Fucking Ticketmaster - Stone Roses tickets

[TJB]

Logged on to my Ticketmaster account this morning trying to get Stone Roses tickets. Thought I'd hedge my bets, so I had 2 tabs open - one for standing and one for seating. The ticket sale opened and I immediately got put in a queue with a 20 minute countdown. Waited for the countdown to finish only to be told the event had sold out (seating and standing) but I could purchase tickets from 'Get Me In' - the official Ticketmaster resale site. So I had a quick look - tickets on sale for £140 +, nearly three times the purchase price. This was 25 minutes after the tickets had gone on sale. How the fuck can Ticketmaster get away with it? They'll take another 10% commission on top of whatever they earned in the first place. It's fucking encouraging people to buy an extra ticket to sell and fleece anyone unlucky enough not to get one. Fuckers!

Then to make it worse, I came home this afternoon to find that another 2 dates had gone on sale and I'd missed the start of those too.

[Bald Bouncer]

Totally agree but until artists and more so the entertainment who claim to care about their customers and industry address this and make a stand against reselling it will never change, too many rich people have interests in it and too many MP's and Peers have brown envelopes with their names on from Ticketmaster, this is nothing more than professional ticket scalping which is illegal and been exposed many times over the years by numerous investigation programs yet they continue to do it and thrive.

[piggzy]

I remember years ago when you would get the touters at the gig flogging a ticket for double which back in the day pissed you off but in comparison to this current farce that was nothing.

It is absolutely disgusting and due to this I have not managed to get a ticket for any concert for about 3 years. Not prepared to pay over £100 per ticket.

[TJB]

Apparently there were tickets available on 'Get me in' at 9.32am. 2 minutes after they went on sale. It takes longer than that to buy them, let alone get the up for re-sale.

[Bald Bouncer]

Apparently there were tickets available on 'Get me in' at 9.32am. 2 minutes after they went on sale. It takes longer than that to buy them, let alone get the up for re-sale.

It's been exposed many times they buy the tickets themselves and resell them through the umbrella companies at hugely inflated prices as do the staff working there, the entertainments industry is very powerful and has over the years strong armed a mass of protective legislation and increases in criminal sentences for piracy through lobbying, brown envelopes, threats and strong arm tactics through our government and legal system, in my opinion they are the only ones who can get this stopped due the self interests of MP's and Peers profiting from this industry.

[BertRoot]

Aye it's a cunt. I had my lappy at work, my iPhone, my wife on a laptop and on the iPad and didn't get any until they released the Wednesday tickets. Fucking useless.

[stevo25]

total wankers, I also had 2 browsers open then saw in a Roses group on facebook see tickets. Registered and bought seated tickets in 5 mins!

[evilsatan]

I don't understand how they can so blatantly get away with banning ticket touts but legalising it for a select few firms. Get me in, seat wave, viagogo and stub hub are all rip off merchants for both the buyer and the seller. They charge both the buyer and the seller fees and in the case of some they sold the original tickets too. Just like how special seats to events are never available to the general public but used to be sold by touts on eBay who were no doubt affiliated with the ticket issuers. I know why it's happening, backhanders, just don't get how it's accepted when it's so obvious.

[sinister_monk]

This is exactly why I no longer support big acts. It's been a con for a long long time.
it pisses me off the amount of profit the event organisers, ticket sales etc make.
Go see your local small bands, who still care about the music and not the profit

[Geko]

Did they have an O2 presale or similar? It's the only way I can get tickets and may explain how they are up on reseller sites so quickly.

[{{909}}]

If people will pay that much for a ticket, only a fool wouldn't sell it for that price.

[Bald Bouncer]

Consumer group Which? has called for a crack-down on ticket resale sites, arguing consumers face a "stitch-up".

The group spent eight weeks monitoring four of the biggest secondary ticketing websites.

It says it found examples of anti-consumer tactics, including tickets for sale before the official release date, and resale restrictions being ignored.

The industry said it had "high levels of consumer protection" and was "committed to transparency".

Which? said that, while it was not illegal to resell tickets for a profit, it was likely that the industrial scale of the unusual selling patterns it found were only possible because of "botnets" - computer software that buys up tickets so fast that it makes it hard for genuine fans to get hold of them.

It added that rules under which consumers must be told of any restrictions on the tickets, seating details and the face value price were repeatedly flouted.

'Inflated prices'

During the monitoring period, Which? found:

• Tickets appearing on resale sites before being officially released
• Tickets appearing simultaneously on primary and resale sites
• Suspicious ticket release patterns (eg tickets on sale within minutes of a priority pre-sale)
• Resale restrictions ignored (eg neglecting to mention that photo ID was required on the door)

"People get rightly frustrated losing out on popular tickets, particularly when they end up on sale at the same time on secondary sites at higher prices," said Richard Lloyd, executive director at Which?

"We need the government review to crack down on those who resell tickets at inflated prices on an industrial scale," he said.

The ticketing site StubHub said it was "committed to transparency".

