Boycott The Unbelievable Ticket Prices

I was absolutely astounded today when I visited play.com and found that they were selling tickets for AC/DC long after all the venues had supposedly sold out.  I had wanted to purchase 4 tickets at Birmingham but only managed to get 2 in the morning scramble that was opening ticket day.

I decided to take a look and see how much these tickets at play.com were going for, expecting them to go up and thinking they’d be £60 each when the tickets originally cost £40 each.  It was then I had my biggest shock – tickets for Birmingham AC/DC were £235 each.  Yes you are reading this right.  This is nearly 6 times what I paid for my tickets.  I would expect that kind of price from ticket touts, who should be strung up anyway but from a reputable website like play.com.  Why for £235 per ticket I want would to see the concert and sit to a 3 course meal with the band before the gig.

This kind of pricing needs to be stopped.  None of this extra money goes to the band itself, it all goes into the pockets of someone who, quite frankly, hasn’t earned the right to it.  I am sure that if any of you know any bands they would all agree that the bands don’t write and play music to rip off their fans and they wouldn’t want anyone else to do so.  Bands, like AC/DC enjoy what they do and they want to bring their music to you at a price they know their fans can afford.

I urge everyone to pass this information on to all of their friends and to boycott buying tickets from places, like play.com, which seem to just want to rip off the average concert goer.  If you are going to a concert/gig/festival, get the tickets from the venue or a reputable ticket vendor like seetickets or ticketmaster.  

RIP-OFF UPDATE Feb 09

It's happening again.  One of my favourite bands Motorhead are playing at the Royal Concert Hall Nottingham in November.  Tickets from Ticketmaster are a reasonable £25.  All Gigs are also showing tickets at £25. Then you have places like World Ticket Shop and Seatwave who are selling them at £98.  But none of these outstanding price beat Play.com who are selling these tickets at a whopping £125.27.  That's £100.27 more than the face value ticket price.  How are these companies getting away with these kind of 'rip-off' amounts.

Let me know if you've if you've had problems with websites ripping you off for tickets?  How do you think this can be stopped?  Should it be up to the bands to ensure that companies don't sell there tickets for extortionate prices or should all tickets be sold only by venues to combat this problem?  Let me know your views.  Check out my advice on ticket buying on Gig Diary.

RIP-OFF UPDATE May 09

It's happening again.  Another of my favourite bands Green Day are playing gigs across the UK.  Tickets from Ticketmaster are a reasonable £35.  Seetickets are also showing tickets at £35. I decided to check out play.com while I was waiting to purchase my tickets - about 5 minutes after the tickets had gone on sale Play.com were selling them at £150 per ticket.  That's £115 more than the face value ticket price.  I'm beginning to think that our fat lazy government should look into what is going on and put a stop to it.

I know the bands/venues get their money but ripping off the fans, who try so hard to purchase their tickets as soon as the clock hits the minute they go on sale, with these astonishing prices is outrageous.   It’s because of the likes of Play.com and other overly priced ticket websites, that the trusted places have had to drop their sales to a maximum of two tickets per customer.  This makes thing hard when a family who would all like to go see a band as can’t get seats together anymore.

This must also make the bands feel that there fans don't want to see them anymore when the turn up to stadiums with empty seats dotted all around because of these rip off prices. This will in turn convince the bands who want to fill a stadium that they need to do less tour dates on their next tour, which in turn has the knock on effect to make tickets more expensive and harder to come by the next time round.  Soon bands will turn up and there will be no one to watch them because none of their loyal fans can afford a ticket.

Anyway readers, it's time to make a stand.  I have started with Play.com and sent them an email to ask how they can justify such a mark up on their tickets prices - my email went like this:

Dear Play,

Please can you tell me how you can sell your tickets at such a mark up?  I have already got my tickets to see Green Day and they cost £35 each – you are selling the same tickets for £150 each.  Do these tickets enable you to go back stage after the performance?  Why are your tickets so special that it allows you to make such a profit on the face value?

I have been monitoring your site for some time now and have made a note of mark up on Motorhead and ACDC (I also purchased these at face value).  With the ACDC ones they were an unbelievable 6 times the face value.  Motorhead were 4 times the face value.

