Advice on Buying Tickets and Touting/Scalping

[Amii]

 

http://www.play.com/Tickets/TicketsShow/4-/10287929/Muse/Product.html

 

 

£199 per ticket???! FOOK. Cheeky cunts.

[Jade81]

I have just written the following complaint to Ebay...

 

Dear Ebay,

 

I wish to complain about you allowing ticket touts to sell overpriced tickets to music events on Ebay. Touts employ despicable measures to gain these tickets, preventing fans from doing so in the process, and thus forcing them to pay their ridiculously inflated prices.

 

I have always been lucky enough to obtain the ticktes I have required, but I know that this is not the case for many other unfortunate fans. Desperation then forces these disappointed and deflated victims to play into these charlatans' hands.

 

As the most popular and successful company involved in such sales, I believe you should make a stand against this by banning such sales from your site. Allowing these sales is unethical and morally reprehensible. I find it confusing that tickets for certain events are banned, whilst others are not. All events should be treated equally.

 

I urge you to take action against these scheming, exploiting, and, frankly, disgusting members of society by removing all listings selling tickets at inflated prices.

 

I do love to compose a good letter of complaint:LOL:!

Edited June 6, 2009 by Jade81

[TomDB]

Unfortunately for Muse fans this week that tried and failed to grab tickets to the shows at London's and Dublin's O2 Arena's there is news of an increase in ticket touts at the venues, The O2 venues are very much advertising based for money as much as band sales. For example Newcastle United chairman Mike Ashley gets 600 tickets to any of the arena events for sponsorship and he is joined by the hot dog providers Herta who gain a huge 1,200 ticket sales. Many of these companies choose to just to sell these through Ticketmaster, SeeTickets, the general ticket companies but many also will keep for personal use, which is fine or sell on unofficial outlets such as eBay or ViaGoGo. Its an absolute joke in my opinion

[Mozza]

Unfortunately for Muse fans this week that tried and failed to grab tickets to the shows at London's and Dublin's O2 Arena's there is news of an increase in ticket touts at the venues, The O2 venues are very much advertising based for money as much as band sales. For example Newcastle United chairman Mike Ashley gets 600 tickets to any of the arena events for sponsorship and he is joined by the hot dog providers Herta who gain a huge 1,200 ticket sales. Many of these companies choose to just to sell these through Ticketmaster, SeeTickets, the general ticket companies but many also will keep for personal use, which is fine or sell on unofficial outlets such as eBay or ViaGoGo. Its an absolute joke in my opinion

 

Welcome to the world of Corporate Perks. This happens for everything, sporting events, music concerts, comedy tours, its just life i'm afraid.

[TomDB]

Welcome to the world of Corporate Perks. This happens for everything, sporting events, music concerts, comedy tours, its just life i'm afraid.

 

Its so much at The O2 though, i mean hot dog sales!

[bILLOO]

Go Jade!

 

They'll probably reply with some 'oh it's legal' crap mind.

[Jade81]

Go Jade!

 

They'll probably reply with some 'oh it's legal' crap mind.

 

Probably, made me feel better anyway! Everyone should complain to them. Let's see how much we can piss them off!

[TomDB]

I bet eBay reply with some automated message - eBay has the legal right to accept events or some shit

[Gemsy]

I have just written the following complaint to Ebay...

 

Dear Ebay,

 

I wish to complain about you allowing ticket touts to sell overpriced tickets to music events on Ebay. Touts employ despicable measures to gain these tickets, preventing fans from doing so in the process, and thus forcing them to pay their ridiculously inflated prices.

 

I have always been lucky enough to obtain the ticktes I have required, but I know that this is not the case for many other unfortunate fans. Desperation then forces these disappointed and deflated victims to play into these charlatans' hands.

 

As the most popular and successful company involved in such sales, I believe you should make a stand against this by banning such sales from your site. Allowing these sales is unethical and morally reprehensible. I find it confusing that tickets for certain events are banned, whilst others are not. All events should be treated equally.

 

I urge you to take action against these scheming, exploiting, and, frankly, disgusting members of society by removing all listings selling tickets at inflated prices.

 

I do love to compose a good letter of complaint:LOL:!

Haha, I did exactly the same thing on Thursday. Here's the reply I got:

http://board.muse.mu/showpost.php?p=5927069&postcount=202

[Jade81]

Haha, I did exactly the same thing on Thursday. Here's the reply I got:

http://board.muse.mu/showpost.php?p=5927069&postcount=202

 

Well, that is a really stupid answer! Surely, when anyone buys anything it is by their own choice - we are not suggesting that touts literally have a gun to their heads (although metaphorically this could be argued!). They appear to have missed the point entirely!

