Avoiding Scams and Touts & Dealing with eBay

[John Etherington]

Hi all,

Gina included "Ticketmaster's Ticket Exchange" as a possible option, but remember that this is nothing but a disguised form of touting. Better to support legitimate ticket agencies like seetickets and ticketline, than sponsor Ticketmaster who are running the Ticket Exchange scam. Rather than buy from Ticketmaster, it is probably even better to buy from a tout who at least admits that they are a tout!

All good things, John E

[rowo15]

mirka,

are you not worried about velvet's advice about buying tix no more than 45 days in advance?

on ebay, so look for a 100% positive seller, ticket-selling experience, hard tickets--anything else?

my husband's friend bought some rosebowl tix on ebay. everything went fine.

i'd like to think everything will be fine. i just hate for it to be that one fraud i get stick with!

[gingermop]

with all this caution being said, i am more scared to buy second-hand tickets.

Well.... me and Velvet aren't meaning to scaremonger people, just make you more wary of the scams that exist (and sadly, there are plenty).

Stubhub seems to be the USA equivalent of seatwave, the tickets are probably genuine, but then so are the stupid prices! Still less risky than paying the same money to a tout.

Gina

[honeyrose]

My son who lives in the US regularly uses Stubhub to buy sports tickets which are put up there by season ticket holders who can't make the game. He has never had any problems. And last time I was in NY to see him he used Stubhub to buy some Mary Gauthier/Joe Henry tickets at the last minute for us which worked out cheaper than TM with all their extras. Also Ebay bought Stubhub last year. I suppose that means if you pay Stubhub with Paypal you are covered by their protection scheme as with Ebay?

Honeyrose

[leonardslonglostlove]

BEWARE GUMTREE

I had a close shave with a Gumtree advert. "2 tickets for Friday Manchester Row H, centre, £205". Initially thought this was quite a lot, not 'too good to be true', so replied in good faith. Answer came back requesting full name, address and ebay ID so that seller could arrange transaction through ebay. This seemed reassuring - I didn't want to send a cheque or risk waiting til the day to pay in person. However, next email I received was a strange automated message addressed to "George Kinsella" (not me) stating that the purchase would be via Moneygram and that I should email a copy of the Moneygram receipt as soon as I had wired it.

At this point I changed my ebay ID and deleted my paypal card details.

The Gumtree seller was called Michael Terance so look out for him. £205 for two tickets near the front is too good to be true I now realise having looked at other sites!

By the way - don't forget the summer festival scene. I have bought a ticket for The Big Chill for £120 - that's a weekend ticket for myself and my two sons go free. I don't know what they'll make of Leonard - he should sound strangely familiar since they were conceved to him, if not of him!

Happy hunting.
x

[mirka]

rowo15,

I'm using my credit card via PayPal to pay for tickets, which gives me better protection then EBay, and I picked a seller that sells tickets, with 100% positive feedback (thanks a lot velvet for advice !). I'm also planning to check with the box office if they can confirm authenticity of tickets.

Of course nothing in life is guaranteed, and buying tickets on the Internet from the person I don't know is no exception.
I'm taking a risk, fortunately I'm risking only money and a couple days of my life. I can afford it, and the potential reward is worth the risk.

[rowo15]

thank you honeyrose for the reassurance about stubhub. makes me feel a little better. how about razorgator? has anyone heard of that?

mirka, how to confirm tickets? will you do this once you have the tickets in hand? need it be a hard ticket or email ticket? will you be calling the admissions office?
are they french-speaking only?

[mirka]

rowo15,
as I've never bought tickets on Ebay before, I imagine however with tickets in hand I can call the box office, and ask them if they can help me verify the tickets (I bought hard copy type).

[David Blackman]

The best way to avoid ticket scams and ebay is don't use them . If we could cut touts and serial money makers means of creaming off the tickets out it would be good .Its a shame tickets when sold were not put in the persons name and were made non transferable, to put pay to making money out of fans desire to see whoever is on stage but then where's the profit in that , also the will for someone to stop it.

[yhtrownu]

In an ideal world, I agree with David. I wish you could only collect the tickets in person from the box office on the day, by presenting your credit card, which would cut out most touts.

However, if I do have to buy tickets from ebay/stubhub/and the like, I don't "verify" them with the box office. Most tickets state on their reverse side that they should not be bought and sold on the secondary market, although it is tacitly accepted everywhere. Therefore, it is possible that if you call to "verify"a ticket you buy like this, the box office could blacklist that ticket in their system.

They probably won't do this, because blacklisting tickets means empty seats, but I wouldn't risk it. Just my thoughts. . .

[John Etherington]

One thing I have noticed with my Manchester ticket (purchased from Ticketmaster, before I knew about their Ticket Exchange scam) is that the print on the back is so small that it genuinely is unreadable - unless perhaps with a magnifying glass. This presumably gets Ticketmaster out of certain loop-holes, but it also means that anyone who ignores whatever the writing on the back says has a genuine case for ignoring it. It would be a good thing if it were made a regulation that writing on the back of tickets is large enough to be commonly read. This rule has been enforced in other instances - i.e. with scams like the European City Guide who used to trick people into signing advertising contracts by printing the charges so small that most people didn't notice that there were any charges.

[David Blackman]

With all the bad feedback there has been re tickets is there any chance that the tour managment take on board the vast crescendo of criticism at the way ticket sales especially in the UK have been handled given the fact some good tickets are on sale to the highest bidder. Maybe they are locked into that system and have no say .However it would be refreshing if this reached them and they looked at other ways for the real fans to get tickets without being ripped off by various means or frustrated at lack of opportunity to see I believe an artist who does care for his fans . On the other hand I might well be incredibly naive, oh well back to the storeroom!

[margaret]

With all the bad feedback there has been re tickets is there any chance that the tour managment take on board the vast crescendo of criticism at the way ticket sales especially in the UK have been handled given the fact some good tickets are on sale to the highest bidder. Maybe they are locked into that system and have no say .However it would be refreshing if this reached them and they looked at other ways for the real fans to get tickets without being ripped off by various means or frustrated at lack of opportunity to see I believe an artist who does care for his fans . On the other hand I might well be incredibly naive, oh well back to the storeroom!

I'm sure the tour management are aware of all the problems now but I reckon it is too late to change the system.
I personally would rather do without a ticket and stay at home rather than use these touts/agencies. It would be preferable to hang on in a telephone (or alternative) queue to the actual venue for each concert. I am also being naive hoping for a return to what seems to be an outdated booking system.

margaret

[subtle]

I guess in Ireland we are really lucky the big man added a third date - it has really undermined the touts and the ebay scammers. There are still tickets left at all prices for the Friday night. Hopefully all true fans will not have to resort to a tout to get the tickets they want and the only trading is swaps between nights.

As for trading with ebay - I have never bought tickets through ebay but have bought other stuff without trouble - as has been said before look for the 100% confidence/feedback ratings and ideally with a decent number of previous sales to reinforce that.
I

[John Etherington]

If anyone without tickets is desperate or doesn't want to wait and see if there are good seats released or returned , I see that Seetickets still have "Blue Alert" packages available for Leonard at the O2. This package ensures a seat in block 101 or 112 (i believe these are lower tier at the side of the stage) plus a pre-show meal, drinks and programme. Tickets are £200 each (so not for everybody!).

All good things, John E