Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Anyone had their concert tickets cancelled by the organiser?

87 replies

honeymum78 · 22/02/2019 17:10

We have bought tickets for a concert on viagogo and DH has read that some events are not allowing viagogo customers and are cancelling their tickets. How is this is fair! We paid good money for these tickets and don’t see why some venues think its ok to do this? Has anyone had this happen to them?

OP posts:
Original poster
honeymum78 · 22/02/2019 17:44

I don't applaud the organisers for this behaviour. We have bought tickets to an event on a legitimate site and if we are made to feel we have done something wrong, when we haven't, and our evening ruined, I will be so angry with the organisers.

OP posts:
SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 22/02/2019 17:44

@PettyContractor - the problem with ticket touts is the way they drive up the price of tickets so they can be prohibitively expensive, and fans who can’t afford the inflated prices don’t get to see the gig/show.

It is the ordinary people who miss out.

It’s exactly the same as the people who buy up the ‘must have’ toy before Christmas and then sell it for way over the odds, to desperate parents - it is profiteering at the expense of ordinary people.

Chesneyhawkes1 · 22/02/2019 17:44

I bought NFL tickets off them and got in fine

IHaveBrilloHair · 22/02/2019 17:45

How will the venue know where you bought it?
I bought Harry Styles tickets from them and had no problem.
Yes, it was a lot of money but worth it to me.

Livedandlearned · 22/02/2019 17:46

Avoid Viagogo like the plague!

LoniceraJaponica · 22/02/2019 17:47

I can't believe some of the harsh replies on here. I bought some tickets from Viagogo a couple of years ago, not realising that they were ticket touts. Fortunately they were OK. Many venues these days don't sell tickets direct and you get directed to agencies like Ticketmaster.

Mandyfir · 22/02/2019 17:47

@honeymum78 has done nothing wrong. She hasn't broken any rules. It is legal to buy a ticket on a secondary site. The people that are breaking rules are the promoters who have decided they don't want anyone else to sell tickets and so are turning people away.

Original poster
honeymum78 · 22/02/2019 17:50

Thanks @LoniceraJaponica. Reassured to here you had a good experience and didn't have any problems.

OP posts:
Shitgovernmentshitparents · 22/02/2019 18:02

More and more bands etc are putting the name of the person on the ticket who originally bought it and expect ID on entry that matches the name. Ed Sheeran is one. It can make it awkward buying tickets for a present, but when I was given tickets for a concert as a gift I phoned to check what to do as it wasn't my name on it - they said they wanted Photo ID. I took a photocopy of my friends passport and that was accepted.

I think its great- paying hundreds of pounds to a tout that bought the ticket for £50 is nuts. Anything that stops that is good.

Ginnymweasley · 22/02/2019 18:03

Some artists don't want tickets to be resold so make it very clear that they won't allow resell through unofficial sites. Thus us to try and stop touts. So in reality depends on the artist not the venue. Some require Id and the buyers name is on the ticket. You can't blame the venue if you have bought tickets from an unofficial site.

Teenagemaw · 22/02/2019 18:06

Was it Lewis Capaldi tix??? I tried to get some and couldnt Sad

Zebedee88 · 22/02/2019 18:09

You might be okay. We had bought tickets from them last year to see little mix, I was really nervous as I didn't know if they were cancelled or not. But they were fine, thankfully

Flurgle · 22/02/2019 18:11

The problem with touts is they often resell for 3 or 4 times the original price. And it tends to be younger people who get stung due to popular bands.
Viagogo lie on their website and break various rules- they use high pressure selling tactics like countdowns and lying about availability. Sometimes they sell tickets they haven’t even got. They are the most dodgy of a dodgy bunch. You will probably get in though - most do.
There are several good reselling sites now - twickets for instance.

CloserIAm2Fine · 22/02/2019 18:11

The reason they sell out so quickly is because touts buy them to sell on. So don’t support the touts! If it stopped being profitable to do it then they wouldn’t keep on doing it.

Ali1cedowntherabbithole · 22/02/2019 18:40

The touts don't do it to benefit music fans though. They do it for profit.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 22/02/2019 18:56

To those complaining about resellers, what about people who genuinely need to sell tickets, what are they supposed to do? I've sold tickets on Stubhub before and would have lost out if I couldn't have done it. I've never made a profit, I've always listed at face value plus fees plus the Stubhub percentage. The resale sites need to crack down on people selling at a huge profit, not those selling at face value.

Walkingdeadfangirl · 22/02/2019 19:01

We have bought tickets to an event on a legitimate site and if we are made to feel we have done something wrong

It is not a legitimate site as it knowingly sells invalid tickets and you are complicit. You might get lucky but if the venue refuses you entry you have no one to blame but yourself.

Livedandlearned · 22/02/2019 19:02

Viagogo call themselves a fan to fan selling platform, making out they are helping both parties, but they are only helping themselves. they should have been shut down years ago.

Mintychoc1 · 22/02/2019 19:04

Out of curiosity, how do the touts manage to get lots of tickets, when individuals go online the second the sale opens but can’t get any? Do they have dodgy contacts on the inside?

Livedandlearned · 22/02/2019 19:04

Just a quick Google shows they are robbing twats

Anyone had their concert tickets cancelled by the organiser?
Livedandlearned · 22/02/2019 19:06

They use credit cards to buy loads and often when they resell the tickets will have the buyers name on, which will not be the name of the innocent purchaser.

Ilnome · 22/02/2019 19:06

The problem is viagogo arent a legitimate selling platform - a legitimate platform has an agreement with the artist to sell the tickets in the first place - so the venues or the people holding the concert are more than allowed to deny you entry - this being said if you google the artist you will soon find out if they have an anti ticket tout policy.

GinisLife · 22/02/2019 19:18

I thought the issue with Viagogo was that they resell tickets for fans who can't attend - but they "sell" them up front before any fans have given them tickets to get rid of. If no one wants to get rid of tickets Viagogo can't then fulfil the contract with the secondary buyer so they pull out of the deal. So actually the secondary purchaser hasn't bought any tickets because there were none to buy in the first place. This can never be the venues fault

sola82 · 22/02/2019 19:32

I bought hamilton tickets from ticketmaster- they have very strict rules in place to stop touts. They also have systems in place to resell or exchange the tickets if you can't go.
Once the yours go out of business because of this, the tickets won't sell out as quickly and fans won't be stuck paying inflated prices.

IHaveBrilloHair · 22/02/2019 19:37

Twickets is a valid selling site at face value.
That said, I've had alerts on my phone for two months for a George Ezra ticket, and still haven't been able to get one from there.
Luckily a friend bought me one.