To be pissed off with Lady Gaga and all her "Little Monsters"

[HamletsSister]

My son wants to see Lady Gaga in Glasgow in October - a reasonable request. He will be 14, so not old enough to go alone or with friends (venue rules). If you join her website, you get a priority code so you can buy tickets from today at 9am in a sort of pre-sale for avid fans. So, there I was, 9am code and credit card in hand, ready to purchase. Nothing. I have been trying all day. The tickets are for keen fans so are standing up, but near the stage. TBH, I would have preferred (old lady) tickets up the back with an actual seat, but those are not available yet.

I have been trying all day and I once got through to some tickets but they were 160 each (seriously?). So, I had a quick google and discovered that 02 phone customers also get 3 days of priority, but can book any seats they want - not just the avid fan spots, but any seats. Can't do that as we are not customers and O2 doesn't work in large chunks of Scotland anyway.

So, I google a bit and discover tickets all over the Internet on websites like Viagogo being sold for twice or three times their face value, plus huge booking fees. He wanted to take a friend or his sister too so we wanted 3 tickets - you can't buy 3 tickets it is either 2 or 4.

So AIBU to be really fucked off with the whole thing and with the whole "priority" booking process if all it does is try to charge us ridiculous amounts of cash for standing up or put ridiculous amounts of cash into the pockets of blatant profiteers?

(I accept to some of you IABU to encourage his love of Gaga but, in my defence, he is 13).

Also, any advice on getting tickets. The last concert I went to was the Paul Simon "Gracelands Tour"!

[HamletsSister]

Anyone? Help?

[WilsonFrickett]

Is it at the Hydro, because I think SSE customers also get priority?

The priority tickets will be very limited numbers and you could well get tickets when the general tickets go on sale? Is that tomorrow?

[ScentedScandal]

£160 each! Blimey.

I also haven't been to a big concert for years, so sorry, no advice but yadnbu. They were talking the other day on the radio about booking fees which also bump up the cost of booking and buying tickets.

The world's gone mad

[WilsonFrickett]

Get me in apparently have 236 tix available now?

[HamletsSister]

I didn't know that Hydro customers get priority - we are Hydro customers. We might get tickets on Friday when they go on general sale but......we probably won't and will have to disappoint him. I wouldn't mind but he has wanted this for 2 years and finally there is a chance and it is being ruined by greedy fuckers.

[WilsonFrickett]

Tickets seem to be onsale now though - as in general tickets

www.getmein.com/tickets/lady-gaga-tickets/glasgow-254641.html

[Misspixietrix]

£160 each?! .

[Ohwhatfuckeryisthis]

No, it's all a massive con. Dd desperate to see Arctic Monkeys last year. Sat poised over twatting ticket master, bang on 9- poof most tickets vanished, even though you supposedly can only get 4. (Luckily I had ticketmaster genius on the case and got 4) 5 mins later all over the legal tout site at vastly inflated prices. Same for Neil Young ( luckily couldn't get any so didn't have to suffer, sorry dh)

[tabulahrasa]

I usually manage to get tickets for fast selling things when they go on general release...you just need to be sitting with the website open as they go on sale.

It's really annoying when you know they're not selling out because people want to go, but because people but them to sell on.

[HamletsSister]

Thanks - Wilson - but those are re-sales. The actual face value is 35 and the extra is going to the purchaser PLUS there is a huge fee to the website (about 15 per ticket). They are the same as Viagogo or Seatwave and are making money.

I will try the general sale on Friday at 9am and sit with the site open, as suggested. It just seems like genuine fans don't get to see what they want. Actually, even the special code for genuine fans is a bit of a con as that only offers you standing up tickets. If you want the biggest rip off it is the sitting ones nearest the stage which are over 800!! (and that is BEFORE the touts get their hands on them).

Would love ticket advice from your ticketmaster genius, Ohwhatfuckery.

[Annianni]

When I've bought tickets, I've had the site open ready, but will have it open on more than one device.
The last time I had ticketmaster open on the laptop, tablet and my phone... Think the laptop was quickest, but at other times, my phone has been quicker.

Hope that makes sense.