I know the bands/venues get their money but ripping off the fans, who try so hard to purchase their tickets as soon as the clock hits the minute they go on sale, with these astonishing prices is outrageous.   It’s because of the likes of your website, and a few others, that the trusted places have had to drop their sales to a maximum of two tickets per customer.  This makes thing hard when a family who would all like to go see a band can’t get seats together anymore.

The other thing that is disappointing is that because of you rip off prices the venue are left with empty seats which means the bands who want to fill a stadium then do less dates the next time they tour, which in turn makes you put your tickets up more.

Anyway, I am writing to ask you the question “What is your excuse?” and let you have you say on my website.  I will publish your response for everyone to see if I get one, if not then, I guess I have the freedom to write exactly what I think of your company.

Yours ‘fighting for the fans’

AJ Brewster

As soon as I have a reply from them I shall let you know their reasons.  I am urging all the music fans to only buy their tickets from websites that sell them at face value.  We need to stop these rip-off merchants.  

RIP-OFF UPDATE June 09

I've finally had a reply from Play.  Their response was as follows:

Dear AJ,

Thank you for your email.

We would like to apologise for any confusion in this matter. Please be aware that we are not retailing these tickets directly. We offer a PlayTrade service on our website which acts as a platform for individual sellers to retail items via our website. Unfortunately the prices the tickets are listed for are assigned by the individuals retailing them and not set by play.com.

If you require any further assistance please contact our Customer Support Team on 0845 800 1020 ( UK only) or +44 (0)1534 877 595 (outside UK ). Our opening hours are 9am - 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am - 5pm Saturday and Sunday.

Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you and thank you for your patience and valued custom.

Kind Regards,

Play

After reading this email, I'm afraid to say more question popped into my mind and me being me, I needed to get some answers so replied today (15/06/09) with the following email.

Dear Play,

Thank you for taking the time to read and answer my email.  On the back of your reply, I would like to ask just a couple more questions before I inform my readers of how you ticket sales work:

1.  How much does play charge for allowing people to sell their tickets through the website?   Is it a percentage of the ticket’s final sale price of a fixed price?

2.  How is it that the tickets appear for sale on the Play website within 5 minutes of going on sale through the main dealer

3.  Don’t you think that Play selling tickets is just another outlet for ticket touts to sell tickets at extremely high prices and rip everyone off?

4.  Is there a way that you could put a limit on the amount of profit that people make from selling tickets on by only allowing a percentage of the sale price to be added – say 10%?  This would

a)  Allow people to get a bit of profit from an extra ticket purchased but not needed

b)  Not encourage the touts to buy tickets and have an easy outlet to sell at high prices

c)  Not leave the venue with empty seats because the tickets weren’t sold on

Once again, many thanks for taking the time to read and answer my questions.

Yours ‘Fighting for the Fans’

AJ Brewster

I am dying to hear what they come back with this time.

RIP-OFF UPDATE July 09

I've finally had a reply from Play.  Their response was as follows:

Hi there

Thank you for your email.

I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability

1)Our standard fees are a low 15% commission plus 50p per completed sale
2)Events are listed on our site straightaway to enable customers to buy early. We try to advertise all up-and-coming events and if ticket sellers have tickets they are able to list them
3/4) These are difficult questions to answer. A ticket is worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. Sellers advertise tickets hoping to sell them at X price and if they are unable to lose out.


We hope that this information is of some help to you. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to be of assistance.

Kind Regards,

PlayTrade

I don't know about you but they haven't changed the way I will buy my tickets.......

As you can see It is in Play.com's interest to encourage the person to sell their tickets at as high a price as they can due to the fact that Play get 15% of whatever the ticket sells for.  Sticking with my example of Green Day for which I got tickets for £35 off Ticketmaster, the same tickets for MEN Manchester on the 31st of October are selling for £110 today (25/07/09).  Play stand to make £16.50 plus a 50p selling fee and postage (not included in the price that's shown).  That leaves the proud owner of the ticket (Probably a ticket tout) a profit of £58.  None of this money goes to the band who write and perform their songs or the venue who put in all the hard work to bring you the music event.  This profit goes to the likes of play and the tout who probably do nothing but sit on their butts all day.  That's our hard-earned cash people.  In fact, the tout is probably someone sitting at home all day collectiing benefits off the government for being unemployed but that's another issue that gets me going.

