Ticketmaster resale

Penniesforpenny

Hi all I was wondering if anyone else had an issue with Ticketmaster resale, particularly with the tickets your are selling not showing on their site and what recourse could have. Background - I have tickets to a gig in June that can no longer go to, they are for the golden circle which is sold out on Ticketmaster site so thought would be able to resell through them and someone could make use of them. So listed the tickets and got sent confirmation email with a private link to share that had two tickets lists at £60 per ticket (plus an enormous amount of fees, but that is another discussion lol). Anyway few days past and had no interest in tickets which thought was odd as know band are popular and as said the golden circle is sold out. So checked Ticketmaster website for the gig and only one ticket for golden circle was listed on resale and for a different price than my ticket was listed. I contacted Ticketmaster to explain I had listed two tickets and for a different price so they didn't appear to be listed on their main site and he confirmed that my tickets were for resale but gave me runaround as to why were not showing on their website. Is this a thing Ticketmaster do, do they withhold resale tickets to favour the other tickets they still have for sale? And if so is there anything can be done or is this another way they hold a monopoly?

MattMattMattUK

Penniesforpenny said:

Hi all I was wondering if anyone else had an issue with Ticketmaster resale, particularly with the tickets your are selling not showing on their site and what recourse could have. Background - I have tickets to a gig in June that can no longer go to, they are for the golden circle which is sold out on Ticketmaster site so thought would be able to resell through them and someone could make use of them. So listed the tickets and got sent confirmation email with a private link to share that had two tickets lists at £60 per ticket (plus an enormous amount of fees, but that is another discussion lol). Anyway few days past and had no interest in tickets which thought was odd as know band are popular and as said the golden circle is sold out. So checked Ticketmaster website for the gig and only one ticket for golden circle was listed on resale and for a different price than my ticket was listed. I contacted Ticketmaster to explain I had listed two tickets and for a different price so they didn't appear to be listed on their main site and he confirmed that my tickets were for resale

The price you list for is not the price the tickets are for resale on the website, they add a margin and fees for the end user and that shows as the price when one views resale tickets. 

Penniesforpenny said:

but gave me runaround as to why were not showing on their website. 

Did they give you the run around, or were they not clear at explaining/you failed to understand?

Penniesforpenny said:

Is this a thing Ticketmaster do, do they withhold resale tickets to favour the other tickets they still have for sale?

They allow resale all the time, but resale tickets rarely sell if there are normal tickets available unless the seller is willing to take a hit and lose money. Resale tickets do sell when a gig is sold out, or when the seller lists them below cost. 

Penniesforpenny said:

And if so is there anything can be done or is this another way they hold a monopoly?

No.

Penniesforpenny

Hi Matt am aware they add a margin and fees, but the face value of ticket doesn't change unless you list them lower (which I hadn't). My point was that my tickets were not showing at all and can post the emails, where I asked question multiple times of whether not listing tickets was a policy and he just didn't answer - my lack of understanding is not the issue but thanks for the vote of confidence. And I have sold lots of resale tickets which have all sold and have bought some too - if they are for particular areas of the gig they are more popular, as mine are for the golden circle they would not be with general admission tickets. My question if you would like to recheck was around experience with Ticketmaster policies not my understanding but thanks for your contribution 🙂

MattMattMattUK

Penniesforpenny said:

Hi Matt am aware they add a margin and fees, but the face value of ticket doesn't change unless you list them lower (which I hadn't). 

What is the event, I can have a search and screenshot what is available. If you are logged in it will often not show your own tickets, you might need to use private browsing, but that can also cause problems. The face value it shows can sometimes be weird, but I suspect that there is only one golden circle price, it may override what you put in there yourself. 

Penniesforpenny said:

My point was that my tickets were not showing at all and can post the emails, where I asked question multiple times of whether not listing tickets was a policy and he just didn't answer

Ticketmaster CS would not answer a question like that, they will not want to trip themselves up. 

Penniesforpenny said:

my lack of understanding is not the issue but thanks for the vote of confidence.

It is not the clearest system at the best of times, and with TicketMaster now applying dynamic pricing even to resales (but the seller sees no benefit) the pricing can be way off. 

Penniesforpenny said:

And I have sold lots of resale tickets which have all sold and have bought some too - if they are for particular areas of the gig they are more popular, as mine are for the golden circle they would not be with general admission tickets. 

I have not sold many as luckily I normally always get to go, but I have bought that way and I generally think that it is far from a great system, it also does weird things when browsing tickets sometimes. 

Penniesforpenny said:

My question if you would like to recheck was around experience with Ticketmaster policies not my understanding but thanks for your contribution 🙂

Ticketmaster, in my opinion, are far from great, but they have no need to improve because they are almost dominant, dynamic pricing in particular is something I particularly despise. That being said I do not think that they are corrupt and they would want to sell resale tickets as they make even more money on the resale, they get to make two lots of profit, on top they do not loose on unsold tickets, they take a cut from the venue regardless.