How is this not ticket touting?

[Dave the OAP]

I subscribe to GETMEIN, which is a Ticketmaster company.

I get mails from them with offers of tickets for concerts and saw the Lionel Richie concert at the O2 Sunday 1st March 2015. ( yes I know it's lionel Richie but the wife is a big fan)

Looking for reasonable seats, I scoured their site and found tickets advertised at £132 each. Now that is rediculous, but I suppose that is what you pay these days and it was Block C3 in the stalls. Then I noticed that the process fee per ticket is £24.50 per ticket. So the total cost is £156. 50! Per ticket

I then found in small writing on that page, the original value price indicated by the seller is £75 each!

So how is this allowed if presumably Ticketmaster was the place the original buyer bought the tickets? Is this not legalised touting?

So for the two of us it would cost £313 plus parking and petrol of say £50 that is after food etc not that short of £500 for an evening out! Concert ticket prices are bloody rediculous and this nearly 50% markup on the original cost is just not on.

 

[Driver8]

It is 100% touting.

 

[Worthingite]

It should be illegal. If it's illegal for football matches, why not gigs??

 

[Vegas Seagull]

It's not on. What's not? Off

 

[Gazwag]

It should be illegal. If it's illegal for football matches, why not gigs??

Isn't it illegal at football match due to segregation - the modern day ticket sales for gigs is massively corrupt with the inflated prices and admin fees to purchase tickets, there were no issues in the 80's I could ring up the Brighton Centre and buy a ticket at face value - why not now

 

[atomised]

The worst thing is that it's been documented in a tv programme that a lot of the tickets that appear quickly on the secondary ticketing market never make it to general sale, instead being passed from the primary agency to the secondary to be marked up. Touting yes definitely but sadly legal and industry endorsed

 

[Blues Rock DJ]

Lionel Richie (the wife loves him !!!) ......that old chestnut !!

 

[Dave the OAP]

Lionel Richie (the wife loves him !!!) ......that old chestnut !!

thanks for you input

 

[narly101]

Winds me up no end this does - forgot to post this on the "what grinds your gears" thread. I refuse to deal with Ticketmaster now because of this. It means that I invariably miss out on gigs which I would otherwise love to go to, but that's the point of a boycott.

I rarely go to "big" gigs now because of this blatant abuse of the legality of it and the industry endorsement. Ticketmaster and Live Nation are now the largest seller of tickets in the world. The GetMeIn website is essentially a means for Ticketmaster to access the secondary ticket market legitimately - which is worth a considerable amount of money globally.

The problem that exists with this is that artists themselves also want a piece of the secondary ticket market sales as well (why shouldn't they?), and Ticketmaster allows artists to hold back tickets for the secondary market so they make money rather than a legitimate secondary reseller like StubHub or Viagogo, who will not give any money to the artists.

The company selling secondary tickets should only be making money from the service they offer - hence the inclusion of a process fee. What's even more concerning is that artists are beginning to increase the proportion of ticket allocation to the secondary market in order to make more money. Ticketmaster, are in a unique position, because of their size, to ensure this allocation is increased because they hold the market share in Primary ticket sales.

Its a lose, lose situation for fans of artists who have a large fan base, which is why I stick the smaller venues in London and the emerging artists where a gig will cost anywhere between £6 and £18.

There will always be a flagrant abuse of the law around tickets. it's a simple case of supply and demand.

 

[gripper stebson]

Hello. Is it fee's you're looking for?

 

[brianwade]

Look it's Lionel Ritchie - he is a man with one song and that one is dreadful . Get over it and spend the money on going to see some new bands or take her away for the weekend with the money - as Marc Bolan once said - " It's a rip off ! " They should pay you anyway !

 

[Vegas Seagull]

He ain't called Richie for nowt

 

[ruthers]

Agree with this wholeheartedly, it's scandalous and a real pet hate of mine.

