seanlo posted:

Hi Tyrone,

Thank you for sharing the experiences you had to this incident, and I'm sorry to know that it's such an unpleasant one... (umm, actually I don't think "suing people" is a common interest in Taiwan@@).

I agree that Straight House Music sucks on planning this concert. NIN deserves much better organizer. Futher more, I just read that Straight House Music is already evacuated from the address that they provided for the refund... Great. I can just hold the ticket for the memory of the last gig that NIN would have (??!) @@...

Seanlo,
Are you saying that it is impossible for you to get a refund for your ticket now?
I think that is important for people hoping for a refund to know.. I have heard the same.. This concerns me a great deal because there are a lot of people who have not yet received their refunds yet I"m sure...

)v:
Sorry to hear that.

This blog was just sent to be via fiona911: and supposedly this is the person responsible for the concert...

Here is what it says (mainly)

It says, "I'll tell you guys straight.. After these two big concerts (I assume Oasis and NIN?) I have a huge debt that will take me a great deal of time to pay...
Most likely, no one has given much thought as to what kind of life I will have to lead now. Things are becoming a reality now... Your appreciation and memories can help to support the bitter life that I will now have to lead. My work ethic pulled a lot of my fellow workers down.. it was nearly impossible to hold this concert. You guys probably don't know how hard it is to pull off an 80 minute concert. The whole time I thought, "I'm a real idiot for loving music so much. There is a 99.9% chance now that this is the last concert Straight House Music will ever serve you guys. And for all those assholes who left bad messages, no matter how bad I am, I will still stare at you with the most evil eyes....


All I can say is this. You, whomever wrote this; did not do this for your love of music. I don't doubt that you love music, but you did this not for love but for $$$. You want us to feel sorry for you? I'm sure people are more than capable of doing so,but where was your sympathy for us? For the fans who flew from thousands of miles away and for the fans who (my friend and I) were given the middle finger and told to "fuck off" when we asked for a simple explanation for why the concert was canceled? You did this for the money, WE did it for the music. We had nothing to gain, but we took a loss. You took a loss but you had something to gain. THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE. If you had shown some heart, instead of not having the decency to inform people with more than 4 days (***email notices were not sent to people who did not check nin.com until Monday..so two days for some***) of notice so that they could cancel their flights and hotel bookings, then I'm sure sympathy would have been easy to come by.


***of note...those who did not purchase their tickets online and did not check the website did not know of the cancellation until arriving at the venue***



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2009 04:49AM by Tyrone_Slothrop.

yikes I'm scared. I hope my boyfriend and I didn't just buy two expensive "souvenirs" of the concert we'll never see. I kind of had a fear of the mail in method once I read of Tyrone's epic adventure and was hoping to find out if they have some sort of "registered mail" here in Taiwan. I wonder if there is anything we can do if straighthouse disappear.

Well, it looks like this thread is no longer on the main page so it is probably going to fade into oblivion... Am I the only one who feels disappointed that NIN PR didn't post on here in response to what we all wrote? I hope they prove me wrong...

I still think it's a good idea to contact different news media, TV, print, radio, etc.

Reply To Tyrone_Slothrop's artcles and following buzz and fury-- a short statement from-- RIGHT, I'M THE GIRL WHO POST THE FINGER ON THE PHOTO


I'M THE ONE ON THE PHOTO

Yes, i posted the finger onto you, but it's not supposed to mean anything that you assumed, it's just simple: the truth is, you wanted to take a photo of me and other co-workers, and that pissed me off, that's all.
And here's a Statement from my heart: it's just one deed by me and me alone; there's nothing to do with STRAIGHT MUSIC HOUSE and its organizers.
And by the way, as to some people complained about the refunding address announced has been evacuated, i bet there's some misunderstanding and some errors, nevertheless the organizers would try to make it up soon later.

Anyone who knows about how to make a concert happening, would know how hard it is. So stop the rumouring and stop cursing.

Comparing to what happened to those victims and survivors from the disastrous typhoon, this is really the least, trivial thing that we should concern about.

Wow... It takes a special kind of person to use the typhoon, and the deaths of hundreds as an excuse to call the thousands of dollars lost by people who spent $ to see the concert as 'trivial'... If there were no typhoon, would the disaster that straight house music caused have played out any different? What would your excuse have been then?

But based on what you posted, your complaints come across as pretty trivial as well:

: And here's a Statement from my heart: it's just one deed by me and me alone; there's nothing to do with STRAIGHT MUSIC HOUSE and its organizers.

Anyone who knows about how to make a concert happening, would know how hard it is. So stop the rumoring and stop cursing.

And as for your deed... You were at the table, working with other members of Straight House Music and therefor a representative of Straight House Music... Your deed therefor represents them too...

Anyways, minachala, why are you wasting time on this thread if you care so much? Go help those poor people in the south!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2009 11:00PM by Tyrone_Slothrop.

andyweak posted:

I read the newspaper 10 days before the NIN concert was supposed to happen and it mentioned they were coming to town. I was shocked to hear they were coming...and in only 10 DAYS. I thought this was maybe a last minute deal.

A couple days later I went to an ERA ticket outlet to pick up two tickets. I was worried because it was only a week before the concert and here I am running to the place thinking that they may be close to selling out. I asked the lady to buy NIN tickets and she had no idea what I was talking about. She thought I wanted Linkin Park tickets. ... I was shocked that there were still 3000 tickets left and the show was only a week away.

^ that speaks volumes for the lack of publicity. It seems Linkin Park had good pr though, and I often saw posters etc when I went into Taipei music stores, but nothing for NIN !

minachala posted:

Anyone who knows about how to make a concert happening, would know how hard it is. So stop the rumouring and stop cursing.

Comparing to what happened to those victims and survivors from the disastrous typhoon, this is really the least, trivial thing that we should concern about.

