Vivago rant !

[ghandi]

I have never used these crooks or any other of these sites, nor would I ever however desperate. I wanted to see Jungle having missed out at Glastonbury and their gig at Shepherds bush, so when they announced their tour next year I wanted to get a ticket. I looked at the weekend and there were still tickets left for their gig and the roundhouse in Camden in March 2015, I didn't have the funds then so thought i'd wait until nearer the end of this week to get them when I had the money. I had a look this morning , no luck already sold out . I know they are very popular now but in my curiosity I thought I'd have a look on this site and as I thought they have bought a shit load of tickets. The base price was £18.50 , the Vivago price is now £ 38! Now I know that this has been brought up on here many times before, the Rolling Stones tickets comes to mind and probably every other act you can think of, but surely this and other websites of its kind should be made illegal? I know the venues don't care but these thieves are making a bucket load. I thought touting was being made illegal? This is blatant touting. There are music download sites that are blocked with a Police warning notice, surely the same method should be applied to there people, or do we not care about it?

[eFestivals]

I thought touting was being made illegal?

you thought wrong. In a capitalist society, we get capitalist ideas implemented.

There was a half-hearted attempt about 10 years ago at tightening up the system via 'voluntary' methods, but that was something that the promoters would only agree to go along with if the govt also brought in protectionist laws that would ringfence their place in the market.

[brettredmayne]

Promoters don't care as they get the money any way.

Ticket sites don't care as they get money on booking fee and then run the resale sites themselves.

[russycarps]

Part-time gig goers don't care either.

I know someone who thinks these sites are a good thing, as it means no matter what he can always get a ticket to see a band he likes. He goes to about 1 gig a year.

[russycarps]

I once worked with someone who paid over a hundred quid for a thirty quid ticket for their daughter. Forget who for, but she thought this was normal and these were just standard fees. She thought I must be paying similar to all the gigs I went to.

I remember looking and face value tickets were still available in all the usual outlets.

overvalued

That's shit. Thing is, if you google <band> tickets then it's these touting c**ts that are the first results. If you arent a regular gig goer it's no wonder you get duped.

It's a scam from top to bottom that only benefits the rich.

[ghandi]

I wonder what percentage of tickets they can get hold of. If a gig is sold out lets say within a week. I was shocked, although I guess I shouldn't be , that you could get up to 10 tickets at a time, if you were stupid enough or had enough money not too really care. Things like this make festivals even more value for money when you can see artists that you might have missed in the year because you failed in an attempt to get a ticket on their latest tour.

[LondonTom]

Part-time gig goers don't care either.

I know someone who thinks these sites are a good thing, as it means no matter what he can always get a ticket to see a band he likes. He goes to about 1 gig a year.

That does seem to seem to explain whose actually buying up these tickets. (As someone must be for them to keep on doing it!). c**ts!

The only thing we can do, is not the play the game and encourage others not to. If you've missed out, @Twickets on twitter or Scarlet Mist are usually decent places to find genuine fans just looking for face value as they can't go anymore! (Sometimes cheaper!).

[Amy Lawn]

Remember that Dispatches where they put a mole in the offices? Confirmed what we all knew; Viagogo staff buy up loads of tickets themselves specifically to sell on and make a profit. The shocking revelation was that some promoters sell in bulk directly to Viagogo specifically to be sold off at marked up prices. A gig doesn't even need to sell out, there just needs to be no tickets available apart from those at resale value, fewer tickets are sold but more money is made. Disgusting.

[gizmoman]

Remember that Dispatches where they put a mole in the offices? Confirmed what we all knew; Viagogo staff buy up loads of tickets themselves specifically to sell on and make a profit. The shocking revelation was that some promoters sell in bulk directly to Viagogo specifically to be sold off at marked up prices. A gig doesn't even need to sell out, there just needs to be no tickets available apart from those at resale value, fewer tickets are sold but more money is made. Disgusting.

Yup, thats how it works, in financial markets it would be insider trading and market rigging and illegal, the best way for music fans to beat them is to not deal with them or agents like ticketmaster who do this blatantly with their Getmein rip off company. Use agents like seetickets, ticketline or ticketweb if possible. If you're a fan of a popular band you have to get in quick, these scammers get the best seats and leave the regular gig going fans with the choice of poor seats or paying rip off prices.

Edit. just noticed Ticketweb is now owned by Ticketmaster! These big companies just buy up the competition till they have a virtual monopoly, even more reason to support independent companies.

Edited September 24, 2014 by gizmoman

[musky]

What really boiled my 'nads was when Ebay jumped on this caper with StubHub. Bang went a great source of tickets for pennies!

(Didn't work for really popular gigs of course, but great for sold out gigs where they'd added extra dates leaving the armchair touts stuck with tickets.)

[eFestivals]

Yup, thats how it works, in financial markets it would be insider trading and market rigging and illegal, the best way for music fans to beat them is to not deal with them or agents like ticketmaster who do this blatantly with their Getmein rip off company. Use agents like seetickets, ticketline or ticketweb if possible. If you're a fan of a popular band you have to get in quick, these scammers get the best seats and leave the regular gig going fans with the choice of poor seats or paying rip off prices.

It's not merely the ticket agents and promoters who are in on it, the bands are clearly involved too.

Otherwise they'd have been legals flying around from bands to promoters as a result of that dispatches. The bands would be pissed off enough about offending their fans that they'd have made sure their feelings got publicly known, if they were being stitched up by the promoters and ticket agents.

[dentalplan]

What really boiled my 'nads was when Ebay jumped on this caper with StubHub. Bang went a great source of tickets for pennies!

(Didn't work for really popular gigs of course, but great for sold out gigs where they'd added extra dates leaving the armchair touts stuck with tickets.)

