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Get Me In; Ticketmaster Rip Off

By (user no longer on site) OP over a year ago

Most ordinary fans simply don’t stand a chance. Within seconds of an event going on sale, the tickets are harvested in their thousands by a small but ruthlessly efficient army of touts, many using multiple credit cards to bypass the limit on the number of tickets that one person can purchase. They make their profit by flipping the tickets they secure on to the secondary ticketing sites

The mark-ups can be eye-watering. An extreme example was when a ticket for Adele at the O2 Arena in London in March was listed on Get Me In for £24,840, some 290 times face value. When Elton John tickets went on sale at the end of last year with a top price of £90, minutes later the same tickets appeared on secondary ticket websites priced at £500.

Meanwhile Ticketmaster sits back and makes profit from original face value sale and further profit from secondary inflated sale.

Everyone happy?

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By *eedsandyMan over a year ago

Leeds

And is it the fault of the touts or the idiots who are prepared to pay £500 for a ticket with a face value of £90?

If people made a stand, and stopped buying tickets for £500, that are only worth £90, then the touts would be out of business.

The fact that they are not, shows that in fact the tickets are worth more than £90 to some people and they are prepared to pay that.

Economic laws of supply and demand, I am afraid.

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

Should have to be named on each ticket and that person brings id to prove they are them to stop the touts,

Personally I wont pay over £35 for a ticket to see anyone as do not believe its worth it

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

"Should have to be named on each ticket and that person brings id to prove they are them to stop the touts,

Personally I wont pay over £35 for a ticket to see anyone as do not believe its worth it "

Wasn't there a band or artist recently that implemented this? Sure I remember reading something about it. Maiden, maybe?

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

"Should have to be named on each ticket and that person brings id to prove they are them to stop the touts,

Personally I wont pay over £35 for a ticket to see anyone as do not believe its worth it

Wasn't there a band or artist recently that implemented this? Sure I remember reading something about it. Maiden, maybe? "

Your memory serves you well.

Here's the article.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/37438005

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

"Should have to be named on each ticket and that person brings id to prove they are them to stop the touts,

Personally I wont pay over £35 for a ticket to see anyone as do not believe its worth it

Wasn't there a band or artist recently that implemented this? Sure I remember reading something about it. Maiden, maybe?

Your memory serves you well.

Here's the article.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/37438005"

Boom.

*Mic drop*

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

After reading it makes one wonder why it's not a universally acceptable way to sell and distribute tickets.

I don't think anyone buying them should be allowed to sell them on. If you buy transportation tickets (train/ferry/plane) and you can't make the trip, you lose out. Concert tickets ought to be the same. They're only valid for the person who's purchased them and not transferable.

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

"Should have to be named on each ticket and that person brings id to prove they are them to stop the touts,

Personally I wont pay over £35 for a ticket to see anyone as do not believe its worth it

Wasn't there a band or artist recently that implemented this? Sure I remember reading something about it. Maiden, maybe? "

Yup.. pretty sure glastonbury does it too now so the tickets cannot be transferred unless you have genuine reason for doing so!

I just pay the £2 on seetickets for insurance to get my cash back if i cant go

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

"After reading it makes one wonder why it's not a universally acceptable way to sell and distribute tickets.

Thats true. Was just thinking that I got some tickets for gigs and comedy events for Xmas, so I wouldn't have been able to go without who got me them... But then, if buying them as a present, you should be able to name the attendees. It's just a bumblefuck of profit and gains etc that I think the government are too scared to tackle. !

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

"After reading it makes one wonder why it's not a universally acceptable way to sell and distribute tickets.

I usually use seetickets and they have an insurance policy, its about £2 and honestly its worth it if life gets in the way!

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

"After reading it makes one wonder why it's not a universally acceptable way to sell and distribute tickets.

I usually use seetickets and they have an insurance policy, its about £2 and honestly its worth it if life gets in the way!

Perfect solution

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

I agree with the "supply & demand" scenario, but it's still rough going, when you can't get the tickets at fair prices, due to software that enables the promoters, to favour ticket agencies & they in turn, encourage the touts, with their underhand cooperation.

It's crap for people who are fans and enthusiasts, who simply can't pay extortionate prices, yet never get chance to buy at normal prices, because of he scenarios above.

There are too many self serving reasons (and backhanders) between promoter/ticket agencies/touts.

Any method that restricts tickets to first named buyer only, would be a good start. Any other named person, in possession of the ticket, it's voided.

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

I went to see Kasabian in Birmingham the other week. You didn't get a ticket, you had to turn up with the credit card you paid with and ID.

As you went in you swipped the credit card to get in.

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By *emini ManMan over a year ago

There and to the left a bit

It's a longstanding problem and one to which there are no easy answers, especially as the Government won't take direct action to prevent it, although I did read an article recently that indicated *some* measures are being proposed to at least reduce the ease with which this is able to happen.

As well as Iron Maiden and Glastonbury, think Kate Bush recently made provisions to prevent the onward sale of tickets to her gigs. And if more artists took that kind of stance it would of course be ideal - the problem is, and I only discovered this recently, is there are some artists (or to be fair to the artists concerned, it's their management) who actually cut deals with the likes of TicketShafter and SeeTickets to take a cut from secondary sales of their tickets, therefore getting double bubble.

