I live for seeing bands I love, ticket touts are a huge issue every single time I try to book tickets to see bands, often the practice prevents me from getting tickets at all. It also is sad to see so many empty seats at gigs that true fans could of had, if it wasn’t for the touts.
I’ve missed out on so many concerts especially over the last 10 years because tickets have become almost impossible to get when they go on sale through legitimate sites (I’m not including secondary ticket sites because I regard these as touting sites).
Even trying to get tickets through a pre-sale has become almost impossible, and when I try to go on during the general sale, I’m accustomed to seeing the “sold out” notification within 5 minutes of the sale starting, despite the fact the venues can be well over 10,000 capacity!
I find it quite despicable that the government seem happy to ignore this most of the time, but then criticise touts when it comes to large scale sporting events that they host like the Olympics or Football/Rugby events.
As far as I’m aware it’s not possible to resell sports tickets so why do they same rules not apply to gigs?
Something needs to be done. Now. I fully support this initiative and really hopes that it makes a difference in changing things for the better.
I tried to get Mcfly tour tickets recently. I was there on line ready at 9 am to logg in and hopefully get to see the boys again. It took so long to logg in and before I knew it tickets were sold out. Every date, every ticket. But 5 mins after the tickets went on sale they were on other resale sites at twice the price. How can they be real fans when 5 mins after they buy tickets they resell them? How can real fans not even get a chance but there arw suddenly loads on resale sites? For the first time I won’t see Mcfly on tour.
I haven’t been ripped off but the Coldplay gig at Wembley Stadium was full of ticket touts on the approach. I hope this campaign helps to keep ticket prices at face value.
I bough supposedly great view tickets on EBay several years ago to see Take That in Manchester. They cost over £200 each. They arrived months later as restricted view, face value £35! Out of time to get any help from EBay……
I paid over £300 for tickets to Funeral for a Friend’s farewell shows in London that should have cost me £90, and then the venue and date was changed so I could no longer attend and there was nothing I could do to get my money back, if I’d have been able to buy these from a primary site with insurance, I would have been covered.
You have my vote, the practice stinks and it is illegal in other countries. I have in the past looked at tickets and just refuse to pay the mental prices. I have seen tickets for £1000’s and I bet the face value is no more than £100.
I know tickets will sell for big bucks for big events, but when they are the only tickets you can ever get, it crazy.
I had to pay £350 for 2 Justin Bieber tickets for this year’s tour for my daughters for £65 tickets on a secondary site for tickets on sale AT THE SAME TIME as the tickets supposedly went on sale. Disgusting, if it was for me I wouldn’t have bought them but it was for my daughters so had to tip up.
When trying to buy fan only pre-sale tickets for Jeff Lynne’s ELO Birmingham concert in April, within less than 5minutes, all pre sale tickets were sold; but I was redirected to the company’s secondary website, where I was offered tickets at approx four times the ticket price, along with several ‘package’ deals. However, I then registered with the Genting Arena’s ticket sellers, and was able to buy the seats I wanted, paying the stated price, two days later.
Stone Roses at the Etihad 17/6/16 brought the tickets off SEATWAVE 😡😡😡 2x 139 standing tickets = £278 … Seatwave Commission £58.98 … Delivery Charge £9.99 ….TOTAL £339.97 …
I’ve been saying for years that the government should just make it illegal to sell tickets at more than face value. That way touts immediately go out of business but if I’ve got a genuine spare ticket for an event because a mate can no longer make it or something I can still sell it on and get the money back.
It seems like such an easy & obvious solution….
Good luck guys, I wish you all the best
I was hoping to buy tickets for a London show for The Shins, I kept refreshing the page at 8:59am (They were available at 09:00am). As soon as 09:00am hit, there were not a single ticket available but they popped up minutes later double the price on Stubhub.com and Viagogo for double the price.
Disgusting – sick of touts, resellers and bots.
My wife bought some tickets to see Madonna last December. She visited the main ticketing site almost immediately the tickets went on sale and thought she was buying direct from the venue. It was only after the sale had gone through that it become apparent that she has purchased from a third party through “get me in”. The whole was completely untransparent and she ended up paying more than double face value for the ticket. A few days later more concert dates were announced so she could have easily picked up a ticket at much less gain. The cost she paid. I endorse any work that is being done to make this whole process more open as at present it is riddled with abuse at the expense of the ticket paying public.
Bjork tickets for RAH 21/9/16 – face value £40 – £80.
Three days after they went on sale (concert sold out in 27 minutes) Viagogo is offering tickets for £343 – £2,252.
Venues and promoters don’t care as long as the concerts sell out.
Ticket touts such as Ticketmaster say ticketing marketplaces “are dynamic and react to demand and the willingness of fans to pay…” Really?
I am in the military, therefore am not often around for concerts.
I saw the Avenged Sevenfold/Disturbed show at the 02 advertised and noticed I was going to be around for that weekend.
I tried to purchase standing tickets at 9am when they went on sail via Ticketmaster but was unavailable. by 0915 there was 514 tickets on Getmein! (A ticketmaster company) this is obviously touts taking advantage, potentially through hacking and once again real fans miss out. Something needs to be done!
I am a long term fan of Crosby Still and Nash and so when a tour was announced last year , quite possibly their last , I was keen to get tickets for their Hamersmith show.
I had been notified by their fan site that tickets would go on sale on a certain date. I checked Hamersmiths website which confirmed this.
Out of curiosity (and because I am a long term campaigner against secondary ticketing sites) I checked ViaGoGo and Seatwave.
Both had numbered seats available for a show that was not yet officially on sale!. At inflated prices.
Of course when I emailed them for a reaction , I got no reply , although Hammersmith themselves did respond and said they would investigate.
As someone who has worked in promotions part of the problem with either having names on tickets or proof of ID is that at a big show this will cause major problems for venue staff and lead to long queues.
Very best of luck with your campaign.
I spent an hour in a queue waiting for advance sales of Twenty One Pilot tickets last week. within 2 minutes of them going on sale they were all gone.
Less than 25 minutes later 300 were available on viagogo and other resale sites at 4 x the cost.
I cannot afford those prices and now they are sold out but there are now 100s online on other sites.
I am so angry that in 2016 this is not being dealt with. Elitist ticket touting should be illegal it is to the detriment of the artists and the fans and the music industry.
I REALLY hope that you can make this a reality for the future and have limits on ticket sales and be named tickets only.
Want to buy 4 stall tickets for ABC in Bristol, Getmein shows tickets at £164.94 per ticket, face value of £35 – disgraceful!
I have been a Green Day fan for over 20 years so I was really hoping to secure tickets for their Leeds gig in Feb 2017 when they went on sale at 9am this morning (9.9.16). I managed to get on the Ents 24 website at 9:01 to find that all the standing tickets had gone. I quickly checked the seating plan & tried to get seated tickets but they sold out right before my eyes. So by 9:02 every ticket had gone. Same story on Ticketmaster.
I am absolutely furious that by 9:05, there were hundreds of tickets available on Seat Wave, Stub Hub & Get Me In at a minimum of twice the official ticket price.
I simply do not believe that these sellers bought their tickets via the official websites this morning & immediately relisted them. Completely unethical & I have to suspect that the official sellers facilitate this “legal” ticket touting.
You have my full support and I wish fanfairalliance all the best in their efforts to halting the racketeering that has become rife with regard to resale tickets. Fans rise up and stop these criminals, music for the people!
A friend and I tried to get tickets to the stone roses concert a few years ago. After 10 minutes of trying tickets were sold out, yet appearing on secondary sites for triple face value. I am sad to say this discouraged us from seeing live music until very recently as we didn’t think we would be able to get tickets. The lack of regulation is can absolute disgrace. I am so glad there is some hope that this could change.
I tried to get tickets for my god childs b’day/Christmas to see Shawn Mendes. I missed 2 days of pre-sale on fan club site as you had to buy CD and other bits that I can’t afford. I was able to go onto 02 Priority thankfully but all tickets had gone by the time I arrived. Second Hand sites are now flooded with inflated priced tickets before the official release to the public!
Stubhub is owned by eBay; GETMEIN by Ticketmaster – I avoid buying from either of these companies and their subsidiaries.
Best of luck in getting this closed down!
I go to a lot of gigs and it’s a shame to see rows and rows of empty seats, due to secondary ticketing. It’s very disappointing for fans and it must also be discouraging for the artist / band to see a ‘sold out’ venue that is nowhere near full.
I have always used ethical not for profit websites / methods to resell any tickets on the very rare occasions that I end up with a spare ticket.
I must admit I tend to not go to gigs at big venues any more, as I know there is little to no chance that tickets will be available at face value.
When I queried the only website reselling Iron Maiden O2 Arena tickets – which quite clearly breaks the terms & conditions that IM are selling them under – this was the reply that I received –
Thank you for contacting us.
That is what is called “a walk in” event. The seller will be there on the day of the event, and will bring you in. He have to show his details. That is why you can buy these tickets.
Kind Regards,
Ron
Recently went online to purchase Clapton tickets for the Albert Hall next year. Was in the site at the time the tickets went on sale and refreshed the screen bang on 9.00am at the allotted time and found myself 3500 in the queue. Whilst I waited 45 minutes for my allotted slot I thought I would check the resale sites on a separate session and surprise, surprise there they were at hiked prices. As it happens, I got my allocation from the Albert Hall albeit I had to pay for the VIP tickets.
This surely is illegal and I would be intrigued to know what Eric Clapton’s management team have to say about this rip off (which affects them as well). Perhaps they would like to comment.
On a positive note I should mention David Gilmour who I saw last year. He hates this sort of thing. If you buy his tickets a photo ID is required to prove you purchased the tickets from the approved site otherwise you don’t get in. Well done Dave!
A few years back now when Take That were doing their comeback tour I got 2 tickets for me and my daughter from Ebay to see them at MEN Arena, I hadn’t enough money at the time they went on sale to general public. They were 2nd row tickets, but cost me £300 for the two tickets, way over face value!
I was so annoyed that I had to pay above the odds to get them and that greedy touts were benefiting and exploiting genuine fans! This should not be allowed, a law should be made to stop those touts!
Hi, the effect I feel from ticket touting is not being able to get tickets to see the artists that I want to see, and this can be very disappointing for youngsters that would love to see their idols perform. I would never purchase from a tout and unless other people do the same we will never eradicate the problem.
You have my wholehearted support. The majority of secondary ticketing sites are not “providing a service for genuine fans who due to unfortunate circumstances cannot attend the event they have tickets for”. They are simply facilitating ticket touting and making it almost impossible for normal genuine fans to buy tickets to see the bands or events they would like to enjoy.
Here in Italy is always the same. Quite impossible to get tickets.
I remember a lot of times trying to get a ticket from our unique monopolistic seller that is ticketone.
it’s kinda impossible even if you are logged to the site at the right timing.
As example, I remember last Lady gaga gig here in Milan, Assago, some years ago: ticket where sold out 3 minutes after the sale. So why on Viagogo there were plenty of them? I was complaining this on ticketone and livenation fb pages, and get banned only because I told the truth.
It’s a shame.
I would just like to congratulate AXS and Stubhub for doing their bit in the fight against ticket touting. Tickets for the Capital Jingle Bell Ball went on sale at 8am this morning, 12 hours later Stubhub has 779 tickets for resale all of which have a minimum 50% uplift in the face value. One re-saler that I saw is from Canada! Who decides that they are going to fly half way round the world for a concert, buys tickets and then cannot make it all in the same day!
One devestated 13 year old daughter!
The sooner that it is made illegal to re-sell tickets for more than face value, starting with the primary sites, the sooner this practice will end.
I recently I tried to purchase tickets as a birthday gift for my 16 year old son for the NBA basketball game at the London O2 in January 2017. My son plays basketball in the National Basketball League North East. He is an avid supported of the Indiana Pacers and they are one of the teams playing in London in January.
Travelling from the Northeast we had already purchased train tickets and hotel room and were looking forward to getting good seats when tickets went on sale.
On the day the tickets officially went on sale we were on the primay ticketing site (AXS) before the site opened and managed to get into the queue for tickets. Although we could press the buy tickets button nothing worked. Within about 15 minutes all the tickets were sold, but then thousands appeared on all the four main secondary ticketing sites, Viagogo, StubHub, GetMeIn and Seatwave. Prices were between double and five times the face value.
Although it pains me we have now purchased tickets (at about three times face value) from Viagogo even though we don’t know the seat numbers (secondary ticketing sites are supposed to show this information and also the face value). We don’t of course know if the tickets are genuine, or even if they actually exist. Viagogo tell us that tickets will arrive within three days of the event. We were also charged a “booking fee” of almost £100 on top of the inflated ticket price. I have screenshots of the entire transaction.
Complaints to AXS and the O2 have been met with indifference – it’s not their problem apparently – which figures given that StubHub is an O2 partner reseller!
I’ve stopped even trying to buy tickets for gigs which I think will be touted, and stick to less well known bands in much smaller venues. To be honest, I have found I prefer small club and pub gigs anyway.
RE: tickets for Mickey Flannegan tour.
Tried to book tickets for several dates the minute they went on sale. put in queue but sold out when put through 10 minutes later. Searched on google for said tickets few minutes later to find being offered for 4-6 times face value by ticket tout sites.
outrageous. These are just legalised ticket touts who are also being supp/lied directly by the artists/clubs etc. they were banned outside events years ago but now do it online instead
I have in the past been desperate enough to buy concert tickets from gumtree, ebay etc. I think the showing of photo at venues is a brilliant idea in principle, however it needs a few tweeks! How do you now buy tickets as a gift for someone else? There needs to be the capacity to put someone elses name on the ticket (at the time of purchase) other than the principle buyer.
I’ve been either ripped off or preventing from attending many live music and sport events due to touting.
What I don’t understand is why a harder line approach isn’t adopted/promoted to simply make secondary market trading of such tickets illegal.
We don’t need it.
If venues/ticketing agencies offered a re-purchase/re-sale facility (similar to the 2012 Olympics) to allow those who originally bought tickets for an event, which they can no longer attend, the possibility to sell back the tickets, subject to another replacement customer coming forward to purchase the tickets – all at face value – then we wouldn’t need these online secondary markets.
This could be achieved by a combination of tougher legislation to outright ban secondary sales (as with premier league football) and simple policy/willpower on the part of the ticketing agents and venues to offer the necessary solutions.
I always knew secondary ticket sites were expensive but never needed to use them until recently. I wanted to buy Blink 182 tickets, by time I got the money together standing had sold out so I looked on these secondary sites and ended up spending £90 for one ticket and £70 on the other ticket i wanted to buy as a gift. This is disgusting and it is killing thw music industry because fans cant afford to pay those prices. I wanted to buy Green Day tickets which sold out instantly so I checked the secondary sites and for one standing ticket it was £150 about three times the face value
I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan, and have been to 20 concerts. On almost all occasions, I failed to get tickets, despite being online at the exact time they went on sale. The tickets were then *immediately* found on ViaGogo, at hugely inflated prices. The prices are inflated by Viagogo just as much as by the reseller.
I had a similar experience with Red Hot Chili Peppers gig – could not get a ticket, despite being pre-registered for the pre-sale.
COMPARE FOOTBALL! It is illegal to resell ordinary football tickets, and so you never see them on Viagogo/Stubhub etc (except hospitality tickets).
Why is it OK to rip off music fans, but not football fans?
This is going on across the board not just with music .
I recently tried to buy tickets to see comedian Russell Howard in Birmingham .
There were ticket on sale on stub hub 3x face value the day before the sale .
On the day of the sale the sold out sign went up on the cheaper seats within minutes .
Bots had been used to harvest the affordable tickets for resale.
1. I am a huge fan of Mark Knopfler and David Gilmour. The measures Mark, in particular, has taken in recent years have made it far better for real fans to secure tickets at face value. 2. Generally, I have lots of experience of sitting in on-line Waiting Rooms, getting to the front of the queue at the perfect ‘on-sale’ moment, then getting absolutely nothing because the concert has immediately sold out.
The most recent example was when trying to buy just one ticket, on pre-sale, to see David Gilmour in London. I sat and queued on-line, waiting for 45 minutes beforehand. All was well, but as soon as the ‘on sale’ time arrived, the site went immediately to ‘Sold Out’. It was not humanly possible for 5,200 tickets to have been sold in that moment! Obviously, some technological operation had taken out all available tickets. I immediately phoned the venue, then TicketMaster and SeeTickets; but they all reported that they were sold out. So in less than ten minutes, not even one ticket was available.
3. I have reached the point where I do not bother trying to get tickets for many popular gigs. It is obvious that electronic hoovering up of tickets is ruining access to ‘live’ music. This is bad for the music industry because it dampens the prospects for new and emerging artists.
4. I would far rather pay the artist more money and go through a complex purchasing process, than line the pockets of some anonymous profiteer with no interest in the music and no conscience. Time to name and shame the perpetrators.
5. I am really grateful for the efforts all artists make to ensure that their adoring fans get to see them as many times as their finances permit.
6. I would be happy to help with feedback on proposals to improve fans’ access to ‘live’ music.
So I try to buy guns and roses tickets june 2017 QE Stadium via Ticketmaster who seem to be the official sale channel. I log on at 9.55 at point of release, pretty much immediately only tickets are up in the rafters literally at the back of the stadium, nothing in the lower tiers and seated in the the mid price range at all. Low and behold Get Me In the official reseller (seemingly associated to or owned or endorsed by Ticketmaster) has a a tonne of nice tickets immediately available. Mark up seemed to be between 60-100% now call me a tin foil hat conspiracy theorist, but given it’s a 40000+ ??? stadium don’t you think it’s a bit off seemingly hundreds of tickets are no longer needed and must be sold at a mark up literally minutes after sales are open? My wife a G and R fan since her childhood is incredibly unhappy and it seems the normal fans once again get shafted. Oh if you want a VIP box though get in! You’re good to go. Rock and Roll we showed em aye? I’ve got screen grabs of all this and it’s just so much BS it’s pretty obvious what’s happening.
Every single concert and sports event i have attended is affected by this. Tickets that go on ‘presale’ to a limited number of people and immediately sell out only for tickets to be immediately available on resale sites. I have no issue with a market existing for real fans who have bought tickets and then find out they can’t attend, that’s happened to us all. Selling tickets to other fans at face value (including the spurious admin costs and booking fees) is fair.
But for tickets to be bought solely to inflate prices and rip off fans is touting and should be stopped immediately.
i went online to buy u2 tickets ticket master sold out..getmein had them at 4 times the price…disgraceful
Five different friends tried today for Ed Sheeran tickets on multiple websites not one of us were successful. We are all livid because of course they are all over secondary ticket sites this is so unfair for the genuine fans and something needs doing now lots of people are making far too much off the real fans why year after year is it being allowed to continue you cant legally resell football tickets so why cant this law apply to concert tickets !!!!
I bought tickets from Seatwave for the Black sabbath “The End” tour at the o2 in London. The horrendous disappointment I experienced when I, along with many others were turned away at the entrance. I was then told to go to their office in the o2 only to find it had closed down a few weeks prior. Their customer service was shocking, I will never buy tickets from seatwave or ticketmaster ever again!!!!
Most of the time I’ve given up going to concerts because of ticket touts honestly what chance do regular punters have when touts are using bots to buy up tickets within 5 mins and some don’t even go on sale for real they go backdoor to tout sites and I’m not willing to pay tout prices. The problem for the music industry is that thier inaction on this issue is eventually going to cut thier own throats as more and more people like me when considering how to spend thier entertainment money no longer even consider concerts anymore.
i tried to book tickets for various concerts most times within
the first half hour of booking opening only to find all stalls seats being sold out the loyal supporters are being forced out with
second pricing far to costly for ordinary working or pensioners
being penalised for there honesty to society by parasites who
it looks like the government continue to turn a blind eye to what
a sad sick nation we have become.
Tried to get tickets for Ed Sheeran at Royal Albert Hall Cancer Charity gig. No Chance unless willing to pay extortionate prices from secondary websites.
We need to get a campaign whereby the buyers names be printed on the tickets issued by Primary Ticket sellers. Very easy to do and would stop resale. If a real concern ID’s could be checked at the Venue. This was done when we went to see Santana in Newcastle a few years back.
Well done Fanfair, great to see people taking a stand against the touts. On the last 3 occasions I have tried to get tickets for gigs, Bob Dylan,Saw Doctors and Elbow, I have gone on Ticketmaster when the ticket sales started, on each occasion, tickets have sold out, but as if by magic,are available on all the main secondary sites,(Getmein, Seatwave etc) most of them owned by TM. I have tried contacting TM to get an explanation and they told me to contact Getmein directly, no response from them. I’m certain that TM, depending on the popularity of the act, transfer a large proportion of the tickets they have, directly to secondary sites,thus making it almost impossible to get tickets at face value. They’re getting away with the scalping scam because there is really no proper strong regulation to stop them. I have written to the Culture secretary Karen Bradley, her response basically was long winded, unhelpful and obvious that this government is not really concerned about the whole ticket scam/tout industry. No response from the Shadow Media Secretary, Tom Watson. Genuine music fans are priced out of the market by greedy unscrupulous money grabbers like TM and all it’s subsidiaries. keep up the great work Fanfair
I have joined the “victims of viagogo” group as my son purchased two tickets for the Ed Sheeran concert in Manchester April 23rd believing he was paying £158. As the breakdown page didn’t show due to a “glitch” he was billed £434 – not really affordable to an 18yr old. I have contacted them by e-mail with the following:
Dear Viagogo,
On 2nd February 2017, my son bought 2 tickets for the Ed Sheeran Concert in Manchester on 23rd April 2017 as a birthday gift for his girlfriend.
He was led to believe that the total cost of the tickets would come to a total of £158.40. No sale breakdown appeared when this figure was provided. Only after having completed the purchase and having received the confirmation did he discover that the total price of the tickets came to £434.75.
Your company, Viagogo, stated that there was a glitch on the system during the point of purchase, meaning that the full price that would have been paid was not displayed. This led to the prices being completely misleading. Moreover, the total price was not clear at all during the purchase process, he was never shown a full break down of the costs and the words ‘no hidden fees’ was shown – which is clearly untrue.
In addition, you failed to advise the “face value” of the tickets prior to the purchase and, in your confirmation e-mail, have failed to disclose the precise location of the seats as no seat number has been disclosed.
The impact of this ‘glitch’ has of course left me very distressed by this issue, and in addition, my son has been extremely concerned that, firstly he will not have the birthday gift for his girlfriend that he had saved up for and, secondly, that he may lose all of his savings. I have also had no luck trying to contact your customer service team and I’ve had unsatisfactory standard responses to emails sent. My first e-mail made it very clear that you were to communicate directly with me, not my son, and you have made no further attempt to try and rectify the situation. The only contact you have made is to say that my e-mail address does not show any record of a purchase.
I am fully aware of my rights and that under the Consumer Rights Act (2015), buyers must be told the original face value of any tickets being resold and the seat numbers – these rules have clearly been breached.
I have managed to find and speak to a very large number of people who have also encountered the exact same issue, a number of whom have been refunded, specifically Claire Turnham. We have formed a support group and our stories are all currently being passed on to the media including The Sun Newspaper, the Guardian and the BBC.
To finalise this matter will you please confirm that you will provide a refund in full for the Ed Sheeran Tickets.
If there is no response to my email, then I will be contacting The Trading Standards and will also contact The Financial Ombudsman, My order number is 8977263 and the e-mail used to purchase was owenskilly@hotmail.co.uk.
I re-iterate, all communication needs to be with me and not by son who has already suffered enough distress in this matter.
With him having had an e-mail, I changed the account settings and sent the following which has attached proof of other refunds made to purchases from that day.
Good Morning,
I am e-mailing you again as my faith in your ability to respond appropriately is waning rather quickly. I have already provided you with document number 1 and am now providing further evidence that you have acted upon complaints made by a fellow group of victims who purchased tickets on the same day that your so called “glitch” appeared.
This is some “glitch” given that when I had a look at your site today the same thing happened. Good job I’m aware of it or I could be in the same position.
As previously advised, these tickets were purchased by my 18yr old son as a birthday gift that has gone horribly wrong. I have changed the e-mail address on the account and added my telephone number as the secondary contact. Under no circumstances should you make any attempt to contact him. With regards to the refund, I am happy for you to contact me and I will provide any details required – I repeat, do not contact him.
In addition to the list of copied media representatives, these documents have also been provided to my local Trading Standards office and other high ranking figures who will investigate further.
Gareth Skillander
Tried to book Drake tickets for Birmingham, ELO tickets for anywhere to avail. Sold out in 5 minutes!! Sent link to secondary site where tickets were 4 times the price.
I tried to book two tickets for an U2 concert in the UK in July through the Viagogo UK website. When I was booking my tickets for the U2 concert on Sunday the 09th of July, I was offered tickets with a price of £128.50 each. I chose to buy two and the next thing I know my screen clicks over twice and I am in the Viagogo Swiss page, and have been billed for Euros 800 + for the same two tickets. I contacted my bank immediately and they said I must deal with you directly, first. I then tried to cancel the tickets and seek a refund and was told that I would not be able to and the story you have told me below was repeated to me. I was bemused when I was offered less than half of what I had paid, with additional ‘administration and handling costs’ to be paid to Viagogo if I sold the tickets. Talk about adding insult to injury.
What I do understand is with regard to being an ethical company and doing the right thing. I am also aware of their need as a business to generate profits, however not at cost of defrauding a customer, and this is why I do not understand or accept their explanation that they will not refund me my money. I am aware of this ‘glitch’ that they had in their system and I am also aware of a number of people who have been refunded their money.
I am fully aware of my rights and that under the Consumer Rights Act (2015), buyers must be told the original face value of any tickets being resold and the seat numbers – these rules have clearly been breached. Moreover, the Viagogo t&cs (2.4) states that buyers should be provided with seat details including, row and block number. These have not been complied with.
I have managed to find and speak to a very large number of people who have also encountered the exact same issue, a number of whom have been refunded. We have formed a support group and our stories are all currently being passed on to the media including The Sun Newspaper, the Guardian and the BBC.
I have therefore asked for a full refund for these tickets of Euro 835.55.
This is all about money and greed. The primary ticket companies may make a small profit selling a ticket but this can be huge for a resale.
This has nothing to do with providing people a means to offload unwanted tickets – just look at the huge numbers available on resale sites moments after they go on sale. This is big business that has been allowed to go on too long and it needs to be outlawed. Self regulation will never work when such huge amounts of money are involved.
It is not the only resale sites themselves that are the problem, but the industry that wants a slice of the huge sums involved. Ticketmaster owns Getmein and Seatwave. AEG owns The O2, which is proud to state on its website “The O2’s box office ticketing platform ‘AXS.com’ is integrated with StubHub”, apparently “providing an innovative service for our customers”. These companies don’t try to hide this, they just try to make us believe they are providing a “service” for our benefit.
While this disgraceful practice is allowed to continue these companies will carry on legally ripping off the ticket buying public. Unfortunately I hold little faith that the government will do anything about it.
I tried to but Coldplay tickets for Cardiff, Phil Collins tickets in London, and Adele tickets in UK, when they went on general sale months ago, but although I logged in to try and buy tickets at the very second they went LIVE, I didn’t get a ticket for any concert.
I have been trying to buy tickets for Coldplay since via Gumtree but feel professional dealers are inflating prices ridiculously and the prices seem set between them all.
£72 tickets appear regularly for between £150 and £190, and there is no attempt to discount. Often touts have six, eight or ten tickets available. I asked one if they could get more than ten they said that they could if required.
It is a scam and it is putting me off trying to buy tickets again.
I get the impression that they would prefer not to sell them rather than discount them.
I am regularly frustrated by not being able to purchase tickets, despite being given a heads up by bands such as Radiohead and Bjork. Loging on to a site and waiting and waiting only to find all the tickets have gone in less than 10 minutes. These tickets then start appearing on websites almost immediately, with incredible mark ups.
Why should companies and individuals profit from this scandalous abuse? What are the government going to do about it…very little as we have already seen.
Also, the booking fees and charges for collection are a joke – why should I be charged for collecting MY tickets from a venue?
Recently attempted to buy London tickets to J.Cole. There were 2 presale events and 1 general release. on both pre-sale events, despite registering early, standing tickets had completely sold out within 2-3 minutes leaving only poor upper tier seats.
O2 presale was the earlier – i tried viagogo and would you look at that? standing tickets were being sold at almost twice the price. Banning bots is not enough – there needs to be a restriction on no resale until at least 14/28 days before event. And a full investigation into powerseller link to ticket sellers and their own resale sites.
I purchased ed sheeran tickets on 31/01/17 on viagogo website. It came up x4 tickets £262.99. I thought that’s about right purchasing at around £70 each so proceeded and to my horror a congratulations on your purchase of 4 ed sheeran tickets £1421.37. I haven’t been able to contact via email or contact number which is an automated service to buy and sell tickets nothing else. My bank in which I opened a dispute replied they are sorry on this occasion they couldn’t help as insufficient evidence as to being overcharged. I’ve joined a group called victums if viagogo in which there are lots more like me. Can I please have some help of any kind would be grateful. This should not happen. It is a very misleading site. No way if they had the final amount in which you are actually paying they definitely wouldn’t sell any tickets and that’s how they are conning people like myself ..please help
I bought a ticket from getmein, they charged me double the original ticket price and also an additional £10 for standard UKrecorded delivery which should have been a quarter of that price, and that’s a so called “official” website!
I was considering going to see Tom Petty this summer via proper ticket sites at £69 but additional costs added made it £84 (admin, booking fee, postage, etc!). I’m just sick of both touts AND official websites taking the average punter for all we have.
For resale why not just make it illegal to sell more than the cover price and for standard sale just include the costs into the ticket rather than dumping phantom expenses on the unsuspecting punter?
I should add, btw, that adding platinum, gold, silver, bronze, circles to every gig now is just ridiculous.
I booked 2 tickets to see James Arthur for my daughters birthday present. The tickets were priced at £45 I think but I ended up laying over £126 each! I used to love going to gigs but no it’s almost impossible to get them at face value. It’s ridiculous as the touts earn more than the artists. What’s fair in that
I’ve been trying for a week now to get tickets to an ed sheeran concert for either of his shows in Toronto. I had the opportunity for both presale and general sale unfortantly always sold out within minutes. What frustrates me is how I now find the tickets even for his show that hasn’t gone on general sale already for sale on second websites. Like stubhub. What really kills me tho is those tickets are ranging in price from 223-1300 dollars. sorry 1300 for a ticket that cost 116 when bought on ticket master is ridiculous. I find this whole situation extremely frustrating and unfair. How is any person suppose to afford those tickets? I really wish something would get done about this making this whole experiance once again fun and exciting instead of the heartbreak and frustration you go threw.
Attempted to obtain tickets for the forthcoming London U2 performances via Ticketmaster.
Was on Ticketmaster when the tickets went on sale. After 20 minutes of trying, a secondary box appeared on my screen. This was promoting ‘Get Me In’ which I gather is some sort of Ticketmaster subsidiary.
The secondary screen was now advertising U2 tickets at three or four times the cost of those on Ticketmaster.
People were obviously buying from Ticketmaster and immediately selling at grossly inflated prices.
My experiences over the last year or so suggest that this is at epidemic levels where it is almost impossible to buy big gig tickets at face value prices.
Time for our government to regulate the industry.
Pretty ironic that even on this website I’m having to tick boxes that I’m not a robot and fill in boxes where street signs appear before I can submit this response. The world is going mad!!!!!
I had horrible experience with Viagogo. I paid the ticket 2x the face price, even the last info on the day of the show kept indicating a wrong location. If not thanks to a more accurate information collected by chance in the meantime, I’d easily missed the gig. The email sent to viagogo customer service returned as not deliverable. I tried to write a negative review on trustpilot and the button for sending it was strangely not in the page, so just more frustration added. If I’ll find a way to report to authorities the scam perpetrated by those 21st century thieves sure I’ll do. In the meantime if you can do something to avoid other give to those scammers their hard earned money I’ll be just happy. Thanks
So frustrated. I bought some Steps tickets for my two sisters and niece from Get Me In for £78 each with booking fee and delivery the three tickets came to £274.15. Tickets arrived and they say £41.25 on the actual ticket. Not sure what I can do but feel totally ripped off. Get Me In say they display the original ticket price at the checkout but I don’t recall seeing that or it would have raised alarm bells. I’m wondering if my credit card company can do anything about it.
Bought 2 tickets from Viagogo for Adele, cost £340 but on confirmation email was charged another £125 without my permission. No knowledge of these extra charges!!
Have spent hours emailing, calling & researching how to get my money back.
What a bunch of crooks Viagogo are – I am now completing country court claim against Viagogo & my credit card company is investigating my case.
DO NOT BUY ANY TICKETS FROM VIAGOGO.
I have just paid £717 for 3 tickets for metallica from viagogo, tickets arrived with a name on them rang Manchester arena who said the lead booker must produce ID, explained I bought them from this ticket site they advised me to contact them, tried to, no response as yet, they say on their site that even if there is a name on the tickets, they are still valid and entry to the venue won’t be a problem!
Was online at 9am on the dot when tickets went on sale. Direct through the venue sold out, no chance. After looking through other sites i saw tickets on sale through viagogo for £75…original ticket price was £13, nearly 6 times the price!! And of course the band gets none of this. Sick of this scam.
I don’t doubt all the oft-mentioned issues with touts but I wonder whether the situation would be improved by simply releasing tickets on a Saturday or Sunday? They’re invariably released on a weekday, when I suspect most potential purchasers are at work. Gives the touts much better chance for hoovering-up the tickets.
i logged onto both the Paul Weller & the Kraftwerk site for tickets & they were sold out in 20 minutes, i had a look on these leeches(thats what i call these touts) websites & they had at least 30 tickets for both artists within 20 minutes of them going on sales, i believe that they set up about 50 PC’s & get the tickets just so they can ripped people off.
I took screen shots & the time & reported this to Watchdog at the time, it shouldn’t be allowed
I stopped trying to get tickets many years ago thanks to inflated prices. I want to support many artists but not the people taking advantage of reselling tickets. The latest example (and totally a one of example) of this is for Metallica in Manchester, which I tried to buy for my wife’s birthday. I bit the bullet and made an attempt to pick up tickets upon general release…Totally sold out; plenty available online at third party ticket sites.
I brought two tickets to see Rag n Bone man in O2 Academy Bristol for the 18th April 2017. I purchased them via Viagogo at £37.73 each. I didn’t not realise there was £21.45 booking fee plus £4.95 handling charge plus usual VAT. Is booking fee and handling charge not the same ? When the tickets were printed from the email attachment the face value was £14.50 with £1.81 service charge. Someone somewhere is making a lot of money with extortionate service charges.
I wanted to buy a ticket to see Queen and Adam Lambert live in Glasgow in December, my dad was waiting for the sales to open at 10am but by 10.05am all of the standing tickets were gone. I’ve wanted to see Queen since I was about seven and now I don’t know if I’ll ever see them live. Gutted.
My husband ,today 25 April, bought 2 tickets for Father Joan Misty, Nov 7th in London via Viagogo. When he reached the payment screen an extra booking charge had been added and he paid nearly £300 in total for 2 tickets. I have checked with the venue itself and the tickets are not on sale until Friday 28th – venue suggest Viagogo are ‘being presumptuous”. I do not believe that it is legal to sell items you do not have and also believe they should not be selling tickets without showing their original face value. I have now gone onto their site and made a ‘fake’ booking collecting photo evidence that showing their tactics . Any advice please? Cannot find a tele no for Viagogo oon their site which also states that they are unable to cancel orders…again, highly unusual!
We have contacted our bank but they are unabe to stop the payment. Many thanks
As a seasoned concert attendee and ticket purchaser i bought 4 tickets for the ed sheeran concert at the O2 in London for May 1 2017 through viagogo. As my purchase automatically sent me to this website I was completely misled about the price – i though i was buying 4 tickets for £307 plus the charges for shipping etc however somehow with no pressing buttons by me i ended up paying Total £1347.00….
you can’t imagine my shock and horror – £1000 more than i intended to pay for these tickets.
The tickets have since arrived via UPS and the ticket price is £75 + £1.75
My worry is that these are not genuine tickets and we will be turned away from the O2
WHAT SHOULD I DO???????
WARNING!!
DO NOT use viagogo to buy tickets to anything! I didn’t realise until after i did they are a scam site! I was charged $136 in booking fees for tickets i purchased and not informed id be charged them either!
They will not give me a refund and from what i can see of others who have fallen victim, i wont get one! I also havnt even been sent my tickets, i recieved an email to say i am guaranteed to receive them at least 3 days before the event. I then found out they arent even on sale yet (through legitimate sites) so they have effectively sold me (ripped off) something they dont even have yet! Please share! Ahhhh im furious 😡…. #scam #tickets #onlinetickets #viagogo #monsterjamtickets
I’ve been charged 223€ for 2 tickets to see Ludovico Einaudi next September while the real value is only 80€ and there are lots of available tickets in other websites. Viagogo didn’t advise me of what I was buying, couldn’ t choose the seats and charged me over 60€ of booking fee without prior notice. THIS IS A FRAUD AND I WANT MY MONEY BACK! Please help me and let me know what I can do to help others not to be robbed as well!
HELP !
I have purchased tickets for Cliff Richard Concert at Lincoln Castle 24th June,
The tickets were bought online with Viagogo and I have now printed them off and they contain a name other than mine.
They cost me a lot of money.
Am I going to be able to get into the concert?
If you cant help please can you suggest who might.
I cannot contact Viagogo with my question.
Betty (life long Cliff fan.)
Add my vote. I bought tickets to Rammstein via Viagogo site and the tickets never came. I travelled all the way from Asia to Europe only to be let down.
I’ve just bought two tickets to the Gorillaz Budapest event. Unfortunately I liked a fake event on Facebook, at first titled as “official”. This event was created by kultfeierei.de, which has a Facebook page specified for this kind of scam.
I’ve got notification about “Tickets available” which led to ViaGogo. They wanted to charge my card 130€ for the two tickets, I gave my card’s details then it charged with 190€. The exact amount was never visible before writing my credit card details on the mobile site.
I’m desperately trying to contact their support but the only thing I’ve got so fare is standard copy-paste messages. When I saw the tickets I’ve almost had a heart attack: those were standard 30€ tickets from the official ticket office. Also, the tickets are invalid, and they’ve told me that if I check the validity of my tickets and those are being voided because of this, than it is my fault. Nonsense.
Meanwhile they’ve updated the site and now at least they are writing the exact amount with handling fee and TAX, but this behaviour is absolutely unacceptable.
ViaGogo has a London-based office and domain, the company which selling the tickets is signed in Switzerland and the transaction has fulfilled in Hungary. No lawyer can do anything about this.
I want my money back, but they won’t give me, so I’m going to sue and report at the local police office.
Any help is welcome. Thanks.
I have to say, the WORST experience I have had was trying to book tickets to U2 for this year. Disgusting behaviour that we could not get tickets when I was literally online, on the phone etc bang on 9am and eight minutes later they were already on ticketmaster sister site for double the price. For a band that are so into charity work they should be doing their best to avoid these type of incidents.
Ever since I have come to London, I have discovered and experienced the horrid situations for concerts. Ticket touting has invaded the market and not enough is done to stop it. The emphasis is placed on bots and information of buyers, while the problem lies somewhere else. The problem is the price.
How come a company is allowed to sell a ticket double the face value, plus £30-£50 in fees? Companies that try to seem clean like Ticketmaster are all guilty of reselling tickets at much higher prices. The only possible way to change anything is to limit the profit one can make.
In short, Ticketmaster, Seatwave, GetMeIn, StubHub and expeically Viagogo are taking all of us for idiots (just look at their website and the way they make you buy tickets). It has now become safer and cheaper to get a ticket at the venue from a random person than online and that is not ok. Something needs to be done.
Some companies are helping, such at Twickets, (please use it) which only offers tickets at face value or less and has rather small fees.
I sold tickets on the viagogo website. Sent my tickets off and was promised payment after the purchaser attended the concert.
Days after the concert I still hadn’t received funds into my nominated bank account or PayPal.
I contacted Viagogo and after several emails back and forth I was asked to upload documentation to prove I had not been paid by viagogo. I sent them a copy of my bank statement.
After a month waiting for their next response I logged back into my account to send them a follow up email and have been redirected due to my query being past the expiry date for complaints!!! How on earth have they decided that it is too late to follow up on a complaint when it is they who haven’t responded. I now realise they must have taken their sweet time to respond to me so that it would run over the “expiry date” to complain. I am beyond frustrated.