You can still do that on StubHub and similar. Dunno if that's still bad to give them money even if it's below face value.

[musky]

You can still do that on StubHub and similar. Dunno if that's still bad to give them money even if it's below face value.

To be honest I've never really investigated. Clicking on Event Tickets in ebay took me to StubHub and a quick look round just revealed the silly prices all these types of sites seem to have. I've only had a cursory look since then and nothing seemed to have changed so I've not delved deeper.

And yeah, I'm not really inclined to encourage them.

[LondonTom]

You can still do that on StubHub and similar. Dunno if that's still bad to give them money even if it's below face value.

It seems pointless as so many do it but I think if you want to see change, you really have to stick to your guns on this one and just refuse to deal with the tout sites completely. They might not have tickets to everything you want but the actual fan places are great ideas.

You have stuff like The Ticket Trust that Bestival uses and I believe Radiohead has which allows true fan to fan ticket exchange in a win win situation on not being able to go and selling on face value tickets that have been verified as genuine! With that sort of thing avaliable, I think you can tell which bands/promoters actually give a fuck about their fans.

Edited September 24, 2014 by LondonTom

[A13]

Do you mean Viagogo?

[gizmoman]

It's not merely the ticket agents and promoters who are in on it, the bands are clearly involved too.

Otherwise they'd have been legals flying around from bands to promoters as a result of that dispatches. The bands would be pissed off enough about offending their fans that they'd have made sure their feelings got publicly known, if they were being stitched up by the promoters and ticket agents.

Absolutely, the thing is the smaller bands won't have too much say in how the business works, they're just trying to make a living, some of the bigger acts such as Radiohead and recently Kate Bush have done things to prevent touting and other big bands could and should put a stop to this scamming. I'm so glad Eavis saw sense and sorted Glasto out for us.

[Amy Lawn]

It's not merely the ticket agents and promoters who are in on it, the bands are clearly involved too.

Otherwise they'd have been legals flying around from bands to promoters as a result of that dispatches. The bands would be pissed off enough about offending their fans that they'd have made sure their feelings got publicly known, if they were being stitched up by the promoters and ticket agents.

Coldplay were named and shamed on the programme, Chris Martin was quizzed by fans on Twitter and stayed silent. Behind the vegan sandals, he might be a proper bastard.

[frostypaw]

Really does make me feel sick. Those making a living like this are complete parasites dunno how they live in their own skins. Ok you might say they're not mugging grannies for crack, but you are entirely living on taking advantage of people's naivety or desperation

*spits* urgh

[zero000]

Coldplay were named and shamed on the programme, Chris Martin was quizzed by fans on Twitter and stayed silent. Behind the vegan sandals, he might be a proper bastard.

Why wasn't this more of a story? It sounds like they were happy ripping off their own fans.

I can't even bring myself to say they deserve it for liking Coldplay.

[efcfanwirral]

As has already been said - you can find tickets to almost all gigs from people selling spares legitimately. Ive never failed to get a ticket to a gig I want to go to on the 9am sales, and any I've either not known about, or not been able to afford etc I've managed to get tickets through Twitter

Just do periodic searches in between now and the gig, and if no luck the best chance is the week or two before the gig, and if you have the nerve the day or two before. Also follow any fan accounts and even the artist - youd be surprised how many they retweet.

I've done it for big and small gigs - arena ones obviously easier but a couple of years ago I was out on a Friday and decided I fancied going to the cribs gig at the academy the next day. An hour later I had a ticket sorted, they met me at the venue an hour before the gig and it was sorted.

And in following twickets and using Twitter often I've spotted loads of opportunities to get tickets for gigs I have purchased first hand, so it is pretty simple with some perseverance.

Just always meet in person (using all normal safety rules obviously) and you can tell when people are legit by their Twitter timeline - just scroll back a bit and normal interaction / use is a good indication.

[efcfanwirral]

So in conclusion there was no need whatsoever to use these services.

And funnily enough I used this method to get tickets for the coldplay tour that was the subject of the viagogo documentary. Gave me a laugh when watching that!

[stuartbert two hats]

Really does make me feel sick. Those making a living like this are complete parasites dunno how they live in their own skins. Ok you might say they're not mugging grannies for crack, but you are entirely living on taking advantage of people's naivety or desperation

*spits* urgh

Do grannies have a lot of crack?

[russycarps]

the last radiohead gig I went to they had anti-tout measures, but the tickets were about £70 each. I suspect the increased prices were due to these measures so we ended up paying for it anyway.

The trick is to like bands that arent particularly popular.

[dentalplan]

the last radiohead gig I went to they had anti-tout measures, but the tickets were about £70 each. I suspect the increased prices were due to these measures so we ended up paying for it anyway.

The trick is to like bands that arent particularly popular.

It wasn't completely ticketless was it? I thought there was a Ticketmaster sale as well. Might be right about the higher prices though.

Anyway yeah that's probably the way forward. I just read Yusuf Islam just cancelled a New York show because they wouldn't do paperless tickets.

[stardustjunkie]

I hate ticket touting. We ended up with a spare ticket to a concert because some douchebag at Royal Mail opened the envelope and stole one. We reported it to Shepherds Bush who replaced it but not until after we'd bought another one (the wait was killing us and all the terms and conditions on Ticketmaster say stolen tickets wont be replaced).

We tried to sell it for face value and people only started taking an interest once we were INSIDE the venue and couldn't get out to sell it. The concert had already started and it was obvious that people outside wanted to get in on the cheap.

So there's obviously genuine reasons for sale, I've been one of those people trying to sell a ticket for a genuine reason, but there's SO many tickets on the market, because there's so many touts, that it actually makes it really difficult to sell one unless you're talking a massive band like the Stones who you're unlikely to get to see again.

I do think websites like Vivago either shouldn't exist or have restrictions on the mark up.