[JunoMacGuff]

It's not really a 'con', there are people who make money buying and selling tickets. Not saying its right, or nice, but it's just one persons way of making money.

So they buy a shit load in advance, then sell them off at profit.

'Priority' booking is just that - priority for customers of companies who subsidise the record label/venue in exchange for advertising. It's marketing and it's clever. I know a lot of people who have got PAYG O2 sim cards, just so they can make use of the priority line for tickets. And people who switched to SSE to get Fleetwood Mac tickets

There's people who have Orange sim's solely for Orange Wednesday cinema tickets.

[whydoyoucare]

i was on my computer , dh on his laptop and dd on hers from 9am till 4.30 pm all trying to get mcbusted tickets , finally got them after phoning the actual venue when we gave up online .

[HamletsSister]

I sort of agree with you, Juno, it is a free market and people are prepared to pay that - so that is what they are worth. However, they could easily clamp down on this by putting names on the tickets and expecting ID of some sort (credit card from original purchase etc) and it would mean that the tickets were available to genuine fans. The website which I was given upthread is operated by ticketmaster for people to sell their tickets on. So Ticketmaster makes a killing twice - once for the original sale and once for the re-sale. No one really wins apart from a big business.

[JunoMacGuff]

Absolutely.

There are some things where tickets are named and not transferable, but it is absolutely impractical (impossibly so) to check the identification of over 20,000 people in a short space of time.

It works at festivals, where people arrive over a much larger, staggered period, but for a gig, it isn't possible because everyone really is arriving a the same time.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

They are expensive because this is how musicians make their money. It sucks but with singles always having been a loss leader and albums being illegally downloaded, live ticket sales are extortionate. And have to be, it's generally a short career and an expensive one.

The touts and tickets sales people are [expletive deleted].

[EasterHoliday]

The musician is seeing a tiny fraction of the ticket sales value these days though, because it's all secondary market - legalised touting. the actual ticket price for first sale by the venue / promoter isn't expensive. It's when StubHub / Seatwave adn their evil friends get involved that tickets become £160

[SocialButterfly]

I got two for my nephew this morning as we are O2 priority ticket members, he paid £70 each for 2 tickets and £20 b

[SocialButterfly]

Argh.... Booking fee. Not everyone that got tickets this morning are planning to sell them on.

[HamletsSister]

Very jealous Social. I just wish everyone was planning on going, not selling.

What really sucks is that one of the ticket resellers actually belongs to ticketmaster who make money both ways.


I wouldn't mind giving money to the artist. But I don't seem to be able to do that. The supply of fan tickets is limited and the only way to go (.0unless we get tickets in the general sale later on) is to pay the resellers. It would be £300 to take myself, my son and a friend / his sister to sit in seats that cost £35 each originally.

[HamletsSister]

OK update from the world of ticket scams and internet resellers.

The tickets for non fans / non 02 customers and ordinary people went on sale at 9am. Having learned from this thread, I had 2 laptops, a phone and an iPad all working at getting tickets, plus the landline. Nada. Zip.

But, ticketmaster will now sell us a "Platinum Package" of good seats for £170 each - reserved for fans / mugs.

[Jbck]

Well YABVU to be pissed off at Gaga and the little monsters as the LMs are all in the same boat.

YANBU to be pissed off with the whole shebang of promoters and organizers, it is an absolute rip off.

I would love to have seen her but will not bow down to the scam merchants, sadly lots of others succumb which is why there is such a market, if everyone refused to pay the rip off prices maybe things would change but thats not going to happen sadly.

[HamletsSister]

I think I am pissed off at her because she could do something about it. The other Little Monsters are, I agree, in the same boat. Shocking that ticketmaster are now selling, "Platinum Tickets" at £180+ - they are not even hiding that it is a scam!

Never done this before, hence my shock, I suppose.

[GlitzAndGiggles]

Its disgusting isn't it the prices? I got dp a wireless festival ticket it cost £65 then a £7 booking fee and £3.95 for fucking postage!! So paid £10 than need be despite already being robbed. I booked directly through ticket master as all the other sites were charging the same and no luck on ebay