I hope, at the very least, that the person who paid for the tickets received them and was able to attend.
ive been going tp concerts religiously for about 17 years before touts were a big deal i managed to get front row or good seats at the right price. nowadays i would be like just to get a good seat. fan presales mean nothing to me anymore choice of tickets are crap. i look on a tout site and they have the great seats even though its mean to be fans only sales before general sale but they still get them and sell tickets at stupid prices.
these companies and people are heartless scum. putting in false claims for free tickets that victims of Manchester attack were meant to get then selling for a profit. should be jailed
I have been well and truly ripped off by Viagogo. Please see below message i have sent to them today -one of 3 messages i have sent.
Hi Viagogo
Got an issue but can get no response from emails and no. Phone no. To say im a tad irate is an understatement. Bought tickets for Rod Stewart @ Durham for the 09th June 2017. Paid £303 for 2 x tickets to be seated as per below
2 tickets Order ID: 9245118 Section: 5 Row: B Seats: 9 – 24 Order Status: Tickets on the way
Tickets received today -05th June 2017 and the seating is Block 38. Row J seats 14 and 15.
Definitely not what i ordered and paid for. Could you please resolve this for me urgently.
2nd issue is the tickets i received were ticket master tickets and had a value of £55.00 plus £7.00 S/C per ticket. £62.00 per ticket which is a total of £124.00 for both. Can you advise what the additional £179.00 charges are please. I have already lodged a complaint with my credit card company over these tickets. Would aporeciate an urgent response on this please with new tickets to be issued with the correct seating that was agreed with your company when i purchased these tickets.
Thank you.
As if yet i have had no response from this company and i am so annoyed. Not only have i been ripped off with extortionate ticket charges but to add insult to injury my seating is not what i paid for.
Bought Depeche Mode London 3rd June tickets from via gogo. 10 minutes after Ticket master decalred them sold out. Price 217 for 2 tickets.. E-Ticket delivered day before gig.. Went with friend and was refused entry.. E-tickets had to be exchanged.. And you had to have id of person named on ticket.. But my seats were invalid.. Block was listed as not for resale.. Viagogo don’t answer phone.. No rep on site unlike some other resale sites.. So had to buy tickets at ticket office.. Got 2 for 78 quid each, better than viagogo seats.. Customer service site directs you to web site complaints and only says sorry.. Phone line says you have to pursue refund at gig.. But line never leads to a human.. Just a recording directing you to the website. To make matters worse.. Had I not been able to buy tickets at the venue.. To save a wasted journey we had discussed going into London.. 3rd JUNE 2017 DURING DEPECHE MODE GIG THERE WERE TERROR ATTACKS IN LONDON.. my friend is now scared how close we came to giving up and going to Londo instead. She doesn’t want to go to future events because of the stress it caused and spent the first part of the concert concerned about me having to pay twice for the same concert. I AM GOING TO PETITION THE HOUSE OF. COMMONS AND SEEK TO LOBBY THE SWISS GOVERNMENT TO TAKE ACTION. I also suggest a self starter crowd funded effort using any experience and expertise to start a responsible first call ticket agency.. With 3 part authentication so touts are never in possession of all the information required to resell a ticket.. Forcing the tickets to be sold back to our agency with small penalties allowing the ticket to be resold.. I propose a rep to be on site at gigs to deal with any problems.. As this will be a crowd funded effort.. I propose no one person is the boss it’s a cooperative and those who give up time as well as contributing will be life members and will be perked as appropriate. BY FANS FOR FANS..
Hi, on 14th October 2016 I used PayPay to buy 2 x Depeche Mode tickets from a company called Viagogo. My wife Nanette searched the internet when she knew Depeche Mode were to play London on 3rd June 2017. She found 2 tickets on a site called Viagogo, the normal sites she uses had none available so she ordered them through Viagogo, because they were the only ones who had them listed, thinking they were a legitimate company. She accepted the cost because as they weren’t on sale anywhere else she assumed they were pre-sale priority tickets and came at a higher value, she said it never showed anywhere on the page that it indicated these were someone else’s tickets not ours. The site showed the block but not the seats and not the face value which is illegal as it doesn’t comply with the consumer rights act. The site also gave a count down timer and stated that they were only 5 tickets remaining, we’ve since found out from other people this is a regular ploy to make you rush into buying. I paid £184.69 through PayPal and didn’t think any more of it until the tickets were emailed to me 26th May. Once I downloaded them I was shocked to see they were in a different name and the face value of the tickets including a service charge came in at £45.80 each, that’s £91.60 total! The break down on the email I received said for each ticket was £66.66 face value, £5.95 shipping, they were emailed to me!!, £37.85 booking fee!!!!!!! What!!!!! I have since joined a Facebook page where others are reporting similar stories. PayPal are in association with a fraudulent ticket touting company that fleeces innocent hard working people like my wife and I out of our hard earned money. We thought we were purchasing genuine tickets, not ones that had been bought prior by someone else. Viagogo know that people are going to sell tickets that aren’t yet on general sale to future events, surely this is illegal! I have asked PayPal to look into this matter and refund me £90.00 that I have overpaid for my tickets. So we’ll see how that goes.
I went to see imagine dragons last night and bought the tickets from viagogo!! Said the tickets were £127 for 2 and £351 was taken out of my bank!!! We met up with the seller once there and the tickets only cost £35 each !!!!!!! We want the difference back I understand there’s a booking fee but that much is a joke !!! Viagogo are uncontacable and they do not show these prices at payment
I used Viagogo website to buy tickets for LittleMix but decided not to buy them due to rip off handling fees. So i pressed cancel on the option at the end of the order. Only to find that they took a payment without my permission. I have spoken to my bank, who are investigating my claim of fraudulent behaviour by this company. I was informed by the bank that they will try to return my money.
I bought 2 tickets to Bat out of hell the Musical for £90 per ticket on my mobile. Costs did not show for booking fees vat or shipping. Total should have been £180 but was £247.08 which did not show until after payment, outrageous add ons not shown plus ticket prices inflated by £60 per ticket. Shipping charged even though e-tickets. Have complained numerous times but no refund. Have asked cc company to dispute payment but not holding my breath!!
I bought two tickets from Via gogo – face value was £110 charged £303 and the seats were not in the location booked ie second block centre stage and tickets were 10 rows from back of the stadium.
Couldn’t e mail them as I seemed to be blocked.
Yesterday I purchased Aegon championship 2017 tickets using Viagogo UK
I am aware of the 3rd party inflated costs however, my Aegon tickets arrived this morning. The cost £130 each
Viagogo charged me £263 for EACH (DOUBLE THE TICKET PRICE)
£93 for EACH TICKET SERVICE CHARGE ( £37 less than the value of the actual ticket price)
£4 for EACH TICKET POSTAL CHARGE
This is extortion of magnitude proportions
I am a huge fan of Coldplay and when tickets went on sale for their tour myself and my daughter were on two different computers. The second the tickets went live we were online and being almost instantly being redirected to seatwave. I thought there was a mistake and had never heard of seat wave. Needless to say we didn’t get any tickets. As a fan I was gutted. I’m still waiting to see if I can get them face value from someone who can’t attend and am refusing to buy off these tote sites. Last resort will be to sit in a beer garden near the venue and listen from afar. Don’t see how these totes should make money off the backs of musicians and fans. They’ve created nothing. It takes musician a long time to get where they are. I know from experience with a daughter who’s in the music business that they make so little money on their first decade out there. Holding fans to ransom for tickets is nothing short of criminal. Once upon a time there were a handful of individual totes but now with technology it has gone large scale. I for one would like reassurance that I can buy my tickets face value.
Tickets for Queens of the Stone Age 2017 UK Tour go on sale tomorrow morning (21st June) at 9 am. At 9.30 yesterday (19th June) there were tickets for the gig on Viagogo at more than 3 times face value. Tickets were already being resold 2 DAYS BEFORE they went on general sale!! The only way I could think that this was possible is that touts were using o2 Priority tickets to buy them 48h before the general sale and it was only tickets for the o2 venue that were available, not the rest of the UK dates. However on the o2 Priority website it says that tickets resold anywhere else but Stubhub are invalid. Unfortunately a friend thought it was the official sale and got 8 tickets for a group of us, paying £153 instead of the face value of £42.50. We can’t get refunds and the only option now on Viagogo is to resell the tickets back on the site. However we don’t even know if the tickets are valid anyway. More should be done through legislation and by companies who offer presales to prevent vast numbers of tickets getting in to the hands of touts instead of fans. I have never visited the Viagogo site before, but everything about the design, graphics and interface seems to be set up to generate a sense of high demand and urgency to buy tickets before they sell out. Sadly most of the legitimate general sales I have tried to get tickets though in the last few years, particularly for larger venues, have ‘sold out’ in minutes, I suspect largely as a results of touts buying up tickets to then resell.
Pick pretty much any gig in any city in the UK and the vast majority of seats/standing tickets will be ‘sold out’ and already on sale on the various resale sites.
I no longer go to large gigs because I refuse to allow profiteering by touts and the corporations abetting them .
No charge above ticket price!
Bought 3 tickets to Celine Dion in Birmingham on 27th July 2017 from Viagogo.
Each ticket cost £175 plus £49 booking fee for each ticket and £13 for VAT and delivery.
The tickets arrived today and they cost £73.93.
This is absolute extortion, we only used viagogo because official sites like ticketmaster, seegigs and the celine dion website were all sold out or crashed in the 4 hours we waited in the queue to book the tickets.
Absolutely appalled that this is allowed!
I recently bought 4 tickets for Bonobo in Bristol from Viagogo. The website didn’t give a face value for the ticket but when I clicked to purchase them, the total cost was £206, which I thought was steep but as I was as in a rush for tickets that were due to sell out quickly I was prepared to pay a bit more than the £30 I subsequently found out the tickets were worth. However, when I received the confirmation email my account had been charged £412.24, a significant increase, so I got ripped off twice in one transaction. I would never have willingly paid more than £100 for these tickets and at no point during the transaction did this figure come up – if it had done I wouldn’t have completed the purchase. Companies like this are ruining the live music scene in this country. I am usually quite wary about buying tickets online but this looked like an official/ approved ticket site and was the first to appear on my search with tickets still available. The whole experience of buying the tickets was designed to be stressful with messages stating that the tickets were selling out fast; this kind of hard sell normally wouldn’t make me rush to buy something but friends were also relying on me to get tickets for them. I shan’t be buying tickets this way in future and I certainly wouldn’t go near Viagogo again.
Purchased tickets via viagogo for Jamiroquai for Saturday 24th June.
JayKay had to re-arrange because of his bad-back but can only book the O2 for a wednesday in December.
Viagogo say the will not refund as it has been re-arranged rather than cancelled.
Obviously a Saturday is quite a different night to a Wednesday when most cant travel to London!
I tried to purchase tickets for Queens of The Stoneage at the Usher hall in November, all the tickets were gone in minutes but quickly appeared on secondary site. I purchased two from Viagogo for £280.00. I’ve since found out that the venue will be implementing a strict policy of only allowing people who can provide photo id that matches the bookers name on the ticket into the concert, Viagogo don’t care. the tout wins and me and other punters lose out. How can this possibly be a viable way of trying to stop the touts??. Can the venue legally do this when i and others have valid tickets ??
I paid 150 quid plus for two tickets for viagogo. This was for a surprise birthday event for my husband. Tom jones, and horse racing at cartmel, Lake District, 30th June. Two days before event, it was cancelled saying that’s Ellen is no longer selling ticket!’. I wasn’t even aware it was this kind of website! Poor advertising. Hopefully I will receive a refund, paid by credit. But not for ten days! Disgusting.
IN A WORD VIAGOGO – TICKETS AT 7 TIMES FACE VALUE SECONDS AFTER THEY SOLD OUT. NO REP ON SITE AT GIG TO DEAL WITH 100’S OF PEOPLE REFUSED E-TICKET ENTRY. NEVER ONCE ANSWERED A CALL DESPITE CHARGING FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF COMPLAINING. HAVE NOT RESPONDED TO AMERICAN EXPRESS WHO ARE CHASING THEM ON MY BEHALF. Gig was not sold out so Ticket-master also published fraudulent information (probably to bump up prices via Get-Me-In) (which were on sale BEFORE the ticket lines had closed).. There was a terrorist attack in the city that day.. and it makes me shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn’t gone to the concert (London Olympic Stadium – Depeche Mode)..
I bought tickets from the ticket office on site for 78 quid each.. a quarter of what I paid.. proving they weren’t sold out.
No mention that this was an ID only gig.
SOLUTION
1. BEFORE YOU CAN BUY YOU MUST REGISTER.
2. WHEN YOU REGISTER YOU ARE ISSUED A BUYERS ID CARD.
3. WHEN YOU BOOK A TEXT IS SENT TO YOUR REGISTERED DEVICE – ENTER THE CODE INTO THE WEB PORTAL TO CONTINUE.
4. WHEN YOU PURCHASE – YOU MUST STATE A DELIVERY ADDRESS (AS A FALL BACK) And confirm payment details as normal.
5. If you confirm you will receive details prior to the event.
(an app with a qr code reader will be recommended.)
Your Membership card will have a unique QR Code on it, you will need to scan this and verify it to activate the card from the app.
6. When you receive your validation email or text shortly before the event, you should log into the site or start the app and automatically validate your tickets using the login and 6 digit code sent by text, and then entering the validation code from your membership card (only works for four tickets).
or:
Start the App – Scan the QR code on your membership card which will send an sms to the phone – (automatically read by the app) – which will then validate your tickets.
When you attend the gig, you only need to take your Membership, one form of ID or your mobile phone.
at the point of entry you simply need to be present with your cardif scan the QR or Swipe then enter your Pin Number.
The correct number of Stubs will be printed – which you give to your party as proof of entry. They can then scan these at the gate to be admitted. After that normal security regulations and searches will apply.
Refunds – Only the original seller may re-sell your ticket. There should be a threshold – No tickets may be re-sold within 7 days of the general admission opening date.
Up to 90 days – Refund is face value only (Admin fee retained)
Up to 30 days – 50 percent of face value only
on the day 50 percent of face value (only if resold) allow tracking as proof.
With my system..
The touts will need..
1. a unique mobile number every 4 tickets
2. a unique delivery address for every membership card
3. a unique membership card for every 4 tickets
4. they will need a unique pin number for every card
5. they will need to pre-validate each batch of 4.
6. they will need to have valid ID and escort 3 people at a time through the gate by printing stubs and getting searched
It will make them visible, and it will make it impossible to sell large batches of tickets or buy them. It will make gigs affordable, by ensuring those who want to go have a realistic chance of buying them at face value first.
The venues will be responsible for validation by signing up with agencies – it will be their job to provide it.
Ticketing agents in the UK should apply for a license to operate. Part of their remit to operate is that all customer services numbers should be FREE. All calls should be answered. All Agencies consent to regular compliance audits.
All ticketing agencies should have a representative on site at any venue where more than 10 percent of sold tickets are not confirmed within 3 hours of opening. That representative should be visible and approachable.
All large venues should have representation regardless of confirmation.
used viagogo as I was a fool. Paid £174 for two blink 182 tickets. Only £44 each so I paid £86 pounds extra. Nearly double there value. Got shit customer service. But then what do you expect from money grabbing thrieving scumbags who steal from hardworking people. I love my music and go to many concerts. I fee dirty that I used a scam artist like viagogo. In this day when the charts are full of x-factor rejects and crap music the real bands need the money touring and the fans want to pay reasonable prices. These scum bag touts NEED stoping. bring back the old way of getting tickets. On the phone or que at your local ticket office/HMV
Purchased tickets for World Athletics and really by mistake used
Viagogo and had a huge amount of money added to the ticket sale. I had to put that down to my own fault.
Now I can’t use them so reselling via them and losing more money!
Not sure how to approach it really as no reply to the email I sent etc
On 13 May, the booking opened for Proms 2017. The concert I was interested in was likely to be very popular. I got on to the Albert Hall website, selected the seats I wanted and proceeded to pay. By the time I had completed my purchase, I discovered I was no longer on the Albert Hall website but Viagogo’s and the price of the tickets was not £44 each as I thought but £93 each. I had not only been charged twice the face value of the tickets (£30) but had incurred a £25 charge per ticket. The worrying thing to me was that during the whole time I was making the purchase, I genuinely thought I was on the Albert Hall website. At no point did I knowingly switch to Viagogo. I still do not know how it happened. I am not a novice in making purchases on the Internet and would never knowingly have gone to a ticket tout site.
On Saturday, we were the unfortunate victims of what I believe to be a misleading promotion, which resulted in a transaction which I believe is fraudulent in nature.
Just after 10am on Saturday 8th July, 2017 my wife went online to try and secure tickets for Ed Sheeran at Wembley in June 2018. The tickets went on sale at 10am on Saturday morning (as we had read in the press).
She typed in ‘Ed Sheeran tickets’ to Google and a number of sites were presented. She clicked the top link which was for Viagogo. Having never bought music tickets in the UK before (we were until recently living in Australia), we had never heard of Viagogo but it looked to be a reputable site. It was also the only site which wasn’t frozen. There was nothing on the site to suggest we weren’t buying legitimate tickets (i.e that they were resale tickets).
On clicking the link, she was taken straight to the site and presented with a range of tickets for Ed Sheeran’s concerts. Looking for the most reasonably priced she bought two tickets which then had VAT and delivery added to them (seemed very expensive delivery she recalls). The total cost being £473.69. Whilst we thought this was expensive, we just assumed they were highly priced because it was Ed Sheeran.
Several hours after purchasing on the site, it then became clear that the standard ticket price for the concert was in fact £88 and that Viagogo had greatly inflated the price. After further research it seems that these tickets will not have our names on them either (as they are resold tickets). Ed Sheeran has publicly said that no one will be able to gain access to the concerts without a named ticket (and showing ID to match).As a result the tickets we have bought are completely unusable and I believe we have been misled into buying something which is worthless. I’m assuming there are many more people who have been duped into a purchase along similar lines to us.
We have attempted to get a refund from Viagogo but have been told by their customer service people that this is not possible and the only way forward if we don’t want the tickets is to put them back on sale again. My preference would be to get a complete refund. The only option I can see now is to dispute the credit card payment via my bank and the Mastercard dispute process. I doubt I will be successful with this but will try anyway.
They have stolen £473 from us. This has to change – these companies cannot be allowed to profit like this from the unsuspecting public
My husband and I bought tickets for our daughter who is crazy for Ed Sheeran from Vivagogo last weekend. They were the top of the Google list and assumed it was very much OK. We had no idea they were a secondary site until I read a BBC news article. We paid nearly £300 per ticket. Now we are really worried that our tickets are worth nothing and we will have a very disappointed daughter. We have no idea what to do next.
I’ve been trying to buy 4 seated tickets for the Ed Sheeran tour. I set 3 devices up for 3 different sites to maximise my chance of getting said tickets.
I tried for the first date, then 2 more were announced and finally a further date a few days later. I’m not new to buying tickets online, the only difference was that I was booking for more people this time (4). I was logged onto the sites half an hour before the sale opened and had everything I needed ready. On this occasion, I was unsuccessful every time. My complaint is, that within 10 minutes, tickets were available on secondary sites, (Viagogo was the one I checked), some at nearly 4 times the face value. When is action going to be taken to stop these unscrupulous people!!!
I had purchased 2 x Ed Sheeran tickets on 08/07/2016 from the site for £180.00. When I checked my credit card the overall total cost which has come out of my bank was £756.61.
I couldn’t get any tickets for the Cardiff one so I saw viagogo site, I didn’t know the situations of what has happened in the past until this situation had happened to me, I looked online and saw all these incidents with other people as well. I searched for 2 x tickets which I thought and was led to believe was £180 for the both of them.
Also I feel that their website when purchasing tickets does not clearly show the most important information clearly, and you are also put under pressure by having to complete your transaction within 5 minutes. I feel and believe that by making people rush to complete their transactions and making very important information extremely difficult to see or find in the time frame given. They are clearly mis-guiding people by doing this, knowing that people will fall into this trap.
This isn’t a small thing as there are so many people being conned into buying the Ed Sheeran tickets if they didn’t know like myself that they wouldn’t be valid tickets. Yet they are still selling tickets at triple the face value cost and some people won’t know that the tickets they are buying won’t be valid.
This situation has caused and has affected me financially, and it has made my account overdrawn which I’m am now being charged daily for, as well as not officially having/owning all of that money I am now going to be in debt.
It’s my birthday Month and was going to go away to London for a couple days the weekend before my 25th birthday. I have now had to not do this due to no longer having any funds/money. I will personally say it has put a downer to this month already!
Bought 4 tickets through viagogo because I was mislead to believe that they were first hand tickets. Was mislead to believe that the tickets were fast going by manipulations. Was lead to believe I would pay the amount for the tickets. Was notified only AFTER finishing the purchase of the fee they charge, which is almost 25% commision!. Got the tickets by email only 2 days ago, with another person’s name on them. Feel ripped off
Bought 4 tickets for Toots and the Maytails at Watering Hole,Perranporth 9th august at £27 each+£2 booking fee.Put in credit card details, was redirected to Viagogo, and was pressured by “only 12 tickets left”, and clock running down,and BEFORE I even saw the price (£336) it had been taken from my account.I immediately tried to cancel, but was unable to. I checked with venue next day, and there were lots of tickets left. As there is a post on “Victims of Viagogo” every few minutes, I imagine there are lots of others too.
My sister bought tickets from viagogo on the day that Adele released extra tickets to her uk tour.
She clicked on the official site and must have then followed a sponsored link through to viagogo website without realising she’d done it.
She was buying 3 x tickets for golden circle which I told her would be £175 each plus fees.
She’s very inexperienced at buying tickets online and as such saw the tickets @ £174.99 with fees and thought she was purchasing what I had informed her to get.
The tickets were for my moms 70th birthday and so we really wanted to surprise her with a wonderful treat.
The tickets arrived and state a face value of £75 and we were absolutely gutted and felt completely ripped off, to the point that we no longer wanted to go.
We contacted viagogo and told them the full story and that we were shocked that resellers could have tickets on there in the same moment that they are being released and they said the tickets was sold legally but if we didn’t want to go now we should sell them through their website!
I have to say Adele then cancelled the event in the week as it was due to take place that weekend and instead of disappointed we were overjoyed. It meant we could get our full money back!
I receently purchased tickets for The Rolling Stones playing In Luca Florence for this September through ViaGOGO. We purchased three tickets at an eventual price of £270 each. when the tickets arrived the face value on the tickets were 115 euros each. I cannot believe that Viagog are making all this profit they are making more than the Rolling Stones. Are the band aware of this. I am quite sure Mick Jagger would not approve.
I actually sold my Adele tickets to Viagogo as an absolute last resort because we couldn’t attend and they haven’t paid me.
I’ve been a concert goer for nearly 40 years now and I’ve never known it so difficult to buy tickets for big gigs. People are desperate to see their favourite bands and touts take advantage of that. There should be legislation preventing such ridiculous markups. I tried to get tickets for The Killers recently and Ticketmaster were saying that tickets were sold out in less than a minute on a 12,000 seater arena. I checked Viagogo and other reseller sites and tickets were already there at £150 for a £55 ticket.
Got an email from a venue advertising tickets for Suzanne Vega in the North East. Hubby’s birthday present sorted, great! Clicked on the link but it didn’t work so went to Google and did a search, it popped up with a message to say that the tickets were almost sold out and I needed to hurry. I panicked and rushed through the buying screens but got the tickets. The cost was so high – £130! It was only after I’d paid that I realised that this wasn’t the official site and was in fact Viagogo and that I’d been duped. Went on to see if I could get a refund, no joy and to add insult to injury, when I got onto the venue website the tickets were £34.50 each…I was sooo annoyed and upset. This type of over charging should be totally illegal. When my tickets arrived, the total cost per ticket…£34.50 plus £5.25…no where near £130. Someone somewhere is making a lot of money out of music fans
I have bought ed sheeran tickets to be told they are now void!! Do not buy off viagogo tickets – £367.12 for to tickets and now for them to be void I am fuming to say the least 😤
Booked 2 tickets to see Queen in December from Viagogo as all were allegedly sold, £369.95 for two £79.00 tickets. I am sure I am not alone.
Good for you fanfair,for far too long these so called ticket companies, that as you point out a lot of people are unaware are secondary marketing sites have been ripping people with with astronomical fees
Years ago when Theresa May was home Secretary I sent her an email about this problem,to her credit she did reply,her response was that the government were aware of these sites and felt that at least on a site like this you were guaranteed to get your ticket,unlike other ways of purchasing tickets online,fair point,but as far as I was concerned a huge not really caring attitude,now at last quite a few years later we seem to be getting somewhere,personally I won’t be happy till these sites are once and for all got rid of.
Meantime maybe more artists should get involved,like ed Sheeran,Adele and iron maiden recently.
We are getting somewhere at last but unfortunately it’s a long process.
Keep up the good work fanfair.
Ordered 2 bryan Adams tickets advertised on viagogo for £110 each. With booking fee and VAT, total cost was £367. I was a bit disgruntled, because i thought that mark-up was hefty, basically for putting tickets in an envelope and putting them in the post. However, i became more disgruntled when the tickets arrived the face value of the tickets was £57 each. I telephoned to complain, but a recorded message told me to input the 4 digit extension I required. Obviously, I didn’t know it. I then got disconnected. I then emailed viagogo with my complaint, not only about what i consider to be deception regarding the ticket price, but also the fact that the website puts customers under pressure to buy tickets, by showing alerts such as “only 3 tickets left”. I received a bog standard reply, which made me realise they are having to explain their business practices to a lot of customers.
I did revisit the website and eventually found the statement that gave the face value of the tickets. However, it was difficult to find and only stated the face value in a cost band. It did not give the face value of the particular tickets I had purchased.
From research I have done since, I realise that I got off lightly.
But this company needs stopping.
I have unfortunately become a victim of Viagogo buying 4 tickets for Ed Sheeran for his 2018 tour. Like many other people I paid more than I thought for the tickets I bought and after finding out the tickets are in valid I’m having no success in getting a refund from Viagogo. Let’s hope by having our say it will help to stop others becoming victims.
I googled the Arts Centre Melbourne and their website displayed Kevin Bridges was playing. I clicked on his banner within the Arts Centre website and was redirected to Viagogo. As I was in the Arts Centre page I naturally assumed that this was their approved ticket seller.
After purchasing the 2 tickets for approx $175 each I received the tickets via registered post and a $415 debit from my bank account! The price on the tickets read $79.90.
I recently went to buy tickets from viagogo for a comedian. Started the process and thought I was paying £60 each for 4 tickets. It asked for my name, email, address on the next page. The next one wanted my card details and I pressed continue. Waited for the process and then the order was completed and I had paid a lot more than £60 per ticket as there was a£40 per ticket booking fee. While I understand they charge an absurd amount booking fee, my case with the mobile site is that I wasn’t informed of the final cost also I did not press confirm or place order. I simply pressed continue. Viagogo contact is useless and my credit card say I need to pay it. It’s unauthorised in my eyes as I did not confirm this order nor have I received a confirmation about it only from my credit statement have I proff of it and a screen shot from my phone of the total cost. I don’t know what else to do to cancel these tickets.
DO NOT BUY FROM VIAGOGO!!!!
I purchased 3 tickets for Ed Sheeran from viagogo the day they went on sale. Truly thought the site was legit given it made claims to be an ‘official’ seller. Site uses lots of pop ups and gave only a limited time to purchase the tickets which was very confusing and encourages a quick sale. Not an Ed Sheeran fan as bought tickets for my daughters birthday – only made aware that tickets from resellers would not be valid two days later from BBC website – should have been more widely publicised before tickets went on sale.
Contacted viagogo six times quoting consumer law etc and that I had been defrauded by them and made clear I did not want to resell tickets only for some other family to be duped. Stock response – no refund as they are the agent – so I asked for name and contact details of seller so I could take to Small Claims Court – completely ignored this and reassured me the tickets were legit and would be honoured and continually suggested if I was disatisfied to resell tickets via their website (which I refuse to do).
Bottom line £550 out of pocket and no birthday surprise for my daughter. Completely gutted but have contacted credit card company in the hope of chargeback (I live in hope with everything X’d!)
So for anyone reading this, please do not use viagogo – as many will already know they are complete scummers (yes you read it right)
Antony
I got a secret garden party ticket from viagogo – despite already being angry about the £60 booking fee, i later realised my tickets were invalid and bought, viagogo have now stopped answering my phone calls and emails and I can’t get my £240 refund!
I wanted to buy tickets for The Script at Bridlington Spa. Used Viagogo and found myself rushed through the process. At no point did they explain what the final price would be. Wound up paying over £200 and being told the tickets will not arrive until three days before the concert. So I have no idea what seats I have or if I even have any seats. I contacted Viagogo who refused me a refund (which I expected). So now I will just have to wait and hope that I actually get some tickets.
As I typed in for the will smith concert, viagogo popped up, baring in mind I have never bought any tickets before. I was pressured into buying them and then forced to pay an extreme amount which I was not told about whilst purchasing the tickets, I believe this is aggressive marketing. I then contacted Viagogo and kept get generic answers. I have been ripped off and now I do not even want them tickets.
Late last year I purchased two tickets for lord of the dance. Unfortunately the first site I went onto to buy these tickets was viagogo. As soon as I typed in lord of the dance I seen ‘tickets selling fast’, ‘2% of tickets left’ etc… so I instantly thought I needed to buy them as quick as possible because I wanted them as a present for my mum. Each ticket was £72.99 each which meant it came to £145.98. Great I thought. I checked out and all of a sudden I had payed £210. From what I remember I didn’t see any additional prices what would add onto these tickets so I was abit shocked. Booking fee was £41.36, Delivery was £14.31 and vat was £8.31. I was disgusted in how much extra they had charged me.
I tried to sell them back onto viagogo to get my money back but they never sold even tho the percentage of tickets would lower when I would go onto the site each time, yet the same amount were always for sale.
I looked on other sites for the tickets after I purchased off viagogo and most of the tickets were half the price I spent. I felt like I had been tricked and fell for it. Will never buy anything off them again.
Hi.I spent £2500 on 4 tickets to see Phil Collins through Viagogo.Unfortunately i couldn’t go so a month before i sold the tickets back through Viagogo and was offered £2000.I took the offer sadly.Then Phil Collins cancelled the show until December and Viagogo won’t pay me until after that next show and are keeping hold of my £2500 for about 9 months even though someone else has bough my tickets.What a scam.They should be closed down.
We purchased 2 tickets for U2’s concert at Croke Park on 22nd July. We were concerned when the tickets arrived. They were paper copies and had someone else’s name on them. We were even more concerned when two further tickets ,again paper copies, arrived about a week before the concert. However, as they had been delivered by DHL Express we were hopeful they would be OK. There was a cover note to say to destroy the original tickets as they were no longer valid and hoped that we would enjoy the concert. The name on the tickets was Padraig Kelly. On Friday 21st we received a phone call from someone called Gary to check we had received the tickets. We were on our way to the airport to fly to Dublin and we’re again encouraged to think the tickets would be fine. However on arriving at the turnstile the following evening the operative tried to zap he tickets and failed. We were told they were void. We presented he original set of tidiets which were also void. We were sent to the box office where there were about 20 other people in the same position, including a couple who had travelled from Austria for the concert. All had purchased tickets from via gogo. All were trying to contact the company without success. I rang he number of Gary who had contacted me he previous day and amazingly got a reply. I told him that the tickets were void and he said he would meet us on the main road in 15 minutesand let us have additional tickets. Without any confidence we headed to the road where we managed to find Gary and he gave us 2 tickets which appeared to be bonfire tickets with a security mark on. We did not have to pay any additional cost and were given no real explanation. However at this point we were just relieved to be able to get into the concert. The price on the tickets was 76 euro each and we were charged a total of over 500 euro for 2 tickets. We tried to complain to the ticket site on our return but found this could only be done onine and only by responding to a limited set of questions. We would obviously never use his site again and would urge others not to do so.
We bought tickets from Viagogo for an event in London recently after the last minute cancellation of the Adele concert that we were due to attend. Tickets were bought on the day of the event and arrived as e-tickets, we arrived at the venue and it said e-tickets were not accepted and they would not print the tickets for us as they were resell tickets and not in our name, they checked our tickets and said someone had already entered the venue on these tickets so even if we went somewhere to print them we would not gain entry. The ticket office at the event would not put this In writing for us and just gave us an email address for the promotor of the event to confirm this in writing. Still battling with Viagogo several weeks later to try and obtain a refund, to which they have tried everything possible to avoid a refund under their 100% guarantee, hoping that we will give up, the matter is now with our credit card company. Sites like Viagogo should not be allowed to operate in the UK, they are depriving genuine fans the chance to buy tickets from the official seller for an event by buying them up on an industrial scale.
I abhor the way that organisations actively support viagogo by embracing them as “Official Partners”. Chelsea FC, World Snooker and Scottish Rugby are just three. I have had protracted discussions with Scottish Rugby who appear impervious to criticism about their lack of integrity.
I bought tickets through viagogo on 8th July which I believed was the day they were released for Ed Sheeran concert in June 2018. I spent about an hour trying to get tickets hopping from site to site, thinking they were all selling legitimately.
It was only when I saw Martin Lewis Money tips and the letter from the genuine promoters, that I became away that viagogo have defrauded me of hundreds of pounds for unusable, invalid tickets.
As most people here have found out their is no way of actually getting in touch with viagogo, and they have a one way emailing system sending out not in.. So I found two ‘Head Office’ addresses in London, and sent copy of letter and my purchase stating that I wanted my money back as I have not:
1. Received the tickets
2. They are stated as invalid by the promoter
3. They have taken money under false pretences – fraud
4. They fall foul of Consumer protection acts in the UK.
5. The contract is void as the tickets are unusable.
The above is my first stage recourse.
As described in the letter on Martin lewis’s website I have a right to my money back and not an alternative ticket.
Finally having taken these steps I believe I can reclaim from my Credit Card provider if they do not pay out.
However I believe that viagogo has a responsibility to return monies to fans that have purchased, and that the last resort of claim on my card company or bank, is an unfair approach.
What ever happens I refuse alternatives else I would be aggravating the situation and colluding with viagogo.
Pressure from fans and intervention from Trading Standards, should get a result.
I suggest to anyone in this situation that they put their complaint in writing to viagogo along with a copy of the letter from Martin Lewis’s website, also keep a copy of it and when it was sent as evidential proof of claim.
Do not accept anything else other than a full refund.
I will never deal with viagogo again…
I’ve bought 2 Ed Sheeran tickets for next year’s stadium tour for my daughter and me through Ticket Selection. Just found out they have a bad reputation and my credit card has been charged twice!! Going to try your process – why does no one in authority do anything about so many people being ripped off over and over again?
The only people benefiting are the touts not the fans.
On March this year I booked three tickets from Viagogo to see Celine Dion at SSE HYDRO on August 5.This was a treat for my wife and daughter. I had never done this sort of thing before so I’d never heard of Viagogo and now I wish I hadn’t. Much to my astonishment I was charged £635.55 or £211.85 per ticket. Being so naive I thought that was the correct price and didn’t cause a fuss. That was until months later when I received the tickets by post and was stunned to see the actual price was £65 per ticket plus an £8.80 booking fee per ticket. Total price £73.80 per ticket. I’ve since found that this company is under investigation and can’t be traced
my wife bought tickets in Australia thinking the ticket price was the official price, when I seen my credit card statement I checked the official ticket price and they had ripped us for $180 that 90 pound. when I tried to complain and get a refund I could not get in contact with them. My credit card company could not help either. we wont make that mistake again.
We bought 2 tickets for andy murray live in november at the glasgow hydro we bought the tickets through viagogo it wasent till we got to the last page that we where charged 300 pounds for 2 tickets that would normally cost 80 pounds i think that its shocking. As this event is for charity. Where the 220 pounds went strait in viagogo pockets😞😞😞😞
I was charged £634.99 for 3 tickets to see Celine Dion on 5th August this year. I thought I was paying £75 per ticket! Pop ups kept appearing counting down the minutes left to complete the transaction, also pop ups saying how many other people are looking at these tickets. I felt under immense pressure to complete the transaction and almost passed out when I hit the confirm button and I saw the total charged was £634.99. I was in tears! The tickets I received had £90 on them. My daughters and myself went to the concert and Celine was fabulous but no way ever would I pay that amount to see someone sing
Viagogo charged me £120 for two Luke’s graham tickets. They were the top google result. I was duped as I haven’t booked concert tickets online before. I thought they were official ticket sellers until the tickets arrived-the face value was £25 each. 😩 Very disappointed with Viagogo. Scam artists AIDED AND ABETTED BY Google WHO should not take their money to be a top result. GOOGLE-should show that they are a ‘ values lead’ organisation and refuse the foonsirdhip rom Viagogo to be placed as top search result.
Hi just letting you know I have been successful in having my payment to Viagigo for Ed Sheeran tickets returned to my account. The tickets were bought using my Capital One credit card. My initial complaint to Capital One was met with great sympathy and understanding but they stated I had to wait until the concert and then if refused entry they could act. Having read about the Chargeback scheme I wrote to them to make a claim. I sent a copy of the letter available on the MoneySuperMarket site saying I was a victim of fraud. I also sent the letter from Kilimanjaro. Capital One contacted me asking for more details and copies of the letters available via this site. Much to my surprise and delight told me immediately they were refunding me the payment of almost £500. I have it back! Obviously there is the 45-60 day period for Viagogo to claim it back but I was told they need to be able to prove that the tickets are legitimate and I can use them. All the evidence and information being provided by the concert organisers, ticket providers and Ed Sheeran’s team state they are not. So please continue to get in touch with your banks and credit card providers. Thank you to FFA for advice and copies of the letters from Kilimanjaro. A big thank you to the complaints and dispute team at Capital One UK.
I am one of the many people who has bought tickets off viagogo for Ed S concert tickets, trying to get my money back 🙁
I bought 3 tickets on Viagogo – for Adam Lambert in New Zealand. I thought Viagogo was the official seller of these tickets, as the site claimed. Only after I purchased – I found that they were touted tickets. Viagogo also gave me the cost of the tickets, I paid by credit card – then they added another $300 AFTER I paid the price of the tickets. Viagogo is nothing more than a SCAMMING site. I paid $1000 for three $112 tickets which are sight obscured. Who knows if the tickets are even real. I would love to see Viagogo and other sites like it BLOCKED. They shouldnt be allowed to exist.
Hi all,
On March 30, 2017 I have bought two tickets or Burning Man festival, starting on 27th of August 2017. Beginning of Jun I received tickets and discovered that face value of one ticket was $425 and Viagogo charged me 1330$ ($2660 for two tickets).
Later I became unable to attend the event, so decided to sell my tickets. I have listed same two tickets on Viagogo and after 3 weeks I received an email that my tickets have been sold (for $1728 which is $932 less than I paid ). But I did not receive an address of the buyer where to send the tickets. I have sent several emails asking for the address and only after 3 weeks I have received an email with an address in China (Nina Liu, 111-1-301, JinDuHangCheng 2Qi, Baiziwan road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100000, China). I aproached to FedEx and they told me that this address does not exist and they cannot ship there. On the other hand, Viagogo told me, they will pay me only after 8 days from the date of the event to make sure that buyer could gain access to the event. I asked Viagogo to get me in contact with the buyer to be sure that they will not lie to me. But they refused to. At the same time, I discovered Facebook page Victims of Viagogo, and only after I have fully realized that I was dealing with a bunch of scoundrels. I started to research on Google, and additionally, I discovered this notice on Burning Man web page:
“The majority of listings on Viagogo are speculative listings, which means that the sellers do not actually own Burning Man tickets to back up their listing. Further, their terms of service are not at all favorable to buyers and the seller may cancel your order right up until a few weeks before the event, leaving you without a ticket. As a community service, please flag and report these listings directly to those sites whenever you see them. “ – “Any ticket or vehicle pass being sold for above face value plus service fees is at risk of being canceled and not being valid for entry to the event. If a ticket has been auctioned and/or sold for above its face value, we may have already canceled and voided that ticket.”
And
“Each ticket has a unique QR code, with the corresponding information displayed next to it. Use a free QR code-scanning app on your phone to check that the QR reads the same info as is printed next to it.”
I have scanned my tickets with QR reader, and it does not scan it (I have tried with two different phones, with different QR scanner software).
Eventually, I discovered that my tickets were fake.
I e-mailed Viagogo regarding, but they insisted me to send tickets to non-existent address in China, otherwise, they would charge me for penalty. I have never sent tickets to there and they charged me $60 additionally.
Then I have opened a dispute and asked for the chargeback from my bank and at this moment $60 has been refunded to me, but for the rest of the money, I am still waiting. one month has been passed since I requested for the charge back.
