MSE News: Fans overpay on ticket website, Channel 4 investigation claims

Arthurian

Nicholas-bloody-Parsons wrote: »

Hardly surprising, for anyone who has tried to purchase tickets online is it!

Its called creating a false market and gives the impression of more demand for tickets than there is...... On the stock exchange it would be illegal.

Thanks! I've been wondering for years why promoters don't just sell tickets through Ticketmaster at a higher price - I thought perhaps letting secondary agencies sell them immediately was because there was some tax advantage, but your explanation makes sense.

Arthurian

visidigi wrote: »

So although what Viagogo is doing is wrong the promoter must be doing this for the profit on top of what they are obliged to give to the act.

And this, too, seems immensely credible. Thanks!

osborn99

I use this site to buy man utd tickets. It says face value but they add a service charge at the end which is about £20.

mynameisclare

Martinslovechild wrote: »

Even the primary ticket agencies (Seetickets, Ticketmaster, Ticketline to name but three of the main ones) have been getting in on the act. There used to be an admin fee which basically covered handling and postage costs. There are now four fees:-

• Booking Fee (per ticket)
• Handling Fee (per order)
• Secure Delivery Fee (per order)
• Cancellation Cover (optional)

We bought tickets recently direct from the venue, and they added a "convenience fee" whatever that means!

ALIBOBSY

I said exactly what the MP who is campaigning against this said.
The whole thing is sorted by making it illegal to sell a ticket for anything for more than face value plus say 5-10% to cover postage/cost etc. This would stop these sites, the promotors and the various other sellers ripping people off. But still allow for genuine people who have tickets to an event and can't go to pass the tickets on/resell them for what they paid.

Ali x

mileslondoner

Two important questions need to be asked now:

1) Can fans who were misled into thinking they were purchasing tickets from other genuine fans, while in fact they paid over the odds to ViaGoGo, demand a refund or a compensation from ViaGoGo ?

2) Can Ed Parkinson (UK Director of ViaGoGo) be prosecuted for running this fraud and possible receive a custodial sentence ?

Despite clear evidence of highly unethical or even fraudulent activity in ViaGoGo the company continues selling tickets, did not even bother to issue an official statement on their website and keeps on deleting posts from their facebook website to shut up angry fans - this is arrogance beyond belief.

mew

Great example here.

One Direction Tickets went on sale (i belive) at 9am this morning. 9.06am this morning I get an email from Viagogo "Following their BRIT Awards win One Direction announce a UK arena tour. Don't miss your chance to see them live near you. Get your tickets here!"

Click through and the cheapest tckets are £46! (Most are between £80 - £100)

Kite2010

mynameisclare wrote: »

[/LIST]
We bought tickets recently direct from the venue, and they added a "convenience fee" whatever that means!

And what's even more annoying is that with some venues you can't escape "booking fees", even if you pay by cash in person.

Build the unavoidable booking fees into the ticket-price, at least you know what your going to pay.

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I will say having a max mark-up of 10% is a jolly good idea.

ALIBOBSY

mdean wrote: »

Not sure I see the problem - if goods are offered at a price folk are willing to pay - and they get the goods as advertised - well that is the way everything else works - why should gig and sporting tickets be different.

If people are organised enough to buy early and risk their own money they are entitled to benefit - sjould be a discussion in "up your income"

I would assume from your post you didn't actually watch the program.
No one could see that american boss and hear how little he thought about "local laws" and members of the public.
He talked about them "taking over the world" and how they always got someone "telling us what we do is illegal".
It was obvious he held his customers is utter contempt and was simply obsessed with extracting as much cash from people as possible.
What about the bit in the program where they showed the "last minute" dept. Brokers and larger sellers unable to get rid of tickets they had stopped genuine fans from buying direct sent them to the company who tried to sell them as last min tickets to be collected. Often they were THROWING tickets away at the end of the day or giving them free to staff. Thats not right.

Ali x

furndire

mdean wrote: »

Not sure I see the problem - if goods are offered at a price folk are willing to pay - and they get the goods as advertised - well that is the way everything else works - why should gig and sporting tickets be different.

If people are organised enough to buy early and risk their own money they are entitled to benefit - sjould be a discussion in "up your income"

The problem is that people are not able to buy the tickets at the original price, as they have been sold to these sites - who are then inflating the prices.