Decent tickets impossible to get at face value as parasite companies are hoovering them up in blocks, which Ticketmaster are happy to allow as it lowers their admin costs and for reasons mentioned above.

Personally I now only go to gigs abroad as it can work out cheaper overall and you get a nice weekend away somewhere nice.

Went to see Muse in Prague (ticket near the front was £30) and Kings of Leon in Berlin (again only £40 for the tickets to sit anywhere). Have a Paloma Faith (err, wife loves her!) gig in Amsterdam to attend in Feb which was £25 per ticket compared to paying over £100 for seats in Brighton in March.

Definitely not the rip-off Britain culture on the continent, but that goes for all forms of entertainment I guess, including our beloved Amex season tickets.

Supply and demand dictates at the end of the day but that doesn't make it right.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Hello. Is it fee's you're looking for?

 

[Blackadder]

I had to do the same with Michael Buble (Wife again!) with Seatwave. I was one of the 20% of the audience that was male. (I did NOT join in the booing when he announced he was getting married!)

Well over the odds but she wanted to go. Poorest seats in the 02 as well.

There was a documentary on this recently (Panorama?). You just can't get tickets on the day they are released. sadly the artists themselves, or rather their companies, sell the tickets en masse to these "Agencies" to maximise their profits.

 

[Billy in Bristol]

Danny Baker last Saturday on Five Live had a very good rant on this subject.

It is touting but we live in a country where millions of us rely on providing a 'Service' which actually isn't required and charging others for the privilege.

 

[fat old seagull]

I subscribe to GETMEIN, which is a Ticketmaster company.

I get mails from them with offers of tickets for concerts and saw the Lionel Richie concert at the O2 Sunday 1st March 2015. ( yes I know it's lionel Richie but the wife is a big fan)

Looking for reasonable seats, I scoured their site and found tickets advertised at £132 each. Now that is rediculous, but I suppose that is what you pay these days and it was Block C3 in the stalls. Then I noticed that the process fee per ticket is £24.50 per ticket. So the total cost is £156. 50! Per ticket

I then found in small writing on that page, the original value price indicated by the seller is £75 each!

So how is this allowed if presumably Ticketmaster was the place the original buyer bought the tickets? Is this not legalised touting?

So for the two of us it would cost £313 plus parking and petrol of say £50 that is after food etc not that short of £500 for an evening out! Concert ticket prices are bloody rediculous and this nearly 50% markup on the original cost is just not on.

Only answer STOP buying them. Explain the principal to your Mrs, buy her a nice bunch of flowers, take her out for a meal. Saves hundreds and you might even be rewarded later. If that is the case just hope she doesn't scream Oh, oh, oh, Yesssss Lionel !

 

[Billy the Fish]

Supply and demand. I still don't get the stigma attached to touting. People have been buying things and selling them for more money since money first existed. It's also not illegal.

You don't go down the market and have a go at the bloke on the stall because they only paid 10p for the Y-fronts and you're paying 2.50.

 

[Triggaaar]

So the total cost is £156. 50! Per ticket

I then found in small writing on that page, the original value price indicated by the seller is £75 each!

It is 100% touting.

Surely it's 108.7% touting?

 

[wellquickwoody]

Supply and demand. I still don't get the stigma attached to touting. People have been buying things and selling them for more money since money first existed. It's also not illegal.

You don't go down the market and have a go at the bloke on the stall because they only paid 10p for the Y-fronts and you're paying 2.50.

I do not have a problem with an individual queueing up online or in person or on the phone to buy maybe 4 tickets with the intention of selling them on at a profit. Firstly they have put the effort in to get them, and they are taking the risk of investing their own money to gamble on making a profit. Their choice, their risk, my choice if I choose to go along with it.

What is rubbish are authorised retailers of tickets (already making a profit out of the face value) selling to their own subsiduary companies en masse and denying Joe Public the chance to buy at face value. They then inflate the price and add on an extortionate booking fee. That is not a free marketplace and should be investigated by the Office of Fair Trading.