To think that Ticketmaster should not be allowed to operate like this....

[itsgoodtobehome]

DH and I decided that we would like to go and see the U2 Joshua Tree concert in July. Tickets went on sale at 9am this morning. I went on the site just before 9, and at 9am exactly I hit the 'buy tickets' button. I went into a 'virtual queue' for about 5 minutes, and then the page came up where you choose your tickets. I selected 2 'at any price' and it immediately came back with 'there are no tickets available'. However, it then offers you a link to a resale site where you can get tickets 'from £200 to £800'!!

So basically, within 5 minutes of the tickets going on sale, Ticketmaster have managed to sell them all to a bunch of touts who are now flogging them on-line for upto 8x the original price. This seems to happen whenever a big gig is announced that is likely to be sold out. It just seems really unfair on the average person who is basically priced out of going to see a gig they would really like to see. I don't know how Ticketmaster are allowed to get away with this. They are just making ticket touting legal.

Angry - needing to vent!!

Ticketmaster own Seatwave. Ticketmaster employees get tickets first - by the time ticket sales actually open there are already a large chunk gone - to employees and sponsors. So long as people are stupid enough to pay over the odds this will happen, the only way to combat that seems to be some sort of identity proof - I've seen one that required the card making payment to be produced on the night for example - but that's not always workable and is against the interests of the promoters and Ticketmaster so I don't see it happening soon.

Adele tickets were selling in Holland on Seatwave for 9k. Maybe it's time I got a job at Ticketmaster.

Iron Maiden got it right when their tickets went on sale back in October last year.
You will need the card you paid with AND photo ID to gain entry. This is their statement:

The actions being put in place for 2017 are:

Ensuring that every venue will operate Paperless ticketing, either 100% or partial.

Working in co-operation with Live Nation and Ticketmaster, Paperless ticketing means that the original cardholder is required to present their debit or credit card and photographic ID at the point of entry with their guest(s).

Setting Conditions of Purchase so that tickets are not for resale.

Ensuring to the best of our abilities, in conjunction with Live Nation and Ticketmaster, that secondary ticketing sites are prevented from listing our shows and to invalidate tickets should any appear on these secondary sites.

Setting a maximum limit of 4 (four) tickets per person per show.

To use Purchaser Names on tickets where they are not paperless and to require the cardholder to be present at the show, with picture ID.

A dedicated team to monitor ticket sales in real-time throughout the exclusive Iron Maiden Fan Club pre-sale , any other presales and the general public on sale to ensure that ticket limits are being imposed and all suspicious activity is reported and investigated.

A dedicated customer support team on hand to deal with any issues from fans with legitimate problems.

Being aware of criminals and their methods to infiltrate our best practices and having the conviction to retrospectively cancel their inventory. This is especially in respect of automated bots and multiple card efforts which are used to garner large numbers of tickets at the onsale to the detriment of the fans.

Reinforcing the message that if you buy a ticket from an unauthorised source, it will be either invalid or counterfeit. Do not become a victim.

Quite why every other band can't do this I don't know.

so now multimillionaires U2 don't have enough money so are pricing genuine fans out

I can't comment on whether or not the people buying these tickets are genuine fans. But yes, U2 (to be more precise, U2's management) are getting as much money as they can for these tickets.

I don't mean Ticketmaster Platinum though, I mean Get Me In, which is a Ticketmaster owned resale website.

I'm talking about Getmein.com which is a ticket re-sale site owned by Ticketmaster

Ok. I went to Ticketmaster and got redirected to Ticketmaster Platinum where tickets were on offer at £350. There was no mention of getmein.com, hence my assumption you were talking about Platinum. Getmein is, as you say, a ticket resale site. Having taken a look, the cheapest tickets there currently seem to be cheaper than on Ticketmaster Platinum for pretty much the same area of the stadium.

It would seem that around 800 to 1,000 tickets have made their way onto Getmein. Twickenham holds around 110,000 for concerts. I don't know how many tickets U2 are selling using Ticketmaster Platinum but my guess is that the tickets on getmein.com are a small proportion of the tickets sold in the first 5 minutes after they went on sale.

As per a previous post, reselling tickets for concerts like this is legal. Ticketmaster and artists usually put limits (in this case no more than 6 tickets per purchaser) to make life difficult for ticket touts but the touts are not doing anything illegal. If Ticketmaster didn't operate getmein.com someone else would offer a similar site so I'm not sure what stopping them would achieve.