Assigning names to tickets and only allowing that person entry is one answer, but not without its flaws - the venues and ticket companies will argue that to put the additional checks in place to police it will require additional staff and push the cost of tickets up, as well as slowing down the time it takes to get people into venues. There's also the thing about what if you can't go due to illness etc, or more to the point if you buy say 4 tickets do you always know who is going to go with you at the time of purchase, especially when you don't know if you're even going to be able to get the tickets in the first place. Perhaps if ticket companies allowed you to sell your unwanted ticket(s) back to them at face value, for them to re-sell at face value (a practice most theatres offer) would be the answer.

Will have a look for the link I had to the article about this as it was very informative.

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

Think it's the block bookings of companies like viagogo that gets people's backs up they tend to get first shout and before you know it the gig is sold out only to find loads for sale on other sites at boosted prices ?

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

I paid 25 quid to see U2 on their Joshua tree tour, last gig I paid 35 quid and that was for their 360 tour, the most I've paid for was 500 Canadian dollars to see them at Slane Castle in 2000, but that did included 2 nights bed and breakfast in Dublin, I failed to get tickets for the innocence tour cause they'd sold out and on secondary sites for multiples of the face value, I'd never pay more than face value for a gig ticket, these Bots that they have snapping up the tickets need to given the boot.

What happened to going to the venue and buying the tickets at the venues box office? That's the best way I recon to stop all the profiteering.

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By (user no longer on site) OP over a year ago

"I agree with the "supply & demand" scenario, but it's still rough going, when you can't get the tickets at fair prices, due to software that enables the promoters, to favour ticket agencies & they in turn, encourage the touts, with their underhand cooperation.

It's crap for people who are fans and enthusiasts, who simply can't pay extortionate prices, yet never get chance to buy at normal prices, because of he scenarios above.

There are too many self serving reasons (and backhanders) between promoter/ticket agencies/touts.

Any method that restricts tickets to first named buyer only, would be a good start. Any other named person, in possession of the ticket, it's voided.

indeed

even with the SECC Hydro presale tickets, within minutes of them on sale you can find them being sold on "Get Me In" at double or triple the price.

Ticket Master allows this as they get a percentage of the sale

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By *emini ManMan over a year ago

There and to the left a bit

The other thing that happens is people buy four tickets, when they only need two, then sell the other two at double face value and effectively go for free.

Simplest answer to the whole problem is for the government to bring in legislation outlawing the resale of tickets at anything more than face value plus the original booking fees.

Found the link I referred to earlier too...very interesting reading:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39239133

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By *eedsandyMan over a year ago

Leeds

But if the Government starts to interfere, with resale price restrictions, it stops being a free market economy. Next thing they will start interfering in everything and suddenly you have a communist state.

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

I went to see David Gilmour last year at the Albert hall. When I got there that wouldn't let me in at first because I didn't bring the receipt to prove I'm the purchaser, I was pissed because i was late as it was but was happy because it was better than having hours trying to sell over priced tickets.

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

"After reading it makes one wonder why it's not a universally acceptable way to sell and distribute tickets.

Because most if not all of the main resale sites have very clear links to the big ticket agencies.

The whole promotions industry is corrupt with ridiculous charges and reselling

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By *emini ManMan over a year ago

There and to the left a bit

"But if the Government starts to interfere, with resale price restrictions, it stops being a free market economy. Next thing they will start interfering in everything and suddenly you have a communist state."

I know the free market economy argument and to an extent sympathise, but hardly think capping the price a ticket can be re-sold for is going to lead us down the road to communism. There are other commodities that are price capped, and in fact I'm pretty sure there are restrictions around the re-sale of football tickets, so don't see why the same can't be implemented when it comes to gigs.

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By *ophieslutTV/TS over a year ago

Central

The slippery slope argument doesn't stack up - in many areas of life and business reasonable controls have been implemented by the state for many years. Hence pollution controls, financial products and utility services restrictions amongst the many that the free market must abide by.

There are some consumer protections and o think that event ticket sales has shown itself to have a proven track record of abuse against consumer interests. I'd like to see workable measures put in place, including appropriate levels of financial penalties for tickets. A small number of companies could help to prevent this awful problem through better use of technological solutions. As others point out, many currently gain many times over whilst this scam continues and thus market pressures alone are insufficient to resolve it.

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By (user no longer on site) over a year ago

The problem is the consumer will pay it if they are wanting the ticket so much.

If a big act announce a small tour or their first in years then demand will be huge. Until there can be a fool proof way of stopping touting it will constantly happen, already tickets are only sent out a few weeks/days before the show to try stop reselling, maybe what needs to be done is at tome of booking each ticket is assigned a mobile number and face photo and the ticket is text over on the day of the gig.

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By *andVBCouple over a year ago

Wrexham

Exactly this. Has everyone already forgotten that Lenin rose to power after the government tried to limit resale of Pussy Riot tickets?!

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By (user no longer on site) OP over a year ago

"After reading it makes one wonder why it's not a universally acceptable way to sell and distribute tickets.

Because most if not all of the main resale sites have very clear links to the big ticket agencies.

The whole promotions industry is corrupt with ridiculous charges and reselling"

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