[cheese on toast]

I don't see why selling on football tickets is illegal but isn't for other sports or for music? it seem rediculous

 

Exactly. There isn't much difference... we're all going to a 'venue' to see something. The music industry needs to get its' finger out its' own arse & start taking action.

 

It's to prevent opposing fans sitting in the same area and leading to disturbances. You could argue that it should be the same for every sport, but football has a much bigger reputation for violence, which is why they've clamped down on it.

[Dirty K]

Just left a review on play.com for whichever arse that is selling on tickets!! Dont play know that its written into gigsandtours terms and conditions that tickets cant be resold?? I know if theyve been bought elsewhere this may not be the case but how a previously decent site in my eyes can be selling tickets like that, its sick. Certainly wont be using them again.....searches for email address to send scathing letter to Play.com

[Fall Out Boy]

I didnt manage to get a ticket for myself from an official source, but my "syndicate" (group of 12 of us all trying together, covering each other if we didnt succeed) managed to get me a ticket from Ticketmaster, so i'm safe.

 

If i'd have managed to get tickets myself, i'd have got 4, one for me, my dad, mys sister and my mate.

 

Now, my Dad has just (rather stupidly) bought 4 from ukticketfactory.com for 70 Euro's each, and many people have mentioned its dodgy-ness. What advice do you all suggest I give him? Ring his credit card compay and have to transaction blocked? Wait it out in the hope it's legit?

[futurophu]

I didnt manage to get a ticket for myself from an official source, but my "syndicate" (group of 12 of us all trying together, covering each other if we didnt succeed) managed to get me a ticket from Ticketmaster, so i'm safe.

 

If i'd have managed to get tickets myself, i'd have got 4, one for me, my dad, mys sister and my mate.

 

Now, my Dad has just (rather stupidly) bought 4 from ukticketfactory.com for 70 Euro's each, and many people have mentioned its dodgy-ness. What advice do you all suggest I give him? Ring his credit card compay and have to transaction blocked? Wait it out in the hope it's legit?

 

luckyyy i'm close to giving up on finding tickets.. my dad did basically the same,

i think he should try and get it blocked.. we can't, apparently you can only cancel a transaction with a credit card no tickets AND lost money..

lol praying it's legit.. in these hard times even i have turned to god

 

i blame the touts!

[tjmoore]

It's to prevent opposing fans sitting in the same area and leading to disturbances. You could argue that it should be the same for every sport, but football has a much bigger reputation for violence, which is why they've clamped down on it.

Not to mention the Premier League in particular has a lot of clout and a vast amount of money. They can afford to throw lawyers at eBay such that eBay will just give in even if there's no actual law against touts.

 

Premier & Football League are as bad as touts in my book though. They ensure everyone pays absolutely the maximum prices possible, limit supply to increase demand, force people to go the season ticket route, and then flog the TV rights to premium TV companies, blocking fans from seeing matches unless they pay up yet more money. What gets me is the likes of the BBC, ITV and even Sky Sports News cannot show just a tiny clip (like of a goal) live because the TV rights are so stitched up. Though at least we do get highlights, but it's the same old handful most of the time.

 

Oh, and then they wade in against anyone with a camera at a match also to ensure their official photos get premium money. Yet most gigs these days let modest snapshot cameras go without much fuss.

 

Sorry, went off on a bit of a rant there

[[DT|_Me]DEADSTAR]

Not to mention the Premier League in particular has a lot of clout and a vast amount of money. They can afford to throw lawyers at eBay such that eBay will just give in even if there's no actual law against touts.

 

Premier & Football League are as bad as touts in my book though. They ensure everyone pays absolutely the maximum prices possible, limit supply to increase demand, force people to go the season ticket route, and then flog the TV rights to premium TV companies, blocking fans from seeing matches unless they pay up yet more money. What gets me is the likes of the BBC, ITV and even Sky Sports News cannot show just a tiny clip (like of a goal) live because the TV rights are so stitched up. Though at least we do get highlights, but it's the same old handful most of the time.

 

Oh, and then they wade in against anyone with a camera at a match also to ensure their official photos get premium money. Yet most gigs these days let modest snapshot cameras go without much fuss.

 

Sorry, went off on a bit of a rant there

 

I wish you hadn't said sorry at the end. It's so true...

