What are the risks with buying tickets from ebay?

teamcullen

Hi

After sitting in the queue on every break from 9am through till 8.30pm last Friday, and finally getting through to find no standing tickets left on the final break...me and three friends still desperately want to see The Script (my favourite band ever lol!)

So, we've began looking at alternatives on ebay and have found some seller selling tickets on buy it now for around £10-£15 above face value. This we don't mind as I suppose it's not extortion, but the concert isn't until March.

If we were to buy the tickets now, what could go wrong? Because I was under the impression ticketmaster would send the tickets via e-mail straight away depending on the option the buyer chose. But Paypal not as described only last 45 days (I think!). So were a bit unsure of what to do or how to proceed before buying.

Thanks very much for reading and any advice would be much appreciated.

soolin

You have no protection at all on ebay or with paypal if it goes beyond the 45 days, it really depends whether you want to gamble on this or not.

boogellyboo

I bought ticket's 3 years ago for Take That, bought in the April for a concert in December. I had no reason at first to doubt the seller as he sent me copies of his confirmation etc, several week's later his user name changed and I got no response to several emails. The phone number listed for him didn't work and his account was then listed as 'no longer a registered user' but by this point it was well over the paypal 45 day cut off and neither ebay nor paypal wanted anything to do with it.

I received a message from another ebayer asking about my ticket's as she had bought from the same seller and was in the same situation, it became apparent after selling my ticket's he went on to sell over 60 more pairs of tickets (all at upwards of £200!) I thought I was going to have to write the money off and chalk it up to experience but almost a year later I got a letter from the police. The seller had been arrested and was being taken to court, the girl who had contacted me on ebay had gone to the police and reported him. It took a while but I got all of my money back after he pleaded guilty. I would never buy tickets off ebay again!

pinkshoes

I would ONLY ever buy tickets within 4 weeks of the concert date on Ebay, giving plenty of time to open a dispute if they don't materialise.

Event organisers don't usually send tickets out until the week before, to try and prevent them being sold on too readily!

kittykarate

I'd only buy tickets if the concert was within 45 days to get the Paypal protection. There's always places like seatwave/viagogo - if the tickets don't exist at least you'll be given a refund.

Kite2010

If the seller is selling print @ home e-tickets be very careful as there is nothing stopping him/her selling the same tickets over and over again, sending you the e-ticket so when it comes to getting into the venue you will get turned away because the barcode has already been used (unless your the first to get in using that e-ticket).

wilykit

i would only buy tickets if the seller physically had them and that way you aren't waiting for them to be dispatched after the deadline for opening a case has passed.

cyberbob

If you are looking for tickets have a look at scarlet mist where they are only sold at face value

http://www.scarletmist.com/default.asp

It's a aface to face sale point