Take That Tour Tickets - what a nightmare for the fans

moneypooh

What's wrong is that it's not fair on the people who can't get away from work etc... to make those calls. And for all those who DID take time off and spent hours holding on the phone, trawling through the internet and still not get something decent.
The problem was having all the dates on one day, that was insane, even the ticket agencies didn't cope. They should have split the dates over at least 2-3 days.

I'm still trolling through the second hand market to get good reserved seats I can't afford the many £100's being asked but I am prepared to pay face value for very good seats. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

7891368

I work at the box office of an arena (if you look at my location you can probably have a good guess ) and we no longer print tickets on the days of presales or onsales, the customer recieves a reciept and their tickets will be posted to them at an unspecified time.

This is so the tickets don't end up on ebay straight away and to give genuine fans a better chance.

We also offer a waiting list, should tickets be realesed back to us from the promoter.

The tickets are sold as non-exchangable and non-refundable.

Standing tickets which are lost damaged or stolen cannot be replaced.

I think its a good system but most physical box offices (not call centres eg/ ticket factory for nia) aren't open 9-9 daily!

p.s. I am aware take that are not touring to these event but some of the points I've made regarding onsales etc are relevant and could be implemented by other venues.

Kite2010

Nice to see Ticketmaster raking in the money from the official tout site known as Get Me In.

For big shows the fairest system is a public ballot where everybody whom wants a ticket can sign up and a ballot is made where the lucky winners can purchase tickets within a window of say 4 days, before it gets redrawn. That way there will be no need for fans to take days off work to be on the computer at 9:00

moneypooh

Kite2010 wrote: »

Nice to see Ticketmaster raking in the money from the official tout site known as Get Me In.

For big shows the fairest system is a public ballot where everybody whom wants a ticket can sign up and a ballot is made where the lucky winners can purchase tickets within a window of say 4 days, before it gets redrawn. That way there will be no need for fans to take days off work to be on the computer at 9:00

The draw would be full of touts that wouldn't need to work harder to get their tickets. It would only work if they were ID tickets, but that's not practical.

sb65

Kite2010 wrote: »

Nice to see Ticketmaster raking in the money from the official tout site known as Get Me In.

For big shows the fairest system is a public ballot where everybody whom wants a ticket can sign up and a ballot is made where the lucky winners can purchase tickets within a window of say 4 days, before it gets redrawn. That way there will be no need for fans to take days off work to be on the computer at 9:00

I'll tell you why they use Getmein. Because the secondary market is HUGE and they can operate an end-to-end business.

Promoters want a piece of the pie, as do ticketing agents. There is no way they want to miss that income stream of the business irrespective of how immoral the public believes it is. On the one instance they can shout had touting affects the primary market but 90% of the people out there have no idea that Getmein and others are affiliated with other primary sellers, football clubs selling their tickets or other promoters (Kilimanjaro Live as an example)

SarahInBrum

i have been loking to get tickets off seatwave but they are just a front for ticket touting and i cannot believe that they are associated with ticketmaster

whatmichaelsays

I can't believe that so many people are "surprised" by this. This situation has been happening for years as anybody who has tried to get tickets for a major festival or gig can testify. Is it only "because it's Take That" that there is an inflated online outcry?

The only festival that has successfully found a way to curb touting is Glastonbury, which prints photos of the ticket holder directly onto the ticket and admission is only available with a ticket and ID (a ticket on its own is not enough). Unfortunately, it is a huge logistical nightmare and on a mass scale, it is not one that the promoters, venues, acts or fans are willing to accept or finance.

JOHN1982

I agree with what whatmichaelsays says.

It's almost impossible to stop touting or secondary sales of tickets and the one massive reason why?

Because people keep buying the tickets! I've got a couple of extras and if I can't find friends who want them, they'll be going on ebay and I'll make a profit. Why is that? Because they're mine and I can do what I want with them, I got them fair and square.

If you're all so annoyed at touting and inflated prices, stop buying the tickets (I know you don't all do this). If you can't afford to go to the concerts, don't go.

If people stopped buying tickets at inflated prices, the secondary sale market would collapse and it would be pointless for people to get any more than they needed. This won't happen of course, as people will continue to pay stupid money for the tickets.



I have a tip for anyone without tickets and with a nerve of steel. Wait until a day or two before the concert and go on ebay, search for tickets for the gig you want to go to, but for auctions that end after the concert has been on, then list the auctions by distance from you.

Start emailing the sellers and explain that in a day or two their ticket will be a worthless piece of paper that no-one will pay anything for, but you'll give them face value for it. Collect tickets in person to ensure you get them in time.

I've done this for multiple gigs / festivals in the past and you'd be surprised how easily you can get a face-value ticket!



If all else fails, just remember; a few days after the gigs you'll be able to buy a lovely DVD / Blu-ray of the concert for 1/10th of the price of a ticket that you can enjoy in the comfort of your own home!

whatmichaelsays

JOHN1982 wrote: »

I agree with what whatmichaelsays says.

It's almost impossible to stop touting or secondary sales of tickets and the one massive reason why?

Because people keep buying the tickets! I've got a couple of extras and if I can't find friends who want them, they'll be going on ebay and I'll make a profit. Why is that? Because they're mine and I can do what I want with them, I got them fair and square.

If you're all so annoyed at touting and inflated prices, stop buying the tickets (I know you don't all do this). If you can't afford to go to the concerts, don't go.

If people stopped buying tickets at inflated prices, the secondary sale market would collapse and it would be pointless for people to get any more than they needed. This won't happen of course, as people will continue to pay stupid money for the tickets.



I have a tip for anyone without tickets and with a nerve of steel. Wait until a day or two before the concert and go on ebay, search for tickets for the gig you want to go to, but for auctions that end after the concert has been on, then list the auctions by distance from you.

Start emailing the sellers and explain that in a day or two their ticket will be a worthless piece of paper that no-one will pay anything for, but you'll give them face value for it. Collect tickets in person to ensure you get them in time.

I've done this for multiple gigs / festivals in the past and you'd be surprised how easily you can get a face-value ticket!



If all else fails, just remember; a few days after the gigs you'll be able to buy a lovely DVD / Blu-ray of the concert for 1/10th of the price of a ticket that you can enjoy in the comfort of your own home!

The other option - turn up to the venue anyway. There will be touts, they'll still have tickets as the gig is about to start and they'll want shut of them. I've got into plenty of gigs for less than face value just by turning up two minutes before the band is about to start.

sb65

whatmichaelsays wrote: »

The other option - turn up to the venue anyway. There will be touts, they'll still have tickets as the gig is about to start and they'll want shut of them. I've got into plenty of gigs for less than face value just by turning up two minutes before the band is about to start.

Then those artists were probably not worth touting to start with. They may have been but the margins were small. This won't happen with all artists.

Besides people want CERTAINTY about when they want to do something and PLANNED in advance. And the price they put on that is a called the premium. Not every wants to go out to see their favourite band when it went on sale 6 months ago in two days time

Try that with Michael Buble hoping for a cheap ticket on the night or days before and you will end up with a DVD instead!