The Lowest of the Low
Being disorganised, I found myself with a spare Morrissey ticket on the day that I hadn't got round to offering around and, given the late notice, had no takers for. So, of course, I took it to the venue with me to see if I could get anything for it but, not for the first time, decided I'd rather lose the money than sell it to a tout for £10, only for him to sell it on for £50. Bleeding parasites ... they even had the cheek to use the free shuttle bus service from Wood Green tube up to the venue!
I'm hoping the touts didn't do too well out of this one, as the venue released a late allocation of tickets. Ticket touts are one of my least favourite species, but worse still are the new wave of internet touts who bombard the ticket agency websites and phonelines whenever they see something they think they can make a profit on, immediately marking them up to stupid amounts and sticking them on ebay. The stress involved in trying to get tickets for some events now is ridiculous!
Lately, however, an interesting phenomenon has occured, whereby so many people seem to be doing this, you can often find tickets for events on ebay a week or two before the event cheaper than face value due to the sheer amount of people trying to make a fast buck. I'm sure there are plenty of people stuck with Take That tickets after their Wembley gigs were switched to Milton Keynes and a load of tickets got returned.
Thankfully the government and other interested parties are finally getting together to do something about this. They're not talking about banning selling on tickets, but what they are looking at what measures they can take to cut down on the touting. I can't remember all the details I heard (possibly on the BBC London Breakfast Show when I was barely awake) but one initiative they were talking about was making venues take returns like they do at the theatre. I've never understood why venues don't do this - probably cos they don't care - once they've sold the tickets, they're nothing to do with them any more.
I'm sure it won't get rid of the touts, but anything that cuts them down and makes it easier for people to make a fair exchange of unwanted tickets must be a good thing ... as is anything that cuts down on ticket-buying related stress!
G.
I'm hoping the touts didn't do too well out of this one, as the venue released a late allocation of tickets. Ticket touts are one of my least favourite species, but worse still are the new wave of internet touts who bombard the ticket agency websites and phonelines whenever they see something they think they can make a profit on, immediately marking them up to stupid amounts and sticking them on ebay. The stress involved in trying to get tickets for some events now is ridiculous!
Lately, however, an interesting phenomenon has occured, whereby so many people seem to be doing this, you can often find tickets for events on ebay a week or two before the event cheaper than face value due to the sheer amount of people trying to make a fast buck. I'm sure there are plenty of people stuck with Take That tickets after their Wembley gigs were switched to Milton Keynes and a load of tickets got returned.
Thankfully the government and other interested parties are finally getting together to do something about this. They're not talking about banning selling on tickets, but what they are looking at what measures they can take to cut down on the touting. I can't remember all the details I heard (possibly on the BBC London Breakfast Show when I was barely awake) but one initiative they were talking about was making venues take returns like they do at the theatre. I've never understood why venues don't do this - probably cos they don't care - once they've sold the tickets, they're nothing to do with them any more.
I'm sure it won't get rid of the touts, but anything that cuts them down and makes it easier for people to make a fair exchange of unwanted tickets must be a good thing ... as is anything that cuts down on ticket-buying related stress!
G.
posted by gdpreston at 1:53 PM
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