No Rock And Roll Fun

LESS STRIPPED, MORE ROLLED: Anger on top of disappointment for Christina Aguilera fans. When the tour was pulled at the end of April, because Christina was all croaky and couldn't sing, most fans got their refunds at the point of sale. Those who'd forked out for 'VIP' tickets, though, were told they'd have their cash re-credited to their credit cards. They waited, and waited, and waited. Then they discovered the company who'd been dealing with the VIP tickets, FansRULE (never trust a bunch of bozos who use pointless capitalisation - did the fArmERs bOys teach you nothing?), had gone belly-up and taken all the cash with them. What makes it worse is the VIP fans had been suckered into paying enormously inflated prices on the basis they'd have a vague possiblity of meeting Christina, so they've been royally rolled.

FansRULE is desperate to try and make it clear that it's not Christina's fault:

"What should be made clear is that the inability to refund payments made for tickets is in no way the fault of Christina Aguilera. We understand that this puts a great many of you in a difficult situation, and are hopeful for a speedy resolution to this problem."

Although the question is: why isn't it the fault of Christina? If the tour hadn't been pulled, there'd have been no need for a refund - perhaps even FansRULE might not have gone down. And how were the company in a position to sell these tickets anyway? Presumably they were doing so with the blessing of the Aguilera people; why shouldn't they be held to account for making a sucky choice?

Not that they're not, you know, quite upset about it all, according to the management statement:

"We are writing to let you know how sorry Christina feels that you have not received your refunds. Our expectation was that the refunds would be made by May 31. We have been actively and aggressively pursuing FansRULE to cause them to refund the money, but, as of this date, our efforts have been unsuccessful."

Here's an idea, though - if the fabulously rich Christina really feels that bad, why doesn't she dip into her pocket and pay her fans back the money they've lost because of her cough throat problems? Then the management could actually, actively pursue the FansRULE people with a little more self-interest, Christina would look like a good egg and her fans would be even more thrilled.