Ticket Re seller Web Sites - Scumbags

[Hacker Khan]

Since when did ticket touting become legal then? Spent a frantic half an hour trying to score some 1 Direction tickets yesterday for my daughter (OK, for me as well, Niall is such a hotty) and was successful eventually. But I noticed that even before the official tickets were on sale sites like Viagogo were selling them for 4, 5 or even 6 times face value. And there's plenty on there now. And this site is all legit and even are official partners of several premier league clubs. Plus there's loads on ebay through StubHub, another 'official' web site.

So it now seems it is perfectly legal and OK for scum bags to buy tickets for concerts aimed at young kids that they have no intention of going to, with the sole reason of sticking them on sites like this to make some money. Thus meaning that fans of said bands have an even smaller chance of getting to see that band unless mummy and daddy are stinking rich and can afford to shell out over 2, 3, 4, 5, or even as one ticket is going for on ebay, 600 quid. Per ticket.

I know touts have always existed, but at least in the old days you could see them working for their mark up by standing outside the venue and shouting 'buy or sell tickets'. And they took a risk as they may not be able to get rid of some tickets they had. Nowadays all that happens are people, and I imagine some ticket reselling agencies, just buy up all then tickers using bots or whatever nefarious methods they use, with the sole intention of making a profit on them.

Worth also noting that Viagogo are owned by a bunch of venture capitalists and the Roschild family among others. So we now seem to be in a world where companies like this can make profits by exploiting the fact that young kids who have bought the records and tee shirts, want to see a band live. I am surprised that after all the sponsors tickets, VIP packages, competition winners and tickets hovered up by scum bags purely out to make a profit that there are any tickets available for the average fan, who in the good old days paid face value to see a band they liked.

 

[pbrown7582]

While there is a market for unofficial tickets then there will always be someone to provide it. These companies are as you say legalised touting but much the same as some hospitality packages IMO. £130 for a £40 ticket and fish and chips, comes into the same bracket?
The only way these companies wouldn't exist is id people don't use them and that's not happening when demand is exceeded limited supply.

 

[Beezerk]

Was a mad scrum yesterday morning, I managed to bag 2 tickets for the Monday Newcastle gig straight away but Ticketmaster and one of the other ticket sites didn't even work at all. I'd have been mightily miffed had I just tried through those websites.
Strangely See-Tickets finally worked at about 9.12 and I got another couple for the Sunday gig so I was chuffed, this was despite all the other websites saying it was sold out.
Not quite sure how the hell it works but it certainly seems to be biased against the common or garden family trying to score a couple of tickets.

 

[GB72]

I like the fact that the Foo Fighters actually tried to do something about this in the U.S. For their latest tour all tickets were available a week before the online sale started for those willing to go to the box office to buy them. Went down well with the fans fed up of losing out to tout company bots onlinr

 

[pbrown7582]

Was a mad scrum yesterday morning, I managed to bag 2 tickets for the Monday Newcastle gig straight away but Ticketmaster and one of the other ticket sites didn't even work at all. I'd have been mightily miffed had I just tried through those websites.
Strangely See-Tickets finally worked at about 9.12 and I got another couple for the Sunday gig so I was chuffed, this was despite all the other websites saying it was sold out.
Not quite sure how the hell it works but it certainly seems to be biased against the common or garden family trying to score a couple of tickets.

The agencies seem to sell tickets in phases as it seems quite common after tickets are " sold out" to be able to find some more

 

[Rooter]

The only way these companies wouldn't exist is id people don't use them and that's not happening when demand is exceeded limited supply.

Exactly! Same can be said for the 'celeb' culture we have. If people didn't buy heat, hello etc etc people would not get papped as no one will buy the pics, in turn we will not be inundated with z list celeb culture and crap like the only way is Essex.

 

[Beezerk]

I like the fact that the Foo Fighters actually tried to do something about this in the U.S. For their latest tour all tickets were available a week before the online sale started for those willing to go to the box office to buy them. Went down well with the fans fed up of losing out to tout company bots onlinr

Old school like it should be.

 

[Hacker Khan]

While there is a market for unofficial tickets then there will always be someone to provide it. These companies are as you say legalised touting but much the same as some hospitality packages IMO. £130 for a £40 ticket and fish and chips, comes into the same bracket?
The only way these companies wouldn't exist is id people don't use them and that's not happening when demand is exceeded limited supply.