"It is very clear in our terms and conditions that sellers are not permitted to list or sell tickets that they do not own or that have not been allocated to them, known as speculative selling.
"If we are made aware of speculative selling on our site for specific events, we will investigate and remove the listings where appropriate.

"However, there are many cases where fans will have access to priority tickets in advance of an official on-sale and this is one reason why tickets can be listed so quickly."

Guarantees

Meanwhile Ticketmaster, which owns Get Me In and Seatwave, said the resale market in the UK had "developed high levels of consumer protection over recent years, with incidents of fraud being very rare."

"Ticketmaster's resale marketplaces, Get Me In and Seatwave, offer fans full consumer protection, with guarantees of full refund or ticket replacement," the statement continued.

"We are concerned that Which?'s statement and advice risks confusing consumers at a time when we, the industry, are working to educate consumers on how to avoid websites which offer little or no protection," it concluded.

The government is currently carrying out a review into the issue.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: "It's important that consumers get a fair deal on secondary ticketing.

"We have recently launched a call for evidence on the secondary ticketing market and the evidence provided by Which? will be helpful. We welcome views on how best to protect consumers in this area."

Source: BBC News

---

Just the latest and again they are too powerful and nothing will be done

[Over Carl]

I doubt it's a new thing turning eyes to tickets sold by touts - I'm guessing any promoter/venue would prefer to show off a full venue rather than one half empty regardless of number of tickets sold.

A while ago (10-15 years) I remember working as a steward on the gates of Old Trafford. It was a pretty peaceful day compared to the average and there were loads of coppers all over the show. I spotted a ticket tout and told my supervisor. He told me not to go and report him to the copper and to stay in my position.

[Over Carl]

Did they have an O2 presale or similar? It's the only way I can get tickets and may explain how they are up on reseller sites so quickly.

I remember when I was in an IT job years ago, I got to meet some O2 salesmen who were pitching for our company contract. Their pitch was pretty simple, we asked them loads of questions but pretty much the only solid answer they gave us was that they could get me and my manager tickets for any gig at the O2 that we wanted if we signed the firm up.

[Bald Bouncer]

Sir Elton John: Secondary ticket prices 'disgraceful'



Sir Elton John has branded secondary ticket sites "disgraceful" for selling tickets to his gigs at inflated prices.

The star urged fans not to pay over the odds, telling the BBC: "I'd rather have empty seats."

Tickets for his 2016 UK tour are being sold for up to five times face value on some sites, even though the shows have yet to sell out.

"I think it's extortionate and I think it's disgraceful," he said, joining a growing campaign against ticket resale.

• Elton John discusses his new album, Wonderful Crazy Night

Rock band Coldplay recently signed an open letter to the government calling for action over the issue.

They said fans were being "ripped off by touts" and warned of "industrial-scale abuse and insider exploitation" in the ticketing market.

Taking a more proactive step, Adele's management vetted people who pre-registered for her 2016 tour to eliminate potential touts.

Working with ticketing website Songkick, they identified 18,000 suspect accounts and managed to keep 36,000 tickets off the secondary market, according to industry estimates.

Fans have also been warned they will need to present photo ID matching the name of the customer who originally bought the ticket to get into the shows.

Sir Elton, who has set a top ticket price of £89 for his 2016 tour, urged people not to empty their savings accounts to pay above face value on secondary sites.

"The fact they're willing to pay that [amount] is fantastic. But I'd rather they'd save their money and not come."

Source: BBC

[bobo06]

I was 10th in a ticketmaster que in Belfast for Adele tickets and by the time i got to me it was sold out . Like 10th in the que and still didn't get tickets . Hope the cunt chokes on a pork pie.

[GTI]

Why don't they simply make concert tickets like airline tickets, individualised and without a passport or other proof of ID they are invalid?

And if you want to transfer them, you have to jump through a few hoops and pay fees. That'll kill the reseller market, won't it?

P.S I know nothing about this topic since I never go to gigs, football matches etc..

[evilsatan]

Why don't they simply make concert tickets like airline tickets, individualised and without a passport or other proof of ID they are invalid?

And if you want to transfer them, you have to jump through a few hoops and pay fees. That'll kill the reseller market, won't it?

P.S I know nothing about this topic since I never go to gigs, football matches etc..

It's the ticket selling sites that have the legal touting privileges so they won't be in any rush to change the rules and they carry more weight than venues or artists as they can cause them financial problems by dropping them from their site. It would take the venues and artists to make a stand together but as long as they are selling out I doubt they care too much.

[Squizza]

I tried to buy Coldplay tickets the other week. Ticket master site said sorry then directed me to their Platinum site where ticket prices are set by demand of an event in order to give bands a better deal...

They wanted 3 x the amount the face value was...

[Mule]

Why don't they simply make concert tickets like airline tickets, individualised and without a passport or other proof of ID they are invalid?

And if you want to transfer them, you have to jump through a few hoops and pay fees. That'll kill the reseller market, won't it?

P.S I know nothing about this topic since I never go to gigs, football matches etc..

Glastonbury tickets have your photo printed on them. If they're printing individualised tickets (which they do) I can't see why they can't add a photo. You'd just have to register your image with the company in advance.