There is one other factor that became more noticeable on the 25th of June this year.  Michael Jackson died (if you didn't know this, then what planet have you been living on for the past month) leaving a sell out tour with no performer.  Those who bought their tickets from reputable sites have managed to get a full refund on their tickets.  Those who bought from the likes of Ebay or by some other means got no refund on their tickets.  These tickets were selling on Ebay for hundreds of pounds.  

Anyway, I wondered how Play would deal with this?  On searching Play.com for Michael Jackson (in various formats) I got no matches and could on find the following on the question 'What if a gig gets cancelled?'

If an event is cancelled and not rescheduled, all buyers will be sent an email advising them how they can get a refund for their tickets’

That doesn't really answer the question so you have got the information in advance of buying tickets.  So I thought I would send Play another email - see below:

Dear Play,

Thanks for answering my questions in my last email. 

 Since the recent death of Michael Jackson, I was wondering how you go about refunding for the tickets that have been sold on your site but can no longer be used?  As this brings about a few questions I have numbered them below for ease of answering:  

1.   In the event of cancellation how do you deal with ticket refunds?  All your site says is ‘If an event is cancelled and not rescheduled, all buyers will be sent an email advising them how they can get a refund for their tickets.’but it doesn’t explain what happens.

2.  Do you have to get a refund off the ticket seller first?

3.  If you can’t get the money back does the buyer lose out or do you refund their money and ‘take it on the chin’ so to speak?

       a.  Do you obtain the ticket of the seller before parting with the buyer’s cash?

       b.  Do you let the seller send the ticket on to the buyer after giving the seller the cash?

Once again thank you for taking the time to read and reply to my previous 2 emails.

Yours ‘Fighting for the Fans’

What will they come back with this time.

RIP-OFF UPDATE part 2 for July 09

A quick response from Play this (one day and no chase ups).  Their response was as follows:

Hello,

Thank you for your email.

Please find your answers below.

If an event is cancelled it is the sellers responsibility to ensure a refund is given, if this is not done Play.com will reverse the sale and take the money from the sellers account.

To ensure the funds are always available we do not allow the seller to take the money until 2 weeks after the event

We hope that this information is of some help to you. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to be of assistance.

Kind Regards,

PlayTrade

That sounds reasonable but I do think that there should be a limit to how many tickets and what the price is.  It's sad that the bands, who put all the blood, sweat and tears into their music, don't seem to notice what is happening after their tickets go on sale.  They might say that a true fan will pay anything to see them play.  If that's the case then they really don't deserve their fans.  

RIP-OFF UPDATE Feb 10

What about sites that are ripping people off not by just selling tickets at high prices but then not delivering the tickets at all.  My gripe isn't just with Play.com but with any site that sells tickets at rip off prices.  I've had an email from a reader warning about such site.  Peter from Redditch said:

I have just been listening to the radio and there has been a report that a ticket web site called ‘ukticketfactory.com’ is a ticket tout site and people using this site are being ripped off – no tickets and no refunds.

Many thanks to Peter for letting us know the name of this rip-off site.

Maybe it time that to insist that the names of the gig goers  should be printed on the tickets so that they cannot be sold by ticket touts and people wanting to make a quick bit of cash.  That way you could buy 4 tickets so that a family could go together and sit/stand together.

I really think it's time that singers and bands come together to sort out the ever rising problems with ticket touts.  Your fans want to know that when they buy a ticket for your gig then they are getting the best price and the tickets will turn up.

Fans - it's time to make a stand and only buy the tickets from the venue or venue's choice of ticket seller.  We all know you want to see your favourite's perform but maybe, if the tickets sell out at the reputable seller then it's time to say 'NO, I'm not paying those prices!'

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Let me know if you've if you've had problems with websites ripping you off for tickets?  How do you think this can be stopped?  Should it be up to the bands to ensure that companies don't sell there tickets for extortionate prices or should all tickets be sold only by venues to combat this problem?  Tell me if you know of any other credible websites to buy your ticket from.  Let me know your views.  Check out my advice on ticket buying on Gig Diary.

Keep watching for further up-dates - this doesn't end here.