Personally I would be more annoyed about Ticketmaster Platinum. As others have said, U2 don't need the money they will get from using this service.

This happened to me several times this year. I tried to get tickets for a few different artists including shawn mendes for my dd, exact same problem. Also happened when i tried to get tickets for some YouTubers on tour ( can't remember their names) i have given up trying to get tickets now for any live performance, its not worth the hassle.

This what I get (and I'm guessing other people too - on a desktop it shows on the left side of the screen instead)

There's an MP I think it's Sharon Hodgson who seems to have done a great deal of campaigning on this kind of thing. I know that's no help but am just saying it's not something that has just gone unchallenged

This really infuriates me, happened to me when I tried getting Coldplay tickets for their gig in Dublin. All sold and within minutes re-directed to seatwave. U2's gig in Dublin went on sale today and also sold out in minutes. they are definitely greedy beggers with their tour of their old album

I've just bought tickets for DD2 for Hamilton.

If you sell the ticket on, it is automatically voided.

There's an MP I think it's Sharon Hodgson who seems to have done a great deal of campaigning on this kind of thing

Seriously? The country is going to hell in a handbag and MP's are spending their time campaigning about who can buy tickets for GIGS?
That is depressing.

Some U2 fans have been queing since Friday to get the tickets this morning. Personally I'd pay money to avoid having Bono sing at me, the epic tit, but whatever lights your candle.

Well, I think the whole thing sucks - whoever owns the different websites, whoever is profiting, whoever is making the decisions - as usual it is Joe Public that gets shafted. These bands would do well to remember the days when they were grateful for anyone to come and listen to them.

Oh well, I will console myself by reminding myself of the fact that even though I think The Joshua Tree is a great album, since those days, Bono has disappeared completely up his own arse, so he would probably have annoyed me at the gig anyway with whatever political bandwagon he chose to rant about on that day!!

I think all events should be paperless.

It's a long shot but keep an eye on Scarletmist or twickets. Both are resale sites which only allow tickets to be resold at face value.

There was a panorama or something about the resale ticket sites.
Not only do ticketmaster own getmein, a huge amount of the tickets on there for silly money are on there being SOLD by ticketmaster for whatever they can get for them.
They are bastards preying on the fans that are desperate to go to these gigs.
I wish you could still queue for tickets. For one particular artist I take time off work just to try online for tickets! Surely I should be allowed to queue at the fucking ticket office if I'm that keen?!

You might be interested in this, OP. fanfairalliance.org/ (sadly not a fairly-priced ticket)

I wish you could still queue for tickets

You can. As above, U2 fans have been queing since Friday in Dublin.

I had this with Micky Flanagan - its disgusting! Somehow some people have purchased tickets and uploaded them straight to a re-sale site despite it being something stupid like 9.02

Its criminal

The same happened for Phil Collins, there were tickets on getmein the day before they were on sale to the public.

We got Phil Collins Hyde park tickets in the pre sale. I understand his last concert sold out in thirty seconds, it's unbelievable how fast they go.

My husband recently bought tickets for another gig he wanted to see and the price he paid was about three times the face value.

The same thing happened when I tried to buy tickets last year. The tickets were being sold for 4x the price on the resale site.

I wish you could still queue for tickets

You can. As above, U2 fans have been queing since Friday in Dublin

It's not common any more. A hell of a lot of gigs are online/telephone sales only

I had this with Micky Flanagan - its disgusting! Somehow some people have purchased tickets and uploaded them straight to a re-sale site despite it being something stupid like 9.02

The chances are it was the ticket selling company.

One of the reasons they sell within minutes is that there are a number of ways to get tickets pre-release. For example, if you are an O2 customer you get advance sales for O2 venues, as a member of various fan groups I get access to 2 tickets a couple of days before they go on general release, with one venue I can get access to the waiting list at 8.30 am (ie half an hour before those that log on at 9 am can do). Each of these ways of buying have a certain amount of tickets available for fans ahead of time.

Even on Ticketmaster the maximum you can buy is either 4 or 6 depending on the event. All I would say is that if you are going for a major venue such as O2 London or Wembley Stadium often they start with 2 dates available but suddenly after those 2 dates are sold another 2 are released when the others have sold out. Indeed often they release the weekend dates later as these would be more popular anyway. This way it ensures the weekday events are sold out before offering the more popular ones.

Yeah it's horrible.

I did manage to get two good seats in the presale for London thank god, but the presale has left a lot of people disappointed and ticketless.