I'd say it depends who is providing the hospitality and what you get. If it an official venue one where you get some decent add ons then it's not as bad as at least you are still paying the rate as set by the provider. But if other companies buy tickets up, add on something pretty worthless and then double the price of the ticket then not great. But still in my book not as despicable as people who just purely buy them to sell 20 seconds later for 5 times the amount.

The other thing is about the supply as it's getting like cup finals in football. What percentage of world cup or FA cup final tickets are available to the fans of the clubs at face value, fans in the case of World, Euro or Champions League finals who have more than likely shelled out vast sums of money already to follow their team already? If say 90 to 95% of tickets were on open sale to fans then fair enough, but I imagine the percentage is a lot less and getting lower by he day as more people/organisations see it as an opportunity to make money. It should not be that difficult or complicated to sell vast majority of the the tickets to fans at face value. I'd much prefer the money to go to the band who are actually putting in the hard work.

And fair play to The Foo Fighters for doing that, great to see.

 

[SaintHacker]

Iron Maiden tried something similar last time they played the O2. Basically you had to scan the card you paid with along with your ticket as you went in. Seemed to work OK, think there were a few who had issues scanning but as long as you had some other id you were fine.

 

[c1973]

I think they should be shot personally, and I'm not being facetious (sp?), one of my bugbears are online ticket touts.

Amazing that they clamp down on it for the Olympics, commonwealth games, that Diana gig a few years back etc but won't do anything about it for gigs.

I simply refuse to buy them now and miss out on the gig, if everyone done this it would soon stop.

 

[CMAC]

they also did it for the Ryder Cup but went totally OTT the other way and once bought you couldnt even sell back to the agent to resell no matter what the circumstances. Ticket company even told me thay had people who have emigrated or had weddings/christenings that date now as it was booked a year in advance but the stance was no refund and try and sell it elsewhere and we will prosecute you

so some middle ground would work for gigs imo

 

[Hacker Khan]

I think they should be shot personally, and I'm not being facetious (sp?), one of my bugbears are online ticket touts.

Amazing that they clamp down on it for the Olympics, commonwealth games, that Diana gig a few years back etc but won't do anything about it for gigs.

I simply refuse to buy them now and miss out on the gig, if everyone done this it would soon stop.

I'm probably with you on that. I can see no reason whatsoever for them to exist apart from their desire to make money by exploiting peoples desire to see a band they like. It's one of life's pleasures seeing live music, so why are they trying to make it as hard as possible? Its as if they have thought, 'I know, although the face value of concert ticket is pretty extortionate nowadays, we will ensure that even fewer tickets at face value are available to fans and make more tickets available for the wealthy who can afford to pay way over the odds, whilst at the same time making us some money.' They are not providing a service to any fan of the band, as without them more ticket would be available to proper fans.

I think there are sites that allow true fans to swap tickets at face value and more power to them. As you say, the rest should be shot.

 

[Liverbirdie]

I'm probably with you on that. I can see no reason whatsoever for them to exist apart from their desire to make money by exploiting peoples desire to see a band they like. It's one of life's pleasures seeing live music, so why are they trying to make it as hard as possible? Its as if they have thought, 'I know, although the face value of concert ticket is pretty extortionate nowadays, we will ensure that even fewer tickets at face value are available to fans and make more tickets available for the wealthy who can afford to pay way over the odds, whilst at the same time making us some money.' They are not providing a service to any fan of the band, as without them more ticket would be available to proper fans.

I think there are sites that allow true fans to swap tickets at face value and more power to them. As you say, the rest should be shot.

Don't watch a program that was on about a year or so ago.

It may have been "dispatches" or a panorama programme, whereby one journalist worked undercover at Ticketmaster or one of the major ones. He worked from the buying then selling side, and the company involved were buying upwards of 10,000 tickets, as they had so many already allocated to them, then they were selling them via their own "fan-to-fan" site. They had hundreds of credit cards of "ghost" individuals from blag addresses where they would buy some tickets through, then make a mint on the fan to fan side.

The government should have fined them £10 mill, IMHO.:thup:

 

[stevek1969]

There was something on the news about this ,this morning where you can buy some spybot software for $950 and its a touts dream. I managed to get tickets for U2 at The Hydro in Glasgow no problem this morning but the tickets on Viagogo are now 3 times more expensive already