 

What ebay does it's nothing but really to ensure that people pay the highest possible price. Otherwise touts would just set one when selling.

 

What we do when we need a ticket in front of a venue is the following.

 

We go to such a ****er ask for the price then a friend of us attends next to the tout as a fake-tout and offers us his tickets (which are obviously our own) to a much more reasonable price. That completely angers the tout and most of the time he immediatly calls the price or goes bellow it. When we buy it then we shake hands with our fake-tout and say to the tout: "thank you we need to go to the concert now"

 

Ok I know it only works when the mass with no tickets is not that big. I can imagine that in lager cities that would completely fail like in London but over here in Switzerland it works. It even worked on AC/DC Tickets when the average tout-price for a standing ticket was around 300 Pounds+.

 

There are a few tout-faces over here you see in front of every ****ing concert. I feel the urge to hit and kick them really bad.

 

Why don't we just overrun them like a flash-mob then take em all tickets away? I mean **** them, they probably made enough money to cover all tickets already by then.

You can't actually call it robbery then, can you? Ok it's assault but who cares, so many people just overrun them that doesn't even have to hurt. Hold Arms and legs and search him - get the tix, supply the poor with 'em and vanish in all directions.

That would be after all a really good deed Playin Robin Hood actually

 

hmm I guess now I have to say sorry. There were several ****'s... But I got caught by the suject...

[davetoms]

Just left a review on play.com for whichever arse that is selling on tickets!! Dont play know that its written into gigsandtours terms and conditions that tickets cant be resold?? I know if theyve been bought elsewhere this may not be the case but how a previously decent site in my eyes can be selling tickets like that, its sick. Certainly wont be using them again.....searches for email address to send scathing letter to Play.com

 

So will you be writing an equally scathing letter to Ticketmaster?

[futurophu]

DEADSTAR;5936462']Playin Robin Hood actually

lol 'The resistance' against touts

[davetoms]

This is long but please read:

 

After the pre sale fiasco & previous experiences these days in buying tickets online I knew that the chances of getting tickets online were going to be as tough as putting an egg yolk back into it shell, so I felt that I would have a much better choice by actually going to the venue.

 

I checked twice over 2 days whether or not the O2 would be selling tickets or not & at what time as they usually open at midday, so it was confirmed they would start selling them at 9am, so I decided to go there.

 

I felt if I arrived at least a good hour or so before 9am I would have a decent chance, it turns out I got there at 7.55am & there were about only 15 people in the queue ahead of me, so I knew my chances now were very good.

 

But the story unfolds………

 

There were some proper Muse fans at the start of the queue about 4/5, (trust me I could tell) then the people behind were with families & kids, a bit odd & I spotted 1 tout already. Then there were 2 typical chav girls in front of me with their babies with them, smoking, on their iphone talking about all sorts of adventures & I knew something was wrong straight away, there not fans. I just knew they wouldn't know a guitar from a machine gun.

 

I was joined 10 mins in the queue later by 2 touts. It was so obvious we’ve all seen what they look like & know they all look the same, if people didn’t know touts have their own ‘language’ in how they communicate amongst one another. I pretended to be listening to my MP3 player but I heard it all, the touts who joined the queue were calling other touts to tell them how the queue was, now, the following will make many people including me furious & sick & I felt worse as I was there.

 

How The Touts Do It:

 

The touts behind me didn’t know even know Muse were playing on the 13th but were saying amongst each other ‘If you can’t get standing’ ‘Get Level 1’ now there was one familiar character who seem to know everyone in the queue (apart from the fans/me) who was going around telling his troops in what to buy etc

 

All the women in the queue ahead of me & probably a fair few behind me were in on it, what the touts do is get the women to join the queue early for them, then after a while the touts join them, then they tell their entourage in the queue in what to buy. I counted a good 15 from what I could see & I’m 6ft. The queue by 8.30am possibly had about 80/90 people.

 

They were even giving them phone calls/texts messages in what to say & the Box Office because they know its something these women don’t do often & they can’t afford to get it wrong, one of the women & blokes was repeating ‘6 standing Muse’ but morons you can only get 4!!!! Either way my rage was building through this whole time I waited. The more I saw them, the more I was swearing under the sun.

 

I hate to say it my friends but at least a good 60 standing tickets that I saw went into the hands of pure scum & evil, hence why tickets are in hand as I got mine. I don't know how many more fell into the wrong hands but they did.