To conclude:
Viagogo is a perfectly well choreographed scheme to rip off people:
Viagogo insists that they are a marketplace so not responsible for the fake tickets which is complete nonsense. They are not a marketplace since they do not get in contact sellers and buyers, as eBay does. They are regular sellers and not a marketplace.
Viagogo charges thousands and thousands for handling charge which means they have to be responsible on something.
Viagogo claims to be Official Burning Man resellers, which also is false. By well-illustrated show on Google and on their web page they give you an impression that they are official resellers and that tickets are in high demand and will sell out soon. With this illustrated show they mislead people to buy fake tickets 300% expensive then face value.
After customers buy tickets from them and discover that tickets are fake and expensive, then they have perfectly well prepared legal arrangement to avoid refunds and kick off their customers.
If you do a research on Google you will discover that there are hundreds of people who were ripped off by Viagogo.
V.T.
Viagogo has a very clever way of tricking people into thinking they are paying one price and then adding charges and fees. £220 became £442/for me and doesn’t look like it will be refunded. Flat refusal from them and bank asking for proof I was mislead which is very difficult. Modern day crime it seems to me.
All I wanted to do was take my family to see Ed Sheeran. I was sold tickets from a secondary ticket site who broke terms and condition of sale meaning the tickets were invalid. I used the fanfair alliance support guide to support me in getting my money back. It’s a comprehensive guide that gives you step by step support to help obtain a refund.
Having tried and failed to get Robert Plant tickets at the Royal Albert Hall today using phone and online , within a few minutes of “sold out” there were tickets online for almost four times the original price, with 88 tickets appearing on one site, although us music lovers were restricted to four each. Some hope. Thanks to Harvey Goldsmith who actually replied to my email about this experience I have found and will support Fanfair alliance Thank you for being here!
I am from the UK and I purchased 3 tickets for Bruno Mars in Toronto specifically for my Wife’s birthday. The tickets were front row and cost $2833 … Having secured the tickets I booked the hotel and flights and I was promised my tickets no later than 3 days before.
I have made contact around 8 times, the first 3 times I had responses “that there was nothing to worry about” and then the final 5 emails (on the day of the concert) were ignored.
I am $2833 down and I’ve flown half way around the world off the back of a “guaranteed ticket” ….
I am lost for words 🙁
How can Anthoney Joshua tickets got Cardiff already be for sale on eBay at inflated prices before they are released for sale
I paid £200+ for Waterboys tickets through viagogo.I panic bought as I was led to believe by viagogo that tickets were almost sold out and now find tickets are still available at half the price I paid
Worst experience ever in purchasing / selling tickets, I was charged £184 for 2 tickets with original value at £35 each, the show was cancelled on the 24th August and after numerous attempts to contact Viagogo for a refund, I am still waiting.
Hi, I bought 6 tickets yesterday threw viagogo, I did a google search for Shania Twain tickets and this site came up. I thought a bit strange as I thought it was Friday morning they went on sale, but the site came up saying hurry if you want tickets as there are others waiting to buy and you have 8minutes to finish the order, so of course you think oh its a right site as loads of people are buying too, and were selling fast. Now I realise I have payed double the price for my tickets and that someone else’s name will be on the ticket! It didn’t once say it was second hand tickets and I have looked at reviews and some people don’t even get their tickets. Consumer rights say you have to know your seat and row number to which I haven’t got as when I bought these the tickets weren’t on sale so how can this be a legally bonding contract? I have watched Dispatches since and I am horrified that I have handed over £800 to a company that is scamming innocent people. why is this company allowed to trade in this country??? I now cant even book a hotel as I don’t know if my tickets will come and if they do and I am asked for id then I wont get in with someone else’s name on it, also I now have had to tell my family and friends to go and buy other tickets in the morning from a genuine site at half the price as I cant expect them to pay for these as I thought that was what they were selling for. I feel so upset and can’t sleep over this. The government needs to put a stop to this.
My wife asked if I could get her 2 tickets for Runrig’s farewell concert at Stirling from Ticketmaster. Tickets on sale at 10:00 so I go through the registration process 30 minutes before the sale time and I have the page open with a count down to sale time. Clock goes to 10:00 and page refreshes. I try to buy tickets but all are sold out (within 2 minutes) but the Ticketmaster site tells me to try GetMeIn (a part of the Ticketmaster group). What a suprise – GetMeIn have loads for sale at vastly inflated prices. Some sellers have 10 tickets that they’re offering for 3 times the face value. Really hacked off at Ticketmaster for helping touts.
Paid £142.09 for two tickets, bought under time pressure from what I believed to be the official site. None of the proper consumer information given before the purchase eg face value or specific seating. Tickets arrived in another’s name, face value £32.00 each and dates proved company did not have the tickets at the time they sold them to me. Same problems with standard template replies from vendor. Still trying to claim chargeback and all other avenues. Action Fraud will not provide NFRC number, saying it’s not a fraud despite the definition of fraud on their website.
I was charged over £500 for Ed Sheeran tickets on Viagogo and despite numerous, calls, letters and emails I have still not received a refund. They are a disgusting company.
Totally mislead by viagogo on pricing of tickets with no mention of handling costs etc which more than doubled the advertised price. On trying to use their resale site my email was deemed incorrect, so no contact was possible. Will not be using them again.
Lived and learned an expensive lesson.
Completely ripped off for Foo Fighter tickets. Paid £479.00 for 2. Face value of tickets were £65.00 each! Was consistently told that tickets were valid and even though my name wasn’t on the ticket I would have no problem getting into the venue. Turned up to the venue after travelling 3 1/2 hours to be told tickets were not valid 🙁
I am facing the prospect of losing £700 on Metallica tickets for the O2 after buying from StubHub months ago, only to find out recently that photo ID is required to get into the venue. I have contacted StubHub who’s blase response is to just resell the tickets if I don’t want them, i.e. dump the problem on someone else’s lap. They like to claim I will get a refund if I get turned away, so I am supposed to travel miles not knowing whether I will get in or not, have a wasted trip, and then you can just see StubHub coming out with some excuse and not refunding me. While I understand the good intentions of the bands and venues, all this has achieved is that thousands of actual fans will turn up to venues, get turned away and be left heartbroken, and very much out of pocket (like at the recent Foo Fighters gig). But the touts still have their money don’t they, the only people this is hurting is genuine fans who were desperate to see their favourite band. There has to be a better way.
Was trying to get tickets for Gary Barlow alongside many others. I tried the Amazon presale and got nowhere. Then tried general sale today. Sold out as soon as open. However companies like Vivagogo and Getmein and tickets available at at least twice the price. How is this fair?!
I bought an expensive ticket to see Metallica at O2 arena on the 24th October. Viagogo explicitly told me the tickets wold be fine, even if O2 website stated the need for the ticket to state the visitors name. Viagogo are ignoring my emails.
The worst company are Ticketmaster thay tell people gigs are sold out in minutes but they have transferred them onto their own resale site Getmein. Yes some people sell on ripoff sites but Ticketmaster are the worst. Tickets for Metallica were sold out 5 minutes before they on sale!!
The worst company are Ticketmaster thay tell people gigs are sold out in minutes but they have transferred them onto their own resale site Getmein. Yes some people sell on ripoff sites but Ticketmaster are the worst. Tickets for Metallica were sold out 5 minutes before they were supposed to go on sale!!
I love going to gigs and I’m at them at least once a month.
Today I spent 15 minutes on Ticketmaster awaiting tickets, as soon as they hit general sale it loaded and told me there were none available, however Ticketmaster’s ‘Get Me In’ re-sale site was already selling a wealth of tickets at more than double the value.
It’s not even subtle now.
VIAGOGO stung me
I recently googled for a band’s tour dates and was brought straight to a site which said there were very few tickets left and so I hurriedly purchased them. They came up as £66 each but the final amount I paid was £182. When I printed the tickets, it actually said they were £49 each and had some other name on them! I then realized that I had been sold these tickets by the secondary ticket site Viagogo. When I phoned the venue they said they did not accept these tickets at last year’s event and that I should contact the Event organizer. They told me of the issues with these tickets and how I could get assistance. I took Claire Turnham’s advice and bombarded Viagogo with emails. As they sent be another unhelpful generic reply I pointed out all the reasons I shouldn’t be risking waiting to see if I could gain entry eg: the fact the tickets had some stranger’s name on them and yet it also clearly stated that ID checks may be made??!? This, coupled with being outrageously overcharged and missing out on the different choice of tickets I could have had if I had been brought straight to the official website, spurred me on to keep going, It went on for a month, sending several emails per day and was exhausting but it paid off when the money which had been pending in my account was not taken by the cut off date. I have now bought official tickets and am looking forward to the event,
. Thank you to Claire for the great advice!
Not an unusual or extreme version of being ripped off, but nonetheless I am so angry about this! I was trying to buy Flight of the Conchords tickets for any of their London gigs next March (4 in total) ticket prices supposed to be £25-65. Tickets went on sale 10a.m on Friday 27th. The tickets were all sold out before they were released, but were available through the secondary sites before 10am at massively inflated prices (cheapest tickets now trading at £150 + whatever outrageous handling charges the ticket companies are allowed to make up (£40+ handling fees?). If it were a fair fight to get tickets when they are released I wouldn’t mind, but I tried to buy them the very moment they went on sale & I don’t think it is fair that none were available. I have written to Ticketmaster, Apollo Hammersmith & the Culture Secretary asking this be looked into.
Pretty much every music event I’ve tried to get tickets for recentry have sold out really quickly, but yet tickets are available on tout sites for over treble the cost! Example; the Streets were selling at £50.20 from Ticketmaster (no tickets available) but yet GetMeIn have tickets available for £183.20 for ONE ticket! I had the same experience when I tried to get London Grammar tickets.
This has to stop. It’s not fair when all available tickets are being bought up, making them unavailable at face value and then being sold for treble the price. Unfortunately people must be paying these over inflated prices, else tout sites wouldn’t exist?
Well, after posting what I thought was a positive outcome where I was told by my bank that the date for Viagogo to take the pending amount of money had passed, they have taken it! I am in talks with my bank at the moment but have started the back and forth of emails with Viagogo again. The latest one is very telling. After repeatedly saying that I would not have a problem with these tickets, they are now saying that because I have asked the venue about the validity I have made them invalid because Event organizers do not like people buying these tickets( I say tricked into it). Surely this is an admission on their part of selling tickets which they know will not be accepted. i intend to keep fighting this.
I bought two tickets for Ed Sheeran’s concert in Singapore from viagogo.com as a gift for my husband and son. I thought viagogo was one of the official ticketing services as its name appeared top in Google search. When my husband and son got into Singapore Indoor Stadium, the officer in charge there told them that the purchased tickets were “not original”. I tried to contact viagogo to ask for possible refund but they did not provide any email or link where I could even ask. I am helpless & hopeless. I lost my money for nothing.
Graham here well yes I was taking in by viagogo the official viagogo that is..the one that pays google be the first on the search engine.
Me being a long standing fan of Matt Johnson and the the,I said if they ever played again I would within reason go anywhere to see them and thats where it all begins.
I get updates from their fan page which announced gigs,wow said Graham Im going so I was on the internet the morning in fact the minute tickets went on sale and was directed to the clever pushy viaconcon site the rest you all know ordered 4 tickets under pressure and was charged £1100 pounds and probably wont even get any tickets let alone have enough time to organise hotels and transport 3 days before the gig ,and what they say ticket arrival date.
Anyway money is only money not the end of the world but now effectivly I have no tickets or at least any that would be of any use to me.I am doimg my best to spread the word about this legal scam.
I hope I can stop people falling in to the same trap.
My wife has in our opinion been ripped off by Viagogo.
She thought she was on the Ticketmaster website and as soon as Kasabian tickets went on sale for glasgow (this sat)she bought 2-ticket cost £82 each,total cost with charges -£212 ie about a £50 service charge that was bad enough.
She has just downloaded the tickets-cost of them is actually £39.50 and they are at right angles to the stage and worse than useless.
These tickets were bought within minutes of going on sale yet have another person’s name on them.She had and had understood that they were good tickets straight in front of
the stage.
Viagogo contacted and have said not their problem.ticket
Totally ripped off !!!price
I searched google looking for tickets for ColdPlay in San Diego, CA in October 8 2017.
I was presented with a viagogo page on the top results and offered by around USD$200 tickets for a location. After being rushed to pay for the tickets with messages urging me to complete the transaction I ended up paying above USD$600
After arriving in USA after many airplanes, tickets, hotels and months of waiting for the concert on my wife’s birthday we got into the stadium and faced the reality that the tickets were for a totally different location and they worthed no more than USD$70. It was the cheapest seat possible and we paid more than needed for a ticket on the floor close to the stage.
After talking to the manager of the ticket office we were told Viagogo was a scam and they couldn’t do anything about it. We were forced to cry at the distance feeling robbed.
I contacted them to ask for a refund and was told the tickets were right and no refund would be made. I never understanded the meaning of moral damages until this happened to us. It really affected us emotionally and economically.
What a shame of human beings!
Hi .. we have recently had £489 taken from our credit card for tickets that we apparently purchased through Viagogo. We don’t believe we confirmed a purchase for this amount – the tickets were displayed at £170 and only when we progressed to the next screen did it show us the final coat – at which point we were advised the purchase was complete! Viagogo refuse to refund our money but also are unable to provide us with confirmation that we accepted the final cost – how is this allowed to happen? How does a company get away with not giving a clear sale price?
Please please help to get Viagogo out of business. I bought 2 tickets for Jake Bugg at £48 each. Second step was to give bank details and after that the bill came to £140 !!!! I pressed a button to say I didn’t want to go ahead and it went on to proceed with the sale anyway.
I purchased tickets for the Sevens in Cape Town, 9 and 10 December. I have not received the tickets for 09 December as yet, however I received tickets for 10 December yesterday – the amount on the tickets is R 300 per ticket = R 600. My bill from Viagogo was R 7,495.
The tickets for 9th December cost GBP 165.54 – which in excess of R 3 000. I am certain that the tickets will be worth R 300 each = R 600 – again what a rip off.
VIAGOGO
Was silly enough to purchase from them before reading all the bad hype. Nothing but a major scam.
I purchased tickets online for an Imelda May concert that was this month. They cost me over £70 each. It was only when I printed the tickets I realised the face value was just over £30. Because someone else’s name was on the tickets I called Viagogo as I thought I had been allocated the wrong ones. They said they were a resale and I had bought them at that inflated price. As this was the first site that appeared when I searched for tickets I had thought it was a direct ticket company.
I went to the concert and enjoyed it but it was bitter sweet knowing I had paid more than double for myself and my best friend.
Will never use them again.
We saw an ad for an Oktoberfest day in Chester on Facebook. We ordered the tickets via Fatsoma. We subsequently found out the date on the facebook ad was wrong and Fatsoma sent tickets with the wrong date included.
We contacted Fatsoma and they said we had to contact the promoter directly but refused to give us their details due to data protection. Despite several contacts on email and social media they still refuse to help.
We are now £96 out of pocket and Fatsoma point blank refuse to help
Tickets for George Groves v Chris Eubank Jr were scheduled to go on sale at 9:00am today (28/11/2017). The venue is the Manchester Arena which holds around 20,000 spectators.
Having waited patiently for these tickets to go on sale, my friends and I were excited this morning and got ready to buy our tickets, we knew we might have difficulty so we were using our phones, iPad’s and laptops to try and secure just 4 tickets.
At precisely 9:00 am the tickets were released and we added them to our basket, 25 seconds after 9 o’clock, every ticket was apparently sold out. We checked the usual suspects, StubHub, and low and behold, tickets were already on there at treble the face value. Eventim apparently had a strict 6 tickets max per person policy, however StubHub had options available for 25-30 seats together. Clearly, these tickets were already in StubHub’s possession before they were released to the public. It is absolutely disgraceful that they can repeatedly get away with this. They are pricing out genuine fans and fleecing the entire market. Live boxing is one of the worst events for ticket touting, it is virtually impossible to get any ticket at face value. Earlier in 2017 I had to resort to paying £200 for a £40 face value ticket to the Anthony Joshua v Wladimir Klitschko fight. I understand as long as people continue to pay the inflated prices then nothing will change, however I believe there really needs to be some form of legislation introduced to limit the price tickets can be re-sold for. Once again, the real fans suffer and the touts prosper.
I’ve just bought two tickets on Viagogo for my parents – it’s for a gig at Hammersmith in March 2018. It’s a sought-after concert as it’s the only London date for the artist.
After being held on a loading page telling me that tickets are selling very fast, only a few remaining (the usual trick), I was able to select my seats in the stalls, for £84 each. Steep price but almost acceptable by today’s standards.
After selecting my tickets I was concerned that the tickets (e-tickets) did not state a row or seat number. This concern was quickly outweighed by the astronomical fees that the website put on my two tickets – £230 for two £84 seats (£62 of fees). I completed my purchase and was told that the e-tickets will be emailed no later than 3 days before the gig date. (It seems clear to me that this seller is a tout with numerous tickets who can’t yet specify seat allocation until all tickets have been sold).
I’ve tried emailing Viagogo customer care, forwarding on my confirmation email, to try to find out more about my exact seats. I’m concerned that the stalls at Hammersmith include a standing area which would be unacceptable for my parents. Furthermore, with so little information to go on until the week of the gig, I’m not that convinced that my parents will even be able to get in to the venue (whose name will be on the tickets?)
My email was rebuffed quickly with a generic response telling me that the email I’d used was not recognised against any existing order. When I pointed out that my email contained the confirmation email, another reply came stating that I needed to set up an account and go to FAQs to get my answer. The trouble is, Viagogo’s FAQs don’t get you specific answers.
So for £62 of fees, I’m entitled to zero customer service and zero further information on my tickets. I have to wait and trust that I haven’t been sold fake tickets or that I even have seats reserved in the venue.
A typical story. I hope Viagogo are abolished and become a distant memory to honest ticket buyers in the future.
I rarely buy concert tickets and thought I was on the website of the concert hall. Now horrified to find it was actually Viagogo and I have paid £184 for tickets which were available for £68! This should be illegal.
HI I bought two Tickets for Nottingham Arena in February from Viagogo with a debit card for 71 pounds each to see Arch Enemy but on first attempt card did not go through told me it was invalid and unsuccessful so I tried to grab tickets from another vendor at cheaper price I might Add that was successful only to find 2 or 3 days later viagogo’s had suddenly taken for original attempt annoyed that I now had paid for 4 tickets I tried to contact customer service but they do answer to my e-mails or phone is just same female robot even though I tried several numbers cannont get through to human and this is what is so annoying My bank will not help me either Santandar so it seems I am out of pocket & my only hope to retrieve monies is anyone at gig who wants to get in & probably will still lose money as if I had bought from arena would have been £21 each what a rip off !!!!
I heard my favourite band ( depeche mode) was playing in my home town Birmingham and I heard about it on the 80s radio but I didn’t catch the address so I googled depeche mode in Birmingham and viagogo was first on the list so I trusted the company from the get-go .
I saw there was only a few tickets left and a clock was ticking to secure seats they apparently had only a few of .
Like other victims I was pressured to buy the tickets asap with a clock counting down from 4 minutes if I didn’t buy the tickets in 4 minutes there would be no tickets left .
So I worried that I wouldn’t secure my 2 seats within the 4 minutes.
I was given the price of the tickets (£69 each ) and I was pleased with price .
So I manage to pay within the 4 minutes and I was in the horrors when I saw the exact over all charge I had been charged.
This company had charged me a extra £60 pound which wasn’t stated anywhere prior to buying .
A few weeks later I realised I couldn’t make the date I wanted a Saturday but I’d booked the Sunday .
So I stupidly decided to list my tickets through the company ( viagogo) and instantly my tickets were sold for the same amount I had paid .
I didn’t realise that you had to wait till 2 weeks after the concert to receive my money .
A few weeks later I received a email saying my tickets were on the way so I kept track via the delivery company and I saw my tickets had actually gone to the buyers address and they were delivered safely .
Then one day again a few weeks later I received a email off the company ( viagogo) and they had cancelled everything and told me I don’t need to contact them
Again and that they’d be charging me £40 off my card if the buyers couldn’t get in the concert.
I was fuming so I sent countless emails asking what was going on and they eventually replied and said I’d not sold my tickets the right way so they cancelled my sale .
I went on twitter and messaged them along with emails and they agreed then to carry on with my sale and that I’d receive the price I sold the tickets for £186 .
I lost my credit card shortly after and informed them that this had happened and gave them my replacement credit card number and I thought that was the end of it until I was paid for my tickets
The event was 19th November.
Then last week I found a email hidden in junk off the company ( viagogo) they asked me weeks prior to confirm my card number and I’d already done so on 2 occasions and I corrected my card details on my account with them .
I emailed them straight away and they’ve basically blocked me on every email address they have .
They’ve blocked me from sending emails through my account with them and all other emails they use .
I’m just so annoyed how they can do this and take people’s money and we’re not talking a low amount , we all have paid a lot of money to these crooks .
I’ve lost £240 and I never went the concert or received a refund .
I hope this particular company gets punished.
I’m now starting to give up hope at getting any money back .
I’ve messaged them also via twitter and again it’s radio silence .
My husband bought Proms tickets this summer from Viagogo by mistake and paid almost three times the face value – and he still could have got them direct from the Albert Hall. The problem is that Viagogo had an ad at the top of the Google search page so he went straight there. He won’t do it again!
Today, I looked at some Hyde Park/Eric Clapton tickets, which are still available on official sites and the organisers are saying that the tickets cannot be resold and you may not be allowed in if you buy resold tickets. Nevertheless, tickets are being sold on Viagogo at inflated prices. The venues seem to be allowing to happen. Why?
This is the content of my email to my local MP who is the SNP spokesman for culture, written today 4th December. Personal pleasantries and preamble have been removed.
“I have been fortunate enough never to have been conned by the likes of Viagogo, Getmein and the like, but I have like many others been forced to watch the best tickets for gigs being hoovered up by these legalised touts and sold to the highest bidder, unfairly milking (screwing?) the fans and making obscene profits. Bizarrely I have now been at TWO concerts at GRCH where the best two seats (front centre) have been unoccupied for the first half of a show, before being filled by floor staff at intermission. It was the same artist both times as well- Jackson Browne. It really defies belief that the holders of such prized tickets were indisposed at such short notice that they couldn’t have given them to a friend or someone who could use them. As a fan, I am eligible for presale, and I was unable when the presale opened to get a ticket in the front EIGHT ROWS as they were sold out either before it opened or more likely hoovered up by bots.. Funnily enough I could have bought tickets for these seats at up to 8 times face value before midday the same day, obviously from people who had bought tickets and then remembered they had other things to do on the date of the concert (sarcasm alert!).
I am sure this is something that will have come to your notice in your culture spokesperson role, and I would ask that if you have the chance, please take any available opportunity to highlight this odious practise and perhaps help put an end to it. I know some venues are turning fans away who have bought from these shysters, but that’s not really hurting the people who deserve to be punished, the legalised touts.
I have attached a screengrab from the net which shows the extent of the profiteering that goes on. You’ll see that this is dated two weeks before presale [this was a concert by Within Temptation- tickets £25 plus booking fee] and advertises tickets on the secondary market that Viagogo don’t/can’t yet have. I actually bought my tix for just over £61 including fees. Look what Viagogo are charging! [£48 + 34% fees]”
My MP is Brendan O’Hara, Argyll and Bute; I’ll let you know how I get on.
Good Luck Fanfair. Glad to be onboard.
Purchasing jingle bell ball tickets for O2 December 2017. Being online at the sale time 8am seemed feasible as I was about 7500 in the queue. As capacity is about 20000 I presumed I had a chance but by 8.22 the site said all tickets sold. Capital were quoting on their station that all tickets sold out in 42 minutes. What happened did Capital computers not realise they sold out in 22minutes or did they not realise they had been bought in bulk for resale? I was directed to viagogo and sold face value tickets of £49 for more than double the price. Why did Capital not have the tickets to sell? Why did they offer vip tickets in advance which I presume were sold on? Viagogo said there was no need for a seat number to be provided at the time of sale. It is a fraudulent business that needs to be stopped.
I tried to buy Pearl Jam tickets today. I waited in a “waiting room” with my information and payment details completed before the 11:00 sale time and still failed to get them. From the numbers given on resale sites it seems that over half of the tickets were double their original price within twenty minutes. The corruption is so apparent it’s sickening, and having no idea how to tackle the problem so that next time your favourite band are on tour you can see them is frustrating.
Though it would be reckless, I could technically afford an inflated ticket, but the longer I considered it the more I realise I don’t want to give money to those people. It’s paying a ransom, and if we all took that stand they would make no money.
Hi. I recently bought two Bruno Mars tickets for Glasgow Green in July 2018. I was led to believe that these tickets were in short stock and high demand in the viagogo website as it was coming up with ‘searching for tickets and ‘5 people waiting’. I paid around £95 each for two ticket and including booking and other fees it’s came in around £250. I was gutted to fine these ticket were still ok general sale for £69 each. I’ve resold them on viagogo and getting less than £200 back and now have to wait until a week after the gig in July 2018 to receive payment?
My partner purchased tickets from ‘viagogo’ which cost us $500. We are unable to attend the comedy show & also they are a lot cheaper priced! Found elsewhere. I am not paying $500 for two tickets is ridiculous & it’s a scam!
Victory at last!! After daily texts to Viagogo and giving them every opportunity to do the right thing, I have been successful in getting a charge back from my bank. I discussed the problem on the phone and was sent a form to fill out with details of what had happened. I enclosed copies of the tickets which clearly stated that ID checks may be made but had someone else’s name on them! I also told them that if needed I could provide copies of texts from Viagogo stating that by inquiring from the Venue as to whether they would accept my tickets, I had invalidated them!!? As it happens the copy of the tickets were enough for me to get my money back. Yes it’s been exhausting and frustrating, but so worth it! A big thank you to Claire for her advice and to Adam for your encouragement. Keep going everyone, these people can’t win!
We purchased 4 Chelsea football tix last night and were okay paying L360 as advertised on screen for the lot as it was a hospitality suite. However, once we purchased the tickets, we were shocked to see the final total bill amounted to L1705.15!! This amount included L360 PER TICKET plus VAT charges?
We did not receive a final price break-down until AFTER the purchase AND presently, that price break down is no where to be found on our account page. When we click view details, we only get a summary page that lists the total amount paid. In addition, we have been told we cannot resell these tickets either. Hence we purchased these tickets under fraudulent practices. And now the company is not willing to resolve this issue for us.
We will fight and use social media and all avenues open to us until we get a full refund.
I purchased Coachella 2018 tickets in June 2017 believing I was buying through the official ticket sales page as that is the web address i entered. When I clicked on the buy tickets link on the page I was immediately sent to a page where I could select tickets and then entered a que counting down how long the tickets were available for as I waited to make my purchase. The tickets were $495 each I bought 2. I then did end of year accounting on that card and see that the billing for the tickets have a final price of $1724.95 on my card!!! The company is Viagogo and I looked into them and they are nothing to do with the official site I started on. They are basically horrendous according to the stories I am finding out.
Firstly I would never buy resale tickets I was happily browsing the Coachella site and somehow when looking to purchase tickets I was redirected and ended up in a que for tickets that I believed was linked to the official ticket seller.
Even more alarming I am reading that a majority of tickets that people purchase from viagogo end up being fakes and that they are not even granted entry to the gigs. Now I am travelling to America in a few months time and have to go with the mindset that I may get in to the festival or I may be rejected at the door and have to make the most of the holiday regardless.
I am checking with my card provider that if I am in fact turned away that they are insured. I have also contacted the official site and google to tell them of the redirect and contacted Viagogo. However who knows if I will hear back from them.
All I can say is I hope the tickets arrive in time, I hope they are real and fingers crossed I get the excessive booking fee refunded. PLEASE STAY CLEAR OF VIAGOGO my mission is to let as many people know so this does not happen to anyone else.
I booked two tickets to Groves v Eubank as a Christmas gift on the 4th December, moving the booking confirmation to my email folder ‘concerts’.
Christmas eve, I open the folder wanting to write the details of the booking in a Christmas card only to find instead of my booking confirmation this message ‘ sorry your session has expired, incase of booking confirmation login to your account’. I followed the account link only to find that the booking was not there!
Worried that the session had timed out, I panicked and rebooked two more tickets. These have arrived and show on my account. The suprise was when my MasterCard bill arrived viagogo have taken a payment for the two tickets that weren’t booked then the payment again for the tickets I booked three weeks later.
I have sent them copied of my bank statement but up to now can’t manage to get a refund. They are telling me that the first booking was booked to a gmail email account. I’ve even got them to let me change the password on this as they convinced me it was my account. Surprisingly it doesn’t exist!!
On 28/12/2017, while “surfing” on the internet, I read a news that the SIMPLE MINDS were coming this 2018 to Spain. Instead of going directly to the source, the official page of the group, I searched for Google sale tickets S.M. and direct, and almost exclusively, I took to VIAGOGO, even another that I typed to check, once you requested the tickets I forwarded you to VIAGOGO. I entered then, and saw that it had 3 dates, one of them in Madrid, which is where I was interested. At all times (since there is nothing on the page that makes you see otherwise) I thought I was on a legal platform where they offered me official tickets. Start the purchase for S.M. for June 30, 18, they warned me that at that moment there are only 9 tickets left, and I encourage you to request two tickets on the track for 175 tickets. When I continue with the purchase process, the initial amount becomes, among management expenses, taxes and other charges, at 215.10, in total € 430.20.
At that time, I decide not to continue with the purchase, but what is my surprise that I did not allow it. Feeling scammed, and thinking that I could not prove that I had canceled, but that the screen had not assumed it, and after receiving the message from VIAGOGO giving me the congratulations for my purchase, telling me that I will have the tickets three days before the event! and in the invoice it appeared to me without breaking down the amount of 430.20 €, with which, I did not even know what I had really paid for the entrance and what for taxes or expenses, I decided to look for information on consumer rights, in case there was some way to recover my money. I checked that the law allows you to request the cancellation within 14 days. In addition, sadly I discovered that the tickets that I had supposedly bought had not officially gone on sale, so, with that argument (which I did not need) I asked VIAGOGO to return the amount on the 29th.
I came across the abusive clause that tells you that, once the transaction is made, does not allow cancellation, or even have a document to claim, the only solution they give you is to resell them on your platform “without any expense” . That is, they encourage you to sell some tickets that you don’t have, with the condition that if they do not reach your future buyer you will be solely responsible for it and the costs of the claim will be charged. Of course, I answered that I was not going to enter that game, but I still checked if what they told me was true, and, when I proceeded to sell my tickets (only to check if this time they said the truth) it turns out that they put me the price of the tickets, the seller’s rates, but it’s me! and, in the end, they told me that after the sale, I would receive 180 euros less than what I had paid. To my complaint that I had “sold” a non-existent tickets, it is then when they tell you, and you find out for the first time, that they have not sold me the tickets, but that they have put a seller in contact with me. That is, the official tickets have not come out for sale and yet there are supposed buyers who have already done with them and are reselling them? It sounds like organized SCAM. The fact is that I managed to get the organization of the Simple Minds event to send me a letter confirming that they have not gone on sale and have not yet negotiated who their official sales channel will be.
Despite all this, neither my bank, to which I quickly requested the rejection of the invoice for unrecognized charges, nor, of course, Viagogo, allow me to recover my money.
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT
On 28/12/2017, while “surfing” on the internet, I read a news that the SIMPLE MINDS were coming this 2018 to Spain. Instead of going directly to the source, the official page of the group, I searched for Google sale tickets S.M. and direct, and almost exclusively, I took to VIAGOGO, even another that I typed to check, once you requested the tickets I forwarded you to VIAGOGO. I entered then, and saw that it had 3 dates, one of them in Madrid, which is where I was interested. At all times (since there is nothing on the page that makes you see otherwise) I thought I was on a legal platform where they offered me official tickets. Start the purchase for S.M. for June 30, 18, they warned me that at that moment there are only 9 tickets left, and I encourage you to request two tickets on the track for 175 tickets. When I continue with the purchase process, the initial amount becomes, among management expenses, taxes and other charges, at 215.10, in total € 430.20.
At that time, I decide not to continue with the purchase, but what is my surprise that I did not allow it. Feeling scammed, and thinking that I could not prove that I had canceled, but that the screen had not assumed it, and after receiving the message from VIAGOGO giving me the congratulations for my purchase, telling me that I will have the tickets three days before the event! and in the invoice it appeared to me without breaking down the amount of 430.20 €, with which, I did not even know what I had really paid for the entrance and what for taxes or expenses, I decided to look for information on consumer rights, in case there was some way to recover my money. I checked that the law allows you to request the cancellation within 14 days. In addition, sadly I discovered that the tickets that I had supposedly bought had not officially gone on sale, so, with that argument (which I did not need) I asked VIAGOGO to return the amount on the 29th.
I came across the abusive clause that tells you that, once the transaction is made, does not allow cancellation, or even have a document to claim, the only solution they give you is to resell them on your platform “without any expense” . That is, they encourage you to sell some tickets that you don’t have, with the condition that if they do not reach your future buyer you will be solely responsible for it and the costs of the claim will be charged. Of course, I answered that I was not going to enter that game, but I still checked if what they told me was true, and, when I proceeded to sell my tickets (only to check if this time they said the truth) it turns out that they put me the price of the tickets, the seller’s rates, but it’s me! and, in the end, they told me that after the sale, I would receive 180 euros less than what I had paid. To my complaint that I had “sold” a non-existent tickets, it is then when they tell you, and you find out for the first time, that they have not sold me the tickets, but that they have put a seller in contact with me. That is, the official tickets have not come out for sale and yet there are supposed buyers who have already done with them and are reselling them? It sounds like organized SCAM. The fact is that I managed to get the organization of the Simple Minds event to send me a letter confirming that they have not gone on sale and have not yet negotiated who their official sales channel will be.
Despite all this, neither my bank, to which I quickly requested the rejection of the invoice for unrecognized charges, nor, of course, Viagogo, allow me to recover my money.
1) Only proof of purchase. I do not have tickets
2) Claim to VIAGOGO, I’m sorry, everything in Spanish
3) Official document organizer event saying there have been no tickets left for sale
The last time I bought tickets for Bruce Springsteen, I was logged on and as soon as tickets went on sale, the site crashed. When I finally managed to get on again, the best ones available were right at the back. Yet ten minutes later, very good seats were for sale on secondary sites for ten times the face value. Ridiculous!
Viagigo took over 1000 usd of my account without my acceptance and never mailed any U2 tickets. This company still alive and scamming and no one does anything about this!!!!
In the middle of a fight with Viagogo about Michael McIntyre tickets in Birmingham. I searched Google for The Ticket Factory, a Primary site that I trust, I was in a rush so clicked on the first site listed, not noticing it was ViaGogo, not The Ticket Factory.
Because I had entered the artist’s name as well, the Viagogo pages did not identify that it was their site (you can only just see their name in faint grey type on a grey background at the bottom of the page, below where you would look).
The price seemed reasonable for 4 tickets but I was put under real time pressure to move through the pages so I didn’t see until too late that the price was for each ticket! And on top of that they put huge charges!
I feel such a fool for falling for this as I hate secondary ticket sellers, but as well as blaming myself, I blame Google and of course Viagogo.
Viagogo have of course refused to refund me but only in a standard worded email that didn’t deal with the points I raised – they must get a lot of complaints so don’t botherr reading them!
Not too happy with Barclaycard either as they have refused to cancel the charge on the basis that there is no evidence that Viagogo have overcharged me!
Good luck to you in your efforts to rid us all of these shady operators – scum of the earth.
It was all a mistake , at first my brother purchased 2 tickets for a show for 400$ and I didnt even know that he did so, 5 minutes after it he told me he did it and immediately I told it to Viagogo’s so called customer service and asked for a refund , their only answer was that they cant and if I want I can try to sell it on their site…
Frustrated as hell since then
Ticketmaster must think touting is fine if their resale site can sell tickets that are 3 times the value 4 minutes after the U2 general sale started. The people selling these tickets obviously could not attend and this is clearly a way of making money from true fans. This is appalling. There is a lot of talk about putting an end to this but not enough action
I really wanted to see Jack White I was so excited he was playing London, he hasn’t been on tour for three years. I wanted the tickets for my son’s birthday.
I went on the site on the 25th of January looking for tickets, they stated they were running low, not many left etc. So I should act quickly to get some. I paid over the face value , but didn’t know this as the face value wasn’t mentioned. Also as I hi to the last page they added a whopping £37 booking fee for each ticket. At this point I tried to cancel the he transaction, press cancel said I wasn’t happy but to no avail the funds were taken. Ok we need up paying over £500 for 4 tickets which should have cost just the over £250. I feel such as idiot, I contact my bank but they said they couldn’t cancel the order. I contact viagogo but they won’t give me the funds back. The worst thing is the tickets weren’t even on sale Monday night, they didn’t go on sale until Tuesday. I’m still trying I keep asking for a refund, have contacted citizen advice. The worst bit is I fought we will get the money back, that we won’t see Jack White play and it won’t be my son’s birthday present.
I bought 2 tickets for the Rugby from Viagogo. They cost me over £450! When is received the tickets I saw, to my shock, that the face value was £65 each! They had made a profit of over £300. This is nothing but greed. I contacted them 2 times and got waffle replies. No explanation as to their mark up!
I was ripped off and feel so stupid!
A couple of weeks ago I was so excited when it was announced that U2 would be touring again. But once the excitement rushed through my body,the reality of trying to get a ticket became real.
I am a regular concert goer and in the last 10 year’s approx I have only managed to get 1 ticket at face value.
I have then been driven towards the secondary touting sites and it’s been a do or don’t situation. At first I would just pay for whatever came up, in fact I don’t think 10years ago I was clued up up about these rip off sites. I had idea I was quite possibly buying tickets from the “Super Touts”
So getting back to U2, knowing how popular the tickets would be I investigated how and where I could purchase them as to stay ahead of the game.
First place you could buy them frombefire general release was the fan club.It is my understanding that you have to join first with a £50/$50 joining fee. I declined to do that, not because I thought this was a rip off but I just felt that I may not get standing tickets as they were limited.I’m glad I never as friends of mine struggled to get the tickets they wanted, ie deemed poor positions in the arena, and they were the most expensive tickets on offer. I know that this has took the shine away for them as they wanted to be standing. But I guess you takes your chances and they have paid the price as on the ticket. So it proves that you don’t get the best tickets because your signed up to the fan club.
After this event, I was surprised that if I googled U2 tickets I could buy them, but through the secondary websites. How wrong is that? Surely the super fan doesn’t want to give up their tickets? Well delving deaper I could see why as they weren’t the most desired tickets at the venue.
On the 24/1/18 I registered onto another priority event O2.
I required 3 tickets, so at 8:55am I scheduled my break at work.
Prior to entering my details the information page said max 2 tickets.That put the mockers on everything! But I carried on regardless as my friends had asked me to help them get tickets, but said sort myself out first as I was going to attend on my own before they expressed an interest. I was unsuccessful, and that was that. I kept rehitting the button for at least 20minutes hoping tickets would magically appear.
The following day it was Live nations turn, I had the same issue with their pre sales site as I was limited to buying 2 tickets only. By now I was frustrated with the whole experience.
That evening I arrived home and my parents asked how did I get on.I told them of my disappointment but was kind of hopeful for the following day when the tickets went on general sale. I even booked the day off. My dad had been making a few enquiries and started showing me tickets, I told him he was looking at the secondary websites and that all the tickets had been marked up. I was tempted to just get a ticket, but really wanted to share the experience with my 2 close friends and all be together at the event.
The evening before general sale, I asked my friends what their price per ticket limit was, as I explained that we may end up paying top ticket price as often we don’t get to chose your position it’s just what ever tickets your offered. I soon realised that this was causing us a problem. As our budgets differed. This wasn’t going to stop me trying though and i’m not disputing the price of the general sale tickets it’s just that it was looking like we had to try and get tickets around £100 per ticket mark. We all wanted standing tickets,priced at £79.95 each tickets were advertised as anything from £40-£207 approx. We were prepared to be seated though if within my friends lower budget. Failing getting the tickets within budget my friends told me to sort myself out first.
Still determined to get all 3 of us there and be together, I was up early on the 26 January and I had an arena plan, I knew what tickets I was after and where. I logged on my 3 devices my phone, computer and Tablet (haha! not as sophisticated as “bots” unfortunately),the clock was ticking and dead on 9 o’clock I hit them buttons, a minute passed and I got offered my first lot of tickets but at top price!! Ahhh! Refreshed again and got offered obstructed view seats more expensive than standing ?
I didn’t get a third chance and by now it was approx 9:10am.
I kept trying till 9:30 I got offered VIP tickets several times but even I was outpriced!