^ Fuck You and Straight House Music
And I agree with Tyrone...bringing the Typhoon into the discussion (WTF!).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2009 05:10AM by yvonne_1980.

Has anyone received their refund yet? I'm still waiting.

I wanted to chime in again.

I picked up my refund on the night, it seemed the local taxi drivers had no idea where the venue was, it took them ages to find it. Of course, it didn't help that there were no signs or even lights on at the venue, just a pitch black car park with a bunch of dodgy people sitting under an umbrella with a wodge of cash.

I held my tongue when I got there and simply picked up my refund. Inside I was distraught. When I saw that warehouse and the doors lit up but no-one there it was so disappointing. Actually disappointing doesn't begin to describe the feeling.

In this case everyone is blaming the organiser and rightly so it seems - I have no love for them either - they did a terrible job. However, who was it that arranged this concert on NIN's part? Who OK'ed the venue and organiser without checking out the terms properly? Who agreed to a concert at this place and then posted it on the official NIN tour page making it legit from the very beginning?

I could've gone to Singapore. We all could've gone to Singapore and seen the show. As it happens we saw that they would play Taiwan - some of us chose that because they handn't been there before, some because it's local, others because it was listed as the final show on the tour for a while and would be a chance to see that as well as a chance to see a new country.

Then they cancel it - within a week before the concert was due to happen. No chance to buy tickets for Singapore anymore, no way to rearrange your flights or hotel bookings - you may as well go because you've paid for it but when you turn up to the desolate car park there's only the ghost of a show - the frustrating suggestion of excitement you might've had, yet there you are, handing over the most important thing you've had for the whole year for a few notes of dirty cash.

Then the next time you play a NIN tune it hits you - you just lost your last chance at seeing something historic but more than that - something that would have meant a great deal to you. You play the NIN albums and it just makes you depressed - you could've gone to Singapore, you were very close to buying the tickets in fact but then you saw that Taiwan was the finale. Until the recent announcements Taiwan was actually the end of the tour, it was also somewhere NIN hadn't been before and where a lot of people haven't ventured so they buy the ticket.

Cancelled. You can't buy a Singapore ticket anymore, it's too late. You've waited months for the Taiwan show and you're about to fly there - you're pumped to see a new place but mostly to see this historic show. Then you get the message - it's been cancelled. Your heart sinks but you go anyway because your flights and your hotel costs are non-refundable. You take a taxi to the venue even though the taxi driver has no idea where it is. There are no signs, no indication that anything was ever to occur there, not even lights in the car park. You walk up to the table and hand over your ticket - you should be handing it over at the door of the warehouse you can see across the car park - the lights are on and you should be standing in the doorway but instead you're handing over that which you've waited months for.

The organisers offer no apology, NIN offers no apology, just the ghost of a concert that could've been.

Who was responsible? Both parties. Who suffers? The fans - I don't know about you but when I listen to NIN songs now it just hurts - it's a reminder of what could've been. The show should never have been organised unless it was through a trustworthy organiser. It has to be a sure thing before you put it up on your official website. Many of us have suffered because we made the choice to travel to one part of asia rather than another - I had originally planned to go to Singapore but chose Taiwan because I hadn't been there before and it was the last show (at the time) of the tour.

This cancellation hurt us a lot more than you may realise.

Akeal,

I cannot add to anything you wrote. I think what you wrote captured everything we all felt perfectly. I was trying to stay positive because I really,really thought someone from NIN or NIN PR would have posted at least a little note expressing their disappointment or some kind of explanation to us fans but it has been nearly two weeks now and nothing. I hope everyone is able to get their money back but even more importantly, I hope someone makes the effort to just give us a simple explanation because eventually we will all forget about the money but not this tarnished memory.

They have a list of people on their web site that turned in tickets and how many are on there. I have not been to the bank today to check, but I'm at least on the web site. I have that saved as well as video of my putting the tickets in the envelope, sealing it, and handing it to the person at the counter. I also photocopied my bank statement and tickets, just in case.

I was lucky enough to send it in at the end, after they changed the address.

I will NEVER attend another straight house music concert. It's not the fact that they messed up that makes me say that. I perform comedy and know shows are hard to schedule and something might happen. I'm more upset about the way it was handled. It's a mess.

I'm disappointed in NIN in not coming on and saying anything about it. (Though I am more disappointed in Straight House Music). I think even a message saying something like, "We wanted to come to Taiwan and got stuck with a promoter that could not live up to their agreement. Everything seemed fine with us until the last second and we apologize that it did not work out" would give them a lot of respect in my eyes.

Until last month, I was a student, so I worked part time. I don't have a lot of money. I spent $4500 (approx) on tickets for my girlfriend and I. We both took off work that day and I could not get back those hours because the classes were actually cancelled for the day so I could take off. (I have a great boss). It was too hard to reschedule them 1 day before the day. So I was not only out $4500, but out another $2000+ for missed classes. Sweeping it under the rug is not really going to do anyone any good. Straight House Music trying to blame the fans for this is even more disgusting.

Next time I see them advertising a show, I'll throw the word of caution around to anyone that will listen and tell them what happened with this show. At least I have new material for my comedy show next month in Taipei.

Still a die-hard NIN fan. Just an unhappy one at the moment.

Matt

Another good place to post it is [www.forumosa.com]

Will get more coverage of the overall Taiwanese expat audience that way. I have not been to the bank yet. Going to go shower and run to the 7-11 to check my account. I'll post something tonight, but will at least give them the benefit of the doubt that they have until the banks close to transfer the money.

Tyrone,
Is this from the same blog you posted:
[www.pijo.com.tw]

Am I understanding correctly that I don't have my refund and he recently took a vacation with my money? My Chinese isn't that good so not sure...