In the wake of the
original No More Touts post, I had an email from one of my friends
who bought tickets to the Foo Fighters Halloween show in Nashville from
a secondary seller. She had the unfortunate experience of not knowing
that the scalped tickets had been cancelled, leaving her out on the
street after a 200+ mile journey. While some people received phone calls to say that their tickets had been cancelled, my friend wasn't so lucky. She agreed to talk to me for this
blog.
- How much were the
original tickets and how much did you pay for them from
Ticketnetwork?
Originally, $20 plus fees, so maybe $30. I paid
$221.40 through TicketNetwork
- How far did you
travel to the show?
3 1/2 hour drive, roughly 210 miles each way
- When did you find out
the tickets had been cancelled?
I had heard rumors that they had
been cancelled, and even called the Ryman, but didn't know for sure
until the night of the show, when I saw on a sign that no tickets
bought with gift cards would be honored.
- How large of a group
were left without tickets?
Not sure. I know several of us who were
in line had gotten "taken".
- Did you try getting
tickets through Ticketmaster?
Yes, I tried for 35 minutes straight,
using 2 computers and a cell phone when they went on sale. I had
even pre-registered and had my info ready. I pulled up the
Ticketmaster site at least an hour early, in case I got stuck in
waiting room hell (like with Wrigley)
- How do you feel in
the wake of all of this?
Like an idiot. Very disappointed. I
wanted to see these guys SO BAD (have yet to see them live). Since I
really do nothing else, going to the occasional concert would be
awesome.
- Anything else you
want to add?
Yes.
#1 Originally, I was
very happy when I found out that I could get tix online, because I
don't have anyone in Nashville who could go get in line for me. I
even considered driving to the box office myself but it wasn't
feasible.
#2 I think that those
of us who got bad tickets should've been given preference to buy a
real ticket. I don't have a smart phone so I didn't know that the
invalid tickets had been resold. Somebody got into the Ryman and sat
in the seat I bought on the 29th.
#3 I don't know what
the answer to this clusterfuck is but SOMETHING needs to be done! I
appreciate the Foos (obviously) trying to do something about it,
though.
#4 I have learned my
lesson - unless I can get tix through the "approved"
vendor, I'm not going. I can't afford to pay outrageous prices. As
much as I love these guys, rent has to be paid, electric needs to be
kept on and the cats need food.
~~~
Recent reports show that the Rugby World Cup has suffered the same fate as many other high
profile events. Despite the tickets being allocated through a
lottery, they’re still turning up on secondary ticketing sites,
sometimes for more than 2500% above face value. On top of that,
despite laws in many US states restricting ticket scalping, Missouri actually turned against the tide and repelled their anti-ticketscalping laws back in 2007. The US secondary ticket market is
estimated to be worth $5,000,000,000 annually and is forecast to grow
by 12 percent every year. Things in the UK aren't looking any better.
In a House of Commons document dated January 2014, Parliament decided
not to legislate the secondary ticket market, instead asking that it
continues to self-regulate. (PDF download:
www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN04715.pdf
)
Which is why the No
More Touts campaign needed to be done. When the original ticket sellers and MP's are calling for regulations, you know it's getting serious.
How can you help? There's a petition running to get government to take another look at regulating the secondary ticket market. You can sign it here:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/70470
You can also keep up with the No More Touts campaign through the hashtag #nomoretouts and through the Twitter account @foofamilyuk.
More information is available at:
www.foofightersuk.com
If you've got a ticketing story you'd like to tell, please feel free to get in touch. My email is waking_the_dead@yahoo.co.uk
Or find me on Twitter and Facebook
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