By now I had lost the will to live and as the song goes “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for !”
So, I had some breakfast, and then logged back onto my tablet
And started my searches through the secondary sites. I was shocked that within only40 minutes thousands of tickets had made their way to these sites.
I found plenty of standing tickets and I was prepared to pay more than face value so I did it, I was not happy about this situation, and I couldn’t face the should have, could have, would have scenario if I didn’t.I contacted my friends and, they said it was too expensive for them, I felt gutted for them and it took away the shine for me. I have been left feeling guilty and numb all weekend when I should be over the moon.Later on, I kept trying for them determined, I could get seated tickets within their budget but again the reason why there was lots of these tickets left was because they had restricted views.
I was left speechless around 1pm, as standing tickets with a general admission price of £79.95 were selling at £1320 !!!!!!(screen shots to proof it).
The whole experience is something I never wish to have to go through,as the chances of buying face value tickets is very small these days. It’s stopping the real fans get the tickets they want.
I recently read about a new piece of legislation that has been drafted but I have no idea when this is going to be looked at.
Sick of the supertouts having the upper hand!!
I don’t understand why years ago it was made illegal for the man on the street to sell a handful of tickets at a marked up price, but its acceptable for this secondary touting to be allowed at such a monstrous scale and is currently legal and been going on for years.
I have started my own petition as I feel so strong about this.
I am ashamed to say that I was “putty in the hands” of these people and feel ripped off. I just want to be able to buy a ticket with my friends without this ordeal!
Rip Off Company Viagogo – I thought I was paying £180 or so for tickets to see Jeff Lynne’s ELO at Birmingham on the 13th May. Before I knew it I had clicked pay and suddenly realised I had paid £250. This in my view is cheating. Tried to contact by phone but impossible as they only provide a number for those not receiving tickets with three days or so to go before the concert. I emailed them reminding me of my rights under the Consumer Contracts Regulations – which came into force on 13 June 2014 and implement the Consumer Rights Directive – give customers of online merchandisers, rights when shopping online.
NFL UK put their tickets on sale today for the two Wembley games. These were only available for previous season ticket holders to renew their tickets for this year. I went online just as the tickets went on sale and I found my previous seat was no longer available. Instead of a front row seat in Block 2 at the 45 yard line, I’ve ended up with row 2 at the 40 yard line. It’s even worse for other fans. The whole of section 226 is greyed out, and fans are being stopped from renewing their tickets there. Ticketmaster has completely messed this up.
Worse still, tickets were on sale on Viagogo fifteen minutes after they went on sale on Ticketmaster – and for areas that I couldn’t get tickets for! Not only that. Viagogo appear to be offering tickets for the White Hart Lane game when they aren’t going to go on sale until April because the seat configurations are not yet known.
As for the WHL game, NFLUK have stated that season ticket holders will be restricted to the same number of seats for that game as they bought for Wembley. I wanted to bring a friend along to WHL, but he can’t come to Wembley. Effectively, I’m being told that if I want two tickets for WHL, I must buy two for Wembley and then sell one on. No I didn’t do that, because I’m not a tout. However NFLUK’s policy is making touts out of ordinary fans who don’t want to be touts. They need to be told to sort this out.
Every time I fancy going to a concert these days (which is not often) I think these “re-sellers” must have been outlawed by now. Still end up disappointed. I first got ripped off in 2009 by Seatwave to see U2, when I thought they were the primary sellers. I now very rarely bother going at all.
As I’m currently being treated for cancer and as a result suffer from chemo brain I fell for the flashing countdown on the site.. and the constant reminder that tickets were going at a rate of knots.
It was only when I got to check out that the total price was given and by that time I had a minute to book “at that prices. I panicked and paid..
Tickets arrived today
Face value £40 per ticket, total price paid £240 give or take a couple of pence. Not even the best seats as promised.
How is this company still allowed to trade.. surely there are laws to allow people to change their minds on purchases when they realise that they are being ripped off.
I discovered that the tickets I bought on Viagogo for Stricly Live at the O2 (at too high a price – my fault entirely) were right at the back of the upper tier, only the section having been given in the description. I decided to re-sell, as my wife would have had great difficulty in climbing the steps, but, despite being asked to do so, could not upload them, so they were withdrawn from sale early as they were deemed undeliverable. I lost all my money, obviously.
I bought replacements on Stubhub, the official resellers for the O2 at a much lower rate of commission.
I have learned a valuable but expensive lesson. Partly my fault, but I will avoid Viagogo like the plague in future.
I bought two tickets for Erasure at Liverpool phillamonic Hall for feb 2018. I paid £293 for the tickets. When they arrived the full value of the tickets were £60.00 each!!!! What a rip off. How can these sites (Viagogo) get away with it and charge so much. I know now to stay away from this site imparticular. People work hard to go out and have nice things and they get ripped off by these people. Disgusting!!!
I live in India and for the first time after considering it for years, decided I would make the trip to Primavera Sound in Barcelona this year. I purchased my tickets on Viagogo, which to start off charged me a more than hefty booking fee which really should be monitored. One of the most frustrating part of this booking process is the ticker right on top that constantly prompts you saying that there are other people waiting for the same tickets and the ticker causes you to grow more anxious, and I must say, great marketing strategy for tricking people into doing something because it certainly got me to buy my ticket at a much higher cost than I could have purchased it for even on the official website. While every other customer on reliable websites receive their tickets immediately, Viagogo claims that I will receive my ticket upto 3 days prior to the event. This 100% hurts my travel application process and their customer care is absolutely no help.
Hello everyones,
i supposed to be cheated by Viagogo. One month ago i have bought two tickets for Florence – Italy Foo Fighters will take place in next june. I have received anything and Viagogo told me one time that it is not possibile to cancel my order and also they invite me to re-sell or re-list the tickets. So i have answered that i will open a complaint through my bank and after that (via Twitter) they wrote me: “I’m happy to say your seller has confirmed they’ll be able to send my your tickets as soon as they receive them”. This is not satisfactionary for me, because at least i am not having my tickets, and i can’t trust them.
Hi i purchased tickets through viagogo for erasure in manchester the ticket value was £45 and they charged me £450!
Tickets which I sold (face value) unfortunately appear to have gone astray in the post from the initial dispatch. “See Tickets” can make new tickets available for me to collect from the box office on the day. Clearly if they have gone astray this is something unanticipated and beyond my control.
I asked if there may be any chance of contacting the buyer to meet in person, but have been informed this is not allowed. I accept that this means my sale would have to be dropped.
However, my complaint is that Viagogo not only prematurely cancelled my sale without my confirmation, but then subsequently and immediately imposed a £40 fine. This is completely unethical given that the situation – It is an unforeseen circumstance and certainly not a failure from my doing.
I have been given no information about what a £40 fee covers, nor have I been informed of this fine to this amount. In an email reminding me that the tickets needed shipping you write “Failure to ship by 27 February 2018, 23:59 may result in us having to cancel your sale and replace the tickets for the buyer, which may incur a fee.”
If this is what the money is being used for – to purchase new tickets for the buyer? If so then I am entitled to request some kind of receipt for that transaction, given that it is my money.
Whoever is responding to their Twitter account messaged me to say ”
viagogo
Hi there, once we have found suitable replacements for the buyer, you will be informed via email and charged accordingly .
Suggesting that not only will there be another charge to come, but also that they haven’t yet bought replacement tickets (despite the charge). If they have bought the replacement tickets then I have not been informed by email.
Furthermore, the buyer’s paid £39 each for the 2 tickets I listed. There are equivalent tickets available on Viagogo available for this same gig on the same date at £35. I have screenshot these listed on your website. Clearly the buyers previous payment would cover the cost of these tickets, concluding not need the additional money from my account to pay for these tickets so your argument is flawed, fraudulent and the charges to my account unjustified.
Just tried to buy Darius Rucker Tickets for the Royal Albert hall on 28th Oct 2018 via AXS, was in the waiting room for 20mins before sale open but was unable as they sold out, however within half an hour of going onsale they were on StubHub for nearly 4times the price. Industry is a joke and needs more regulations for genuine fans.
The secondary ticket market is awash with Rolling Stones tickets, many listings not including the row and seat number. I contacted one such agency to enquire as to why that was the case and their reply was that it was because tickets hadn’t yet been sent out. Having obtained my tickets for Twickenham through a reputable (??) agency, I know that one is advised of row and seat number on purchase, so the reply I received was incorrect. Could row and seat number information be excluded in order to prevent secondary market seats being cancelled by the artist? Surely not!!
I purchased 3 tickets for my Son my grandson and his girlfriend at Reading festival to see Eminem last August I paid £458 pounds at the time and queried the extra amount with no useful response also when tickets arrived they looked copied and dodgy also face value of tickets was £72 as my grandson girlfriends family had paid £150 for her ticket to me I was eager to let them know I had not made the extra on the ticket and found ‘victims of viagogo’ and shared it on Facebook so all could see. They gained entrance but the worry leading up to that time was extreme as they were going as a tribute and memory of my other Son (my grandsons dad) who was a massive Eminem fan and had died in 2014 aged 34 yrs old so the stress of it all was unbelievable. I had never heard of a chargeback from your bank so I did not go down this route
I rarely do Arena-sized gigs as most of the bands I like tend to play Academy-sized venues or smaller, but when I do see larger bands, Iron Maiden for example, I always get a band or venue pre-sale so I am fortunate.
However I do have a big problem with primary ticketing sites owning secondary sites. In any other industry this would be seen as a conflict of interest and banned. After all, if a primary ticketing site has tickets for an event they know will sell out very quickly there is no incentive for them to place the tickets for sale on their primary site as they can make far more money fleecing fans on their secondary site.
The T&Cs of most if not all tickets is that they must not be resold above the face value of the ticket, why isn’t this enforced? I know more bands are actively involved in preventing fans from being ripped off, Iron Maiden are a good example, but tickets being sold that break the T&Cs should be void.
In other countries the authorities have taken steps such as limiting the mark-up on ticket resales to 10%, why can’t that be brought in here? Fans can’t always attend gigs, you often have to by them up to a year in advance these days, and so have genuine reasons to sell tickets in such circumstances, but the industrial scale reselling we see today is obviously commercial reselling and should be stopped.
I tried to buy tickets for the cricket at the oval last year on ticketmaster from the minute they opened but already most tickets were sold out – thats impossible unless there is some automated system to buy them immediately. When I went on to their getmein site there the tickets were for sale – this is a scandal – who is buying them up and how and when? genuine resales are of course needed but they would never happen immediately (perhaps there should be a time limit before this could happen say 24 hours?) – this aspect does not seem to be receiving enough attention. Result I just dont buy tickets any more unless I can get them direct from the venue.
Like everyone else, I am sick to death of excitedly hearing my favourite bands are touring only to spend hours on Ticketmaster trying to obtain tickets and the only ones you can get are at the very back of the venue (if at all) because touts have somehow secured the very best seats. The internet is supposed to make everything easier yet buying concert tickets has become a nightmare. I remember a time when you had to go to the venue to buy the tickets and often camped out overnight to ensure I got front row. Now even the most casual of fans can get front row tickets if they are extremely lucky to get immediately through on the website or if they have the funds to pay a tout. Whilst they aren’t regarded as touts, I recently bought my daughter 2 tickets to see Kendrick Lamar from Live Nation via ticketmaster. They were classed as VIP and as well as top priced tickets, you received a Hat, Tote Bag and a Lanyard. This cost me over £420 but as it was a Christmas present, I thought it would be worth it. When the tickets arrived (3 days before the event) I noticed the ticket price of £70. Now the Hat, Bag and Lanyard were maybe worth £40 which, when added to the ticket price made it £110 each X 2 bringing a total of £220. Where did the other £200 I spent on the package go? It is merely a massive con so that they can charge you an extortionate amount of money for the best seats.
I purchased a concert ticket to see the Killers as a Christmas present on viagogo and seen the ticket on there for £120 which even then I thought was pricey but I continued with the purchase. I was astounded when I proceeded to checkout to see the full price was in fact over £200, every gig on there was being described as “ almost sold out “ which I assume is another ploy to get the sale. I for one won’t be buying from here again it’s false trading in the highest possible way.
Hi Purchased tickets for my daughter for dua lipa in Birmingham April 2018
to find out I purchased 3 tickets for her birthday and since buying found floor tickets got to be 14 and above.
That’s fine and understand safety reasons but why didn’t viagogo tell me this !
I now have bought another 3 tickets direct from venue for seating just so my daughter isn’t heartbroken.
Viagogo complete con price was nearly double as well
Avoid with all expense
Got ripped off by ViaGoGo and their glitched website.
Pissed off and considering legal action.
Unwittingly, we bought four tickets for the Albert Hall, Jingle Bells concert, unrestricted view through Viagogo. Total cost £269.72. E ticket showed ‘restricted’ view. Asked for refund. Denied and promised correct tickets would be forthcoming up to 3 days before concert. (Phoned Albert Hall, if booked directly total would have been £78.00).
Pursued Viagogo by e mail daily up until a week before 17th Dec, date of concert. No positive response. Contacted Daily Mail who secured us refund. Cannot believe they are still in business.
$575 NZ for Queen and Adam Lambert. A 6 hr drive to Auckland and 2 days in a hotel. Arrive at the venue and find out our seats had been taken. 2 more tickets worth $490 to get in. Vianogo say I have no account with them despite me having several emails copies of the tickets and proof of purchase from my bank. Good luck to all who are in the same position. Hope you get the result you want
Yet again another gig and another complete sell out without anyone i know being successfull in getting a ticket. Bloc party playing 8000 Ally Pally sells out in seconds and within the same amount of time hundreds if not thousands of ticket are on secondary touting sites. The premise of these sites beign that people who can’t go to the event can resell their tickets (well thats obviously not the case is it). Lets say that half of the tickets on sale this morning end up on a touting site at say £40 more than face value (thats £160,000) fans have paid over the odds for one gig. Whats more important, the ability for the odd forgetful person to be able to honestly resell their ticket or fans to be ripped off to the tune of £100’s millions ever single year.. Its an absolute disgrace that we’re even still discussing this, its essentially legalise theft and could be stopped tomorrow by banning these sites..
My wife today put under time pressure (last 2 seats) for a theatre booking by Viagogo who she found on an internet search, when on the actual theatre website there were plenty of seats at a much lower price.
She has since been in floods of tears on a panic attack.
Websites like these should be closed down and the credit card companies should not allow them to take money in their name.
I have received my two tickets to see Tom Walker at Oran Mor in Glasgow on Thursday. I had searched for them online and found a company (one I thought was genuine) with a few left. I went to their page and found 2 tickets at £26 each. I was on a timed countdown immediately and was asked to create an account. I was fairly happy to pay the price but at no point was I told of the extras which would be added on – and so when the receipt for the sale came through and said I had been charged £81 for the tickets I almost fainted! I thought there had been a mistake and I had pressed 3 instead of 2! I got in touch with the company via twitter and they have told me that I would have been given the price breakdown before I completed the sale. Part of that price was £12 to post the two tickets in the same envelope, ffs! The tickets arrived in the last hour and I am utterly horrified that the face value for one is £11.50. I am completely disgusted. I have contacted the company again and they are not interested in assisting me.
Unbeknown before my purchase of tickets and selecting them the final cost was a shock 2 tickets at £28.50 each.
Showed on my statement £138.24!!
Who in their right mind would agree to this if it was clearly highlighted.
Principle and ethic does not exist with this operator.
Jean Davies.
I searched for tickets for the Antony Joshua fight. Selected my seats via “Get me In / ticketmaster. Paid £105 for £40 ticket. Next day I was Contaced to say” the ticket provider could not supply the tickets” I was offered alternative tickets but had no choice of where. It was “this or nothing” so I accepted.
Our seats were nowhere near my original choice and our view of the fight was only watchable on the bid screens.
How can tickets be sold when they dont exist?
I bought 7 tickets advertised by Viagogo as for Royal Opera House London. They supplied tickets for Austria. This would have been the first time my family could have gone and now we are £400 out of pocket. Bank of Scotland have refused a chargeback on the grounds that the checkout basket showed the tickets were in a different theatre. I did not notice but I want expecting any change. However I have never before experienced an online sale where I put something in my basket and the seller just changed it without notice. It is very bad and dishonest practice. A shopkeeper would not be allowed to sneak up behind a customer and change the items in their trolley so why should it have acceptable online? Very disappointed with Bank of Scotland as well as Viagogo.
I was on holiday in Turkey last summer when ex Sheeran tickets went on sale, so managed to get 2 but when bank details came in they worked out £850 for 2, then got told that the tickets aren’t going to be valid as got through viagogo! I’ve rmailed them and they told me no refund and to re sell them! I’m going to seek legal advise!
I purchased tickets from Viagogo that said ‘reserved gallery’. I emailed VG and they confirmed that they were seated tickets. I have since called the venue only to find out that I am standing in an unreserved section. I paid £200 for tickets that I can still buy for £35 from the event directly. I have tried unsuccessfully to get reimbursed and they refuse. This is a total rip off!
I searched for the band “souther culture” playing in Brooklyn on 6-23-18. I paid $195.00
The same tickets are available from the venue for $15 each.
How do I get a refund ? Not possible.
Even the credit card company can’t give a refund.
It’s a usury !
Top tip: Avoid viagogo like the plague!
We all know Ticketmaster are janky (“tickets on sale at 11am” – 11:25 as I write this and still not on sale) …. so I have to go to the other official ticket partner of the event Viagogo – not even a tout, an “official ticket partner”.
Only once I have confirmed my card details, and they’ve taken the money, do they bother to mention there are €80 worth of “fees” tacked on to the purchase (essentially the price of another ticket)!
I used a well-known platform, which came up in the Google ticket listings, presumably due to artificially boosting their search ranking.
I was not made aware at any point that they were only a marketplace to sell other people’s tickets, and I would say that this is intentional.
During the process I was only shown that there are two tickets available, not that they were being sold together.
I clicked through, expecting to be offered a chance to select ticket numbers and the next thing I know, I have been charged for two tickets (I needed one..). At no stage was there a clear indication of what was on offer.
I was offered the usual relisting, which presumably is done to get people to panic and tie themselves in even more.
In my follow up with the company, the feedback has been dismissive and uncaring. I would like to see them face up to their misleading process.
I purchased a ticket for Groovin’ The Moo – Bunbury (Saturday, 12/May/2018) for $259.42 on Viagogo today. I then found out that they were $119.95 on another website. Also, they did not send me the actual tickets via email. Instead they stated in the email that the tickets would be available for download in a week prior to the event. Further researching online, I found out that some tickets from Viagogo have turned out not to be valid when the person arrives at the event. I have cancelled the card that I used to purchase the tickets with but unfortunately the payment has already gone through.
I bought 2 tickets through Viagogo in Novemeber for the Roy Orbison concert at Leeds Arena on 14th April. The website led me to believe I was paying face value for tickets ie £47 each inc booking fee. They also led me to believe that the tickets were running out and only had 18 tickets remaining and I only had 5 minutes to complete the transaction otherwise I would lose the purchasing right. They ended up charging me £96 each for a £47 ticket. When I checked with Eventim which is official ticket seller they had hundreds of tickets still for sale with better viewing at £47 each. I had been conned by viagogo. When my tickets arrived 3 days before the event they had been purchased through Eventim at only £47. These con artists need stopping!!
I spend £216.99 buying what I thought were two premium tickets, from Viagogo to see George Benson at the Albert Hall! X imagine my surprise when I got my etickets and printed them off – the ticket value was only £52.50 each. I had paid over £100 more! Feel really ripped off.
I searched for rugby tickets online and came accross Viagogo.
I booked 2 tickets, but because the currency was not my countries currency, i did not realise the price.
Only after the booking was confirmed, did i see the conversion.
I paid R654 for 2 tickets.
Firstly, they make you think that all the tickets are almost sold out. Only to find out, that they are scamming.
Secondly, then they ask a fee for buying tickets from them. A week before the event, i contacted them to hear when ill be getting my tickets, on which they said latest a day before event.
Two days before the event i got my tickets.
I was so happy because it was a bday gift for my husband. When i download the tickets, i saw that the tickets face value is R150 each. Meaning that i paid more than double for the tickets.
When i booked the tickets, i booked grand stant tickets on the upper level middle section. On review of my tickets, i saw that the tickets given to me were lower level corner tickets. But because both of these sections are on the grand stand, they said that i got what i paid for.
We all know that corner and middle section is far from the same.
After numerious mails, threads and hair pulling on my side, they kept on saying the same thing with a generic reply.
I bought tickets from another vendor at R150 per ticket, with my name on so spent almost R1000 for 2 tickets.
On the day of the game, i took the tickets that i bought from Viagogo with, just to check, and they were not valid!
They are scammers and this is pure white collar crime.
After numerious
I booked 3 tickets for the Barry Manilow show for 2 Sept.18 from Viagogo. When I downloaded the tickets they were for someone else. It is impossible to contact Viagogo by phone. When I follow the instructions on line the reply was that I would be able to gain a access with these tickets. That is not good enough. When you book seat for what should be a stress free enjoyable evening,
If they do not resolve this problem quickly I will never use this company again.C
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am a fan of American Football, and managed to get down to London to watch games at Wembley and Twickenham in the last three years.
On each occasion, the tickets were immediately sold out, but then seconds later, appeared on the likes of Getmein, Stubhub or Viagogo. Whilst the price shown on a typical ticket was around £40, the resale cost was often double or even triple the price.
This year it is no different. We registered with NFL for a pre-sale ticket code, where you would be able to purchase tickets at the time of release. The site was slow, unresponsive and once again Ticketmaster sold out of seats, but you could buy these via a third party.
Whilst I am no expert, it would appear that there is some collusion or deliberate mechanism at play here to ensure that genuine fans are forced to pay over the odds for tickets. I appreciate that there is an argument for supply and demand, but this whole experience feels entirely wrong.
I have to resign myself to the fact that I will not be able to go to the game this year and that is really quite disappointing. I personally feel that this industry needs a shake up to improve such practices. Even if the original face value cost of the ticket price was increased, at least I would know what I am buying, but this resale market is ripping people off.
I can only hope that some form of regulation or legislative measures can be put in place to protect consumers and allow genuine fans to attend the events that they want to without paying exorbitant fees to people who are clearly profiteering from this system.
Kind regards,
David
My partner went online to try and get Biffy Clyro tickets this morning for the Cardiff concert.
Supposdly the tickets would be on sale at 9.00am on the Ticketmaster site.
No luck. All tickets gone a few minutes past 9.00.
Found out that even those who had pre order codes couldn’t get tickets either.
Yet tickets are on sale on viagogo for £600 plus.
It’s not the first time this has happened.
We are thinking that it’s pointless trying to go to live music concerts as it’s hard to get tickets.
Viagogo sold a ticket for more then a $1000 its been 5 months and I have not received a ticket or a straight ans .
I have just been ripped off by Viagogo.
I wanted tickets to see a band in Newcastle so I clicked on buy tickets, thinking that I was dealing with the primary vendor, the website said the tickets were scarce and more or less all sold out, but they had 2 tickets at a higher price, so stupidly I clicked on buy, the next day I went abroad on holiday for 10 days and when I got back to the UK there was a message in my email inbox from the Viagogo, I didn’t have a clue who this company was, then it dawned on me, I had a message to download my concert tickets, when I downloaded the tickets they had charged me 3 times the price marked up on the ticket as the face value, and the tickets had someone else’s name on the top, when I checked my bank account this Viagogo company had also charged extra fees, I have since found out that Viagogo had not told the truth about the scarcity of the tickets that I wanted, they had deliberately misinformed people to sell tickets, I contacted their customer service dept by phone and the girl there told me I should have read the small print and I was not entitled to a refund, she just fobbed me off.
I have contacted Trading Standards and reported this company.
The really annoying thing is that I have no idea how I was redirected to this companies website, I thought I was dealing with primary vendor, and to make matters worse there are tickets still available at the correct face value price.
I am still unsure if my tickets are fakes, there is Russian persons name on the downloaded tickets, so I will probably give the concert a miss as I am not prepared to take a days holiday, drive down to Newcastle, pay for parking and then be turned away because I purchased fake tickets.
This company are taking money by deception, and are refusing to refund the money.
I am extremely angry.
Hi,
From Sydney, Australia. I bought 2 tickets for a concert at Opera on Sydney Harbour – La Boheme . The price indicated on the screen was $157 each ( on a viagogo Australia site) which doesn’t say it’s a secondary market place.
Upon exiting the purchase after being prompted to enter all card details, the invoice then is only generated to advise the price is $405. There is no conversion rate . It ‘s just a jump in price with additional Booking Fee ( 86.50) , VAT (9.14) and Handling Fee (4.95) . There was no indication of the booking fee otherwise I would have gone to another site.
Bank would not refund on this reason
1) My card wasn’t stolen
2) I have entered my passcode.
I take it’s how they lead the customers across the purchase screen which is very misleading.
Miss Hooi Lin Yap
I’ve found that this issue doesn’t just affect music events, this extends into sporting events too – for every rugby game I go into Cardiff to see (international or national) there are touts everywhere – and as I wanted to see the NFL in London this year – I struggled to get 2 tickets to see either of the 2 games at Wembley, when tickets for the area I eventually ended up in (at £55 per ticket) went up immediately on GetMeIn for near double that price!!
The government need to stop this practice at its ordinary people getting ripped off or missing out on these sorts of events which sometimes are not very frequent (music events especially!).
Rows of empty seats at Alison Moyet Palladium concert last year which was “sold out”.
Funnily enough the empty rows that were on the left of the theatre were identically matched by empty rows on the right!
Seats which were available on secondary sites.
What are the chances that every single one of the fans in those rows couldn’t go and chose to resell their ticket and no-one bought them.
Secondary sellers don’t care if their are empty seats as they only need to sell a few to make a profit.
Well done Ed Sheeran for cancelling the tix advertised on these sites.
Well done Fanfare – hope you are successful in hurting and exerting much needed control of these touts!
Charles Aznavour is one of my musical heros and I have been lucky enough to see him at the Albert Hall a couple of years ago. When I saw he was there again I jumped at the chance of a ticket. In my excitement I clicked on the first link that came up (assuming it was the Royal Albert Hall). I entered a website that looked legit and went through the stages with the website telling me that many others were looking at these tickets and that there were only a few left. There was even a countdown clock going. I scuttled through the site and got to the end only to be hit by a bunch more charges. Once more I felt a weird pressure to finish and eventually secured the elusive tickets, only to realise that I had paid hugely over face value. I looked again and realised that I had used Viagogo. I then looked harder, found the actual RAH site and discovered the tickets had only just gone on sale and there were plenty available. I felt ashamed and cheated; humiliated even… I decided to call Visa and try to cancel the transaction, but the man I spoke to informed me that there was nothing I could do about this. It was incredibly frustrating and even writing about it now feels embarrassing. I’m not usually naive and think I rarely get taken for a ride, but on this occasion I was. I think Viagogo is a completely unscrupulous company, preying on the enthusiasm of fans.
i think it is totally unconscienable that touts can buy huge numbers of tickets to resell at inflated prices, why do the Government not make this illegal, I have so much respect for artists like Ed Sheehan who are taking a stand against this, IMO if the artist doesn’t care enough to protect their real fans maybe we shouldn’t be buying tickets to their gig anyway, maybe its time we all voted with our feet
This disgraceful rip-off is the reason why Prince never brought his solo piano tour over as he hated secondary ticketing.
Too many acts are colluding with the secondary sites and allowing fans to be ripped off.
The whole practice should be made illegal and tickets should only be sold to customers who can later prove to venue entry staff they bought them direct and not through other agencies.
That would stop the touts.
Back in the day there wasn’t a problem as the old school requirement was buying direct from the box office.
The bloody internet makes exploiting the public too far too easy and the industry needs to get a grip.
I was excited to see Tim Vine was appearing at the Hammersmith Apollo on May 11, 2018. I (as it turns out naively) went straight to Google to search and went for the first site with tickets – Viagogo. I had never heard of Viagogo and had no reason to distrust the site. It was only at the point of purchase, when feeling under pressure to hurry up by the drop down warning about time running out, that I got hit with the extra, hidden costs: £5 per ticket for delivery and £17 per ticket ‘administration’. For the two supposedly face value tickets I therefore paid an extra £44. I felt stupid for not checking and it spoiled the excitement of planning the show as a surprise for my son. I had no idea which seats we had and was so anxious that the tickets would be invalid. They did arrive in good time and we were, thankfully, admitted to the show but I will never purchase tickets from Viagogo again. The whole experience was marred by the annoyance at the extra costs and by the fear that, despite all the arrangements including buying train tickets, we would be turned away at the door!
I found out from purchasing my tickets from Viagogo,imo glorified ticket touts that for general admision at Old Trafford to see The Rolling Stones,tickets they were selling were ￡152.00 each.When i received them,they were priced at ￡89.00 each.If i was on David Beckhams money, a strange ￡116 extra wouldnt bother me.Viagogo are ticket tout thieves.
Having briefly looked at your site, and knowing friends who have recently had problems with Stones tickets, should you not also be including sports events.E.G.:World Cup Rugby World Cup Ashes Wimbledon Ascot
To name but a few.
Do what I do, refuse to pay inflated prices and only pay face value.
I know thats hard when you really want to see an event , but its the sure way to beat the touts !
I bought tickets that are new off Viagogo for Ed Sheeran and their admin charges etc are really expensive,it makes the price of a ticket a lot of money! I would not buy anything more off them .
I have on occasion been unable to attend concerts due to the tout / harvesting problem. It is clear to me that there are people who have more money than sense and pay these well inflated rates for tickets. If they refuse to do so then as there is no demand the touts will lose. I have bought from Ebay before but it was genuine fan who could not go and I got tickets for Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds at face price and front row seats. There has to be the flexability to allow the genuine re-sale if unable to go.
I just want to support your work, hoping this follows through to the football ticket touts sites afterwards they are just as bad if not worse!
Good Luck, keep it up!
And THANK YOU! 🙂
Me like thousands of others have waited up for hours to buy tickets as the box office opens only to be obstructed by robot bulk buying, then see the tickets for sale at inflated prices. I hope laws can be amended and get some substance and that government agencies drive this illegal practice off the internet. Put someone in prison, they’ve plenty of money so fines mean nothing. Loss of freedom has an effect of focusing the mind.
I got my tickets for about triple the amount I was supposed to pay; and those were one of the cheap ones. The most expensive ones were more than ten times the amount!
My daughter loves Ed Sheeran so when his tickets were on sale I took time off from work so I can monitor the online ticket sale, but just like an old tale, tickets were sold out withn minutes into the sale. I lost all hope until a friend of mine told me they got some tickets from another site (viagogo). As I always bought my tickets from ticketmasters, i never really had experience using other sites, and I wish I hadn’t! Bought 2 tickets at £95 each only to find out that it got £45 face value when tickets arrived. Worst thing is finding out the day before that they were deemed invalid as it was purchased from the above site. The heartbreak and stress are unbelievable. It was supposedly a surprise and reward for my daughter’s hardwork at school but now was more of a let down. I support this campaign to crackdown on touting site as it brings so much financial stress and emotional heartbreaks to true fans of all artist.
I paid for the following event below on Viagogo, confirmation was received on the 13th of Jan 2018.
Order Placed: 12/01/2018
Event: Katt Williams
Ticket(s): Section Golden Circle Seating, Row 4, (2 Ticket(s))
Listing Note(s):
Venue: AFAS Live (Heineken Music Hall)
Date: Monday, 04 June 2018 20:00
Unfortunately, on the 29 May 2018, a few days before the event, I have received my tickets with the wrong date. Instead it shows 25 November 2017. The date is clearly wrong as I made the purchase on the 12th of January 2018.
Why would I purchase tickets for an event that was in the past? It doesn’t make sense
Thank you
I purchased four tickets on viagogo website Damian Marley at Brixton Academy 2 July 2018. The tickets were not the originally advertised ticket price and discovered the total price is way above the face value price per ticket. The total for four tickets are £326.
I brought Wireless tickets from Viagogo that we’re advertised for £114. It wasn’t until after I checked my bank balance that £160 had been taken out from Viagogo. I tried to contact them and it turnt out that you could not directly contact them via a telephone number. Also I sent numerous emails and they had not replied at all.
This caused me huge distress as I am a student and this affected me hugely. I advise anyone not to buy from Viagogo
Hi I have ended up paying almost £400 to Viagogo for two £80 tickets to see the Rolling Stones at the Ricoh arena on Saturday 2nd June , none of the extra charges were shown until my credit card details were given and I was informed that once I’d clicked “buy” there would be no refund .
I was ripped off when I booked Neil Diamond last year when i an extortinate figure for two seats. We were so eager to go to this because we felt that this would be the last time he would be over here, this was proved with the statement of his illness.
I was shocked at the final figure and being pressured into agreeing by them saying your time is limited to agree and proceed with the transaction. When you have followed this artiste for years you obviously continued. BAD MISTAKE
Last year we bought out daughters 21 st present 2 tickets for Bruno Mars in Nottingham via Get Me In a month befor they sent me an email saying your event is coming up don’t worry if you have not got your tickets yet they can arrive just a week before. So with 4 days to go I started chasing them up only to find out that they were via someone else? (a tout no bought) and they could not contact the person selling the tickets, so I had to wait and then(2 days before) tell my daughter that the tickets would not be arriving sorry.
The ticket company had no interest in getting the tickets and just sent my money back a number of days later!!!
The problem is in my opinion that tickets are not sold via the place in which the show or gig is being held any more they have farmed the ticket sale out to others and you cant contact them direct at 8 or 9 am to get a ticket in your area.
So you cannot go anywhere else but these rip of merchants to get a ticket!! They all should be shut down.
I’ve just received my tickets from viagogo for Jersey Boys in Edinburgh in 2019. Was surprised to see another person’s name on the tickets and a price of £31 each I’ve a really paid £195.01 for my two tickets. Feel very ripped off and contacted viagogo for an explanation as to why the difference. Their response was the tickets were resold from another person who set the price for the tickets. Not happy.
Hi
I purchased tickets for a Tears For Fears concert on 10/12/17 via viagogo the tickets were around £65 each (2 x tickets) from memory but when I went to pay, it was suddenly £191! I could not believe it.
The concert was subsequently postponed but I never got an email to advise of this, purely by chance a colleague commented on the day we were about to travel to Liverpool. They are a dreadful service provider.
Ed Sheeran concert tickets – 24 June
Purchased 3 tickets paid over £500 including over £100 in fees and delivery charges. Unaware until the end of the transaction what I was actually purchasing, felt under pressure to purchase tickets/clock ticking, failed to receive immediate confirmation. Shocked when I saw the overall cost. Viagogo continually respond with automatic answers. Feel ripped off by them . I have reported them to my MP, Trading Standards and they should be shut down. It has caused me a lot of anxiety and stress, in my haste I resold the tickets on , Viagogo are holding customers money and gaining interest from it because as far as I am aware no one has been refunded. I continually ask them where are they holding my money that I paid and when will I receive my money back. They cannot give me any straight answers. Its’ wrong to cause so much worry and stress and totally ruined the whole experience. STOP THEM NOW
I tried to get FOO FIGHTER tickets on day of release, 20 oct 2017 gigsandtour.com ,unsuccessfully. sold out fast. I took a risk and bought from VIAGOGO. on 21st oct. I didnt know better at the time. now got tickets, they are value at 60.50. I paid over £600 for 4 tickets. web purchase was, with hindsight, unclear and pressured to make a decision. ticket price, then after card number, mystery handling fee and booking fee per ticket, on 1 transaction all plus vat. what is this madness. I must have had a momentary lapse of common sense. to pay the costs. but the thing that is ruining any “looking forward to going to see the foo fighters” is that the tickets are likely to be invalid, because they may be deemed to have been sold unlawfully or others such T&C of the event organsier that I dont really understand. trying to resolve this before the event is impossible. It is not possible to contact viagogo directly with any question, everything goes to the web site FAQ. No one is interested I may have had more pleasure spending the money on a night out out and burning the rest. I have got the pdf self help tips and have gathered all the info I can. I still have not decided if it is even worth turning up at the venue.
“i’m alone and I’m an easy target….”
Bought two tickets for this years F1 GP at Silverstone through viagogo, caught us unaware with viagogo knowing that purchasers will trust the internet based sites to get a FAIR deal but resulted in disaster of 25% OTT price, total rip off merchants should fetch back capital punishment for these con merchants
BTS tickets for Europe and UK went on sale today and within minutes vastly depleted/sold out. Within same minutes many of these tickets appeared on websites for tenfold + the face value.
BTS is a rare phenomena for UK and Euro fans and for touts to snap up tickets and deprive mostly youngsters who cannot afford up to £1,000 for a ticket that should have cost £69+ is beyond reprehensible. Hard action is certainly needed against touts; jail time, massive fines, freezing their assets, etc. These people are pure, pure filth.
I have foolishly bought 2 front row tickets for an Andre Riue concert in December as a surprise for my husband’s 50th birthday. After a few things raised my suspicion I searched for reviews on the company and my heart sank. I read heart breaking stories from so many people who’s tickets never materialized, could get no response to their enquiries and sadly could get no refunds due to the concerts being more than 3 months from the sale date. After contacting my credit card company they blocked my credit card as they felt it had been compromised and now they refuse to help in any way until after the date of the concert and only if the tickets actually don’t arrive. I am so worried as I have read stories that the company often arrange for buyers to meet up with so called agents at random areas around the venue on the day of the concert and they often don’t even show up. I can’t even book accommodation or make travel arrangements in advance because of all the uncertainty. Please please be careful all you music loving people out there.
Viagogo is a rip off site
Shut them down.. now
I have not been ripped off by touting, but today I have experienced something very sad within this industry. My Daughter wanted BTS tickets, who are performing at the O2 arena in October. The tickets went on sale at 9.am Friday Morning through AXS.com and TicketMaster. We were on-line at 8.30am ready to purchase tickets, waited in the cue. Within minutes the tickets had sold out. But a few minutes later the tickets were on the resale sites for hundreds of pounds. I don’t think this is fair and how do they get hold of so many tickets in the first place when they just came on sale and when it says only 4 per person. I only hope more Artists support what Ed Sheeran is doing. I was hoping there is someone out there who can help stop this as I here it is legal for people to this, to exploit people. It is totally unfair for true fans of artists.
Tried to buy tickets this morning at 10am when florence and the machine tickets when on sale
Only to keep getting thrown out after inputing my 3 pin number on my card
Only to find less than 5 minutes after they went on sale they were up on the get me in site for more than double
Ticket master / get me in are ripping off fans
Got 2 upset daughters as i wont get ripped off by these companys
I have never bought tickets from Viagogo so haven’t been affected, and I commend Ed Sheeran and his promoters for cancelling tickets sold on the site, but sad to see they are still selling ONE Ed Sheeran ticket for a staggering £700+. I do hope the authorities can close them down somehow through legal action.
I wanted to buy tickets for an upcoming music tour in October 2018 at a large arena in London. At the time of sale 9am (Friday 1st June) I had open a few ticket websites on my computer and joined their virtual queue to get a ticket. The band are playing two dates in October so I had selected both dates in order to increase my chances of getting tickets. I waited in the virtual queue for 40+ mins to then be told there were no tickets available, but that I could buy tickets on their own resale site at this time. I looked to see how much the tickets were… the lowest price was around £900 and the most expensive was £1170, just for one ticket. How on earth this is legal I don’t know! How are people allowed to buy tickets and resell them within minutes!!? What’s worse is that some people are willing to pay that much for tickets that originally cost £71 which is fuelling the market even more. The venues and ticketing websites should do more to stop this but as long as they’re getting they’re money they don’t care. The law needs to change ASAP!
I found this site as I was looking for a way to begin putting a stop to ticket touting. BTS – a massively popular Korean group released tickets to their upcoming tour on the 1st of June. They were sold out almost instantly on Ticketmaster and surprise surprise tickets were already up on resale sites, including one owned by Ticketmaster for ridiculous amounts. The company BTS work for had kept the prices affordable between 60-220 max. And there are people out there pushing the prices as high as 12,000 on resale. This is BTS’s first European tour ever and there are thousands of fans that have been disappointed even though there are still so many tickets on these resale websites. Any money made on those tickets rightfully belongs to the company, not greedy individuals/companies. It will be heartbreaking to see empty seats at this concert. Something has to be done.