 

As I left at about 9.10am & walked back to the station I gave the slime in front of me the dirtiest look possible & looked a few of them dead in the eye with pure hatred, as much as I was happy in getting tickets I was in pure rage & hate for them & sad for the fans who wanted to be there, if only measures were taken into stopping them buying them at the Box Office, many fans would have been better off! I mean, I'd give them a quick 2/3 question test at the box office just to be sure! I mean fans would queue early not women with kids.

 

If people didn’t even know me & they were Muse fans, bloody hell I’d say yea, join me in the queue!!! But the only way to beat them is to not buy them, it’s the only way we can stop this. I hate to say it but there were more touts in that queue than fans.

 

Thanks for reading

 

Mods/Admin can you leave this thread here for awhile then merge it with 'Advice' later, I'd like people to know/read this.

 

I did intend to go to The O2 to pick up tickets but as nobody else here mentioned they were going after I said I might and as I couldn't get a response from O2 cumstomer services regarding the sale of tickets at the box office I didn't go in the end. Wish I had now as I was unsuccessful both in the pre sale and the general sale.

[citizen_pb]

DEADSTAR;5936462']

We go to such a ****er ask for the price then a friend of us attends next to the tout as a fake-tout and offers us his tickets (which are obviously our own) to a much more reasonable price. That completely angers the tout and most of the time he immediatly calls the price or goes bellow it.

no offence mate, but this is really bad advice. especially as there are a lot of teenagers on here who might think winding up touts is funny and get more than they bargained for.

 

i dont know about switzerland but in the UK touting is practiced by some pretty nasty characters who don't take kindly to people taking the piss. if they think you're having a laugh then you're very likely to get a swift slap at best and possibly worse. these are guys it's a good idea not to mess around with, the best weapon is just to ignore them and not buy from them.

[[DT|_Me]DEADSTAR]

lol 'The resistance' against touts

 

I bet it's a lie that the album will be political. It's all about touts! The Song USE is just about the russian ticket mafia.

[[DT|_Me]DEADSTAR]

no offence mate, but this is really bad advice. especially as there are a lot of teenagers on here who might think winding up touts is funny and get more than they bargained for.

 

i dont know about switzerland but in the UK touting is practiced by some pretty nasty characters who don't take kindly to people taking the piss. if they think you're having a laugh then you're very likely to get a swift slap at best and possibly worse. these are guys it's a good idea not to mess around with, the best weapon is just to ignore them and not buy from them.

 

Hmm I only have the image of touting in GB and their nasty characters from the latest Guy Richie movie. But I never thought that'd be really the way it is. Over here they're mainly some freelance-assholes. Some of those guys seem to be really nasty nord-east-europeans. They don't discuss they got a price and sell it for exactely the price and nothing else. You shouldn't mess with them either but it seems to be a lot worse in GB.

 

I'm really sorry about giving a false image to some people here because I don't know how it works in other countries. I don't want anyone to make something stupid because of me. Obviously it doesn't work everywhere!!!

[citizen_pb]

DEADSTAR;5936697']I'm really sorry about giving a false image to some people here because I don't know how it works in other countries. I don't want anyone to make something stupid because of me. Obviously it doesn't work everywhere!!!

it's ok, no harm done. i didn't mean to make you feel guilty, i just had images of some kids who might think messing with touts could be funny. yeah some of them are just chancers looking to make a little money, but a lot of them take what they do very seriously. i give them a wide berth myself.

[[DT|_Me]DEADSTAR]

it's ok, no harm done. i didn't mean to make you feel guilty, i just had images of some kids who might think messing with touts could be funny. yeah some of them are just chancers looking to make a little money, but a lot of them take what they do very seriously. i give them a wide berth myself.

 

True, oh no don't worry you were right. When you write something you just assume that everyone is kinda grown up and can decide for themselves what a good or bad idea is. Thankfully some people like you remind others of that.

 

Well I hope you all get tickets without those scumbags!

[davetoms]

Oh I really don't know what to do. I'm ashamed to say I was looking at Getmein and Seatwave only 5 minutes ago. :$ I have a horrible feeling that there will be no more tickets released only cancellation and, unless you are on the net all day, you will be very lucky to get anything. I really want to go to The O2 and I really, really want to stand. It was exactly the same for The Killers and the touting prices just went up. Fuck, fuck, fuck!! I wish my shitty work PC hadn't cocked up my order on Friday morning then I wouldn't be in this situation. Oh I hate being a fan sometimes!!!