[AZ] Do I have a case for false advertisement from Ticketmaster?
Location: Arizona, USA.
I bought concert tickets back in March for the “who want the smoke” tour. Bhad Bhabie was advertised as one of the artists. Fast forward to May 16th, I go to the concert and I see her name is taken off of the lineup. I immediately go up to an event worker and ask if she will be performing and am told “she had a family emergency and will no longer be attending”. At this point I decide to leave (we were only there for about 10 mins, the concert hadn’t even started yet) because I don’t know anyone else performing, and I only came to see her. I stop by guest services on the way out to ask about a refund and am told to take it up with Ticketmaster.
I immediately email Ticketmaster so it is timestamped and tell them the situation. I am then told that the event coordinator is not allowing refunds unless the event is cancelled, which it wasn’t. I later find out through Bhad Bhabie’s Instagram story that she had no idea about this concert, and her team was never informed about it.
After emailing and calling Ticketmaster about this, all they keep saying is that they can’t do anything because the event coordinator is not allowing refunds. I asked Ticketmaster to point me in the direction of the event coordinator, but they are refusing to tell me who it is or how I can contact them. They did mention the lineup is subject to change, but this is different than someone getting sick last minute and can’t attend. There was never a chance they were going to attend from the beginning, and the event coordinator knew this. This just feels very fishy to me, and I feel like I was scammed.
Is it considered false advertisement to advertise a certain artist will be at a concert yet they had no idea about said concert, and were never going to show in the first place? Also, would I even win in a case like this in small claims court? I only paid $80 for the tickets but I’m not worried about that, it’s the principle behind it.
Edit (forgot to add): if I do have a case, would I have to sue Ticketmaster or the event coordinator for this? They both keep pointing the finger at each other so it’s making this very difficult