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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to think my friend should sell me the tickets at face value?

41 replies

WeAreEternal · 02/12/2013 12:40

I'm going to a concert next week, my friend who bought the tickets had two extra (because people pulled out after he ordered the tickets).

I have found people to come with us and asked my friend about the tickets, but he has put them on the site viagogo, he said if I want them I will need to buy them off there.
He has listed them at £60 each, (the other tickets on the site are all priced at over £100 because the concert is sold out, but he wanted a quick sale so has priced them cheaper) however, the face value of the ticket is only £35, we paid £40 with the booking fees.

But the other friends don't want to pay £60 each for the tickets, and said they just won't come if they can't get tickets at face value.

The thing is it will cost me £140 on the train to get to the concert, I will have to pay for a hotel and miss two days of work, which I can't really afford this close to Christmas.
If I can get someone to drive it will be substantially less.

Aibu to think that my friend should just offer me the tickets at face value?
He will then be guaranteed to sell them.

OP posts:
Original poster
WeAreEternal · 02/12/2013 13:27

Sorry for causing confusion.

My friend bought the tickets ages ago, he and his DP and coming and two other friends, one who lives over there and one who lives here were supposed to be coming, I was going to drive down with the friend from here.

For completely separate reasons those two friends have pulled out of going.

My friend asked me to try and find someone to else to come, and I have been asking around, he has been doing the same.

Over the weekend I was with these other friends and they said they would like to come so I asked my friend about the tickets and he told me he had advertised/listed them on this site.
I looked and saw that they are listed at £60 each, I mention this to him and he said all of the other tickets for this concert are advertised at over £100, so he figured if he put them on at £60 he would get a quick sale.

I told him we definitely wanted the tickets and he said I should buy them from the site and then sort it out with my friends.

I assume he is being caucus because he doesn't want to be let down again and as previous posters have suggested he is probably concerned that if they did pull out he would feel obliged to not make me pay for them, as he is that kind of friend.

OP posts:
kittykarate · 02/12/2013 13:32

correct me if I'm wrong, but buying them via stubhub/viagogo will cost you more than the £60 price listed as they put charges on top of the listed price.

So it'll be about £20 on top of the listed price to cover their fees/courier costs etc.

kittykarate · 02/12/2013 13:33

I'll be honest, because he's being such a pain about this I'd be tempted to say he could sell your ticket too, as who wants to hang around with someone who is costing you that much money?

fluffyraggies · 02/12/2013 13:35

So he put them on the site before he knew you'd found takers.

Maybe he cant actually withdraw them from the site now. At least without financial consequence. Some kind of fee from the site?

I think under the circs. your friends should buy the tickets from him off the site, and then between the four of you agree to 'absorb' the £40. ie: he could give your two mates a tenner each back or something, and all be glad you're going without the hassle of a hotel.

Original poster
WeAreEternal · 02/12/2013 13:40

Did consider that, but I checked and you can delete a listing simply as long as it is not already sold.

OP posts:
lottiegarbanzo · 02/12/2013 14:06

I think this is a good example of why you shuld always take money from friends upfront, if pre-booking anything at a price you can't afford to lose.

That way the responsibility for re-selling the tickets would lie with the friends who have pulled out, not the friend who was kind and organised enough to make the arrangements for everyone in the first place.

Back to the specifics - if he could pull them from sale and your friends could make a same day bank-transfer, then I think it would be nice of him to sell the tickets to your friends. (There's still a risk between the two things happening, does he have to pay upfront to advertise on the site? He mightn't want to take that risk).

Maybe he's had similar things happen before, been left footing the bill and has just had enough.

Original poster
WeAreEternal · 02/12/2013 22:07

So I thought about it and decided to just but the tickets from the site, not tell my friends how much they were and keep everyone happy.

So I clicked 'buy', filled in the 500 pages of details to eventually come to the total page.

Ticket price - £60
Booking fee - £9
Shipping - £9.95
VAT - £1.80

Sub total - £80.75

X 2 tickets.

Total - £161.50

I ok with having to pay £120 but there is no way I am going to pay £160 for tickets that have a face value of £35 each.

If my friend won't sell the tickets straight to me then I will just send him the money for my ticket and not go at all.

OP posts:
YourMaNoBraBackOfMyCar · 02/12/2013 23:14

Don't go. I can't think of a single act worth paying that much. Who is it you're seeing?

funkybuddah · 02/12/2013 23:18

No one should ever sell tickets above face value so yanbu

Is touting plain and simple and a really shitty thing to do

Idespair · 02/12/2013 23:25

I would just not go.

What's stopping you from pulling out? He's been a shit and I'd just tellhim that you're not coming and seeing as he likes selling tickets online so much, by doesn't he sell yours as well?

Then cut contact. He isn't a friend.

Caitlin17 · 02/12/2013 23:28

I'd never dream of selling on tickets to a friend at more than face value. That's horrid. In fact depending on what the concert was I've given them for nothing rather than waste them.

I've only once sold on tickets commercially. I resold 3 T in The Park tickets ( on a sold out year) for exactly what they had cost me and chucked in the car park ticket for nothing.

Lora1982 · 02/12/2013 23:42

I would tell him exactly what you did and tell him your not willing to pay £160 for the two tickets. See what he says.

Original poster
WeAreEternal · 03/12/2013 06:49

I not entirely sure if he realised that they add £20 of fees onto each ticket (which is a massive rip off, also the fact that you have to add each ticket seperatly thus paying the full fees multiple times)

I am going to call him later and just tell him everything I've said on here, because this is not the kind of thing that he would do, he is a good honest person and has been one of my closest friends for over a decade.

And I will speak to my other friends again to make 100% sure they are coming so that I can reassure my friend that he is not going to be let down again.

That's all I can do really, other that not go.

OP posts:
JumpingJackSprat · 03/12/2013 07:39

Bloody hell how can they justify booking fees for a second hand ticket!! Hope it all gets resolved op.

comingintomyown · 03/12/2013 07:52

God what a fiasco

In fairness your friend probably didn't realise the add on costs and I think it was ok to stick them on the site to get rid of them rather than lose out

It sounds like you wish you'd never started this ! I hope it's a good concert and worth it !

beals692 · 03/12/2013 08:49

I've had situations like this where I've ended up with spare tickets for a sold-out gig where they are being re-sold at ridiculous prices and I wouldn't have dreamt of selling my spares on at more than what they cost me - and that was selling them to strangers, nevermind friends! YANBU.

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