The petition reads in part: "We, the disappointed members of Backstage with Jon Bon Jovi, sign this petition after much patience with and tolerance of the new fan club. We believe that the new fan club is not acting in the best interests of its members, in particular: 1. Promises made in exchange for the annual 06-07 membership fee, such as contests and online chats with you, have not been delivered 2. The fees charged for tickets, ticket packages and fan club events are heavily inflated 3. The online ticketing system is unreliable, taking an average time of 2-3 hours to purchase a ticket (comparable to 5 minutes for some other artists) with many issues and grief to fans 4. Local fan club members are unable to get tickets to local shows." 

Many fans are apparently afraid to speakout against the problems with the club over a fear of being bannished. We did manage to speak with one member who spoke with us on the condition of anonymity and this member laid out some of the major issues that spawned this online protest against the Bon Jovi fan club which says, "we seek an ethical and modern fan club that offers value for money that can be enjoyed by global fans from all demographics."

Despite the heavy censorship on fan club message board where we are told it is difficult for fans to find out what is really going on because "the admins of the board keep deleting the fan complaints," the biggest complaint that fans have against the club is the fan club tour packages and their inflated prices, thus taxing fan loyalty. 

The fan told us that "some have packages going for $300+ which means a seat in the first 15 rows and you get 3 songs on stage with the band. The other packages are $170 a ticket, which is $45 above face value. A little high. For example, Pearl Jam charges less than $5 per ticket bought and they have upwards of 1,000+ fan club members at every show. To add insult to injury, the ticket systems basically crashed and many of the local Canadian fans did NOT get tickets. To put it mildly, if someone were to go to a concert, and take their significant other, it would cost each of them $50 to join the fan club and then another $45 on top of face value for a decent seat. It should be noted that the tickets, unlike the old Aerosmith model, are NOT overnighted to the fans but are picked up at will call. So why the exorbitant fee's?"

The fan continues, "The fans were complaining, but alas many of the posts were deleted. Apparently, one of the rules of the fan club is that NO ONE can criticize the fan club or any other member or they will be banned. The fans are upset that the fan club has gone from a organization about the fans to one that exists to only line the pockets of Jon Bon Jovi's brother who runs it."* 

Because of the censorship within the fan club not many of the members are aware of this online petition and have to find out about it on public message boards devoted to the band. The fan we spoke to asked us if we could help get the word out about the petition and we agreed because no fan deserves a slap in the face for their loyalty and they should be allowed to express their discontent if the put their hard earned money out to become part of a fan club. 

You can read the online petition and sign it at this address http://www.petitiononline.com/bswjbj07/

*We were unable to confirm Jon's brother's involvement but did find quite a few references to the fact that Jon's mother founded the fan club and ran it. We do not know if she still does or if Jon's brother took over. If you have information about this, please let us know. 

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