HYBE taking it too far: BTS and SEVENTEEN fans angered by inflated prices and ticket sales methods
Fans of BTS and SEVENTEEN have expressed their grievances regarding HYBE’s plans for concert ticket sales.
Recently, fans of SEVENTEEN (Carats), were angered by the recently-introduced ticket sales method for SEVENTEEN’s “Follow to Seoul” concert, which is scheduled to be held in July.
To start with, they pointed out that the ticket prices have increased dramatically compared to last year’s concert, “BE THE SUN in Seoul”. In particular, tickets for VIP seats rose from 168,000 won in 2022 to 198,000 won in 2023, whilst the price of general seats rose from 132,000 won in 2022 to 154,000 won in 2023.
In addition, such an inflated price is excluding the official fanclub membership (22,000 won), which is required for fans to access the fan club ticket pre-sales, processing fees, as well as other additional fees. Furthermore, one membership can only apply for 1 ticket, either VIP or general, for only one out of two day of SEVENTEEN’s concert.
To make it worse, even with such a hefty sum, fans were not allowed to select their seats at all. Instead, during the pre-sale, a lottery system will be introduced, and seats will be assigned randomly to a selected number of people. This means that fans will pay the same price, even if they were to be seated extremely far from the stage or in areas with limited view.
On top of this, fans had to pay for their ticket beforehand, without knowing where they will be seated. They can cancel their tickets without any fee within 6 days, but they will only learn which seat they get on the 7th day, and by then, will need to face a cancellation fee.
Whilst there is normal general public sales after the pre-sales, extremely few tickets will be released during this, so fans typically won’t skip the pre-sales.
Regarding this newly-introduced ticket sales method, some fans even pointed out that it goes against South Korea’s fair trade commission regulation, and thus is simply unacceptable. They are even suggesting other fans to file official complaints under “unfair transaction”.
They have since been airing out their frustration and anger on SNS platforms, demanding for HYBE and Pledis Entertainment to reconsider their moves.
On the other hand, back in early May, BTS fans also took to SNS to demean HYBE’s plans for a “dynamic pricing system”. They started to trend hashtags such as #Oppose_the_inflated_HYBE_ticket_prices in Korean and #NoDynamicPricing in English.
Dynamic pricing is known to be an extremely controversial ticketing method, which may lead to fans having to pay exponential prices for a chance to see their idol.
With the recent issues faced by fans of BTS and SEVENTEEN, HYBE (as well as its subsidiaries such as Big Hit Music and Pledis Entertainment) may be taking things too far, ruining the experience of fans for their greed.
Source: Twitter
