNnAqcLf — atu2.com - Sherry (@atu2comSherry) December 8, 2014

North American fans were granted a total of two tickets per show, and you could select two shows. Total: four tickets. Our European counterparts did not have the same generous ticket offer for the indoor leg of ZooTV. Fans in Europe were allocated a maximum of two tickets for only one show.

@U2 Propaganda fanclub ZooTV indoor Euro leg order form: Max 2 tickets for only 1 show. pic.twitter.com/eMSr3Rshgi — atu2.com - Sherry (@atu2comSherry) December 8, 2014

For the ZooTV Outside Broadcast, North American fans were granted a total of four tickets max which could be split four for one show or two tickets for two shows. Also, order forms were sent geographically, so Propaganda subscribers in California would not receive the order form for the Boston area and vice-versa.



For PopMart, Elevation, Vertigo and U2 360, North American fans were granted that same ticket offer of four tickets, which could be split either two tickets for two shows or four tickets for one. This was what all of us in North America were anticipating on Monday when the announcement happened. Imagine our anxiety and disappointment when U2.com subscribers were informed it would be a maximum of two tickets per account, which at least in North America could be split one and one. Once again, our European counterparts were stuck with two tickets to one show.



The anxiety level was kicked up a notch when an overabundance of rules were introduced with the online ticket sale. Granted, these were put in place to try to make it difficult for scalpers to buy tickets in mass quantities. However, solid hard-core fans were screwed over in the process because of Ticketmaster's fine print: "Please adhere to published ticket limits. Persons who exceed the ticket limit may have any or all of their orders and tickets cancelled without notice by Ticketmaster in its discretion. This includes orders associated with the same name, e-mail address, billing address, credit card number or other information."



This did not bode well for couples who wanted to bring the entire family to the show. If you and your spouse each have a paid subscription to U2.com, then you each received a unique presale code. If you each used your presale code for the same concert, paid using the same credit card (most married couples share the same credit card), and that billing address was the same on both orders, you got screwed. This is what happened to a fan named Paul, who shared his experience on Twitter.

@OnTheRoadWithU2 @atu2comSherry I ordered 2 tix with my code and 2 tix with my wifes code same show same cc order cancelled no tix no code — Paul (@jessie4324) December 5, 2014

In his case, his wife's ticket order was cancelled and he could not receive the presale code back because it was deemed a misuse.



In a different example, @U2 Forum member ultraviolet12 shared that her friend was having issues with Ticketmaster's website -- it was crashing during the Experience onsale due to Foo Fighter ticket traffic. She offered to use the Ticketmaster app on her phone to help her friend, but used the same credit card for the purchase. In this case, the order was also cancelled and the presale code was also cancelled.



Meanwhile, hundreds of tickets were making their way to StubHub and other reseller sites. Resellers had figured out that they could use a pre-paid credit card that isn't linked to any specific billing address to purchase the tickets. They then would mail off the pre-paid card to the buyer to use for the ticketless admittance. Resellers also figured out that their presale code could be reused for Montreal dates because ticket seller Evenko's servers were not connected to Ticketmaster's, thus making it impossible to verify if the code had been used or not. The resellers also know that the venue hardly ever checks IDs with ticketless tickets. I know in the times I've had those types of tickets, only my credit card was scanned. I never had to show an ID to verify I was the person whose name was linked to the ticket. Resellers actually prefer the ticketless system because there's no real way to trace it back to them, and as long as the credit card is all you need, then it's almost a slam dunk for them.



The credit card swipe is OK, however, it has its own set of complications. As I found out yesterday, if your credit card gets jacked and the fraud department of your card issuer cancels your card, you are not going to be able to use your card for ticketless entry. After spending about 20 minutes on the phone with Ticketmaster about this, I will need to submit a letter outlining the problem and a letter from the card issuer also identifying that the card was replaced due to fraud or a recent credit card statement showing the different card information with your same name and billing address to validate that it truly is you. Only then will a Ticketmaster representative call you to replace the credit card used for the transaction so it will be valid when you swipe it at the concert. I also shared this in the Zootopia boards on U2.com since they are compiling all of the issues fans have had with the presale.



The other matter complicating the process is that Ticketmaster has started verifying fan club ticket reselling on its website. I received an email on Sunday morning (before the general onsale happens) from Ticketmaster instructing me, "Don't Miss U2!" where it was clearly stated "We have more tickets than ever before -- including seats sold by fans and verified by Ticketmaster."

Hey Ticketmaster: Appreciate the email. Dont nix the tix we've already bought as you audit sales. Dont want 2 miss U2 pic.twitter.com/GmDYRjUATG — atu2.com - Sherry (@atu2comSherry) December 7, 2014

With the immense amount of rules surrounding the presale, how is it possible that this could be occurring?



While these examples are worst-case scenarios, the presale was one of the smoothest ever for U2 fans. One difference this year compared to Vertigo and U2 360 was the level of support provided by the Zootopia moderators through social media, especially Twitter. Fans were instructed to post their issue in Zootopia so the moderators could work with Ticketmaster to fix as much as they could. When fans were having issues with the Ticketmaster website, the moderators got the word out to use the phone app, which worked like a charm. The moderators worked tirelessly to keep up with the volume of questions coming their way. Their direct intervention allowed key issues to be resolved, while at the same time they kept down anxiety among the most loyal of U2's fan base. Even though they provided Ticketmaster with documentation of the fans' presale issues, Ticketmaster had the audacity to blame the fan club for the issues, which the Zootopia mods alerted us all about on Twitter. I know I'm not the first one to say this: The Zootopia mods should be commended for the level of support provided to the subscribers, and I really hope the band does something nice for them.

I know I am idealistic when it comes to U2's fan club. I always have been. There are certain truths that I hold dear about being a member of U2.com: We are insanely loyal, we look out for each other, and the majority of us prefer to listen to U2 live over studio recording. I have had the privilege of this bond for a quarter-century now. I hope I get to meet many of you this tour, and hopefully we all have a bit of luck in Monday's public ticket sales.



All I know is U2 tried to exercise as much fairness and control the band could with this presale, which they couldn't do in 2005. My heart goes out to those who had their orders cancelled due to a lack of flexibility in the terms of the onsale. However, the volume of tickets that hit the resale market before the general sale is far lower than that of 2005. It's not a perfect system, but it's better than what we had.

Until next time....

(c) @U2, 2014.