I wanted 2 tickets to see Hollywood Vampires and as I’m signed up to Ticketmaster I received an email notification from them that tickets were now available. I duely tried through their website to buy some. All sold out, nothing available. So I Googled a search for tickets and Viagogo popped up. They had 2 tickets, seated, but they were fairly expensive. I assumed that Viagogo were the sellers and that the tickets were Premium/expensive seats. When I received the tickets they were £52 tickets and had been issued/sold by Ticketmaster. None of this information was available/disclosed when I purchased. Had I known they were only £52 tickets I’m fairly sure I would not have bought. My bank statement also shows that Viagogo as the recipients of my cash. What rip off merchants they are. I shall still go to the concert, but it has been spoilt a bit by these greedy exploiters!
Me and my daughter wanted to see BTS a k pop band so we did the search and found out they’d be playing in October 2018 , so excitedly waited for the 1st of June this year for the tickets going on sale , as we waited I thought I’d book a hotel room and flights into London City Airport as we are from Scotland ( I did all the check thing to make sure we where close by as I recently had my leg amputated so thought this would be best) also would have to drag my poor son with me who has Autism and loves heavy metal and ain’t into pop music at all.
So thought with all this we could treat it more like a holiday as we have not been away for a good few years. So the 1st of June came and we where all set up to get on the ticketmaster to go for the tickets in which we did by 9am that morning.
We got placed in the queue and waited and at 10.20ish it came up with the gut wrenching words that tickets where Sold Out
My daughter was in bits then she saw there was tickets left on other sites, so I told her to go for it as I was so gutted too (after spending a small fortune for the hotel and flights).
Then next thing she was over excited shouting YES!!! I’m in, then she told me the price 432.00 each I panicked and told her No Way but she was gutted and as mums do I said ok then ( thought I’d just have to pay by credit card) then went and pushed the buy button OMG it came up that she had 2,530 dollars to pay so chances this on my credit card and it went through . I actually started freaking and thought WHAT THE …… HAVE I JUST DONE…
She had savings so she has had to come up with some money as there’s no way I could afford that.
That Saturday Viagogo contacted me saying that the seller had not got the tickets to give me and I thought ….Oh no after all that hassle what else is gonna happen even though I’m usually a very positive person.
Viagogo offered me alternative seats or a refund because of their guarantee policy.. I searched again to see if any others where cheaper in which there where some cheaper, there me and my daughter where punched in the stomach AGAIN!!!
We looked up the seating and floor plan to see where the best availability was and that was no where near where the first tickets where originally ( what ever happened to true meaning of original)
Thought oh maybe get some money back as they quoted that we wouldn’t pay more by selecting the seats offered, but hey we never got any money back either.
ARGHHHHHH this makes my blood boil it’s just not right and certainly ain’t fair.
All this money we all could’ve went on a trip across the world as it’s cost the bloody earth!!!
I have never bought tickets over phone or online and never will!!I used viagogo to buy 2 tickets 4 my wife and myself 4 Chester races 16 june as a treat(birthday) tickets were 4 quote”best seats” cost £134 just arrived well happy till openend envelope to find quote again “best seats”are 2 4 Dee stand price £15 each!!Suppose ime just a fool but£104 seems bit much 4 admin jst darent tell wife eh!!!
I ordered tickets from Viagogo. At the time I wasn’t aware that they were re-sale agents. At the point of sale the pricing was very unclear. The face value of the tickets wasn’t given, although it did say reserved seating. The total at checkout for 2 tickets was £211.89.
The highest price face value tickets are £51.50.
I requested a refund immediately which was declined. I emailed everyday but for standard computer generated replies. I did manage to speak to customer services once but when I advised her that I was recording the call, she ended the conversation immediately. I have asked on numerous occasions for the seat numbers, so that I can sell. These tickets but they say that I’ll know when they arrive. The tickets are available now, but I haven’t received them. I’ve asked them to contact the seller. But I’ve had no luck. They offered to re-sell the tickets for me at no fee. I was offered £132.00 (after charging 12%) I’m emailing constantly but getting nowhere.
Hi there, bought 2 tickets to Beyonce and Jay Z for £85. It was not made clear that there as an additional £30 booking fee on top of EACH ticket. On top of that, £5 EACH for shipping. This is crazy. There is no way this should be allowed. As its one order, I don’t mind the booking fee and shipping cost but the fact that it was billed for each ticket is insane. This is not affordable and feel very ripped off. My total is £231 for two tickets which cost £85 each.
I traveled to Paris from London specifically for the Rolland Garros tennis final just to find out that the tickets were already used.
On top of the price of the tickets I ended up spending considerably more on train and hotel just to be told there’s no way to get into the event.
Viagogo could not offer a solution or any reimbursement for my expenses except that they are terribly sorry!
I’d like others to be aware of the risk and viagogo needs to let customers know the risks of travelling from a different country/location purposely for an event.
It has been about a decade since I’ve last been able to get a hold of tickets to top name artists. I initially started marking the on sale dates on my calendar and trying to buy in the evening, followed by my lunch break, followed by getting a sneaky break at the exact sale time. When I couldn’t buy tickets at 1 minute pay the sale time I realised that something is very wrong with the music and spring event sales industry. I’m glad that other people have realised and are actually trying something to change the practice. Well done
I bought 2 Royal Opera House (ROH) tickets for Swan Lake, 19th June 2018 not realising I was not on the ROH website. I paid £240.33. Viagogo refused to cancel when I received their confirmation email and have been sending auto-replies since.
The ROH website says their tickets are invalid.
I have over 100 emails, mainly to them with all the replies computer generated. They tend to be ‘The tickets are valid’ or ‘No refund’. I have emailed ASA, CMA, Trading Standards, Citizens Advice, made a report to Action Fraud and instigated Chargeback via my bank.
Purchased 2 tickets from Viagogo for England/Australia cricket match at the Oval back in December 2017. Tickets arrived a week before match which was yesterday & I realised their face value was £65 each – charged £359 in total – 3 times the value of the ticket costs – there is no justification for charging this amount it is ‘legalised’ ticket touting and time the government & venues stepped in to prevent this! Whilst purchasing the tickets was my choice as a special treat for my partner l still feel l was ripped off. I will never use a secondsry ticket site again no matter how much we want to see something.
I was waiting for the pre-sale fan code to come through for Rolling Stones tickets from their official site in February. The code didn’t come through so after a while I panicked, googled Rolling Stones tickets and first on the list is Viagogo. I didn’t realise they were a secondary site. I went on the site looking for 8 tickets as a special one off treat for my family. I was asked if I wanted the seats together which I did as I have a disabled partner and my parents amongst my party. I was offered General Admission tickets and was so ecstatic to be offered them, I naturally thought they were seated tickets. I went through the process of booking them very quickly to avoid disappointment. I phoned my daughter excitedly but that soon turned to stress and disappointment. She said she thought they were standing tickets when I mentioned they were General Admission, which were of no use to me as I had my partner who is an amputee and my parents who are in their seventies who cannot stand for long periods of time! Also,shortly after, I received a confirmation email which showed the total cost, no breakdown shown of just under £2000! I emailed them to ask for help as the tickets were useless to me but all they could do was offer the option of reselling them which of course had to be through them! I listed them in March and there was no response so approx 2-3 weeks before, I tried to reduce the cost but it wouldn’t save it on my account with them. Time was getting on, there was more bad press about Viagogo and it was becoming obvious I wasn’t going to sell them! I emailed them a few times, to which they sent back automated replies that didn’t really make sense. I decided to write to my bank and request charge back and report it to the CMA. I notified Viagogo of this subsequently they asked for copies of the tickets with a deadline date of 11th June. I emailed them a couple of times asking for clarification and the reason why they needed them to which they replied they needed them to try and resolve my case. Thinking they might be trying to help, I sent them the copies. They responded saying the tickets have been checked and are valid! That was not what I asked! I sent them three further strong emails saying I would be phoning them later, so they decided to phone me! They said that the case had been reviewed, I had chosen gen admission and there was nothing they could do! This was two days before the event. They have missold me by not making standing/seating tickets clear plus the face value of those tickets says 89.95 on them, add another hundred to them for the price they were charging them at, and then virtually another £60 each for booking fees! They mislead me again by asking for copies of the tickets making me think they were trying to help me! I had to buy more tickets from the official site in order for us to have seats and I could only buy 6 together so my parents ended up not coming! Absolutely disgusting from start to finish, the event has passed and I have 8 tickets sat in my home I could not use and I have lost £2000, not to mention the fact that my family could not enjoy the event together! They take advantage of people’s excitement and rush to buy tickets that are usually for a very special one off treat. They are still continuing to be allowed to rip people off. It needs to stop, NOW!
I purchased secondary tickets from Get me in for Demi Lovato at the O2 10th June went to the venue Demi cancelled 40mins before but because I purchased the tickets from Get me in for £125 total (face value £37.50 per ticket) & Demi has re scheduled for 25th June I am not entitled to a refund, I cannot make the 25th as I am on holiday
Spoke to Get me in they said under their terms & conditions I can only re sell the tickets but there are so many tickets up for sale I am struggling to re sell they are now up for sale for face value so if they do sell I have lost money if they do not sell I have lost £125
There is absolutely nothing I can do about this but I do not think this is fair at all
I made the mistake of buying through Viagogo, who I’d never heard of, but magically had tickets weeks in advance of the official seller for this event. Ordered up from their website choosing a specific seating location. Upon checkout had to pay extra for a secure signed for courier delivery. No mention of the face value by the way. 10 weeks later the tickets were changed to E-Tickets & lo & behold – nowhere near where I chose. They mislead you by their mis-naming of the seating area you’ve chosen, but cleverly trick you by this naming convention make you think you’ve got tickets where you think you have. Upon closer inspection, they altered the stadium layout. When queried, all one gets back is endless generic replies saying the tickets are valid. As it happens, the official vendor of these tickets (Springboks v England Rugby in Cape Town) have invalidated them for fraudulent selling. VG however have offered me the chance to re-list them on their website, which I find somewhat strange given they know they are invalid & would therefore implicate them in a fraudulent sale. But they obviously don’t care as that’s why they’re still in business. They now refuse to respond to any messages and it’s in the hands of my credit card company.
Queens of the Stone Age tickets Brisbane Australia were purchased and never sent. My order was cancelled saying I would get a refund and I have never received my refund. I lost over AU$460.
I have been a fan of Kpop sesnation BTS since 2016 and they announced that they will be coming to the O2, London (for the first time) in October. I was trying to get two tickets which were £62.50 for my friend and I and we queued on Ticketmaster and AXS for two and a half hours and got none, but so many reselling sites such as GetMeIn, StubHub and ViaGoGo got thousands. They are selling them for at leat £455 which is completely unfair and these people are taking advantage of fans like me who have waited years to see BTS.
This is a brilliant idea and I support it all the way. Tried to get boyzone tickets today 22.6 for their farewell tour. Tried at 9am and low and behold sold out. Some went on presale and vip but there are loads on get me in and Viagogo. £300 for 3rd row when tickets should be £65. It is not fair on the fans who miss out
Promised my god daughters that i’d take them to the BTS (bangtan boys from south korea) so i waited for the pre-sale for O2 customers then for unknown reason, O2 cancelled and moved it to another date…on the said date we waited and literally did not take our eyes off the countdown but still got outsold by touts like viagogo and stubhub..these days, they are the only ones selling it from 400 to 13,000/ticket!!! I’m amazed with what ed sheeran did against this touts. I wish all artists would do the same.
On the 9th April this year, I bought two tickets for The League of Gentlemen Live Again at the first direct Rena in Leeds, on the 15th September at 7.30pm.
The tickets were advertised by Viagogo, Block D, Row G, Seats 17 and 18. The cost was Full Price Ticket – £39.50 + Fee £7.50
I only had a few seconds to make my purchase, so stupidly, I hurried through the payment process only to find that the total cost had escalated to £170.15!! Such a shock!
The tickets were in the name of Laura Robinson, who had bought the tickets originally from TICKETDIRECT.
What a rip-off.
My daughter told me about your website only this morning. I understand that you offer support/ self help tips on how to get a refund. I am indeed a Victim of Viagogo.
I went on line to buy a ticket for Hampton Court Flower Show and unfortunately ended up buying my ticket via viagogo. Face value of the ticket is £24 and I have ended up paying £69. Absolutely disgusted. I have never bought a ticket on line before and never will again. Such a shame
Thank you Claire, we followed your advice after Ed Sheeran event and have received full refund.
I have payed a lot of money for tickets through this company. I turned up to Justin timberlake today in Manchester after paying for a hotel and travel and got to the arena to only be told there that it’s cancelled. I’m now £500 down because I was not contacted once about the cancellation and I want an immadoate refund. When I try to log on to contact it says I have the wrong email and that I’ve never made a purchase when I have the bank transfers and the email to prove I have
The only times that I have ever written to my MP relates to ticket re-selling. Years ago, I wrote to Ken Clarke, MP for Rushcliffe, Nottingham and was fobbed off with a letter from his PA saying that there had been a review and that there were adequate laws in place etc. etc.
Clearly that did nothing as the practice continued. I tried to get Ed Sheerhan tickets (again) for my daughters and typically within minutes, thousands of pounds worth of them were on Get Me In and no tickets left one the primary sites. Clearly, not fans who couldn’t attend wanting to re-sell. It is clear that the government are not the slightest bit interested and presumably are lobbied or funded by organisations behind re-selling tickets at a huge profit.
I wrote to Alan Duncan, MP for Rutland and Melton outlining how music was becoming only available to those that could afford to pay extortionate prices and sent him a screen dump of the GetMeIn page showing the Ed Sheerhan tickets.
He didn’t even reply – which said it all to me.
If the government want to do something about it, it’s so simple as other contributors have said. Make it illegal to re-sell tickets at anything other than ticket value plus postage.
They obviously, actively, do not want to sort it out or they would have done by now. Shame on them.
I ordered tickets to the England vs India t20 at Old Trafford on 3rd July at a hefty £160.67 for myself and my wife. When I arrived at the gate I was turned away as they were ‘concession’ tickets and yet I have an email from Viagogo clearly stating “your full order details can be found below”. No mention of child tickets!
I rang their call centre and was stonewalled by someone who wouldn’t give me their name, wouldn’t pass me on to a manager or director and wouldn’t answer the question “Does this represent ‘full details’ or not?” She eventually just put the phone down on me. In my view Viagogo are utterly despicable shysters.
Just looking to get tickets for Jess Glynne in Nottingham, they dont even go on public sale until tomorrow, but many of the best seats are already on Viagio for grossly inflated prices. Chances are when they actually go on sale tomorrow there will be little left and we then have no choice but to go to these rip off sites.. Resale for profit should be outlawed as the real fans either miss out, or bet ripped off
Hello,
My name is Lorina Lako.
I have bought 2 tickets with VIA GOGO for event of 14 JULY beyonce Jay z paris and i have received an empty envelope.
I have to travel to paris for this event and still have no tickets.
Thank you.
Kind regards.
Hello.
I was charged £720 for 3 tickets for Roger Waters, Arena Birmingham, Jul 7. Believing tickets were scarce (as the Viagogo website implied) I reluctantly paid the price.
When the tickets arrived a short while ago they had a face value of £108 each. The concert was not sold out and the people in front of me told me they got their tickets last week for £90.
Just doesn’t give you that warm fuzzy feeling does it?
Recently my wife inadvertently entered the Viagogo site and proceeded through their dubious process to purchase four tickets for an Ed Sheeran concert in Johannesburg, with a face value of R850 each. Their clever online process, not only failed to give her a final amount but it also switched the currency (Czechoslovakia, which is very conveniently close to 10:1 conversion rate) so that what she thought was a final amount of R3800, once she pushed the buy button and received confirmation on her cell turned out to be R27000, almost 10 times the face value. We have been trying to get a refund and gone though all processes but are being stonewalled by Viagogo and there pathetic responses. These people are fraudsters and should be in jail!
Recently I inadvertently entered the Viagogo site and proceeded through their dubious process to purchase four tickets for an Ed Sheeran concert in Johannesburg, with a face value of R850 each. Their clever online process, not only failed to give her a final amount but it also switched the currency (Czechoslovakia, which is very conveniently close to 10:1 conversion rate) so that what she thought was a final amount of R3800, once she pushed the buy button and received confirmation on her cell turned out to be R27000, almost 10 times the face value. We have been trying to get a refund and gone though all processes but are being stonewalled by Viagogo and there pathetic responses. These people are fraudsters and should be in jail!
I’ve been in a queue since 10.00 am for Paul McCartney tickets unsuccessfully.. I’m angry at the fact I’ve given up half of my day off for nothing and tickets have gone on sale at treble the price on other sites.. I’ve always managed to get tickets before for his shows, so disappointed !!
Just tried to get tickets for Twenty One Pilots in March next year. Had a fanclub presale code and was waiting for the 10:00am sale time to roll around.
They were instantly sold out on Ticketmaster but just as quickly available on Viagogo for over twice the face value.
Who is going to put an end to this?
Firstly Red Hot Chillis were rescheduled to almost a year later which was in 2017 in Dublin. They would not accept the tickets that were printed at the door as there was no barcode on them. A kind lady working there took my details to try and reprint them however she said the tickets had no barcode. They refused entry and we had to purchase new tickets. Viagogo don’t accept this and won’t reimburse., I’ve been trying to get this sorted with a website called Resolver however no luck. I paid over 300 euros for those first tickets. I don’t want to drop this however I don’t know where to go with it now.
I have looked at ticket prices and have been put off buying because of the ridiculous cost and that tickets are ‘sold out’ within minutes, forcing people to look at the secondary market.
Instead of trying to use complicated electronic means to defeat the touts, the answer is so simple – the Government needs to introduce legislation that makes it illegal to sell tickets and other goods other than at face value before and including the date of the event. After that date, the tickets can be sold openly to allow collectors to buy them.
I bought tickets for Goodwood festival of speed through viagogo they turned up one day late as i complained I hadn’t received them. Iwas told I would get my money back and I still have not received it. These 3 tickets were bought for my son’s 25th birthday as he has been ill for 7 years we thought we would treat him. What a joke that was!
I mistakenly paid £340 for two face value £75 tickets to see Paul Simon and James Taylor in Hyde Park from Viagogo. I was mis -sold the tickets which were advertised as costing no more than £90 each. When they arrived the tickets were clearly earmarked for Amazon (ie a corporate account). I decided not to use these tickets and subsequently bought two tickets at face value from TicketMaster and went to what was a great concert. With Mastercard’s help I am now challenging Viagogo for a full refund as on the reverse of tickets the T&Cs clearly say that the tickets are not transferable. I will let you know when this process is completed!
Ticketing touting has affected not only just myself, but the fan base I am a part of… BTS LONDON tickets were “sold out” at the O2 arena on the 1st June and I wasn’t able to get my hands on any, which broke me. Knowing this, I decided to check resale sites; It was then I felt nauseous looking at the prices. P4 tickets orignially at 60 pounds were being sold at 1,000 and P1 (the one I planned on purchasing) were even more! which was crazy especially for a teenager who doesn’t work lololol… Something has to be done and so after procrastinating I’m finally speaking out about it. As of today myself and many others wait for resale prices to decrease, but the concert is fast approaching and they may never be close to original price, it’s so sad how there isn’t a max you can sell a ticket for… so scalpers are buying it as its original price and making profit off of helpless/desperate teenagers through manipulation and gamble of hard earned money.
Pleased to report I have just received £420 refund from my bank for overpriced Paul simon tickets recently reported here.
So I encourage anyone with a claim to take it to the bank/credit card company to pursue a refund. Viagogo did not acknowledge any of my e mails, the bank did great !! (SANTANDER)
Thanks for the advice here
Touting in the UK needs to stop!
I have only purchased resale tickets once as I was unable to get them in the normal sale. I paid double the price for face value for these tickets! Luckily, there were no issues with them when we arrived at the venue.
I look out for all the pre-sales I can possibly find so I have the best chance of getting tickets to events I wish to go too, but even then it is hard to get a ticket as the genuine sites lag out or they say ‘none available’. These sites need to do more as it is not long after these tickets go on sale that I find them on secondary sites. They need to stop people from being able to sale them on the same day of sales and if people do upload them at double the price then they need to be taken down immediately. Maybe all ticket purchases should have an ID that can track if they are put on other sites so companies like Ticketmaster and AXS can remove resold tickets and give them to fans who actually want to be there.
Once this issue is cracked down we need to sort out the fees that are added on to ticket sales on general websites
Not from the UK but. Woke up. Morning of the first ticket sales for band I was awaiting. Word was they’d go fast.
I checked Google as soon as I woke up. I clicked on the first page, (all the pages under it were just articles about the tour) also didn’t see the page I clicked was an ad.
This page was ‘viagogo’ never heard of it and assumed it was just the legit seller as it looked very professional. I became panicked instantly as it promoted “only 3℅ of tickets remaining”. I quickly got my card and fought to secure a ticket, I noticed the price was high ($150 each) but I had to have the tickets and with a 10 minute timer I rushed to the check out. When I went to pay it’d added extra unmentioned fees making it ($200 a ticket). I felt annoyed but paid anyway. I felt like a champion having the tickets and took a deep breath.
Not long after I checked Google again and noticed further down was ticket master also selling tickets. Dread quickly set in, I checked ticket master and saw tons of tickets for only ($100 each no extra fees). I realised what had happened, I’d been scammed. I felt violated, as if someone had walked right into my home, not wiped their feet and taken that money right out of my wallet and left with a smirk.
I was a fool. Did some research and found out ‘viagogo was just some second hand ticket thing’ I thought it was the legit seller and it honestly was trying to come across that way. Only in the small print does it say it’s not, I should have been smarter but no. Many will fall for the same trick, especially older folks, young kid and other silly people. Stupid I was or not, you can’t take advantage of people like that, this is wrong, they’re all scum bags from top to bottom and ‘viagogo’ should be banished forever to page ’30’ of Google where no one goes.
In the end I brought the tickets again off ticket master because I don’t know nor care if those tickets were even real. There’s much more to say about how deeply wrong everything about ‘viagogo’ is, but this is just one story and I’ll leave it at that..
Good bye.
Groove Armada at the Electric Brixton tickets went on sale and sold out within a minute this morning at 9am (face value £28.50). By 9:15 these were selling on secondary ticket websites for £99.50 + ridiculous booking fees.
My Wife tried to buy Elton John Tickets from Ticketmaster today (Hove cricket ground) it only has a capacity of around 9000. They went on sale at 10 am and at around 10.20-and was told they were all sold out . I have since seen people saying that were on the Ticketmaster site at 10am only to be told the same. This would be annoying but acceptable if the tickets had all been sold to genuine fans. However, I have since discovered tickets being sold for £200+ on Viagogo and other sites-something has to be done to stop this -it is outrageous.
Viagogo…need I say more! Hidden costs, delay in getting the tickets, no customer service, subscription fees being charged to my credit card without my consent after the ticket purchase, false claims, pressure selling, false guarantees…
Why can a gig sell out. then 5 min later a rip of site is selling 29£ tickets for 300£. Pink liverpool spent 1 hour on line ticket master only to be droped just before i pay for tickets.
I’ve tried to buy Still Game tickets this morning. The ticket on sale at 10:00 but it was no tickets available at 10:02 when I was logging in. There were tickets available straight away at Viagogo but you have to pay 5 times more. It is ridiculous. I am furious. Same thing had happened when I’ve tried to get the ticket for Prince’s concert.
This would not happened if nobody buying from the secondary sites. We can win if we all stand up boycott the greedy money grabbing monsters.
Tickets for Michelle Obama’s book tour in London went on sale to members only this morning, prices £30- £125. Sold out really quickly. Within an hour Viagogo had them advertised for £2300 to £4600. Absolutely obscene
My Son, who is autistic, was given some money for his 18th birthday. He found a concert he wanted to go to Tom Walker, on line, in the morning, I told him to put his money into his bank and we could look to purchase the tickets in the evening once I got gone from work.
Because he was excited and legally able to – he went ahead to buy the tickets before I got home from work. But instead of going to the venue website as he had done in the morning – this time his website search brought up Viagogo and he purchased tickets through their site instead. There were still tickets available from the venue with the face value of £20.50 ( he purchased two tickets) but he was charged £104.00. I tried to ring them, email them – I did manage on two occasions to communicate with them where I explained my sons difficulties and asked if he could get a refund, and was told that was not possible. All they could do is sell them on for him, but they took £35.00 ( as a selling cost) and that they couldn’t pay him until 8 days after the concert had taken place – as they needed to ensure entrance. I pointed out that the tickets had come from them in the first place so there was no need to withhold the money once the tickets had been sold, my sons birthday money was tied up with them from June – Oct. he was very distressed by the whole experience – I can’t believe how applauding they acted – and how they justified selling a ticket that was still available at £20.50 per ticket at the price of £47.00 per ticket + charges… my son could not understand why he had not been charged £20.50?? I wanted to try to tell his story and make sure people are warned from using the site!!
I paid more than double for tickets to see Miss Saigon through Viagogo, disgusting company that are getting away with fraud, I was hijacked from Bradford Theatres to this scam company, why are they allowed to do this in our country??
I purchased 3 tickets on the 26th of November 2018 for The Nutcracker in The Royal Albert Hall on New Years Eve
At the time of booking:
I was not presented with the seat allocation or verification of the seat number.
I was not presented with the face value of the ticket
and there was no mention of any restrictions.
I have since discovered the face value of the ticket and have paid more than double! Plus an hidden extra £120 booking fee. I have contacted The Royal Albert Hall and they will have nothing to do with Viagogo and my tickets are void under their terms and conditions – non transferable and void if resold.
The prospect of driving from my hometown of Wales to London on new Years Eve for my daughter to watch her first ballet to be refused entry and access to these seats is not appealing.
The feeling of anxiety and disappointment caused by Viagogo has been quite overwhelming.
I have also had my intelligence completely insulted by their in compassionate approach to any queries I have requested. They just simply fire back generated emails. This has just added to my frustrations. Total lack of respect.
I purchased 2 tickets for Elton John’s Farewell Concert @ SSE Arena Belfast on 30/11/2020.
When I received the tickets my wife and I decided not to attend and I listed the 2 tickets on Viagogo for sale.
The tickets were resold within a few minutes. I was given the contact details of the purchaser and posted them using UPS.
After the tickets were delivered and signed for, I contacted Viagogo regarding my payment. To my utter shock and disbelieve I was informed I had to wait at least ten days after the concert date.
That is two years away!!! No-one knows if Viagogo will be trading two years from now or indeed if I will be living or dead.
I am entitled to a payment of £298. Surely this is unacceptable. I can’t believe this has happened. Any advice greatly appreciated.
Bought tickets last night on a Live Nation presale. Supposed platinum tickets for £150 each. Went into the venues site the following day when tickets were on general sale & tickets around the same row were priced £61.50. This is how the companies now get around charging 2.5x the face value!
Apparently these platinum tickets are based on supply and demand however but how can they truly calculate this when they are in control of how many they release.
So annoyed.
Tickets for a country artist at the county fair went on sale today at 10am. I was online to purchase them at 10am sharp. The tickets were already sold out! Oh, and how convenient the tickets are already for sale on 3rd party sites for triple!! How is this legal??
I searched tickets for the angel via go-go came up I assumed it was a ticket selling place as Ticketek as well anyways it rushed me as I was buying tickets making out like you’re going to miss out it came up as Australian money and then my bank was all in US so many hidden cost and fees as well as international fees which I never approved of spoke to my bank cancelled my card still waiting to hear back from my bank So fingers cross two tickets which should have been $700 and they have taken $1500 not happy
They charge a HEFTY booking fee. My Toronto Raptors tickets without the booking fee (including taxes) is supposed to be $284.76 but they charged my visa $330.00 and my Visa statement states its a foreign exchange transaction? How could that be when the website itself stated it was in Canadian dollars?
They don’t allow you to cancel either! They also have a 5 minute time limit to book your tickets so you don’t have the opportunity to double check any other information (recheck any details).
This is fraud.
Laver Cup tennis tickets went on pre-sale today and Viagogo had them already for sale on lower tear for over £7000! There are over 200 tickets being sold. I didn’t get any and have bought flights to Geneva. It is appalling that this site is still allowing this practice to continue and stopping real fans from obtaining tickets.
BTS came to the uk for the first time last October. Within minutes the tickets were sold out and on resale sites for ridiculous prices. My teen is a huge k pop fan, she loves BTS the way only a teenager can, I ended up paying £900 for £90 tickets. It’s ridiculous. I did it so my daughter wasn’t broken hearted. Thousands of genuine fans missed out and it was beyond unfair.
The second BTS tickets came out I pressed the button and put in queue. An hour later it appears the tickets are sold out but I can get tickets on resale for twice the price! My daughter will be devastated she cant go because of these greedy people. Just not fair
So very angry, tickets sold online for a one night UK concert sold out in minutes. Then immediately available for prices up to over £1000 per ticket on other sites. Why oh why don’t ticket buyers have to give ID. Passport or driving licence numbers,even N I numbers could be used to stop resale of tickets, it’s not rocket science, why should the greedy few make a fortune from others hard work! The artists don’t see this revenue, neither does the concert venue. Closing down sites doesn’t stop resale of tickets, I’d linked tickets would.
I purchased 2 tickets in may 18 from Viagogo. Vastly overpriced but I purchased anyway. Concert was scheduled for 16 April Sean Mendez at the O2. On the 13th viagogo emailed me to advise me my tickets were no longer available and offered me alternative tickets and and £80 voucher. This then happened again on Monday 15th so I accepted the tickets and they emailed so I could download and print them . When we arrived at the O2 the staff advised us the tickets were fraudulent and we would not be able to enter. I can’t explain how gutted I was after spending £30 in train fares and £25 on food also to turn around and go home. Contacted Viagogo who have told me they will issue a full refund within 10 days and give me a voucher for £197.10 weird amount and why would I ever use their website again after this .
Let’s hope I get my refund otherwise I will be contacting my credit card provider to see if they can assist.
Unbelievable that they allow people to sell dodgy tickets !!
I bought 3 Ozzy tickets and unfortunately the date was postponed. I can not make the new date but Viagogo wont refund as it wasnt cancelled. Consumer Rights say I should be refunded, but Viagogo are constantly refusing. They tell me to resell them.
I didnt realise they were just a bunch of common touts, I thought it was a legitimate site – will never use these again.
Still want my money back but no luck yet.
My 18 year old son brought me tickets to Micheal bubble for Xmas and we have downloaded the tickets and the price on them is £63.25 including £8.50 admin charge yet he paid £114.40 per ticket plus £67.50 booking fee plus vat plus admin totalling £315.50 this has totally ruined the experience and the gesture as he was totally ripped off and we have contacted them and are also going to trading standards but this company should not be allowed to trade as he is an apprenticeship and so it took him months to save for this special gift which has been totally ruined by greedy rip off business !!!! I want too start a campaign to get them too be put out of business .
I had no idea Viagogo was a secondary ticket website. I was taken straight to their website via a google search. It cost me £170 for 2 tickets. After I spoke to someone they informed me of this site and the cost in comparison. I had no idea they were cheaper and thought they were original cost of tickets. Once i found a primary ticket vendor I realised the tickets only cost £60. I have been charged an extra £100 by being unaware and tricked. I now start the process of trying to get my money back.
NFL UK the worst run ticketing ever. All
The touts buy the tickets and sell them double price on stubhub. Now they can do something about this but won’t. All they neeed to do is check the seat number that’s being sold on stubhub find who’s bought that ticket and ban them, reissue the tickets back on sale. Simple
2 tickets bought from Viagogo for Fleetwood Mac total paid £539.00. No sign on the site of face value so obviously I thought what we were paying was the face value of the tickets. 5 days before event, tickets arrive …….. face value …… £75.00 each , service charge £8.70 – total per ticket £83.70 ….. so my question to Viagogo is how the hell do they justify adding £371.60 to the price of the tickets – they added 69% markup to base price of tickets.
I attended the New Zealand v British Lions 3rd test match in Auckland in 2017.I bought my ticket from Viagogo some months before.It was delivered to my hotel in Auckland two weeks prior to the match.When I took my seat at the match I was surprised to find an Irish man had an identical ticket to mine which he had also bought from Viagogo.It was obvious that theft/fraud had taken place.I reported the matter to the NZ police.When I returned to the Uk I emailed Viagogo requesting a refund.They never replied.So….please don’t use their site !!
Somehow I was directed to viagogo when getting tickets for Fleetwood Mac, probably in the heat of the moment and excitement of actually getting tickets. I have no idea of the face value but we paid around £250 per ticket. I couldn’t then go and tried to relist as well as sell on FM fan page. There were many occasions I couldn’t find my listing, it was so so far down the page which o thought was weird as they were supposed to be incredible seats, £250 each right? I tweeted, emailed, called – all Impossible though emails I did get just said the tickets were listed and sorry but what could they do. Finally they sold and what I find so incredible is that they won’t pay me until 8 days after the event I case my buyer has problems getting in, these are tickets viagogo sold ME! Remember they’ve taken my money since December (6months) and my buyers money! So they now have £1,000 for four tickets earning interest in their account and that’s only me! Of course there are 1,000’s of others like me. What is simply disgusting is that the Dublin event was sold out on the official website, ticketmaster, and yet viagogo has loads of tickets to sell. Feel a bit pissed off that the artists don’t support their fans more. I would do ANYTHING to encourage people to NEVER use viagogo – you’re completely out of control of your tickets and the mark up is unbelievable!
**PLEASE, PLEASE READ THIS AND BE AWARE**
My wife has been a fan of Bon Jovi for many years, but had never had the opportunity to see them. So, on the first of November 2018 I booked tickets through Viagogo for their tour in June 2019. This is where the story begins.
I do know and appreciate that I have been at fault and I have should have checked the Viagogo website, but of course, we get so complacent about things and we think that everything and everybody is trustworthy. Unfortunately, this is never the case.
I paid the Princely sum of £254.96 two tickets on my credit card, which I thought, although quite pricey, was still within reason for such a high profile band such as Bon Jovi, who were possibly performing their last ever concert, (time will tell on that one).
Not once did I think to go to Viagogo’s website and check my account, being such a trusting person.
The concert came and went. Bon Jovi were excellent and the whole weekend was just lovely. It was only the next day when I had a look at the tickets that I noticed that the actual face value of the tickets, together, was much, much less than what I had been charged.
It was only then did I decide to go onto the website and check up on things. I immediately noticed that there were four seat numbers showing on the website, yet, clearly above that, it states that I purchased two tickets, not four.
The face value of each ticket was £45.00, plus a service charge of £6.10 equals £51.10. Multiply this by two gives a grand total of £102.20, not £254.96. So, it was quite obvious that I had been charged for four lots of tickets, and some other unbeknown charge, that doesn’t even show up on my account.
Obviously, it is far too late for me to try and do anything about this, and I except, with a heavy heart that I have been well and truly ripped off. But, the one reason that I write this email is to try and warn as many people as possible about Viagogo, and similar ticket selling companies, of the UNDERHAND, DISGUSTING, DESPICABLE, CHEATING, ROBBING AND LYING (the insults are endless btw) ways of these companies.
I pity the poor people that work for these companies, probably at minimum wage. Are they aware of their employers CHEATING way’s. And, if they are aware, I hope that the employees and their employers can sleep at nights, knowing just how DISGUSTING they actually are as human beings.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, make sure that you check everything correspondence wise, that you have with any of these companies, and deal with any discrepancies immediately, if you have unwittingly bought tickets from one of these CHEATING websites.
I thought Bob Dylan would sell out, so on the day tickets came out I rushed onto google and searched.
I stupidly clicked on the first sponsored page that came up (something I never do usually) just assumed it was a primary site and bought the tickets. This is my first issue – very disappointed that google allow this type of manipulation to exist via their platform.
My second issue is viagogo. As soon as I landed on their site I was aggressively sold tickets. I was led to believe there were only 20 tickets left and to hurry, that these were hot tickets.
My third issue is that when I was paying I was quoted a price, only to go on and confirm I noticed the booking fee was substantial in comparison to usual booking fees. Alarm bells should have started ringing.
I foolishly bought the tickets, two of them. 160 each. The gig is still not sold out and available on ticketmaster for 100. This is sheer robbery and completely misleading the customer.
I cannot find an email address for aiken, but I intend writing to them – they have failed to reply to my tweet
Paid £603 for tickets face value £51 via Viagogo for Hugh Jackman concert. Not made aware of face value or break down of costs during booking process. Stupidly thought that was the price for tickets and countdown on the site made me think i wouldn’t get tickets, which were for my brother who has learning disabilities and was desperate to go to concert. We got in thankfully although lots of tears and upset from him as I had to tell him we might not get in, incase tickets were invalid. We could have been sat on Hugh Jackman’s knee for that price!!! I’m making sure everyone I know does not get ripped off like this. I have emailed Google ads and informed them of this. Disgraceful company.
Hi fleetwood Mac announced the uk tour in Oct I bought what I thought was front row floor block seats for£628 what I got on the day g
Before the concert some8 months later was indeed floor blocks seats but not what I paid for only £125 seats feel utterly distraught spoilt my whole experience of going to see this amazing band then when we got in the sound was terrible echoing all around Wembley
Was online at 8am for the ticket release at 10am for the Panthers @ Buccs game at the London Olympic Stadium. Only being sold on ticketmaster. Lowest price tickets £59 (+fee). Waited in the queue at 10am for half an hour before it said it couldn’t find me tickets. On stubhub someone was already selling these face value £59 tickets for £480 😡
Bought front-row tickets for my son and myself from Viagogo for a DanTDM show at Wembley Arena. When I checked the tickets, it was clear that the seller had either inadvertently or deliberately (I don’t know which) messed up the transfer. My son was very upset as we couldn’t get in and we ended up (luckily) buying at the box office the last 2x seats together at the whole place.
I contacted Viagogo immediately and the process has been appalling. They have sent me 13 emails so far, twice asking for more “proof” even having previously confirmed I had already provided it. The links they send don’t always take you to a place to actually load up any more info and so you have to scrabble around and find a place and hope it goes to the right case. They provide no escalation path, no clear steps to resolution and, frankly are unreasonably transferring the burden of evidence to me. Surely consumer rights would suggest they need to provide evidence I received my purchase? All this on top of the fact that they set me a deadline of 24h to respond after I first raised it (whilst at the show) after which they would regard the matter as closed, which demonstrates an extraordinary disregard for basic consumer rights, never mind customer care.
I was recently looking to purchase tickets for an American football game in the UK for myself and 5 other people.
The website of the arena appeared to be down at the time the tickets went live, as such I was directed by my friends to viagogo (non of us knowing their M.O. at the time)
I found 6 tickets that were advertised on site with a price of £62 each. That was fine as I expected to pay about that via the arena’s website.
Once I had created an account I proceeded to look at payment. As I was checking out I suddenly noticed the price had inexplicably shifted and I was charged £1435.88 for these 6 tickets that should have been only £62 each. I was dumbfounded, and as I looked at the final statement it showed £62 as a BOOKING FEE!
This had certainly not been made clear before hand. I immediately contacted Viagogo advising a mistake had been made, expecting a simple refund to be processed to resolve the issue. Surely there is a cooling off period or a process for mistakes such as this. But no, viagogo completely stonewalled me. Totally unphased by the fact I can no longer pay my rent or afford to eat for a solid month.
This one small mistake and total lack of customer support has left me in a position where it will take me months to get back on my feet
Their only answer “resell your tickets” and thus continue this horrible venomous cycle. Passing this horrible stress and incredible pressure into another poor person.
I’m doing everything in my power to try and secure a refund right now, and I am so thankful you guys at fanfair are here to lend a hand.
This is not how live entertainment should be. Companies like this are criminals and should be shut down.
As much as this has destroyed me, I’m glad I can be a point of reference to the damage this kind of cowboy operation can cause.
I purchased 2 tickets for the Baseball at the London stadium from Viagogo on the 7th of December 2018, the advertised price was 134.00 each which i was prepared to pay. the price i was charged after agreeing to proceed was 683.81. When i received the tickets 4 days before the game had a face value of 65.40 each I contacted Viagogo and complained and claimed the difference between the advertised price and that charged they have ignored my email thus far.
I just bought two tickets for a Rod Stewart concert in Hove ! The cost was £187,they were delivered by ups to a store in the town for me to pick up .They arrived two days before the event with £30 printed on each ! A bit of a surprise ,luckily no problem using them and the event was amazing ,so thought no more of it until I’ve seen all these remarks ! Won’t be caught again !
