BBC Watchdog are Tick-ed off with Ticket master?

[5co77ie]

Watchdog had a look at Ticketmaster's in house ticket tout site - get me in last night.

Starting with the obvious they pointed out tickets for gigs on Ticketmaster, are being bought up and then re-sold within seconds of them going on sale, and put on Ticketmaster's touting site Get Me In at vastly inflated prices, where for every ticket that's resold on Get me in Ticketmaster take a sizable percentage.

For a minute I thought they were going to suggest it was Ticketmaster putting them straight on Get Me In but they stopped short of that. Watchdog tried to buy tickets through Ticketmaster with another computer logged onto touting site Get me in.

For an hour, their researcher kept trying to buy a ticket through Ticketmaster, but the site just kept saying none was available. However, at the same time (within minutes), tickets to the concert were appearing on Get me in. The most expensive one for a £30 seat, listed at almost £150. Surely a greedy tout not a customer who realised they couldn't go.

They then found a Sting ticket priced at £1,208, like anyone is going to buy that! A ticket to see opera singer Andrea Bocelli at £1760, and Kylie tickdets at 16 times face value at £1868.90. And because Get Me In takes a percentage, the more these tickets sell for, the more money it makes them and therefore original seller ticketmaster.

Get me in were also prepared to allow a mark up trade in on tickets to 'charity' concertss. they cited 'Help for Heroes' at Twickenham in September. Hundreds of people were listing tickets to the concert on Get me in with a sizeable mark-up. They stood to make a profit (something that's not supposed to happen on charity tickets), and therefore so did Ticketmaster who take 10% on the list price, and another 15% when the transaction is completed

Then they mentioned Live Nation, who merged with Ticketmaster earlier this year. The terms and conditions on the back of the Live Nation Help for Heroes tickets state that you are not permitted to resell them in the course of business or for a profit. So they called Ticketmaster, posing as a customer, and were told that they could sell the ticket for a profit on Get me in, but if a Ticketmaster ticket was found on Ebay sold for a profit it would be cancelled.

Not that it would do any good - but the more the greed is shown the more someone may do something about it. I still loved the fist few minutes where it 'seriously' hinted ticketmaster were selling their own tickets on get me in at inflated prices - not that this is true of course.

[t8yman]

I was shocked at how blatant it was. and the way tm claimed that the advisor was wrong, and would be retrained after he said "you can resell them on getmein, but if TM see them on ebay they could be cancelled"

I am aware of many of the unsavoury practices, just like many others on here. but to see that scenario spelled out so clearly was enfuriating.

TM own Getmein and Livenation.

Livenation say you are not allowed to resell

Getmein say you ARE allowed to resell, but only on getmein, not anywhere alse.

And BTW, TM get their cut on every single one of those sales.

It is a f**king outrage.

edited for frankly shocking spelling

Edited October 15, 2010 by t8yman

[jump]

If I knew they were going to cover Ticketmarket then I would of watched it last night

In fairness I do buy a lot tickets off Ebay but they are almost nearly always less than face value.

[funkymp]

Doesn't surprise me in the slightest, absolutely detest Ticketmaster ever since my problems with U2 tickets for the Vertigo tour, avoid them like the plague nowadays.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2010/10/ticket_master.html on there btw.

Edited October 15, 2010 by funkymp

[jump]

Real time example, Rob Zombie tixs have gone on sale this morning and I didn't manage to get some but Ebay now has 16, Get Me In has 56 and vivagogo has 62 for the London venure alone.

[worm]

Doesn't surprise me in the slightest, absolutely detest Ticketmaster ever since my problems with U2 tickets for the Vertigo tour, avoid them like the plague nowadays.

[windy_miller]

Doesn't surprise me in the slightest, absolutely detest Ticketmaster ever since my problems with U2 tickets for the Vertigo tour, avoid them like the plague nowadays.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2010/10/ticket_master.html on there btw.

[dakyras]

Let's all move to Denmark.

[5co77ie]

Let's all move to Denmark.

[Kowalski]

I see the bastards are involved in 2012!

http://media.ticketmaster.com/og/en-gb/img/sys/tournament/london2012/olyticketprice.pdf

[dakyras]

Why?

[5co77ie]

It's illegal to resell tickets there.

[Gre]

Ahh. okay didn't know that.

[nicktrow]

When I went to Roskilde in Denmark a few years ago we were greeted off the train by groups of ticket touts buying and selling tickets. And guess what? They were all British. I kept my mouth shut as I felt ashamed to be from the same country.

[Sparticus]

I think reselling tickets at face value should always be allowed... Reselling for profit is just shitty...

[OneLittleFish]

/index.php?showtopic=154237">My reason for avoiding this awful company wherever possible

For all the whining Seetickets receive about their handling of Glasto tickets, they're absolute saints compared to Ticketdisaster.

[lifelessfool]

I've allways much preffered seetickets for some reason. But now that I work for TM it makes more sense to get tickets from there, but we are told not to refer customers to get me in.

[lifelessfool]

Double post

Edited October 17, 2010 by lifelessfool

[dakyras]

I've allways much preffered seetickets for some reason. But now that I work for TM it makes more sense to get tickets from there, but we are told not to refer customers to get me in.

[loscfestivals]

It is the Promoters who are screwing you over.

A tout is an oppurtunist who buys tickets and sells them on - you know you are paying more and you decide what you want to do.

The Promoters are the real scum bags in all this.

Take Kings Of Leon for example, they have got an arrangement to sell THOUSANDS of tickets through Seatwave and Getmein - FACT.

Alicia Keys, Guns N Roses, Bon Jovi, Kings Of Leon have all done it recently and it is only going to continue. They do it behind smoke screens, tickets sell out and you get re-directed to Getmein and buy the over priced tickets from the Promoter. That is the real disgrace in my opinion, not some small time chancers.