It’s finally here, the day your favourite artist is releasing tickets for their upcoming tour, and you cannot wait. Poised at the computer with your card details (and if you’re anything like me – a map of the seating plan so you know exactly where you’ll potentially be on the big night). Preparation is everything! You’ve been waiting for this moment for what feels like forever, and then – the website crashes, the phone lines are constantly engaged and before you know it, it’s sold out. Seems familiar? We’ve all been there, trust me.
I’ve lost count how many times this has happened to me. After looking everywhere for more tickets (from reputable sites obviously) you actually find some. But wait. You’re being redirected to a site that’s re-selling the tickets for more than twice the price. Damn ticket touts!
Here’s just a few things that annoy me about ticket touts.
No intentions of going
So you’re buying tickets to a concert, a show, or a sporting event you have no intention of going to? Yeah, totally makes sense! Seriously, what is the point? You don’t go to the grocery store and buy a shit load of food you’re not going to eat, just to clear the shelves so people can’t buy their weekly food supply. Aaaarghhhh. How spiteful can you be? I’m sure these people just do it to laugh in our faces. Like hey, guess who I’ve got tickets for…not that I even want to go – just saying! Is that how you get your satisfaction?
Bulk buying
What’s the maximum amount of tickets per transaction? 8? Great! Let me buy another 7 tickets for my imaginary friends who won’t go either. Don’t you think you’re being greedy enough buying 1 ticket you’re not even going to use? But to buy the maximum allowance, really? Absolute piss take. Oh, and get this – there’s some people out there who buy the maximum amount of tickets on several credit cards and bulk buy to the extreme.
Selling to make a profit
This is the part that pisses me off the most. They haven’t just insulted genuine fans by getting the tickets we so desperately want, but they do it to make money. GET A PROPER JOB ASSHOLE!
Ticket touts outside arenas
This might seem like your last chance to get your golden ticket to the event, but stop yourself and just DON’T. To add insult to injury, they’re waiting to pounce on any vulnerable victim and rip you off. You never know where they’ve got their ticket from in the first place.
My experience
My first ever experience of any sort of clamping down on these money making jerks was when I went to see Adele in April at the Genting Arena, Birmingham. Adele became very vocal about how ticket resales would ‘not be tolerated’. This didn’t stop the ticket touts from reselling tickets for astronomical prices, of course. Although, I’m pretty sure Adele had the last laugh.
It’s the first time I have ever bought a ticket where it specified that I needed to bring valid photo I.D with me. When I got to the arena and showed my ticket, I had to show my I.D to the steward to prove that the name on the ticket matched who I was. Absolutely genius! As much as we shouldn’t have to prove ourselves, it really stuck two fingers up as those pesky ticket touts and basically told them all to…
As you can probably gather, I have never bought from a ticket tout and never will. Although you’re probably already familiar with Twickets (a fan to fan exchange website) where you can buy tickets for face value.
What artists think
It’s not only the fans who are annoyed by these ticket touts, the artists are too. Coldplay, Elton John and One Direction have described the reselling of tickets for profit as ‘disgraceful’ and a ‘rip off’. OK, so what can be done about it? In May this year, a petition was created to enforce tougher sanctions for resale websites, and require ticket resellers to reveal their identities. One Direction even tweeted about the petition to raise awareness.
Music fans should be able to get tickets fairly. Touts get in the way!
Stop them by signing the petition:https://t.co/YRqw8GaJ38 #toutsout— One Direction (@onedirection) 6 May 2016
If you agree with my rant then PLEASE sign the petition. You have until the 29th of October to do so. I really think we can make a difference and stop these people from profiting off us genuine fans. What do you reckon? Who’s with me?
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