I payed for 2 tickets in May as a small healing gift for my daughter who recently lost her baby, and my granddaughter. I payed £155.19 in total. I was told to give an address they could be delivered to, so they could be signed for. I was told,rest assured” we would receive them 4 days before the event! They never arrived. I contacted them, and they said the tickets would be sent to my email address so I could download them ? That never happened! I contacted them and spoke to them several times without any solution or satisfaction. They then informed me, I would have to open a Ticketmaster account with an email address of carlie Briggs,and the tickets could be downloaded from there? It never happened! They then said I would have to download the tickets on a laptop, and not by phone? It still never happened! Viagogo kept blaming Ticketmaster and said they had done everything correctly. After contacting viagogo several more times, someone phoned me 2 days before the event and said, REST ASSURED you will receive them within 2 hours.It never happened! I contacted them again an was told, REST ASSURED, I would receive them in the evening. It never happened! The day before the event, I received an email at 5am in the morning valued at £39 each in a completely different section. Previous to this par lava I had a letter saying the tickets were £54 each? I work on a stroke unit in a hospital, and I hope I respect and look after people better than this! What a con!!!!!!!!
Hi
I was duped by the Viagogo site in November 2018 and ended up paying £605.23 for 2 tickets to Goodwood Festival of Speed.
I was distraught when I realised what had happened but could not get any help from Viagogo – most of their responses were automated messages. A friend found your site and I was hugely encouraged by the determination, progress and advice it offers. My husband and I were refused entry at the event (July 2019) because the tickets we had been sent had been previously cancelled! We followed advice and the event organisers were extremely supportive and provided written confirmation of this. Our bank refunded the money and the case was handled by Visa. Our bank was extremely poor in communication but after a lot of pestering I have finally found out that my case was successful so the money will stay in my account. Thank you so much for your site with all the help and advice – it helped me to cope when I didn’t think I had any chance! I have to say a distant thank-you to the person that sent the ‘previously cancelled tickets’ – this enabled me to get my money back and it also defrauded Viagogo – which I’m not sorry about!
I have been trying to buy tickets to see Mick Fleetwood and friends at the London Paladium .
Pre booking went on sale on Wednesday all booked in 10min.
General sale today Friday 10min all sold. No matter how I tried I could not get a ticket. 2hrs latter tickets start to be advertised on the internet 3 x face value. Some of the profits from this concert are to be donated to cancer trust, it is a real shame that even for a good couse ticket touts will make a profit it is disgusting.
I have been to many concerts/gigs/festivals over the years and have experienced this problem on many occasions and now I really do not want to buy tickets other than from the venue.
Surely bulk buying tickets has to stop somewhere
Just missed out on Killers Tickets in Bristol which I accept however they are already on resale sites so you cannot tell me all who are selling are genuine fans who cannot make it. This has to stop! There should be no resale, you should simply just return and get your money back and offered to people who missed out.
My sister and I figured we’d buy coldplay tickets for as a present for my mum’s birthday. I didn’t really wanna look for tickets so I delegated that to her and just payed half. She came across Viagogo.
The Facevalue of the tickets was 64 quid per ticket (which they hid behind a small green symbol you had to hover over btw), they were selling them on for a stated price of 140 for 2, so not much of an increase. Turns out they were hiding VAT, Handling and Booking fees which brought the final price up to over 170 quid.
Currently in the middle of trying to get my money back.
Fully support this initiative in the hopes that no-one has to deal with companies like this.
Faith No More tickets for Manchester 2020, face value £47, Viagogo site £168+.
Not interesting in buying at that price to sit in a half empty venue.
So sad that the artiat don’t get the money but the touts, 3 times the price, band make a 3rd of all ticket sales.
I wanted to give my husband a gift I thought he’d really enjoy. So I got on line and started booking a ticket to hear Elton John on his tour of Australia. My husband caught me and on the net was touched by the gift. Instead he got on and paid. Who were the sellers – Viagogo. We did not realise we were on a re-seller site.
After reading of Viagogo we became concerned and decided we would prefer to get a refund. Do you think Via gogo would help. Absolutely not!!!
We have written numerous times and found Viagogo have cleaver ways to evade and avoid answering. The site appears supportive but it isn’t. It has been created to make it as difficult as possible to contact them. We are in Australia and we have phoned they number provided which is for the US -toll free number of the UK. Interestingly answered by the same English speaker. How do we get hold of these people. We are definately going to visit our member of parliament and we are going intending to follow up. My hope is that we can find a legal loop hole that knocks them our of business.
I mistakenly purchased tickets to Coachella festival for $400 more than original price, because Viagogo, the platform where I purchased the tickets, copied the interface of Coachella’s site at the day when the Coachella tickets went on sale. You might remember the “walking man” feature when you are in line, Coachella logo as if it’s Coachella’s site, the same colors and buttons. Their site ranked higher on google than the Coachella site even! I asked for return after I realized it 10 minutes after, but they said – no refunds. My bank said that I can not get a refund through them either, so I just got overpriced tickets that I don’t even know when I’ll get.
My Chemical Romance recently announced a reunion tour including a immense show slated for the MK Stadium.
As a dedicated UK based fan I was over the moon when they announced a huge capacity venue comeback show in the summer and was exited at the prospect of taking my partner – who had never had the chance to see them and has long wanted to.
However, after the usual anxiety of being in a ticket queue – a second show was announced for the following date for immediate sale.
Excellent I though, that offers tens of thousands more tickets up for grabs!
Fast forward an hour, both shows are sold out and I didn’t manage to get tickets despite logging in as the tickets went live.
This wouldn’t be misery inducing were I confident fellow fans had got fair priced tickets for what Im sure will be an amazing show.
However I checked Viagogo shortly after both shows sold out and could already find hundreds, if not thousands, of tickets being flogged at several times the face value.
We need improved legislation to outlaw such behavior and venues need to take greater steps to ensure ticket holders are the same people who purchased the tickets unless that ticket can be authenticated as purchased through a legitimate fantofan service like Twickets.
Companies like Viagogo are predatious, manipulative, exploitative, utterly morally repugnant and deserve to have no access to the UK or any other music fan market for their huge contributions to rendering concert going an experience reserved purely for the economically prosperous at the expense of the majority.
Was trying to buy tickets to see MCR, my favourite band and the maybe the only chance I would get to see them in my life. Thought my failure to get tickets was due to everyone trying, so was disappointed but accepting, but am now genuinely upset that I couldnt get tickets because of 3rd party sellers despite trying the second box office opened.
I purchased some tickets in February 2019 for a concert, which was due to take place in December 2019. This concert was cancelled due to ill health by the performer and I was due a refund for this. End of January 2020 and I am still waiting to be refunded for this by the ticket provider. I have been in contact several times with the provider and given my bank details to them several times and still no joy. Getting really frustrated now with this situation. I will never use a site like that again to purchase any tickets in the future.
I ordered 2 tickets for Swan Lake at Royal Opera House for my daughters birthday (thought I had been forwarded to one of ROH registered ticket sites). On printing the tickets I discovered these were in the name of Deepak Miah and the Face value was £8.00!!!! I have paid £214 for these tickets and not only that they are for BENCH SEATS which wasn’t advertised. Iam expected to sit on a bench seat at 50 years old with a bad back for 3 hours! There are still loads of Swan Lake tickets for sale on this site. Phoned Viagogo and had half hour conversation but they wont back down. Their solution is to RESELL them to another unsuspecting fool, which I do not want to be part of. Told them they are unlawful and breaking the rules. I may go and sit on the bench seat in protest with a banner on my body saying Viagogo Victim. I feel such a fool and very depressed. How can they get allowed with this robbery!!!
I just bought tickets to see Swan Lake in South Africa – one ticket cost R 650, Viagogo charged me R 1,800 per ticket -I bought 3 tickets. I did not authorise the payment, I had only put in my card details – next minute R 5,500 is deducted from my card – absolutely insane – when I ask for a refund they tell me to resell – its ridiculous and fraud
PLEASE DON’T USE VIAGOGO
I was so looking forward to buying tickets for Lana Del Rey’s concert in Paris. After being a fan for so long, I could finally afford to travel to and attend one of her concerts.
So of course I was looking at ticket sites and in fact it is the first time I used ticket sites. For some reason, probably because it was high ranked on the google search and I was too happy hippie to investigate deeper, I landed on the viagogo page. The tickets were on sale for one hour (only) and the page already alerted ‘tickets selling out fast’. Being that happy, excited and naive fan I believed that. I bought two tickets. Last second before checkout, another fee comes up – 25 euros per ticket. The tickets were around 85 euros each (later I found cheaper ones ofc). I did not receive them. They said they would be out in february.
I realized I can’t go to the concert (my travel route changed and it would cost way too much to get back to Paris) and decided to resell. I sold them just for that price for which I bought them. A friend was telling me that I could earn much money – but I was thinking how the buyer is another fan, another fellow, and I just wanted the invested money back – now it turns out it’s good if I get even that.
Although I didn’t receive the tickets, I was able to sell them, which sounds a bit weird to me. They were resold within one day. The money was on my way, they said. It never arrived on my paypal account. I called them and said I need to ‘confirm’ the receiving. Bull$%&, there’s no option like that on Paypal. A couple of days after that they send another email notifying that they paid me out to my paypal account – the money is still not on my balance. Wanted to call the same number I called the first time – the line was closed. Although there were several numbers listed for different countries, now I could only access the US number. I called and they only said that it can take up to 8 days for it to arrive and if not to send them the paypal confirmation that I didn’t receive anything. I didn’t know what to say and how to react because I went through that process already and the guy kept repeating the same lines – like they all get a script, which they very probably do.
I asked him for different customer support numbers that are at least in Europe which he gave to me. As I’m not very optimistic that I will receive the money I think I will have to call those numbers again.
Viagogo never again!
I live for seeing bands I love, ticket touts are a huge issue every single time I try to book tickets to see bands, often the practice prevents me from getting tickets at all. It also is sad to see so many empty seats at gigs that true fans could of had, if it wasn’t for the touts.
I’ve missed out on so many concerts especially over the last 10 years because tickets have become almost impossible to get when they go on sale through legitimate sites (I’m not including secondary ticket sites because I regard these as touting sites).
Even trying to get tickets through a pre-sale has become almost impossible, and when I try to go on during the general sale, I’m accustomed to seeing the “sold out” notification within 5 minutes of the sale starting, despite the fact the venues can be well over 10,000 capacity!
I find it quite despicable that the government seem happy to ignore this most of the time, but then criticise touts when it comes to large scale sporting events that they host like the Olympics or Football/Rugby events.
As far as I’m aware it’s not possible to resell sports tickets so why do they same rules not apply to gigs?
Something needs to be done. Now. I fully support this initiative and really hopes that it makes a difference in changing things for the better.
I tried to get Mcfly tour tickets recently. I was there on line ready at 9 am to logg in and hopefully get to see the boys again. It took so long to logg in and before I knew it tickets were sold out. Every date, every ticket. But 5 mins after the tickets went on sale they were on other resale sites at twice the price. How can they be real fans when 5 mins after they buy tickets they resell them? How can real fans not even get a chance but there arw suddenly loads on resale sites? For the first time I won’t see Mcfly on tour.
I haven’t been ripped off but the Coldplay gig at Wembley Stadium was full of ticket touts on the approach. I hope this campaign helps to keep ticket prices at face value.
I bough supposedly great view tickets on EBay several years ago to see Take That in Manchester. They cost over £200 each. They arrived months later as restricted view, face value £35! Out of time to get any help from EBay……
I paid over £300 for tickets to Funeral for a Friend’s farewell shows in London that should have cost me £90, and then the venue and date was changed so I could no longer attend and there was nothing I could do to get my money back, if I’d have been able to buy these from a primary site with insurance, I would have been covered.
You have my vote, the practice stinks and it is illegal in other countries. I have in the past looked at tickets and just refuse to pay the mental prices. I have seen tickets for £1000’s and I bet the face value is no more than £100.
I know tickets will sell for big bucks for big events, but when they are the only tickets you can ever get, it crazy.
I had to pay £350 for 2 Justin Bieber tickets for this year’s tour for my daughters for £65 tickets on a secondary site for tickets on sale AT THE SAME TIME as the tickets supposedly went on sale. Disgusting, if it was for me I wouldn’t have bought them but it was for my daughters so had to tip up.
When trying to buy fan only pre-sale tickets for Jeff Lynne’s ELO Birmingham concert in April, within less than 5minutes, all pre sale tickets were sold; but I was redirected to the company’s secondary website, where I was offered tickets at approx four times the ticket price, along with several ‘package’ deals. However, I then registered with the Genting Arena’s ticket sellers, and was able to buy the seats I wanted, paying the stated price, two days later.
Stone Roses at the Etihad 17/6/16 brought the tickets off SEATWAVE 😡😡😡 2x 139 standing tickets = £278 … Seatwave Commission £58.98 … Delivery Charge £9.99 ….TOTAL £339.97 …
I’ve been saying for years that the government should just make it illegal to sell tickets at more than face value. That way touts immediately go out of business but if I’ve got a genuine spare ticket for an event because a mate can no longer make it or something I can still sell it on and get the money back.
It seems like such an easy & obvious solution….
Good luck guys, I wish you all the best
I was hoping to buy tickets for a London show for The Shins, I kept refreshing the page at 8:59am (They were available at 09:00am). As soon as 09:00am hit, there were not a single ticket available but they popped up minutes later double the price on Stubhub.com and Viagogo for double the price.
Disgusting – sick of touts, resellers and bots.
My wife bought some tickets to see Madonna last December. She visited the main ticketing site almost immediately the tickets went on sale and thought she was buying direct from the venue. It was only after the sale had gone through that it become apparent that she has purchased from a third party through “get me in”. The whole was completely untransparent and she ended up paying more than double face value for the ticket. A few days later more concert dates were announced so she could have easily picked up a ticket at much less gain. The cost she paid. I endorse any work that is being done to make this whole process more open as at present it is riddled with abuse at the expense of the ticket paying public.
Bjork tickets for RAH 21/9/16 – face value £40 – £80.
Three days after they went on sale (concert sold out in 27 minutes) Viagogo is offering tickets for £343 – £2,252.
Venues and promoters don’t care as long as the concerts sell out.
Ticket touts such as Ticketmaster say ticketing marketplaces “are dynamic and react to demand and the willingness of fans to pay…” Really?
I am in the military, therefore am not often around for concerts.
I saw the Avenged Sevenfold/Disturbed show at the 02 advertised and noticed I was going to be around for that weekend.
I tried to purchase standing tickets at 9am when they went on sail via Ticketmaster but was unavailable. by 0915 there was 514 tickets on Getmein! (A ticketmaster company) this is obviously touts taking advantage, potentially through hacking and once again real fans miss out. Something needs to be done!
I am a long term fan of Crosby Still and Nash and so when a tour was announced last year , quite possibly their last , I was keen to get tickets for their Hamersmith show.
I had been notified by their fan site that tickets would go on sale on a certain date. I checked Hamersmiths website which confirmed this.
Out of curiosity (and because I am a long term campaigner against secondary ticketing sites) I checked ViaGoGo and Seatwave.
Both had numbered seats available for a show that was not yet officially on sale!. At inflated prices.
Of course when I emailed them for a reaction , I got no reply , although Hammersmith themselves did respond and said they would investigate.
As someone who has worked in promotions part of the problem with either having names on tickets or proof of ID is that at a big show this will cause major problems for venue staff and lead to long queues.
Very best of luck with your campaign.
I spent an hour in a queue waiting for advance sales of Twenty One Pilot tickets last week. within 2 minutes of them going on sale they were all gone.
Less than 25 minutes later 300 were available on viagogo and other resale sites at 4 x the cost.
I cannot afford those prices and now they are sold out but there are now 100s online on other sites.
I am so angry that in 2016 this is not being dealt with. Elitist ticket touting should be illegal it is to the detriment of the artists and the fans and the music industry.
I REALLY hope that you can make this a reality for the future and have limits on ticket sales and be named tickets only.
Want to buy 4 stall tickets for ABC in Bristol, Getmein shows tickets at £164.94 per ticket, face value of £35 – disgraceful!
I have been a Green Day fan for over 20 years so I was really hoping to secure tickets for their Leeds gig in Feb 2017 when they went on sale at 9am this morning (9.9.16). I managed to get on the Ents 24 website at 9:01 to find that all the standing tickets had gone. I quickly checked the seating plan & tried to get seated tickets but they sold out right before my eyes. So by 9:02 every ticket had gone. Same story on Ticketmaster.
I am absolutely furious that by 9:05, there were hundreds of tickets available on Seat Wave, Stub Hub & Get Me In at a minimum of twice the official ticket price.
I simply do not believe that these sellers bought their tickets via the official websites this morning & immediately relisted them. Completely unethical & I have to suspect that the official sellers facilitate this “legal” ticket touting.
You have my full support and I wish fanfairalliance all the best in their efforts to halting the racketeering that has become rife with regard to resale tickets. Fans rise up and stop these criminals, music for the people!
A friend and I tried to get tickets to the stone roses concert a few years ago. After 10 minutes of trying tickets were sold out, yet appearing on secondary sites for triple face value. I am sad to say this discouraged us from seeing live music until very recently as we didn’t think we would be able to get tickets. The lack of regulation is can absolute disgrace. I am so glad there is some hope that this could change.
I tried to get tickets for my god childs b’day/Christmas to see Shawn Mendes. I missed 2 days of pre-sale on fan club site as you had to buy CD and other bits that I can’t afford. I was able to go onto 02 Priority thankfully but all tickets had gone by the time I arrived. Second Hand sites are now flooded with inflated priced tickets before the official release to the public!
Stubhub is owned by eBay; GETMEIN by Ticketmaster – I avoid buying from either of these companies and their subsidiaries.
Best of luck in getting this closed down!
I go to a lot of gigs and it’s a shame to see rows and rows of empty seats, due to secondary ticketing. It’s very disappointing for fans and it must also be discouraging for the artist / band to see a ‘sold out’ venue that is nowhere near full.
I have always used ethical not for profit websites / methods to resell any tickets on the very rare occasions that I end up with a spare ticket.
I must admit I tend to not go to gigs at big venues any more, as I know there is little to no chance that tickets will be available at face value.
When I queried the only website reselling Iron Maiden O2 Arena tickets – which quite clearly breaks the terms & conditions that IM are selling them under – this was the reply that I received –
Thank you for contacting us.
That is what is called “a walk in” event. The seller will be there on the day of the event, and will bring you in. He have to show his details. That is why you can buy these tickets.
Kind Regards,
Ron
Recently went online to purchase Clapton tickets for the Albert Hall next year. Was in the site at the time the tickets went on sale and refreshed the screen bang on 9.00am at the allotted time and found myself 3500 in the queue. Whilst I waited 45 minutes for my allotted slot I thought I would check the resale sites on a separate session and surprise, surprise there they were at hiked prices. As it happens, I got my allocation from the Albert Hall albeit I had to pay for the VIP tickets.
This surely is illegal and I would be intrigued to know what Eric Clapton’s management team have to say about this rip off (which affects them as well). Perhaps they would like to comment.
On a positive note I should mention David Gilmour who I saw last year. He hates this sort of thing. If you buy his tickets a photo ID is required to prove you purchased the tickets from the approved site otherwise you don’t get in. Well done Dave!
A few years back now when Take That were doing their comeback tour I got 2 tickets for me and my daughter from Ebay to see them at MEN Arena, I hadn’t enough money at the time they went on sale to general public. They were 2nd row tickets, but cost me £300 for the two tickets, way over face value!
I was so annoyed that I had to pay above the odds to get them and that greedy touts were benefiting and exploiting genuine fans! This should not be allowed, a law should be made to stop those touts!
Hi, the effect I feel from ticket touting is not being able to get tickets to see the artists that I want to see, and this can be very disappointing for youngsters that would love to see their idols perform. I would never purchase from a tout and unless other people do the same we will never eradicate the problem.
You have my wholehearted support. The majority of secondary ticketing sites are not “providing a service for genuine fans who due to unfortunate circumstances cannot attend the event they have tickets for”. They are simply facilitating ticket touting and making it almost impossible for normal genuine fans to buy tickets to see the bands or events they would like to enjoy.
Here in Italy is always the same. Quite impossible to get tickets.
I remember a lot of times trying to get a ticket from our unique monopolistic seller that is ticketone.
it’s kinda impossible even if you are logged to the site at the right timing.
As example, I remember last Lady gaga gig here in Milan, Assago, some years ago: ticket where sold out 3 minutes after the sale. So why on Viagogo there were plenty of them? I was complaining this on ticketone and livenation fb pages, and get banned only because I told the truth.
It’s a shame.
I would just like to congratulate AXS and Stubhub for doing their bit in the fight against ticket touting. Tickets for the Capital Jingle Bell Ball went on sale at 8am this morning, 12 hours later Stubhub has 779 tickets for resale all of which have a minimum 50% uplift in the face value. One re-saler that I saw is from Canada! Who decides that they are going to fly half way round the world for a concert, buys tickets and then cannot make it all in the same day!
One devestated 13 year old daughter!
The sooner that it is made illegal to re-sell tickets for more than face value, starting with the primary sites, the sooner this practice will end.
I recently I tried to purchase tickets as a birthday gift for my 16 year old son for the NBA basketball game at the London O2 in January 2017. My son plays basketball in the National Basketball League North East. He is an avid supported of the Indiana Pacers and they are one of the teams playing in London in January.
Travelling from the Northeast we had already purchased train tickets and hotel room and were looking forward to getting good seats when tickets went on sale.
On the day the tickets officially went on sale we were on the primay ticketing site (AXS) before the site opened and managed to get into the queue for tickets. Although we could press the buy tickets button nothing worked. Within about 15 minutes all the tickets were sold, but then thousands appeared on all the four main secondary ticketing sites, Viagogo, StubHub, GetMeIn and Seatwave. Prices were between double and five times the face value.
Although it pains me we have now purchased tickets (at about three times face value) from Viagogo even though we don’t know the seat numbers (secondary ticketing sites are supposed to show this information and also the face value). We don’t of course know if the tickets are genuine, or even if they actually exist. Viagogo tell us that tickets will arrive within three days of the event. We were also charged a “booking fee” of almost £100 on top of the inflated ticket price. I have screenshots of the entire transaction.
Complaints to AXS and the O2 have been met with indifference – it’s not their problem apparently – which figures given that StubHub is an O2 partner reseller!
I’ve stopped even trying to buy tickets for gigs which I think will be touted, and stick to less well known bands in much smaller venues. To be honest, I have found I prefer small club and pub gigs anyway.
RE: tickets for Mickey Flannegan tour.
Tried to book tickets for several dates the minute they went on sale. put in queue but sold out when put through 10 minutes later. Searched on google for said tickets few minutes later to find being offered for 4-6 times face value by ticket tout sites.
outrageous. These are just legalised ticket touts who are also being supp/lied directly by the artists/clubs etc. they were banned outside events years ago but now do it online instead
I have in the past been desperate enough to buy concert tickets from gumtree, ebay etc. I think the showing of photo at venues is a brilliant idea in principle, however it needs a few tweeks! How do you now buy tickets as a gift for someone else? There needs to be the capacity to put someone elses name on the ticket (at the time of purchase) other than the principle buyer.
I’ve been either ripped off or preventing from attending many live music and sport events due to touting.
What I don’t understand is why a harder line approach isn’t adopted/promoted to simply make secondary market trading of such tickets illegal.
We don’t need it.
If venues/ticketing agencies offered a re-purchase/re-sale facility (similar to the 2012 Olympics) to allow those who originally bought tickets for an event, which they can no longer attend, the possibility to sell back the tickets, subject to another replacement customer coming forward to purchase the tickets – all at face value – then we wouldn’t need these online secondary markets.
This could be achieved by a combination of tougher legislation to outright ban secondary sales (as with premier league football) and simple policy/willpower on the part of the ticketing agents and venues to offer the necessary solutions.
I always knew secondary ticket sites were expensive but never needed to use them until recently. I wanted to buy Blink 182 tickets, by time I got the money together standing had sold out so I looked on these secondary sites and ended up spending £90 for one ticket and £70 on the other ticket i wanted to buy as a gift. This is disgusting and it is killing thw music industry because fans cant afford to pay those prices. I wanted to buy Green Day tickets which sold out instantly so I checked the secondary sites and for one standing ticket it was £150 about three times the face value
I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan, and have been to 20 concerts. On almost all occasions, I failed to get tickets, despite being online at the exact time they went on sale. The tickets were then *immediately* found on ViaGogo, at hugely inflated prices. The prices are inflated by Viagogo just as much as by the reseller.
I had a similar experience with Red Hot Chili Peppers gig – could not get a ticket, despite being pre-registered for the pre-sale.
COMPARE FOOTBALL! It is illegal to resell ordinary football tickets, and so you never see them on Viagogo/Stubhub etc (except hospitality tickets).
Why is it OK to rip off music fans, but not football fans?
This is going on across the board not just with music .
I recently tried to buy tickets to see comedian Russell Howard in Birmingham .
There were ticket on sale on stub hub 3x face value the day before the sale .
On the day of the sale the sold out sign went up on the cheaper seats within minutes .
Bots had been used to harvest the affordable tickets for resale.
1. I am a huge fan of Mark Knopfler and David Gilmour. The measures Mark, in particular, has taken in recent years have made it far better for real fans to secure tickets at face value. 2. Generally, I have lots of experience of sitting in on-line Waiting Rooms, getting to the front of the queue at the perfect ‘on-sale’ moment, then getting absolutely nothing because the concert has immediately sold out.
The most recent example was when trying to buy just one ticket, on pre-sale, to see David Gilmour in London. I sat and queued on-line, waiting for 45 minutes beforehand. All was well, but as soon as the ‘on sale’ time arrived, the site went immediately to ‘Sold Out’. It was not humanly possible for 5,200 tickets to have been sold in that moment! Obviously, some technological operation had taken out all available tickets. I immediately phoned the venue, then TicketMaster and SeeTickets; but they all reported that they were sold out. So in less than ten minutes, not even one ticket was available.
3. I have reached the point where I do not bother trying to get tickets for many popular gigs. It is obvious that electronic hoovering up of tickets is ruining access to ‘live’ music. This is bad for the music industry because it dampens the prospects for new and emerging artists.
4. I would far rather pay the artist more money and go through a complex purchasing process, than line the pockets of some anonymous profiteer with no interest in the music and no conscience. Time to name and shame the perpetrators.
5. I am really grateful for the efforts all artists make to ensure that their adoring fans get to see them as many times as their finances permit.
6. I would be happy to help with feedback on proposals to improve fans’ access to ‘live’ music.
So I try to buy guns and roses tickets june 2017 QE Stadium via Ticketmaster who seem to be the official sale channel. I log on at 9.55 at point of release, pretty much immediately only tickets are up in the rafters literally at the back of the stadium, nothing in the lower tiers and seated in the the mid price range at all. Low and behold Get Me In the official reseller (seemingly associated to or owned or endorsed by Ticketmaster) has a a tonne of nice tickets immediately available. Mark up seemed to be between 60-100% now call me a tin foil hat conspiracy theorist, but given it’s a 40000+ ??? stadium don’t you think it’s a bit off seemingly hundreds of tickets are no longer needed and must be sold at a mark up literally minutes after sales are open? My wife a G and R fan since her childhood is incredibly unhappy and it seems the normal fans once again get shafted. Oh if you want a VIP box though get in! You’re good to go. Rock and Roll we showed em aye? I’ve got screen grabs of all this and it’s just so much BS it’s pretty obvious what’s happening.
Every single concert and sports event i have attended is affected by this. Tickets that go on ‘presale’ to a limited number of people and immediately sell out only for tickets to be immediately available on resale sites. I have no issue with a market existing for real fans who have bought tickets and then find out they can’t attend, that’s happened to us all. Selling tickets to other fans at face value (including the spurious admin costs and booking fees) is fair.
But for tickets to be bought solely to inflate prices and rip off fans is touting and should be stopped immediately.
i went online to buy u2 tickets ticket master sold out..getmein had them at 4 times the price…disgraceful
Five different friends tried today for Ed Sheeran tickets on multiple websites not one of us were successful. We are all livid because of course they are all over secondary ticket sites this is so unfair for the genuine fans and something needs doing now lots of people are making far too much off the real fans why year after year is it being allowed to continue you cant legally resell football tickets so why cant this law apply to concert tickets !!!!
I bought tickets from Seatwave for the Black sabbath “The End” tour at the o2 in London. The horrendous disappointment I experienced when I, along with many others were turned away at the entrance. I was then told to go to their office in the o2 only to find it had closed down a few weeks prior. Their customer service was shocking, I will never buy tickets from seatwave or ticketmaster ever again!!!!
Most of the time I’ve given up going to concerts because of ticket touts honestly what chance do regular punters have when touts are using bots to buy up tickets within 5 mins and some don’t even go on sale for real they go backdoor to tout sites and I’m not willing to pay tout prices. The problem for the music industry is that thier inaction on this issue is eventually going to cut thier own throats as more and more people like me when considering how to spend thier entertainment money no longer even consider concerts anymore.
i tried to book tickets for various concerts most times within
the first half hour of booking opening only to find all stalls seats being sold out the loyal supporters are being forced out with
second pricing far to costly for ordinary working or pensioners
being penalised for there honesty to society by parasites who
it looks like the government continue to turn a blind eye to what
a sad sick nation we have become.
Tried to get tickets for Ed Sheeran at Royal Albert Hall Cancer Charity gig. No Chance unless willing to pay extortionate prices from secondary websites.
We need to get a campaign whereby the buyers names be printed on the tickets issued by Primary Ticket sellers. Very easy to do and would stop resale. If a real concern ID’s could be checked at the Venue. This was done when we went to see Santana in Newcastle a few years back.
Well done Fanfair, great to see people taking a stand against the touts. On the last 3 occasions I have tried to get tickets for gigs, Bob Dylan,Saw Doctors and Elbow, I have gone on Ticketmaster when the ticket sales started, on each occasion, tickets have sold out, but as if by magic,are available on all the main secondary sites,(Getmein, Seatwave etc) most of them owned by TM. I have tried contacting TM to get an explanation and they told me to contact Getmein directly, no response from them. I’m certain that TM, depending on the popularity of the act, transfer a large proportion of the tickets they have, directly to secondary sites,thus making it almost impossible to get tickets at face value. They’re getting away with the scalping scam because there is really no proper strong regulation to stop them. I have written to the Culture secretary Karen Bradley, her response basically was long winded, unhelpful and obvious that this government is not really concerned about the whole ticket scam/tout industry. No response from the Shadow Media Secretary, Tom Watson. Genuine music fans are priced out of the market by greedy unscrupulous money grabbers like TM and all it’s subsidiaries. keep up the great work Fanfair
I have joined the “victims of viagogo” group as my son purchased two tickets for the Ed Sheeran concert in Manchester April 23rd believing he was paying £158. As the breakdown page didn’t show due to a “glitch” he was billed £434 – not really affordable to an 18yr old. I have contacted them by e-mail with the following:
Dear Viagogo,
On 2nd February 2017, my son bought 2 tickets for the Ed Sheeran Concert in Manchester on 23rd April 2017 as a birthday gift for his girlfriend.
He was led to believe that the total cost of the tickets would come to a total of £158.40. No sale breakdown appeared when this figure was provided. Only after having completed the purchase and having received the confirmation did he discover that the total price of the tickets came to £434.75.
Your company, Viagogo, stated that there was a glitch on the system during the point of purchase, meaning that the full price that would have been paid was not displayed. This led to the prices being completely misleading. Moreover, the total price was not clear at all during the purchase process, he was never shown a full break down of the costs and the words ‘no hidden fees’ was shown – which is clearly untrue.
In addition, you failed to advise the “face value” of the tickets prior to the purchase and, in your confirmation e-mail, have failed to disclose the precise location of the seats as no seat number has been disclosed.
The impact of this ‘glitch’ has of course left me very distressed by this issue, and in addition, my son has been extremely concerned that, firstly he will not have the birthday gift for his girlfriend that he had saved up for and, secondly, that he may lose all of his savings. I have also had no luck trying to contact your customer service team and I’ve had unsatisfactory standard responses to emails sent. My first e-mail made it very clear that you were to communicate directly with me, not my son, and you have made no further attempt to try and rectify the situation. The only contact you have made is to say that my e-mail address does not show any record of a purchase.
I am fully aware of my rights and that under the Consumer Rights Act (2015), buyers must be told the original face value of any tickets being resold and the seat numbers – these rules have clearly been breached.
I have managed to find and speak to a very large number of people who have also encountered the exact same issue, a number of whom have been refunded, specifically Claire Turnham. We have formed a support group and our stories are all currently being passed on to the media including The Sun Newspaper, the Guardian and the BBC.
To finalise this matter will you please confirm that you will provide a refund in full for the Ed Sheeran Tickets.
If there is no response to my email, then I will be contacting The Trading Standards and will also contact The Financial Ombudsman, My order number is 8977263 and the e-mail used to purchase was owenskilly@hotmail.co.uk.
I re-iterate, all communication needs to be with me and not by son who has already suffered enough distress in this matter.
With him having had an e-mail, I changed the account settings and sent the following which has attached proof of other refunds made to purchases from that day.
Good Morning,
I am e-mailing you again as my faith in your ability to respond appropriately is waning rather quickly. I have already provided you with document number 1 and am now providing further evidence that you have acted upon complaints made by a fellow group of victims who purchased tickets on the same day that your so called “glitch” appeared.
This is some “glitch” given that when I had a look at your site today the same thing happened. Good job I’m aware of it or I could be in the same position.
As previously advised, these tickets were purchased by my 18yr old son as a birthday gift that has gone horribly wrong. I have changed the e-mail address on the account and added my telephone number as the secondary contact. Under no circumstances should you make any attempt to contact him. With regards to the refund, I am happy for you to contact me and I will provide any details required – I repeat, do not contact him.
In addition to the list of copied media representatives, these documents have also been provided to my local Trading Standards office and other high ranking figures who will investigate further.
Gareth Skillander
Tried to book Drake tickets for Birmingham, ELO tickets for anywhere to avail. Sold out in 5 minutes!! Sent link to secondary site where tickets were 4 times the price.
I tried to book two tickets for an U2 concert in the UK in July through the Viagogo UK website. When I was booking my tickets for the U2 concert on Sunday the 09th of July, I was offered tickets with a price of £128.50 each. I chose to buy two and the next thing I know my screen clicks over twice and I am in the Viagogo Swiss page, and have been billed for Euros 800 + for the same two tickets. I contacted my bank immediately and they said I must deal with you directly, first. I then tried to cancel the tickets and seek a refund and was told that I would not be able to and the story you have told me below was repeated to me. I was bemused when I was offered less than half of what I had paid, with additional ‘administration and handling costs’ to be paid to Viagogo if I sold the tickets. Talk about adding insult to injury.
What I do understand is with regard to being an ethical company and doing the right thing. I am also aware of their need as a business to generate profits, however not at cost of defrauding a customer, and this is why I do not understand or accept their explanation that they will not refund me my money. I am aware of this ‘glitch’ that they had in their system and I am also aware of a number of people who have been refunded their money.
I am fully aware of my rights and that under the Consumer Rights Act (2015), buyers must be told the original face value of any tickets being resold and the seat numbers – these rules have clearly been breached. Moreover, the Viagogo t&cs (2.4) states that buyers should be provided with seat details including, row and block number. These have not been complied with.
I have managed to find and speak to a very large number of people who have also encountered the exact same issue, a number of whom have been refunded. We have formed a support group and our stories are all currently being passed on to the media including The Sun Newspaper, the Guardian and the BBC.
I have therefore asked for a full refund for these tickets of Euro 835.55.
This is all about money and greed. The primary ticket companies may make a small profit selling a ticket but this can be huge for a resale.
This has nothing to do with providing people a means to offload unwanted tickets – just look at the huge numbers available on resale sites moments after they go on sale. This is big business that has been allowed to go on too long and it needs to be outlawed. Self regulation will never work when such huge amounts of money are involved.
It is not the only resale sites themselves that are the problem, but the industry that wants a slice of the huge sums involved. Ticketmaster owns Getmein and Seatwave. AEG owns The O2, which is proud to state on its website “The O2’s box office ticketing platform ‘AXS.com’ is integrated with StubHub”, apparently “providing an innovative service for our customers”. These companies don’t try to hide this, they just try to make us believe they are providing a “service” for our benefit.
While this disgraceful practice is allowed to continue these companies will carry on legally ripping off the ticket buying public. Unfortunately I hold little faith that the government will do anything about it.
I tried to but Coldplay tickets for Cardiff, Phil Collins tickets in London, and Adele tickets in UK, when they went on general sale months ago, but although I logged in to try and buy tickets at the very second they went LIVE, I didn’t get a ticket for any concert.
I have been trying to buy tickets for Coldplay since via Gumtree but feel professional dealers are inflating prices ridiculously and the prices seem set between them all.
£72 tickets appear regularly for between £150 and £190, and there is no attempt to discount. Often touts have six, eight or ten tickets available. I asked one if they could get more than ten they said that they could if required.
It is a scam and it is putting me off trying to buy tickets again.
I get the impression that they would prefer not to sell them rather than discount them.
I am regularly frustrated by not being able to purchase tickets, despite being given a heads up by bands such as Radiohead and Bjork. Loging on to a site and waiting and waiting only to find all the tickets have gone in less than 10 minutes. These tickets then start appearing on websites almost immediately, with incredible mark ups.
Why should companies and individuals profit from this scandalous abuse? What are the government going to do about it…very little as we have already seen.
Also, the booking fees and charges for collection are a joke – why should I be charged for collecting MY tickets from a venue?
Recently attempted to buy London tickets to J.Cole. There were 2 presale events and 1 general release. on both pre-sale events, despite registering early, standing tickets had completely sold out within 2-3 minutes leaving only poor upper tier seats.
O2 presale was the earlier – i tried viagogo and would you look at that? standing tickets were being sold at almost twice the price. Banning bots is not enough – there needs to be a restriction on no resale until at least 14/28 days before event. And a full investigation into powerseller link to ticket sellers and their own resale sites.
I purchased ed sheeran tickets on 31/01/17 on viagogo website. It came up x4 tickets £262.99. I thought that’s about right purchasing at around £70 each so proceeded and to my horror a congratulations on your purchase of 4 ed sheeran tickets £1421.37. I haven’t been able to contact via email or contact number which is an automated service to buy and sell tickets nothing else. My bank in which I opened a dispute replied they are sorry on this occasion they couldn’t help as insufficient evidence as to being overcharged. I’ve joined a group called victums if viagogo in which there are lots more like me. Can I please have some help of any kind would be grateful. This should not happen. It is a very misleading site. No way if they had the final amount in which you are actually paying they definitely wouldn’t sell any tickets and that’s how they are conning people like myself ..please help
I bought a ticket from getmein, they charged me double the original ticket price and also an additional £10 for standard UKrecorded delivery which should have been a quarter of that price, and that’s a so called “official” website!
I was considering going to see Tom Petty this summer via proper ticket sites at £69 but additional costs added made it £84 (admin, booking fee, postage, etc!). I’m just sick of both touts AND official websites taking the average punter for all we have.
For resale why not just make it illegal to sell more than the cover price and for standard sale just include the costs into the ticket rather than dumping phantom expenses on the unsuspecting punter?
I should add, btw, that adding platinum, gold, silver, bronze, circles to every gig now is just ridiculous.
I booked 2 tickets to see James Arthur for my daughters birthday present. The tickets were priced at £45 I think but I ended up laying over £126 each! I used to love going to gigs but no it’s almost impossible to get them at face value. It’s ridiculous as the touts earn more than the artists. What’s fair in that
I’ve been trying for a week now to get tickets to an ed sheeran concert for either of his shows in Toronto. I had the opportunity for both presale and general sale unfortantly always sold out within minutes. What frustrates me is how I now find the tickets even for his show that hasn’t gone on general sale already for sale on second websites. Like stubhub. What really kills me tho is those tickets are ranging in price from 223-1300 dollars. sorry 1300 for a ticket that cost 116 when bought on ticket master is ridiculous. I find this whole situation extremely frustrating and unfair. How is any person suppose to afford those tickets? I really wish something would get done about this making this whole experiance once again fun and exciting instead of the heartbreak and frustration you go threw.
Attempted to obtain tickets for the forthcoming London U2 performances via Ticketmaster.
Was on Ticketmaster when the tickets went on sale. After 20 minutes of trying, a secondary box appeared on my screen. This was promoting ‘Get Me In’ which I gather is some sort of Ticketmaster subsidiary.
The secondary screen was now advertising U2 tickets at three or four times the cost of those on Ticketmaster.
People were obviously buying from Ticketmaster and immediately selling at grossly inflated prices.
My experiences over the last year or so suggest that this is at epidemic levels where it is almost impossible to buy big gig tickets at face value prices.
Time for our government to regulate the industry.
Pretty ironic that even on this website I’m having to tick boxes that I’m not a robot and fill in boxes where street signs appear before I can submit this response. The world is going mad!!!!!
I had horrible experience with Viagogo. I paid the ticket 2x the face price, even the last info on the day of the show kept indicating a wrong location. If not thanks to a more accurate information collected by chance in the meantime, I’d easily missed the gig. The email sent to viagogo customer service returned as not deliverable. I tried to write a negative review on trustpilot and the button for sending it was strangely not in the page, so just more frustration added. If I’ll find a way to report to authorities the scam perpetrated by those 21st century thieves sure I’ll do. In the meantime if you can do something to avoid other give to those scammers their hard earned money I’ll be just happy. Thanks
So frustrated. I bought some Steps tickets for my two sisters and niece from Get Me In for £78 each with booking fee and delivery the three tickets came to £274.15. Tickets arrived and they say £41.25 on the actual ticket. Not sure what I can do but feel totally ripped off. Get Me In say they display the original ticket price at the checkout but I don’t recall seeing that or it would have raised alarm bells. I’m wondering if my credit card company can do anything about it.
Bought 2 tickets from Viagogo for Adele, cost £340 but on confirmation email was charged another £125 without my permission. No knowledge of these extra charges!!
Have spent hours emailing, calling & researching how to get my money back.
What a bunch of crooks Viagogo are – I am now completing country court claim against Viagogo & my credit card company is investigating my case.
DO NOT BUY ANY TICKETS FROM VIAGOGO.
I have just paid £717 for 3 tickets for metallica from viagogo, tickets arrived with a name on them rang Manchester arena who said the lead booker must produce ID, explained I bought them from this ticket site they advised me to contact them, tried to, no response as yet, they say on their site that even if there is a name on the tickets, they are still valid and entry to the venue won’t be a problem!
Was online at 9am on the dot when tickets went on sale. Direct through the venue sold out, no chance. After looking through other sites i saw tickets on sale through viagogo for £75…original ticket price was £13, nearly 6 times the price!! And of course the band gets none of this. Sick of this scam.
I don’t doubt all the oft-mentioned issues with touts but I wonder whether the situation would be improved by simply releasing tickets on a Saturday or Sunday? They’re invariably released on a weekday, when I suspect most potential purchasers are at work. Gives the touts much better chance for hoovering-up the tickets.
i logged onto both the Paul Weller & the Kraftwerk site for tickets & they were sold out in 20 minutes, i had a look on these leeches(thats what i call these touts) websites & they had at least 30 tickets for both artists within 20 minutes of them going on sales, i believe that they set up about 50 PC’s & get the tickets just so they can ripped people off.
I took screen shots & the time & reported this to Watchdog at the time, it shouldn’t be allowed
I stopped trying to get tickets many years ago thanks to inflated prices. I want to support many artists but not the people taking advantage of reselling tickets. The latest example (and totally a one of example) of this is for Metallica in Manchester, which I tried to buy for my wife’s birthday. I bit the bullet and made an attempt to pick up tickets upon general release…Totally sold out; plenty available online at third party ticket sites.
I brought two tickets to see Rag n Bone man in O2 Academy Bristol for the 18th April 2017. I purchased them via Viagogo at £37.73 each. I didn’t not realise there was £21.45 booking fee plus £4.95 handling charge plus usual VAT. Is booking fee and handling charge not the same ? When the tickets were printed from the email attachment the face value was £14.50 with £1.81 service charge. Someone somewhere is making a lot of money with extortionate service charges.
I wanted to buy a ticket to see Queen and Adam Lambert live in Glasgow in December, my dad was waiting for the sales to open at 10am but by 10.05am all of the standing tickets were gone. I’ve wanted to see Queen since I was about seven and now I don’t know if I’ll ever see them live. Gutted.
My husband ,today 25 April, bought 2 tickets for Father Joan Misty, Nov 7th in London via Viagogo. When he reached the payment screen an extra booking charge had been added and he paid nearly £300 in total for 2 tickets. I have checked with the venue itself and the tickets are not on sale until Friday 28th – venue suggest Viagogo are ‘being presumptuous”. I do not believe that it is legal to sell items you do not have and also believe they should not be selling tickets without showing their original face value. I have now gone onto their site and made a ‘fake’ booking collecting photo evidence that showing their tactics . Any advice please? Cannot find a tele no for Viagogo oon their site which also states that they are unable to cancel orders…again, highly unusual!
We have contacted our bank but they are unabe to stop the payment. Many thanks
As a seasoned concert attendee and ticket purchaser i bought 4 tickets for the ed sheeran concert at the O2 in London for May 1 2017 through viagogo. As my purchase automatically sent me to this website I was completely misled about the price – i though i was buying 4 tickets for £307 plus the charges for shipping etc however somehow with no pressing buttons by me i ended up paying Total £1347.00….
you can’t imagine my shock and horror – £1000 more than i intended to pay for these tickets.
The tickets have since arrived via UPS and the ticket price is £75 + £1.75
My worry is that these are not genuine tickets and we will be turned away from the O2
WHAT SHOULD I DO???????
WARNING!!
DO NOT use viagogo to buy tickets to anything! I didn’t realise until after i did they are a scam site! I was charged $136 in booking fees for tickets i purchased and not informed id be charged them either!
They will not give me a refund and from what i can see of others who have fallen victim, i wont get one! I also havnt even been sent my tickets, i recieved an email to say i am guaranteed to receive them at least 3 days before the event. I then found out they arent even on sale yet (through legitimate sites) so they have effectively sold me (ripped off) something they dont even have yet! Please share! Ahhhh im furious 😡…. #scam #tickets #onlinetickets #viagogo #monsterjamtickets
I’ve been charged 223€ for 2 tickets to see Ludovico Einaudi next September while the real value is only 80€ and there are lots of available tickets in other websites. Viagogo didn’t advise me of what I was buying, couldn’ t choose the seats and charged me over 60€ of booking fee without prior notice. THIS IS A FRAUD AND I WANT MY MONEY BACK! Please help me and let me know what I can do to help others not to be robbed as well!
HELP !
I have purchased tickets for Cliff Richard Concert at Lincoln Castle 24th June,
The tickets were bought online with Viagogo and I have now printed them off and they contain a name other than mine.
They cost me a lot of money.
Am I going to be able to get into the concert?
If you cant help please can you suggest who might.
I cannot contact Viagogo with my question.
Betty (life long Cliff fan.)
Add my vote. I bought tickets to Rammstein via Viagogo site and the tickets never came. I travelled all the way from Asia to Europe only to be let down.
I’ve just bought two tickets to the Gorillaz Budapest event. Unfortunately I liked a fake event on Facebook, at first titled as “official”. This event was created by kultfeierei.de, which has a Facebook page specified for this kind of scam.
I’ve got notification about “Tickets available” which led to ViaGogo. They wanted to charge my card 130€ for the two tickets, I gave my card’s details then it charged with 190€. The exact amount was never visible before writing my credit card details on the mobile site.
I’m desperately trying to contact their support but the only thing I’ve got so fare is standard copy-paste messages. When I saw the tickets I’ve almost had a heart attack: those were standard 30€ tickets from the official ticket office. Also, the tickets are invalid, and they’ve told me that if I check the validity of my tickets and those are being voided because of this, than it is my fault. Nonsense.
Meanwhile they’ve updated the site and now at least they are writing the exact amount with handling fee and TAX, but this behaviour is absolutely unacceptable.
ViaGogo has a London-based office and domain, the company which selling the tickets is signed in Switzerland and the transaction has fulfilled in Hungary. No lawyer can do anything about this.
I want my money back, but they won’t give me, so I’m going to sue and report at the local police office.
Any help is welcome. Thanks.
I have to say, the WORST experience I have had was trying to book tickets to U2 for this year. Disgusting behaviour that we could not get tickets when I was literally online, on the phone etc bang on 9am and eight minutes later they were already on ticketmaster sister site for double the price. For a band that are so into charity work they should be doing their best to avoid these type of incidents.
Ever since I have come to London, I have discovered and experienced the horrid situations for concerts. Ticket touting has invaded the market and not enough is done to stop it. The emphasis is placed on bots and information of buyers, while the problem lies somewhere else. The problem is the price.
How come a company is allowed to sell a ticket double the face value, plus £30-£50 in fees? Companies that try to seem clean like Ticketmaster are all guilty of reselling tickets at much higher prices. The only possible way to change anything is to limit the profit one can make.
In short, Ticketmaster, Seatwave, GetMeIn, StubHub and expeically Viagogo are taking all of us for idiots (just look at their website and the way they make you buy tickets). It has now become safer and cheaper to get a ticket at the venue from a random person than online and that is not ok. Something needs to be done.
Some companies are helping, such at Twickets, (please use it) which only offers tickets at face value or less and has rather small fees.
I sold tickets on the viagogo website. Sent my tickets off and was promised payment after the purchaser attended the concert.
Days after the concert I still hadn’t received funds into my nominated bank account or PayPal.
I contacted Viagogo and after several emails back and forth I was asked to upload documentation to prove I had not been paid by viagogo. I sent them a copy of my bank statement.
After a month waiting for their next response I logged back into my account to send them a follow up email and have been redirected due to my query being past the expiry date for complaints!!! How on earth have they decided that it is too late to follow up on a complaint when it is they who haven’t responded. I now realise they must have taken their sweet time to respond to me so that it would run over the “expiry date” to complain. I am beyond frustrated.
I hope, at the very least, that the person who paid for the tickets received them and was able to attend.
ive been going tp concerts religiously for about 17 years before touts were a big deal i managed to get front row or good seats at the right price. nowadays i would be like just to get a good seat. fan presales mean nothing to me anymore choice of tickets are crap. i look on a tout site and they have the great seats even though its mean to be fans only sales before general sale but they still get them and sell tickets at stupid prices.
these companies and people are heartless scum. putting in false claims for free tickets that victims of Manchester attack were meant to get then selling for a profit. should be jailed
I have been well and truly ripped off by Viagogo. Please see below message i have sent to them today -one of 3 messages i have sent.
Hi Viagogo
Got an issue but can get no response from emails and no. Phone no. To say im a tad irate is an understatement. Bought tickets for Rod Stewart @ Durham for the 09th June 2017. Paid £303 for 2 x tickets to be seated as per below
2 tickets Order ID: 9245118 Section: 5 Row: B Seats: 9 – 24 Order Status: Tickets on the way
Tickets received today -05th June 2017 and the seating is Block 38. Row J seats 14 and 15.
Definitely not what i ordered and paid for. Could you please resolve this for me urgently.
2nd issue is the tickets i received were ticket master tickets and had a value of £55.00 plus £7.00 S/C per ticket. £62.00 per ticket which is a total of £124.00 for both. Can you advise what the additional £179.00 charges are please. I have already lodged a complaint with my credit card company over these tickets. Would aporeciate an urgent response on this please with new tickets to be issued with the correct seating that was agreed with your company when i purchased these tickets.
Thank you.
As if yet i have had no response from this company and i am so annoyed. Not only have i been ripped off with extortionate ticket charges but to add insult to injury my seating is not what i paid for.
Bought Depeche Mode London 3rd June tickets from via gogo. 10 minutes after Ticket master decalred them sold out. Price 217 for 2 tickets.. E-Ticket delivered day before gig.. Went with friend and was refused entry.. E-tickets had to be exchanged.. And you had to have id of person named on ticket.. But my seats were invalid.. Block was listed as not for resale.. Viagogo don’t answer phone.. No rep on site unlike some other resale sites.. So had to buy tickets at ticket office.. Got 2 for 78 quid each, better than viagogo seats.. Customer service site directs you to web site complaints and only says sorry.. Phone line says you have to pursue refund at gig.. But line never leads to a human.. Just a recording directing you to the website. To make matters worse.. Had I not been able to buy tickets at the venue.. To save a wasted journey we had discussed going into London.. 3rd JUNE 2017 DURING DEPECHE MODE GIG THERE WERE TERROR ATTACKS IN LONDON.. my friend is now scared how close we came to giving up and going to Londo instead. She doesn’t want to go to future events because of the stress it caused and spent the first part of the concert concerned about me having to pay twice for the same concert. I AM GOING TO PETITION THE HOUSE OF. COMMONS AND SEEK TO LOBBY THE SWISS GOVERNMENT TO TAKE ACTION. I also suggest a self starter crowd funded effort using any experience and expertise to start a responsible first call ticket agency.. With 3 part authentication so touts are never in possession of all the information required to resell a ticket.. Forcing the tickets to be sold back to our agency with small penalties allowing the ticket to be resold.. I propose a rep to be on site at gigs to deal with any problems.. As this will be a crowd funded effort.. I propose no one person is the boss it’s a cooperative and those who give up time as well as contributing will be life members and will be perked as appropriate. BY FANS FOR FANS..
Hi, on 14th October 2016 I used PayPay to buy 2 x Depeche Mode tickets from a company called Viagogo. My wife Nanette searched the internet when she knew Depeche Mode were to play London on 3rd June 2017. She found 2 tickets on a site called Viagogo, the normal sites she uses had none available so she ordered them through Viagogo, because they were the only ones who had them listed, thinking they were a legitimate company. She accepted the cost because as they weren’t on sale anywhere else she assumed they were pre-sale priority tickets and came at a higher value, she said it never showed anywhere on the page that it indicated these were someone else’s tickets not ours. The site showed the block but not the seats and not the face value which is illegal as it doesn’t comply with the consumer rights act. The site also gave a count down timer and stated that they were only 5 tickets remaining, we’ve since found out from other people this is a regular ploy to make you rush into buying. I paid £184.69 through PayPal and didn’t think any more of it until the tickets were emailed to me 26th May. Once I downloaded them I was shocked to see they were in a different name and the face value of the tickets including a service charge came in at £45.80 each, that’s £91.60 total! The break down on the email I received said for each ticket was £66.66 face value, £5.95 shipping, they were emailed to me!!, £37.85 booking fee!!!!!!! What!!!!! I have since joined a Facebook page where others are reporting similar stories. PayPal are in association with a fraudulent ticket touting company that fleeces innocent hard working people like my wife and I out of our hard earned money. We thought we were purchasing genuine tickets, not ones that had been bought prior by someone else. Viagogo know that people are going to sell tickets that aren’t yet on general sale to future events, surely this is illegal! I have asked PayPal to look into this matter and refund me £90.00 that I have overpaid for my tickets. So we’ll see how that goes.
I went to see imagine dragons last night and bought the tickets from viagogo!! Said the tickets were £127 for 2 and £351 was taken out of my bank!!! We met up with the seller once there and the tickets only cost £35 each !!!!!!! We want the difference back I understand there’s a booking fee but that much is a joke !!! Viagogo are uncontacable and they do not show these prices at payment
I used Viagogo website to buy tickets for LittleMix but decided not to buy them due to rip off handling fees. So i pressed cancel on the option at the end of the order. Only to find that they took a payment without my permission. I have spoken to my bank, who are investigating my claim of fraudulent behaviour by this company. I was informed by the bank that they will try to return my money.
I bought 2 tickets to Bat out of hell the Musical for £90 per ticket on my mobile. Costs did not show for booking fees vat or shipping. Total should have been £180 but was £247.08 which did not show until after payment, outrageous add ons not shown plus ticket prices inflated by £60 per ticket. Shipping charged even though e-tickets. Have complained numerous times but no refund. Have asked cc company to dispute payment but not holding my breath!!
I bought two tickets from Via gogo – face value was £110 charged £303 and the seats were not in the location booked ie second block centre stage and tickets were 10 rows from back of the stadium.
Couldn’t e mail them as I seemed to be blocked.
Yesterday I purchased Aegon championship 2017 tickets using Viagogo UK
I am aware of the 3rd party inflated costs however, my Aegon tickets arrived this morning. The cost £130 each
Viagogo charged me £263 for EACH (DOUBLE THE TICKET PRICE)
£93 for EACH TICKET SERVICE CHARGE ( £37 less than the value of the actual ticket price)
£4 for EACH TICKET POSTAL CHARGE
This is extortion of magnitude proportions
I am a huge fan of Coldplay and when tickets went on sale for their tour myself and my daughter were on two different computers. The second the tickets went live we were online and being almost instantly being redirected to seatwave. I thought there was a mistake and had never heard of seat wave. Needless to say we didn’t get any tickets. As a fan I was gutted. I’m still waiting to see if I can get them face value from someone who can’t attend and am refusing to buy off these tote sites. Last resort will be to sit in a beer garden near the venue and listen from afar. Don’t see how these totes should make money off the backs of musicians and fans. They’ve created nothing. It takes musician a long time to get where they are. I know from experience with a daughter who’s in the music business that they make so little money on their first decade out there. Holding fans to ransom for tickets is nothing short of criminal. Once upon a time there were a handful of individual totes but now with technology it has gone large scale. I for one would like reassurance that I can buy my tickets face value.
Tickets for Queens of the Stone Age 2017 UK Tour go on sale tomorrow morning (21st June) at 9 am. At 9.30 yesterday (19th June) there were tickets for the gig on Viagogo at more than 3 times face value. Tickets were already being resold 2 DAYS BEFORE they went on general sale!! The only way I could think that this was possible is that touts were using o2 Priority tickets to buy them 48h before the general sale and it was only tickets for the o2 venue that were available, not the rest of the UK dates. However on the o2 Priority website it says that tickets resold anywhere else but Stubhub are invalid. Unfortunately a friend thought it was the official sale and got 8 tickets for a group of us, paying £153 instead of the face value of £42.50. We can’t get refunds and the only option now on Viagogo is to resell the tickets back on the site. However we don’t even know if the tickets are valid anyway. More should be done through legislation and by companies who offer presales to prevent vast numbers of tickets getting in to the hands of touts instead of fans. I have never visited the Viagogo site before, but everything about the design, graphics and interface seems to be set up to generate a sense of high demand and urgency to buy tickets before they sell out. Sadly most of the legitimate general sales I have tried to get tickets though in the last few years, particularly for larger venues, have ‘sold out’ in minutes, I suspect largely as a results of touts buying up tickets to then resell.
Pick pretty much any gig in any city in the UK and the vast majority of seats/standing tickets will be ‘sold out’ and already on sale on the various resale sites.
I no longer go to large gigs because I refuse to allow profiteering by touts and the corporations abetting them .
No charge above ticket price!
Bought 3 tickets to Celine Dion in Birmingham on 27th July 2017 from Viagogo.
Each ticket cost £175 plus £49 booking fee for each ticket and £13 for VAT and delivery.
The tickets arrived today and they cost £73.93.
This is absolute extortion, we only used viagogo because official sites like ticketmaster, seegigs and the celine dion website were all sold out or crashed in the 4 hours we waited in the queue to book the tickets.
Absolutely appalled that this is allowed!
I recently bought 4 tickets for Bonobo in Bristol from Viagogo. The website didn’t give a face value for the ticket but when I clicked to purchase them, the total cost was £206, which I thought was steep but as I was as in a rush for tickets that were due to sell out quickly I was prepared to pay a bit more than the £30 I subsequently found out the tickets were worth. However, when I received the confirmation email my account had been charged £412.24, a significant increase, so I got ripped off twice in one transaction. I would never have willingly paid more than £100 for these tickets and at no point during the transaction did this figure come up – if it had done I wouldn’t have completed the purchase. Companies like this are ruining the live music scene in this country. I am usually quite wary about buying tickets online but this looked like an official/ approved ticket site and was the first to appear on my search with tickets still available. The whole experience of buying the tickets was designed to be stressful with messages stating that the tickets were selling out fast; this kind of hard sell normally wouldn’t make me rush to buy something but friends were also relying on me to get tickets for them. I shan’t be buying tickets this way in future and I certainly wouldn’t go near Viagogo again.
Purchased tickets via viagogo for Jamiroquai for Saturday 24th June.
JayKay had to re-arrange because of his bad-back but can only book the O2 for a wednesday in December.
Viagogo say the will not refund as it has been re-arranged rather than cancelled.
Obviously a Saturday is quite a different night to a Wednesday when most cant travel to London!
I tried to purchase tickets for Queens of The Stoneage at the Usher hall in November, all the tickets were gone in minutes but quickly appeared on secondary site. I purchased two from Viagogo for £280.00. I’ve since found out that the venue will be implementing a strict policy of only allowing people who can provide photo id that matches the bookers name on the ticket into the concert, Viagogo don’t care. the tout wins and me and other punters lose out. How can this possibly be a viable way of trying to stop the touts??. Can the venue legally do this when i and others have valid tickets ??
I paid 150 quid plus for two tickets for viagogo. This was for a surprise birthday event for my husband. Tom jones, and horse racing at cartmel, Lake District, 30th June. Two days before event, it was cancelled saying that’s Ellen is no longer selling ticket!’. I wasn’t even aware it was this kind of website! Poor advertising. Hopefully I will receive a refund, paid by credit. But not for ten days! Disgusting.
IN A WORD VIAGOGO – TICKETS AT 7 TIMES FACE VALUE SECONDS AFTER THEY SOLD OUT. NO REP ON SITE AT GIG TO DEAL WITH 100’S OF PEOPLE REFUSED E-TICKET ENTRY. NEVER ONCE ANSWERED A CALL DESPITE CHARGING FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF COMPLAINING. HAVE NOT RESPONDED TO AMERICAN EXPRESS WHO ARE CHASING THEM ON MY BEHALF. Gig was not sold out so Ticket-master also published fraudulent information (probably to bump up prices via Get-Me-In) (which were on sale BEFORE the ticket lines had closed).. There was a terrorist attack in the city that day.. and it makes me shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn’t gone to the concert (London Olympic Stadium – Depeche Mode)..
I bought tickets from the ticket office on site for 78 quid each.. a quarter of what I paid.. proving they weren’t sold out.
No mention that this was an ID only gig.
SOLUTION
1. BEFORE YOU CAN BUY YOU MUST REGISTER.
2. WHEN YOU REGISTER YOU ARE ISSUED A BUYERS ID CARD.
3. WHEN YOU BOOK A TEXT IS SENT TO YOUR REGISTERED DEVICE – ENTER THE CODE INTO THE WEB PORTAL TO CONTINUE.
4. WHEN YOU PURCHASE – YOU MUST STATE A DELIVERY ADDRESS (AS A FALL BACK) And confirm payment details as normal.
5. If you confirm you will receive details prior to the event.
(an app with a qr code reader will be recommended.)
Your Membership card will have a unique QR Code on it, you will need to scan this and verify it to activate the card from the app.
6. When you receive your validation email or text shortly before the event, you should log into the site or start the app and automatically validate your tickets using the login and 6 digit code sent by text, and then entering the validation code from your membership card (only works for four tickets).
or:
Start the App – Scan the QR code on your membership card which will send an sms to the phone – (automatically read by the app) – which will then validate your tickets.
When you attend the gig, you only need to take your Membership, one form of ID or your mobile phone.
at the point of entry you simply need to be present with your cardif scan the QR or Swipe then enter your Pin Number.
The correct number of Stubs will be printed – which you give to your party as proof of entry. They can then scan these at the gate to be admitted. After that normal security regulations and searches will apply.
Refunds – Only the original seller may re-sell your ticket. There should be a threshold – No tickets may be re-sold within 7 days of the general admission opening date.
Up to 90 days – Refund is face value only (Admin fee retained)
Up to 30 days – 50 percent of face value only
on the day 50 percent of face value (only if resold) allow tracking as proof.
With my system..
The touts will need..
1. a unique mobile number every 4 tickets
2. a unique delivery address for every membership card
3. a unique membership card for every 4 tickets
4. they will need a unique pin number for every card
5. they will need to pre-validate each batch of 4.
6. they will need to have valid ID and escort 3 people at a time through the gate by printing stubs and getting searched
It will make them visible, and it will make it impossible to sell large batches of tickets or buy them. It will make gigs affordable, by ensuring those who want to go have a realistic chance of buying them at face value first.
The venues will be responsible for validation by signing up with agencies – it will be their job to provide it.
Ticketing agents in the UK should apply for a license to operate. Part of their remit to operate is that all customer services numbers should be FREE. All calls should be answered. All Agencies consent to regular compliance audits.
All ticketing agencies should have a representative on site at any venue where more than 10 percent of sold tickets are not confirmed within 3 hours of opening. That representative should be visible and approachable.
All large venues should have representation regardless of confirmation.
used viagogo as I was a fool. Paid £174 for two blink 182 tickets. Only £44 each so I paid £86 pounds extra. Nearly double there value. Got shit customer service. But then what do you expect from money grabbing thrieving scumbags who steal from hardworking people. I love my music and go to many concerts. I fee dirty that I used a scam artist like viagogo. In this day when the charts are full of x-factor rejects and crap music the real bands need the money touring and the fans want to pay reasonable prices. These scum bag touts NEED stoping. bring back the old way of getting tickets. On the phone or que at your local ticket office/HMV
Purchased tickets for World Athletics and really by mistake used
Viagogo and had a huge amount of money added to the ticket sale. I had to put that down to my own fault.
Now I can’t use them so reselling via them and losing more money!
Not sure how to approach it really as no reply to the email I sent etc
On 13 May, the booking opened for Proms 2017. The concert I was interested in was likely to be very popular. I got on to the Albert Hall website, selected the seats I wanted and proceeded to pay. By the time I had completed my purchase, I discovered I was no longer on the Albert Hall website but Viagogo’s and the price of the tickets was not £44 each as I thought but £93 each. I had not only been charged twice the face value of the tickets (£30) but had incurred a £25 charge per ticket. The worrying thing to me was that during the whole time I was making the purchase, I genuinely thought I was on the Albert Hall website. At no point did I knowingly switch to Viagogo. I still do not know how it happened. I am not a novice in making purchases on the Internet and would never knowingly have gone to a ticket tout site.
On Saturday, we were the unfortunate victims of what I believe to be a misleading promotion, which resulted in a transaction which I believe is fraudulent in nature.
Just after 10am on Saturday 8th July, 2017 my wife went online to try and secure tickets for Ed Sheeran at Wembley in June 2018. The tickets went on sale at 10am on Saturday morning (as we had read in the press).
She typed in ‘Ed Sheeran tickets’ to Google and a number of sites were presented. She clicked the top link which was for Viagogo. Having never bought music tickets in the UK before (we were until recently living in Australia), we had never heard of Viagogo but it looked to be a reputable site. It was also the only site which wasn’t frozen. There was nothing on the site to suggest we weren’t buying legitimate tickets (i.e that they were resale tickets).
On clicking the link, she was taken straight to the site and presented with a range of tickets for Ed Sheeran’s concerts. Looking for the most reasonably priced she bought two tickets which then had VAT and delivery added to them (seemed very expensive delivery she recalls). The total cost being £473.69. Whilst we thought this was expensive, we just assumed they were highly priced because it was Ed Sheeran.
Several hours after purchasing on the site, it then became clear that the standard ticket price for the concert was in fact £88 and that Viagogo had greatly inflated the price. After further research it seems that these tickets will not have our names on them either (as they are resold tickets). Ed Sheeran has publicly said that no one will be able to gain access to the concerts without a named ticket (and showing ID to match).As a result the tickets we have bought are completely unusable and I believe we have been misled into buying something which is worthless. I’m assuming there are many more people who have been duped into a purchase along similar lines to us.
We have attempted to get a refund from Viagogo but have been told by their customer service people that this is not possible and the only way forward if we don’t want the tickets is to put them back on sale again. My preference would be to get a complete refund. The only option I can see now is to dispute the credit card payment via my bank and the Mastercard dispute process. I doubt I will be successful with this but will try anyway.
We should have paid £88 each, giving a total of £176. We have effectively been conned out of £297 and even then we will receive tickets which will not be accepted to gain entry to the venue. Ed has made that very clear here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/40443039/ed-sheeran-ups-fight-against-ticket-touts-with-strict-rules-for-2018-gigs
They have stolen £473 from us. This has to change – these companies cannot be allowed to profit like this from the unsuspecting public
My husband and I bought tickets for our daughter who is crazy for Ed Sheeran from Vivagogo last weekend. They were the top of the Google list and assumed it was very much OK. We had no idea they were a secondary site until I read a BBC news article. We paid nearly £300 per ticket. Now we are really worried that our tickets are worth nothing and we will have a very disappointed daughter. We have no idea what to do next.
I’ve been trying to buy 4 seated tickets for the Ed Sheeran tour. I set 3 devices up for 3 different sites to maximise my chance of getting said tickets.
I tried for the first date, then 2 more were announced and finally a further date a few days later. I’m not new to buying tickets online, the only difference was that I was booking for more people this time (4). I was logged onto the sites half an hour before the sale opened and had everything I needed ready. On this occasion, I was unsuccessful every time. My complaint is, that within 10 minutes, tickets were available on secondary sites, (Viagogo was the one I checked), some at nearly 4 times the face value. When is action going to be taken to stop these unscrupulous people!!!
I had purchased 2 x Ed Sheeran tickets on 08/07/2016 from the site for £180.00. When I checked my credit card the overall total cost which has come out of my bank was £756.61.
I couldn’t get any tickets for the Cardiff one so I saw viagogo site, I didn’t know the situations of what has happened in the past until this situation had happened to me, I looked online and saw all these incidents with other people as well. I searched for 2 x tickets which I thought and was led to believe was £180 for the both of them.
Also I feel that their website when purchasing tickets does not clearly show the most important information clearly, and you are also put under pressure by having to complete your transaction within 5 minutes. I feel and believe that by making people rush to complete their transactions and making very important information extremely difficult to see or find in the time frame given. They are clearly mis-guiding people by doing this, knowing that people will fall into this trap.
This isn’t a small thing as there are so many people being conned into buying the Ed Sheeran tickets if they didn’t know like myself that they wouldn’t be valid tickets. Yet they are still selling tickets at triple the face value cost and some people won’t know that the tickets they are buying won’t be valid.
This situation has caused and has affected me financially, and it has made my account overdrawn which I’m am now being charged daily for, as well as not officially having/owning all of that money I am now going to be in debt.
It’s my birthday Month and was going to go away to London for a couple days the weekend before my 25th birthday. I have now had to not do this due to no longer having any funds/money. I will personally say it has put a downer to this month already!
Bought 4 tickets through viagogo because I was mislead to believe that they were first hand tickets. Was mislead to believe that the tickets were fast going by manipulations. Was lead to believe I would pay the amount for the tickets. Was notified only AFTER finishing the purchase of the fee they charge, which is almost 25% commision!. Got the tickets by email only 2 days ago, with another person’s name on them. Feel ripped off
Bought 4 tickets for Toots and the Maytails at Watering Hole,Perranporth 9th august at £27 each+£2 booking fee.Put in credit card details, was redirected to Viagogo, and was pressured by “only 12 tickets left”, and clock running down,and BEFORE I even saw the price (£336) it had been taken from my account.I immediately tried to cancel, but was unable to. I checked with venue next day, and there were lots of tickets left. As there is a post on “Victims of Viagogo” every few minutes, I imagine there are lots of others too.
My sister bought tickets from viagogo on the day that Adele released extra tickets to her uk tour.
She clicked on the official site and must have then followed a sponsored link through to viagogo website without realising she’d done it.
She was buying 3 x tickets for golden circle which I told her would be £175 each plus fees.
She’s very inexperienced at buying tickets online and as such saw the tickets @ £174.99 with fees and thought she was purchasing what I had informed her to get.
The tickets were for my moms 70th birthday and so we really wanted to surprise her with a wonderful treat.
The tickets arrived and state a face value of £75 and we were absolutely gutted and felt completely ripped off, to the point that we no longer wanted to go.
We contacted viagogo and told them the full story and that we were shocked that resellers could have tickets on there in the same moment that they are being released and they said the tickets was sold legally but if we didn’t want to go now we should sell them through their website!
I have to say Adele then cancelled the event in the week as it was due to take place that weekend and instead of disappointed we were overjoyed. It meant we could get our full money back!
I receently purchased tickets for The Rolling Stones playing In Luca Florence for this September through ViaGOGO. We purchased three tickets at an eventual price of £270 each. when the tickets arrived the face value on the tickets were 115 euros each. I cannot believe that Viagog are making all this profit they are making more than the Rolling Stones. Are the band aware of this. I am quite sure Mick Jagger would not approve.
I actually sold my Adele tickets to Viagogo as an absolute last resort because we couldn’t attend and they haven’t paid me.
I’ve been a concert goer for nearly 40 years now and I’ve never known it so difficult to buy tickets for big gigs. People are desperate to see their favourite bands and touts take advantage of that. There should be legislation preventing such ridiculous markups. I tried to get tickets for The Killers recently and Ticketmaster were saying that tickets were sold out in less than a minute on a 12,000 seater arena. I checked Viagogo and other reseller sites and tickets were already there at £150 for a £55 ticket.
Got an email from a venue advertising tickets for Suzanne Vega in the North East. Hubby’s birthday present sorted, great! Clicked on the link but it didn’t work so went to Google and did a search, it popped up with a message to say that the tickets were almost sold out and I needed to hurry. I panicked and rushed through the buying screens but got the tickets. The cost was so high – £130! It was only after I’d paid that I realised that this wasn’t the official site and was in fact Viagogo and that I’d been duped. Went on to see if I could get a refund, no joy and to add insult to injury, when I got onto the venue website the tickets were £34.50 each…I was sooo annoyed and upset. This type of over charging should be totally illegal. When my tickets arrived, the total cost per ticket…£34.50 plus £5.25…no where near £130. Someone somewhere is making a lot of money out of music fans
I have bought ed sheeran tickets to be told they are now void!! Do not buy off viagogo tickets – £367.12 for to tickets and now for them to be void I am fuming to say the least 😤
Booked 2 tickets to see Queen in December from Viagogo as all were allegedly sold, £369.95 for two £79.00 tickets. I am sure I am not alone.
Good for you fanfair,for far too long these so called ticket companies, that as you point out a lot of people are unaware are secondary marketing sites have been ripping people with with astronomical fees
Years ago when Theresa May was home Secretary I sent her an email about this problem,to her credit she did reply,her response was that the government were aware of these sites and felt that at least on a site like this you were guaranteed to get your ticket,unlike other ways of purchasing tickets online,fair point,but as far as I was concerned a huge not really caring attitude,now at last quite a few years later we seem to be getting somewhere,personally I won’t be happy till these sites are once and for all got rid of.
Meantime maybe more artists should get involved,like ed Sheeran,Adele and iron maiden recently.
We are getting somewhere at last but unfortunately it’s a long process.
Keep up the good work fanfair.
Ordered 2 bryan Adams tickets advertised on viagogo for £110 each. With booking fee and VAT, total cost was £367. I was a bit disgruntled, because i thought that mark-up was hefty, basically for putting tickets in an envelope and putting them in the post. However, i became more disgruntled when the tickets arrived the face value of the tickets was £57 each. I telephoned to complain, but a recorded message told me to input the 4 digit extension I required. Obviously, I didn’t know it. I then got disconnected. I then emailed viagogo with my complaint, not only about what i consider to be deception regarding the ticket price, but also the fact that the website puts customers under pressure to buy tickets, by showing alerts such as “only 3 tickets left”. I received a bog standard reply, which made me realise they are having to explain their business practices to a lot of customers.
I did revisit the website and eventually found the statement that gave the face value of the tickets. However, it was difficult to find and only stated the face value in a cost band. It did not give the face value of the particular tickets I had purchased.
From research I have done since, I realise that I got off lightly.
But this company needs stopping.
I have unfortunately become a victim of Viagogo buying 4 tickets for Ed Sheeran for his 2018 tour. Like many other people I paid more than I thought for the tickets I bought and after finding out the tickets are in valid I’m having no success in getting a refund from Viagogo. Let’s hope by having our say it will help to stop others becoming victims.
I googled the Arts Centre Melbourne and their website displayed Kevin Bridges was playing. I clicked on his banner within the Arts Centre website and was redirected to Viagogo. As I was in the Arts Centre page I naturally assumed that this was their approved ticket seller.
After purchasing the 2 tickets for approx $175 each I received the tickets via registered post and a $415 debit from my bank account! The price on the tickets read $79.90.
I recently went to buy tickets from viagogo for a comedian. Started the process and thought I was paying £60 each for 4 tickets. It asked for my name, email, address on the next page. The next one wanted my card details and I pressed continue. Waited for the process and then the order was completed and I had paid a lot more than £60 per ticket as there was a£40 per ticket booking fee. While I understand they charge an absurd amount booking fee, my case with the mobile site is that I wasn’t informed of the final cost also I did not press confirm or place order. I simply pressed continue. Viagogo contact is useless and my credit card say I need to pay it. It’s unauthorised in my eyes as I did not confirm this order nor have I received a confirmation about it only from my credit statement have I proff of it and a screen shot from my phone of the total cost. I don’t know what else to do to cancel these tickets.
DO NOT BUY FROM VIAGOGO!!!!
I purchased 3 tickets for Ed Sheeran from viagogo the day they went on sale. Truly thought the site was legit given it made claims to be an ‘official’ seller. Site uses lots of pop ups and gave only a limited time to purchase the tickets which was very confusing and encourages a quick sale. Not an Ed Sheeran fan as bought tickets for my daughters birthday – only made aware that tickets from resellers would not be valid two days later from BBC website – should have been more widely publicised before tickets went on sale.
Contacted viagogo six times quoting consumer law etc and that I had been defrauded by them and made clear I did not want to resell tickets only for some other family to be duped. Stock response – no refund as they are the agent – so I asked for name and contact details of seller so I could take to Small Claims Court – completely ignored this and reassured me the tickets were legit and would be honoured and continually suggested if I was disatisfied to resell tickets via their website (which I refuse to do).
Bottom line £550 out of pocket and no birthday surprise for my daughter. Completely gutted but have contacted credit card company in the hope of chargeback (I live in hope with everything X’d!)
So for anyone reading this, please do not use viagogo – as many will already know they are complete scummers (yes you read it right)
Antony
I got a secret garden party ticket from viagogo – despite already being angry about the £60 booking fee, i later realised my tickets were invalid and bought, viagogo have now stopped answering my phone calls and emails and I can’t get my £240 refund!
I wanted to buy tickets for The Script at Bridlington Spa. Used Viagogo and found myself rushed through the process. At no point did they explain what the final price would be. Wound up paying over £200 and being told the tickets will not arrive until three days before the concert. So I have no idea what seats I have or if I even have any seats. I contacted Viagogo who refused me a refund (which I expected). So now I will just have to wait and hope that I actually get some tickets.
As I typed in for the will smith concert, viagogo popped up, baring in mind I have never bought any tickets before. I was pressured into buying them and then forced to pay an extreme amount which I was not told about whilst purchasing the tickets, I believe this is aggressive marketing. I then contacted Viagogo and kept get generic answers. I have been ripped off and now I do not even want them tickets.
Late last year I purchased two tickets for lord of the dance. Unfortunately the first site I went onto to buy these tickets was viagogo. As soon as I typed in lord of the dance I seen ‘tickets selling fast’, ‘2% of tickets left’ etc… so I instantly thought I needed to buy them as quick as possible because I wanted them as a present for my mum. Each ticket was £72.99 each which meant it came to £145.98. Great I thought. I checked out and all of a sudden I had payed £210. From what I remember I didn’t see any additional prices what would add onto these tickets so I was abit shocked. Booking fee was £41.36, Delivery was £14.31 and vat was £8.31. I was disgusted in how much extra they had charged me.
I tried to sell them back onto viagogo to get my money back but they never sold even tho the percentage of tickets would lower when I would go onto the site each time, yet the same amount were always for sale.
I looked on other sites for the tickets after I purchased off viagogo and most of the tickets were half the price I spent. I felt like I had been tricked and fell for it. Will never buy anything off them again.
Hi.I spent £2500 on 4 tickets to see Phil Collins through Viagogo.Unfortunately i couldn’t go so a month before i sold the tickets back through Viagogo and was offered £2000.I took the offer sadly.Then Phil Collins cancelled the show until December and Viagogo won’t pay me until after that next show and are keeping hold of my £2500 for about 9 months even though someone else has bough my tickets.What a scam.They should be closed down.
We purchased 2 tickets for U2’s concert at Croke Park on 22nd July. We were concerned when the tickets arrived. They were paper copies and had someone else’s name on them. We were even more concerned when two further tickets ,again paper copies, arrived about a week before the concert. However, as they had been delivered by DHL Express we were hopeful they would be OK. There was a cover note to say to destroy the original tickets as they were no longer valid and hoped that we would enjoy the concert. The name on the tickets was Padraig Kelly. On Friday 21st we received a phone call from someone called Gary to check we had received the tickets. We were on our way to the airport to fly to Dublin and we’re again encouraged to think the tickets would be fine. However on arriving at the turnstile the following evening the operative tried to zap he tickets and failed. We were told they were void. We presented he original set of tidiets which were also void. We were sent to the box office where there were about 20 other people in the same position, including a couple who had travelled from Austria for the concert. All had purchased tickets from via gogo. All were trying to contact the company without success. I rang he number of Gary who had contacted me he previous day and amazingly got a reply. I told him that the tickets were void and he said he would meet us on the main road in 15 minutesand let us have additional tickets. Without any confidence we headed to the road where we managed to find Gary and he gave us 2 tickets which appeared to be bonfire tickets with a security mark on. We did not have to pay any additional cost and were given no real explanation. However at this point we were just relieved to be able to get into the concert. The price on the tickets was 76 euro each and we were charged a total of over 500 euro for 2 tickets. We tried to complain to the ticket site on our return but found this could only be done onine and only by responding to a limited set of questions. We would obviously never use his site again and would urge others not to do so.
We bought tickets from Viagogo for an event in London recently after the last minute cancellation of the Adele concert that we were due to attend. Tickets were bought on the day of the event and arrived as e-tickets, we arrived at the venue and it said e-tickets were not accepted and they would not print the tickets for us as they were resell tickets and not in our name, they checked our tickets and said someone had already entered the venue on these tickets so even if we went somewhere to print them we would not gain entry. The ticket office at the event would not put this In writing for us and just gave us an email address for the promotor of the event to confirm this in writing. Still battling with Viagogo several weeks later to try and obtain a refund, to which they have tried everything possible to avoid a refund under their 100% guarantee, hoping that we will give up, the matter is now with our credit card company. Sites like Viagogo should not be allowed to operate in the UK, they are depriving genuine fans the chance to buy tickets from the official seller for an event by buying them up on an industrial scale.
I abhor the way that organisations actively support viagogo by embracing them as “Official Partners”. Chelsea FC, World Snooker and Scottish Rugby are just three. I have had protracted discussions with Scottish Rugby who appear impervious to criticism about their lack of integrity.
I bought tickets through viagogo on 8th July which I believed was the day they were released for Ed Sheeran concert in June 2018. I spent about an hour trying to get tickets hopping from site to site, thinking they were all selling legitimately.
It was only when I saw Martin Lewis Money tips and the letter from the genuine promoters, that I became away that viagogo have defrauded me of hundreds of pounds for unusable, invalid tickets.
As most people here have found out their is no way of actually getting in touch with viagogo, and they have a one way emailing system sending out not in.. So I found two ‘Head Office’ addresses in London, and sent copy of letter and my purchase stating that I wanted my money back as I have not:
1. Received the tickets
2. They are stated as invalid by the promoter
3. They have taken money under false pretences – fraud
4. They fall foul of Consumer protection acts in the UK.
5. The contract is void as the tickets are unusable.
The above is my first stage recourse.
As described in the letter on Martin lewis’s website I have a right to my money back and not an alternative ticket.
Finally having taken these steps I believe I can reclaim from my Credit Card provider if they do not pay out.
However I believe that viagogo has a responsibility to return monies to fans that have purchased, and that the last resort of claim on my card company or bank, is an unfair approach.
What ever happens I refuse alternatives else I would be aggravating the situation and colluding with viagogo.
Pressure from fans and intervention from Trading Standards, should get a result.
I suggest to anyone in this situation that they put their complaint in writing to viagogo along with a copy of the letter from Martin Lewis’s website, also keep a copy of it and when it was sent as evidential proof of claim.
Do not accept anything else other than a full refund.
I will never deal with viagogo again…
I’ve bought 2 Ed Sheeran tickets for next year’s stadium tour for my daughter and me through Ticket Selection. Just found out they have a bad reputation and my credit card has been charged twice!! Going to try your process – why does no one in authority do anything about so many people being ripped off over and over again?
The only people benefiting are the touts not the fans.
On March this year I booked three tickets from Viagogo to see Celine Dion at SSE HYDRO on August 5.This was a treat for my wife and daughter. I had never done this sort of thing before so I’d never heard of Viagogo and now I wish I hadn’t. Much to my astonishment I was charged £635.55 or £211.85 per ticket. Being so naive I thought that was the correct price and didn’t cause a fuss. That was until months later when I received the tickets by post and was stunned to see the actual price was £65 per ticket plus an £8.80 booking fee per ticket. Total price £73.80 per ticket. I’ve since found that this company is under investigation and can’t be traced
my wife bought tickets in Australia thinking the ticket price was the official price, when I seen my credit card statement I checked the official ticket price and they had ripped us for $180 that 90 pound. when I tried to complain and get a refund I could not get in contact with them. My credit card company could not help either. we wont make that mistake again.
We bought 2 tickets for andy murray live in november at the glasgow hydro we bought the tickets through viagogo it wasent till we got to the last page that we where charged 300 pounds for 2 tickets that would normally cost 80 pounds i think that its shocking. As this event is for charity. Where the 220 pounds went strait in viagogo pockets😞😞😞😞
I was charged £634.99 for 3 tickets to see Celine Dion on 5th August this year. I thought I was paying £75 per ticket! Pop ups kept appearing counting down the minutes left to complete the transaction, also pop ups saying how many other people are looking at these tickets. I felt under immense pressure to complete the transaction and almost passed out when I hit the confirm button and I saw the total charged was £634.99. I was in tears! The tickets I received had £90 on them. My daughters and myself went to the concert and Celine was fabulous but no way ever would I pay that amount to see someone sing
Viagogo charged me £120 for two Luke’s graham tickets. They were the top google result. I was duped as I haven’t booked concert tickets online before. I thought they were official ticket sellers until the tickets arrived-the face value was £25 each. 😩 Very disappointed with Viagogo. Scam artists AIDED AND ABETTED BY Google WHO should not take their money to be a top result. GOOGLE-should show that they are a ‘ values lead’ organisation and refuse the foonsirdhip rom Viagogo to be placed as top search result.
Hi just letting you know I have been successful in having my payment to Viagigo for Ed Sheeran tickets returned to my account. The tickets were bought using my Capital One credit card. My initial complaint to Capital One was met with great sympathy and understanding but they stated I had to wait until the concert and then if refused entry they could act. Having read about the Chargeback scheme I wrote to them to make a claim. I sent a copy of the letter available on the MoneySuperMarket site saying I was a victim of fraud. I also sent the letter from Kilimanjaro. Capital One contacted me asking for more details and copies of the letters available via this site. Much to my surprise and delight told me immediately they were refunding me the payment of almost £500. I have it back! Obviously there is the 45-60 day period for Viagogo to claim it back but I was told they need to be able to prove that the tickets are legitimate and I can use them. All the evidence and information being provided by the concert organisers, ticket providers and Ed Sheeran’s team state they are not. So please continue to get in touch with your banks and credit card providers. Thank you to FFA for advice and copies of the letters from Kilimanjaro. A big thank you to the complaints and dispute team at Capital One UK.
I am one of the many people who has bought tickets off viagogo for Ed S concert tickets, trying to get my money back 🙁
I bought 3 tickets on Viagogo – for Adam Lambert in New Zealand. I thought Viagogo was the official seller of these tickets, as the site claimed. Only after I purchased – I found that they were touted tickets. Viagogo also gave me the cost of the tickets, I paid by credit card – then they added another $300 AFTER I paid the price of the tickets. Viagogo is nothing more than a SCAMMING site. I paid $1000 for three $112 tickets which are sight obscured. Who knows if the tickets are even real. I would love to see Viagogo and other sites like it BLOCKED. They shouldnt be allowed to exist.
Hi all,
On March 30, 2017 I have bought two tickets or Burning Man festival, starting on 27th of August 2017. Beginning of Jun I received tickets and discovered that face value of one ticket was $425 and Viagogo charged me 1330$ ($2660 for two tickets).
Later I became unable to attend the event, so decided to sell my tickets. I have listed same two tickets on Viagogo and after 3 weeks I received an email that my tickets have been sold (for $1728 which is $932 less than I paid ). But I did not receive an address of the buyer where to send the tickets. I have sent several emails asking for the address and only after 3 weeks I have received an email with an address in China (Nina Liu, 111-1-301, JinDuHangCheng 2Qi, Baiziwan road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100000, China). I aproached to FedEx and they told me that this address does not exist and they cannot ship there. On the other hand, Viagogo told me, they will pay me only after 8 days from the date of the event to make sure that buyer could gain access to the event. I asked Viagogo to get me in contact with the buyer to be sure that they will not lie to me. But they refused to. At the same time, I discovered Facebook page Victims of Viagogo, and only after I have fully realized that I was dealing with a bunch of scoundrels. I started to research on Google, and additionally, I discovered this notice on Burning Man web page:
“The majority of listings on Viagogo are speculative listings, which means that the sellers do not actually own Burning Man tickets to back up their listing. Further, their terms of service are not at all favorable to buyers and the seller may cancel your order right up until a few weeks before the event, leaving you without a ticket. As a community service, please flag and report these listings directly to those sites whenever you see them. “ – “Any ticket or vehicle pass being sold for above face value plus service fees is at risk of being canceled and not being valid for entry to the event. If a ticket has been auctioned and/or sold for above its face value, we may have already canceled and voided that ticket.”
And
“Each ticket has a unique QR code, with the corresponding information displayed next to it. Use a free QR code-scanning app on your phone to check that the QR reads the same info as is printed next to it.”
I have scanned my tickets with QR reader, and it does not scan it (I have tried with two different phones, with different QR scanner software).
Eventually, I discovered that my tickets were fake.
I e-mailed Viagogo regarding, but they insisted me to send tickets to non-existent address in China, otherwise, they would charge me for penalty. I have never sent tickets to there and they charged me $60 additionally.
Then I have opened a dispute and asked for the chargeback from my bank and at this moment $60 has been refunded to me, but for the rest of the money, I am still waiting. one month has been passed since I requested for the charge back.
To conclude:
Viagogo is a perfectly well choreographed scheme to rip off people:
Viagogo insists that they are a marketplace so not responsible for the fake tickets which is complete nonsense. They are not a marketplace since they do not get in contact sellers and buyers, as eBay does. They are regular sellers and not a marketplace.
Viagogo charges thousands and thousands for handling charge which means they have to be responsible on something.
Viagogo claims to be Official Burning Man resellers, which also is false. By well-illustrated show on Google and on their web page they give you an impression that they are official resellers and that tickets are in high demand and will sell out soon. With this illustrated show they mislead people to buy fake tickets 300% expensive then face value.
After customers buy tickets from them and discover that tickets are fake and expensive, then they have perfectly well prepared legal arrangement to avoid refunds and kick off their customers.
If you do a research on Google you will discover that there are hundreds of people who were ripped off by Viagogo.
V.T.
Viagogo has a very clever way of tricking people into thinking they are paying one price and then adding charges and fees. £220 became £442/for me and doesn’t look like it will be refunded. Flat refusal from them and bank asking for proof I was mislead which is very difficult. Modern day crime it seems to me.
All I wanted to do was take my family to see Ed Sheeran. I was sold tickets from a secondary ticket site who broke terms and condition of sale meaning the tickets were invalid. I used the fanfair alliance support guide to support me in getting my money back. It’s a comprehensive guide that gives you step by step support to help obtain a refund.
Having tried and failed to get Robert Plant tickets at the Royal Albert Hall today using phone and online , within a few minutes of “sold out” there were tickets online for almost four times the original price, with 88 tickets appearing on one site, although us music lovers were restricted to four each. Some hope. Thanks to Harvey Goldsmith who actually replied to my email about this experience I have found and will support Fanfair alliance Thank you for being here!
I am from the UK and I purchased 3 tickets for Bruno Mars in Toronto specifically for my Wife’s birthday. The tickets were front row and cost $2833 … Having secured the tickets I booked the hotel and flights and I was promised my tickets no later than 3 days before.
I have made contact around 8 times, the first 3 times I had responses “that there was nothing to worry about” and then the final 5 emails (on the day of the concert) were ignored.
I am $2833 down and I’ve flown half way around the world off the back of a “guaranteed ticket” ….
I am lost for words 🙁
How can Anthoney Joshua tickets got Cardiff already be for sale on eBay at inflated prices before they are released for sale
I paid £200+ for Waterboys tickets through viagogo.I panic bought as I was led to believe by viagogo that tickets were almost sold out and now find tickets are still available at half the price I paid
Worst experience ever in purchasing / selling tickets, I was charged £184 for 2 tickets with original value at £35 each, the show was cancelled on the 24th August and after numerous attempts to contact Viagogo for a refund, I am still waiting.
Hi, I bought 6 tickets yesterday threw viagogo, I did a google search for Shania Twain tickets and this site came up. I thought a bit strange as I thought it was Friday morning they went on sale, but the site came up saying hurry if you want tickets as there are others waiting to buy and you have 8minutes to finish the order, so of course you think oh its a right site as loads of people are buying too, and were selling fast. Now I realise I have payed double the price for my tickets and that someone else’s name will be on the ticket! It didn’t once say it was second hand tickets and I have looked at reviews and some people don’t even get their tickets. Consumer rights say you have to know your seat and row number to which I haven’t got as when I bought these the tickets weren’t on sale so how can this be a legally bonding contract? I have watched Dispatches since and I am horrified that I have handed over £800 to a company that is scamming innocent people. why is this company allowed to trade in this country??? I now cant even book a hotel as I don’t know if my tickets will come and if they do and I am asked for id then I wont get in with someone else’s name on it, also I now have had to tell my family and friends to go and buy other tickets in the morning from a genuine site at half the price as I cant expect them to pay for these as I thought that was what they were selling for. I feel so upset and can’t sleep over this. The government needs to put a stop to this.
My wife asked if I could get her 2 tickets for Runrig’s farewell concert at Stirling from Ticketmaster. Tickets on sale at 10:00 so I go through the registration process 30 minutes before the sale time and I have the page open with a count down to sale time. Clock goes to 10:00 and page refreshes. I try to buy tickets but all are sold out (within 2 minutes) but the Ticketmaster site tells me to try GetMeIn (a part of the Ticketmaster group). What a suprise – GetMeIn have loads for sale at vastly inflated prices. Some sellers have 10 tickets that they’re offering for 3 times the face value. Really hacked off at Ticketmaster for helping touts.
Paid £142.09 for two tickets, bought under time pressure from what I believed to be the official site. None of the proper consumer information given before the purchase eg face value or specific seating. Tickets arrived in another’s name, face value £32.00 each and dates proved company did not have the tickets at the time they sold them to me. Same problems with standard template replies from vendor. Still trying to claim chargeback and all other avenues. Action Fraud will not provide NFRC number, saying it’s not a fraud despite the definition of fraud on their website.
I was charged over £500 for Ed Sheeran tickets on Viagogo and despite numerous, calls, letters and emails I have still not received a refund. They are a disgusting company.
Totally mislead by viagogo on pricing of tickets with no mention of handling costs etc which more than doubled the advertised price. On trying to use their resale site my email was deemed incorrect, so no contact was possible. Will not be using them again.
Lived and learned an expensive lesson.
Completely ripped off for Foo Fighter tickets. Paid £479.00 for 2. Face value of tickets were £65.00 each! Was consistently told that tickets were valid and even though my name wasn’t on the ticket I would have no problem getting into the venue. Turned up to the venue after travelling 3 1/2 hours to be told tickets were not valid 🙁
I am facing the prospect of losing £700 on Metallica tickets for the O2 after buying from StubHub months ago, only to find out recently that photo ID is required to get into the venue. I have contacted StubHub who’s blase response is to just resell the tickets if I don’t want them, i.e. dump the problem on someone else’s lap. They like to claim I will get a refund if I get turned away, so I am supposed to travel miles not knowing whether I will get in or not, have a wasted trip, and then you can just see StubHub coming out with some excuse and not refunding me. While I understand the good intentions of the bands and venues, all this has achieved is that thousands of actual fans will turn up to venues, get turned away and be left heartbroken, and very much out of pocket (like at the recent Foo Fighters gig). But the touts still have their money don’t they, the only people this is hurting is genuine fans who were desperate to see their favourite band. There has to be a better way.
Was trying to get tickets for Gary Barlow alongside many others. I tried the Amazon presale and got nowhere. Then tried general sale today. Sold out as soon as open. However companies like Vivagogo and Getmein and tickets available at at least twice the price. How is this fair?!
I bought an expensive ticket to see Metallica at O2 arena on the 24th October. Viagogo explicitly told me the tickets wold be fine, even if O2 website stated the need for the ticket to state the visitors name. Viagogo are ignoring my emails.
The worst company are Ticketmaster thay tell people gigs are sold out in minutes but they have transferred them onto their own resale site Getmein. Yes some people sell on ripoff sites but Ticketmaster are the worst. Tickets for Metallica were sold out 5 minutes before they on sale!!
The worst company are Ticketmaster thay tell people gigs are sold out in minutes but they have transferred them onto their own resale site Getmein. Yes some people sell on ripoff sites but Ticketmaster are the worst. Tickets for Metallica were sold out 5 minutes before they were supposed to go on sale!!
I love going to gigs and I’m at them at least once a month.
Today I spent 15 minutes on Ticketmaster awaiting tickets, as soon as they hit general sale it loaded and told me there were none available, however Ticketmaster’s ‘Get Me In’ re-sale site was already selling a wealth of tickets at more than double the value.
It’s not even subtle now.
VIAGOGO stung me
I recently googled for a band’s tour dates and was brought straight to a site which said there were very few tickets left and so I hurriedly purchased them. They came up as £66 each but the final amount I paid was £182. When I printed the tickets, it actually said they were £49 each and had some other name on them! I then realized that I had been sold these tickets by the secondary ticket site Viagogo. When I phoned the venue they said they did not accept these tickets at last year’s event and that I should contact the Event organizer. They told me of the issues with these tickets and how I could get assistance. I took Claire Turnham’s advice and bombarded Viagogo with emails. As they sent be another unhelpful generic reply I pointed out all the reasons I shouldn’t be risking waiting to see if I could gain entry eg: the fact the tickets had some stranger’s name on them and yet it also clearly stated that ID checks may be made??!? This, coupled with being outrageously overcharged and missing out on the different choice of tickets I could have had if I had been brought straight to the official website, spurred me on to keep going, It went on for a month, sending several emails per day and was exhausting but it paid off when the money which had been pending in my account was not taken by the cut off date. I have now bought official tickets and am looking forward to the event,
. Thank you to Claire for the great advice!
Not an unusual or extreme version of being ripped off, but nonetheless I am so angry about this! I was trying to buy Flight of the Conchords tickets for any of their London gigs next March (4 in total) ticket prices supposed to be £25-65. Tickets went on sale 10a.m on Friday 27th. The tickets were all sold out before they were released, but were available through the secondary sites before 10am at massively inflated prices (cheapest tickets now trading at £150 + whatever outrageous handling charges the ticket companies are allowed to make up (£40+ handling fees?). If it were a fair fight to get tickets when they are released I wouldn’t mind, but I tried to buy them the very moment they went on sale & I don’t think it is fair that none were available. I have written to Ticketmaster, Apollo Hammersmith & the Culture Secretary asking this be looked into.
Pretty much every music event I’ve tried to get tickets for recentry have sold out really quickly, but yet tickets are available on tout sites for over treble the cost! Example; the Streets were selling at £50.20 from Ticketmaster (no tickets available) but yet GetMeIn have tickets available for £183.20 for ONE ticket! I had the same experience when I tried to get London Grammar tickets.
This has to stop. It’s not fair when all available tickets are being bought up, making them unavailable at face value and then being sold for treble the price. Unfortunately people must be paying these over inflated prices, else tout sites wouldn’t exist?
Well, after posting what I thought was a positive outcome where I was told by my bank that the date for Viagogo to take the pending amount of money had passed, they have taken it! I am in talks with my bank at the moment but have started the back and forth of emails with Viagogo again. The latest one is very telling. After repeatedly saying that I would not have a problem with these tickets, they are now saying that because I have asked the venue about the validity I have made them invalid because Event organizers do not like people buying these tickets( I say tricked into it). Surely this is an admission on their part of selling tickets which they know will not be accepted. i intend to keep fighting this.
I bought two tickets for Ed Sheeran’s concert in Singapore from viagogo.com as a gift for my husband and son. I thought viagogo was one of the official ticketing services as its name appeared top in Google search. When my husband and son got into Singapore Indoor Stadium, the officer in charge there told them that the purchased tickets were “not original”. I tried to contact viagogo to ask for possible refund but they did not provide any email or link where I could even ask. I am helpless & hopeless. I lost my money for nothing.
Graham here well yes I was taking in by viagogo the official viagogo that is..the one that pays google be the first on the search engine.
Me being a long standing fan of Matt Johnson and the the,I said if they ever played again I would within reason go anywhere to see them and thats where it all begins.
I get updates from their fan page which announced gigs,wow said Graham Im going so I was on the internet the morning in fact the minute tickets went on sale and was directed to the clever pushy viaconcon site the rest you all know ordered 4 tickets under pressure and was charged £1100 pounds and probably wont even get any tickets let alone have enough time to organise hotels and transport 3 days before the gig ,and what they say ticket arrival date.
Anyway money is only money not the end of the world but now effectivly I have no tickets or at least any that would be of any use to me.I am doimg my best to spread the word about this legal scam.
I hope I can stop people falling in to the same trap.
My wife has in our opinion been ripped off by Viagogo.
She thought she was on the Ticketmaster website and as soon as Kasabian tickets went on sale for glasgow (this sat)she bought 2-ticket cost £82 each,total cost with charges -£212 ie about a £50 service charge that was bad enough.
She has just downloaded the tickets-cost of them is actually £39.50 and they are at right angles to the stage and worse than useless.
These tickets were bought within minutes of going on sale yet have another person’s name on them.She had and had understood that they were good tickets straight in front of
the stage.
Viagogo contacted and have said not their problem.ticket
Totally ripped off !!!price
I searched google looking for tickets for ColdPlay in San Diego, CA in October 8 2017.
I was presented with a viagogo page on the top results and offered by around USD$200 tickets for a location. After being rushed to pay for the tickets with messages urging me to complete the transaction I ended up paying above USD$600
After arriving in USA after many airplanes, tickets, hotels and months of waiting for the concert on my wife’s birthday we got into the stadium and faced the reality that the tickets were for a totally different location and they worthed no more than USD$70. It was the cheapest seat possible and we paid more than needed for a ticket on the floor close to the stage.
After talking to the manager of the ticket office we were told Viagogo was a scam and they couldn’t do anything about it. We were forced to cry at the distance feeling robbed.
I contacted them to ask for a refund and was told the tickets were right and no refund would be made. I never understanded the meaning of moral damages until this happened to us. It really affected us emotionally and economically.
What a shame of human beings!
Hi .. we have recently had £489 taken from our credit card for tickets that we apparently purchased through Viagogo. We don’t believe we confirmed a purchase for this amount – the tickets were displayed at £170 and only when we progressed to the next screen did it show us the final coat – at which point we were advised the purchase was complete! Viagogo refuse to refund our money but also are unable to provide us with confirmation that we accepted the final cost – how is this allowed to happen? How does a company get away with not giving a clear sale price?
Please please help to get Viagogo out of business. I bought 2 tickets for Jake Bugg at £48 each. Second step was to give bank details and after that the bill came to £140 !!!! I pressed a button to say I didn’t want to go ahead and it went on to proceed with the sale anyway.
I purchased tickets for the Sevens in Cape Town, 9 and 10 December. I have not received the tickets for 09 December as yet, however I received tickets for 10 December yesterday – the amount on the tickets is R 300 per ticket = R 600. My bill from Viagogo was R 7,495.
The tickets for 9th December cost GBP 165.54 – which in excess of R 3 000. I am certain that the tickets will be worth R 300 each = R 600 – again what a rip off.
VIAGOGO
Was silly enough to purchase from them before reading all the bad hype. Nothing but a major scam.
I purchased tickets online for an Imelda May concert that was this month. They cost me over £70 each. It was only when I printed the tickets I realised the face value was just over £30. Because someone else’s name was on the tickets I called Viagogo as I thought I had been allocated the wrong ones. They said they were a resale and I had bought them at that inflated price. As this was the first site that appeared when I searched for tickets I had thought it was a direct ticket company.
I went to the concert and enjoyed it but it was bitter sweet knowing I had paid more than double for myself and my best friend.
Will never use them again.
We saw an ad for an Oktoberfest day in Chester on Facebook. We ordered the tickets via Fatsoma. We subsequently found out the date on the facebook ad was wrong and Fatsoma sent tickets with the wrong date included.
We contacted Fatsoma and they said we had to contact the promoter directly but refused to give us their details due to data protection. Despite several contacts on email and social media they still refuse to help.
We are now £96 out of pocket and Fatsoma point blank refuse to help
Tickets for George Groves v Chris Eubank Jr were scheduled to go on sale at 9:00am today (28/11/2017). The venue is the Manchester Arena which holds around 20,000 spectators.
Having waited patiently for these tickets to go on sale, my friends and I were excited this morning and got ready to buy our tickets, we knew we might have difficulty so we were using our phones, iPad’s and laptops to try and secure just 4 tickets.
At precisely 9:00 am the tickets were released and we added them to our basket, 25 seconds after 9 o’clock, every ticket was apparently sold out. We checked the usual suspects, StubHub, and low and behold, tickets were already on there at treble the face value. Eventim apparently had a strict 6 tickets max per person policy, however StubHub had options available for 25-30 seats together. Clearly, these tickets were already in StubHub’s possession before they were released to the public. It is absolutely disgraceful that they can repeatedly get away with this. They are pricing out genuine fans and fleecing the entire market. Live boxing is one of the worst events for ticket touting, it is virtually impossible to get any ticket at face value. Earlier in 2017 I had to resort to paying £200 for a £40 face value ticket to the Anthony Joshua v Wladimir Klitschko fight. I understand as long as people continue to pay the inflated prices then nothing will change, however I believe there really needs to be some form of legislation introduced to limit the price tickets can be re-sold for. Once again, the real fans suffer and the touts prosper.
I’ve just bought two tickets on Viagogo for my parents – it’s for a gig at Hammersmith in March 2018. It’s a sought-after concert as it’s the only London date for the artist.
After being held on a loading page telling me that tickets are selling very fast, only a few remaining (the usual trick), I was able to select my seats in the stalls, for £84 each. Steep price but almost acceptable by today’s standards.
After selecting my tickets I was concerned that the tickets (e-tickets) did not state a row or seat number. This concern was quickly outweighed by the astronomical fees that the website put on my two tickets – £230 for two £84 seats (£62 of fees). I completed my purchase and was told that the e-tickets will be emailed no later than 3 days before the gig date. (It seems clear to me that this seller is a tout with numerous tickets who can’t yet specify seat allocation until all tickets have been sold).
I’ve tried emailing Viagogo customer care, forwarding on my confirmation email, to try to find out more about my exact seats. I’m concerned that the stalls at Hammersmith include a standing area which would be unacceptable for my parents. Furthermore, with so little information to go on until the week of the gig, I’m not that convinced that my parents will even be able to get in to the venue (whose name will be on the tickets?)
My email was rebuffed quickly with a generic response telling me that the email I’d used was not recognised against any existing order. When I pointed out that my email contained the confirmation email, another reply came stating that I needed to set up an account and go to FAQs to get my answer. The trouble is, Viagogo’s FAQs don’t get you specific answers.
So for £62 of fees, I’m entitled to zero customer service and zero further information on my tickets. I have to wait and trust that I haven’t been sold fake tickets or that I even have seats reserved in the venue.
A typical story. I hope Viagogo are abolished and become a distant memory to honest ticket buyers in the future.
I rarely buy concert tickets and thought I was on the website of the concert hall. Now horrified to find it was actually Viagogo and I have paid £184 for tickets which were available for £68! This should be illegal.
HI I bought two Tickets for Nottingham Arena in February from Viagogo with a debit card for 71 pounds each to see Arch Enemy but on first attempt card did not go through told me it was invalid and unsuccessful so I tried to grab tickets from another vendor at cheaper price I might Add that was successful only to find 2 or 3 days later viagogo’s had suddenly taken for original attempt annoyed that I now had paid for 4 tickets I tried to contact customer service but they do answer to my e-mails or phone is just same female robot even though I tried several numbers cannont get through to human and this is what is so annoying My bank will not help me either Santandar so it seems I am out of pocket & my only hope to retrieve monies is anyone at gig who wants to get in & probably will still lose money as if I had bought from arena would have been £21 each what a rip off !!!!
I heard my favourite band ( depeche mode) was playing in my home town Birmingham and I heard about it on the 80s radio but I didn’t catch the address so I googled depeche mode in Birmingham and viagogo was first on the list so I trusted the company from the get-go .
I saw there was only a few tickets left and a clock was ticking to secure seats they apparently had only a few of .
Like other victims I was pressured to buy the tickets asap with a clock counting down from 4 minutes if I didn’t buy the tickets in 4 minutes there would be no tickets left .
So I worried that I wouldn’t secure my 2 seats within the 4 minutes.
I was given the price of the tickets (£69 each ) and I was pleased with price .
So I manage to pay within the 4 minutes and I was in the horrors when I saw the exact over all charge I had been charged.
This company had charged me a extra £60 pound which wasn’t stated anywhere prior to buying .
A few weeks later I realised I couldn’t make the date I wanted a Saturday but I’d booked the Sunday .
So I stupidly decided to list my tickets through the company ( viagogo) and instantly my tickets were sold for the same amount I had paid .
I didn’t realise that you had to wait till 2 weeks after the concert to receive my money .
A few weeks later I received a email saying my tickets were on the way so I kept track via the delivery company and I saw my tickets had actually gone to the buyers address and they were delivered safely .
Then one day again a few weeks later I received a email off the company ( viagogo) and they had cancelled everything and told me I don’t need to contact them
Again and that they’d be charging me £40 off my card if the buyers couldn’t get in the concert.
I was fuming so I sent countless emails asking what was going on and they eventually replied and said I’d not sold my tickets the right way so they cancelled my sale .
I went on twitter and messaged them along with emails and they agreed then to carry on with my sale and that I’d receive the price I sold the tickets for £186 .
I lost my credit card shortly after and informed them that this had happened and gave them my replacement credit card number and I thought that was the end of it until I was paid for my tickets
The event was 19th November.
Then last week I found a email hidden in junk off the company ( viagogo) they asked me weeks prior to confirm my card number and I’d already done so on 2 occasions and I corrected my card details on my account with them .
I emailed them straight away and they’ve basically blocked me on every email address they have .
They’ve blocked me from sending emails through my account with them and all other emails they use .
I’m just so annoyed how they can do this and take people’s money and we’re not talking a low amount , we all have paid a lot of money to these crooks .
I’ve lost £240 and I never went the concert or received a refund .
I hope this particular company gets punished.
I’m now starting to give up hope at getting any money back .
I’ve messaged them also via twitter and again it’s radio silence .
My husband bought Proms tickets this summer from Viagogo by mistake and paid almost three times the face value – and he still could have got them direct from the Albert Hall. The problem is that Viagogo had an ad at the top of the Google search page so he went straight there. He won’t do it again!
Today, I looked at some Hyde Park/Eric Clapton tickets, which are still available on official sites and the organisers are saying that the tickets cannot be resold and you may not be allowed in if you buy resold tickets. Nevertheless, tickets are being sold on Viagogo at inflated prices. The venues seem to be allowing to happen. Why?
This is the content of my email to my local MP who is the SNP spokesman for culture, written today 4th December. Personal pleasantries and preamble have been removed.
“I have been fortunate enough never to have been conned by the likes of Viagogo, Getmein and the like, but I have like many others been forced to watch the best tickets for gigs being hoovered up by these legalised touts and sold to the highest bidder, unfairly milking (screwing?) the fans and making obscene profits. Bizarrely I have now been at TWO concerts at GRCH where the best two seats (front centre) have been unoccupied for the first half of a show, before being filled by floor staff at intermission. It was the same artist both times as well- Jackson Browne. It really defies belief that the holders of such prized tickets were indisposed at such short notice that they couldn’t have given them to a friend or someone who could use them. As a fan, I am eligible for presale, and I was unable when the presale opened to get a ticket in the front EIGHT ROWS as they were sold out either before it opened or more likely hoovered up by bots.. Funnily enough I could have bought tickets for these seats at up to 8 times face value before midday the same day, obviously from people who had bought tickets and then remembered they had other things to do on the date of the concert (sarcasm alert!).
I am sure this is something that will have come to your notice in your culture spokesperson role, and I would ask that if you have the chance, please take any available opportunity to highlight this odious practise and perhaps help put an end to it. I know some venues are turning fans away who have bought from these shysters, but that’s not really hurting the people who deserve to be punished, the legalised touts.
I have attached a screengrab from the net which shows the extent of the profiteering that goes on. You’ll see that this is dated two weeks before presale [this was a concert by Within Temptation- tickets £25 plus booking fee] and advertises tickets on the secondary market that Viagogo don’t/can’t yet have. I actually bought my tix for just over £61 including fees. Look what Viagogo are charging! [£48 + 34% fees]”
My MP is Brendan O’Hara, Argyll and Bute; I’ll let you know how I get on.
Good Luck Fanfair. Glad to be onboard.
Purchasing jingle bell ball tickets for O2 December 2017. Being online at the sale time 8am seemed feasible as I was about 7500 in the queue. As capacity is about 20000 I presumed I had a chance but by 8.22 the site said all tickets sold. Capital were quoting on their station that all tickets sold out in 42 minutes. What happened did Capital computers not realise they sold out in 22minutes or did they not realise they had been bought in bulk for resale? I was directed to viagogo and sold face value tickets of £49 for more than double the price. Why did Capital not have the tickets to sell? Why did they offer vip tickets in advance which I presume were sold on? Viagogo said there was no need for a seat number to be provided at the time of sale. It is a fraudulent business that needs to be stopped.
I tried to buy Pearl Jam tickets today. I waited in a “waiting room” with my information and payment details completed before the 11:00 sale time and still failed to get them. From the numbers given on resale sites it seems that over half of the tickets were double their original price within twenty minutes. The corruption is so apparent it’s sickening, and having no idea how to tackle the problem so that next time your favourite band are on tour you can see them is frustrating.
Though it would be reckless, I could technically afford an inflated ticket, but the longer I considered it the more I realise I don’t want to give money to those people. It’s paying a ransom, and if we all took that stand they would make no money.
Hi. I recently bought two Bruno Mars tickets for Glasgow Green in July 2018. I was led to believe that these tickets were in short stock and high demand in the viagogo website as it was coming up with ‘searching for tickets and ‘5 people waiting’. I paid around £95 each for two ticket and including booking and other fees it’s came in around £250. I was gutted to fine these ticket were still ok general sale for £69 each. I’ve resold them on viagogo and getting less than £200 back and now have to wait until a week after the gig in July 2018 to receive payment?
My partner purchased tickets from ‘viagogo’ which cost us $500. We are unable to attend the comedy show & also they are a lot cheaper priced! Found elsewhere. I am not paying $500 for two tickets is ridiculous & it’s a scam!
Victory at last!! After daily texts to Viagogo and giving them every opportunity to do the right thing, I have been successful in getting a charge back from my bank. I discussed the problem on the phone and was sent a form to fill out with details of what had happened. I enclosed copies of the tickets which clearly stated that ID checks may be made but had someone else’s name on them! I also told them that if needed I could provide copies of texts from Viagogo stating that by inquiring from the Venue as to whether they would accept my tickets, I had invalidated them!!? As it happens the copy of the tickets were enough for me to get my money back. Yes it’s been exhausting and frustrating, but so worth it! A big thank you to Claire for her advice and to Adam for your encouragement. Keep going everyone, these people can’t win!
We purchased 4 Chelsea football tix last night and were okay paying L360 as advertised on screen for the lot as it was a hospitality suite. However, once we purchased the tickets, we were shocked to see the final total bill amounted to L1705.15!! This amount included L360 PER TICKET plus VAT charges?
We did not receive a final price break-down until AFTER the purchase AND presently, that price break down is no where to be found on our account page. When we click view details, we only get a summary page that lists the total amount paid. In addition, we have been told we cannot resell these tickets either. Hence we purchased these tickets under fraudulent practices. And now the company is not willing to resolve this issue for us.
We will fight and use social media and all avenues open to us until we get a full refund.
I purchased Coachella 2018 tickets in June 2017 believing I was buying through the official ticket sales page as that is the web address i entered. When I clicked on the buy tickets link on the page I was immediately sent to a page where I could select tickets and then entered a que counting down how long the tickets were available for as I waited to make my purchase. The tickets were $495 each I bought 2. I then did end of year accounting on that card and see that the billing for the tickets have a final price of $1724.95 on my card!!! The company is Viagogo and I looked into them and they are nothing to do with the official site I started on. They are basically horrendous according to the stories I am finding out.
Firstly I would never buy resale tickets I was happily browsing the Coachella site and somehow when looking to purchase tickets I was redirected and ended up in a que for tickets that I believed was linked to the official ticket seller.
Even more alarming I am reading that a majority of tickets that people purchase from viagogo end up being fakes and that they are not even granted entry to the gigs. Now I am travelling to America in a few months time and have to go with the mindset that I may get in to the festival or I may be rejected at the door and have to make the most of the holiday regardless.
I am checking with my card provider that if I am in fact turned away that they are insured. I have also contacted the official site and google to tell them of the redirect and contacted Viagogo. However who knows if I will hear back from them.
All I can say is I hope the tickets arrive in time, I hope they are real and fingers crossed I get the excessive booking fee refunded. PLEASE STAY CLEAR OF VIAGOGO my mission is to let as many people know so this does not happen to anyone else.
I booked two tickets to Groves v Eubank as a Christmas gift on the 4th December, moving the booking confirmation to my email folder ‘concerts’.
Christmas eve, I open the folder wanting to write the details of the booking in a Christmas card only to find instead of my booking confirmation this message ‘ sorry your session has expired, incase of booking confirmation login to your account’. I followed the account link only to find that the booking was not there!
Worried that the session had timed out, I panicked and rebooked two more tickets. These have arrived and show on my account. The suprise was when my MasterCard bill arrived viagogo have taken a payment for the two tickets that weren’t booked then the payment again for the tickets I booked three weeks later.
I have sent them copied of my bank statement but up to now can’t manage to get a refund. They are telling me that the first booking was booked to a gmail email account. I’ve even got them to let me change the password on this as they convinced me it was my account. Surprisingly it doesn’t exist!!
On 28/12/2017, while “surfing” on the internet, I read a news that the SIMPLE MINDS were coming this 2018 to Spain. Instead of going directly to the source, the official page of the group, I searched for Google sale tickets S.M. and direct, and almost exclusively, I took to VIAGOGO, even another that I typed to check, once you requested the tickets I forwarded you to VIAGOGO. I entered then, and saw that it had 3 dates, one of them in Madrid, which is where I was interested. At all times (since there is nothing on the page that makes you see otherwise) I thought I was on a legal platform where they offered me official tickets. Start the purchase for S.M. for June 30, 18, they warned me that at that moment there are only 9 tickets left, and I encourage you to request two tickets on the track for 175 tickets. When I continue with the purchase process, the initial amount becomes, among management expenses, taxes and other charges, at 215.10, in total € 430.20.
At that time, I decide not to continue with the purchase, but what is my surprise that I did not allow it. Feeling scammed, and thinking that I could not prove that I had canceled, but that the screen had not assumed it, and after receiving the message from VIAGOGO giving me the congratulations for my purchase, telling me that I will have the tickets three days before the event! and in the invoice it appeared to me without breaking down the amount of 430.20 €, with which, I did not even know what I had really paid for the entrance and what for taxes or expenses, I decided to look for information on consumer rights, in case there was some way to recover my money. I checked that the law allows you to request the cancellation within 14 days. In addition, sadly I discovered that the tickets that I had supposedly bought had not officially gone on sale, so, with that argument (which I did not need) I asked VIAGOGO to return the amount on the 29th.
I came across the abusive clause that tells you that, once the transaction is made, does not allow cancellation, or even have a document to claim, the only solution they give you is to resell them on your platform “without any expense” . That is, they encourage you to sell some tickets that you don’t have, with the condition that if they do not reach your future buyer you will be solely responsible for it and the costs of the claim will be charged. Of course, I answered that I was not going to enter that game, but I still checked if what they told me was true, and, when I proceeded to sell my tickets (only to check if this time they said the truth) it turns out that they put me the price of the tickets, the seller’s rates, but it’s me! and, in the end, they told me that after the sale, I would receive 180 euros less than what I had paid. To my complaint that I had “sold” a non-existent tickets, it is then when they tell you, and you find out for the first time, that they have not sold me the tickets, but that they have put a seller in contact with me. That is, the official tickets have not come out for sale and yet there are supposed buyers who have already done with them and are reselling them? It sounds like organized SCAM. The fact is that I managed to get the organization of the Simple Minds event to send me a letter confirming that they have not gone on sale and have not yet negotiated who their official sales channel will be.
Despite all this, neither my bank, to which I quickly requested the rejection of the invoice for unrecognized charges, nor, of course, Viagogo, allow me to recover my money.
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT
On 28/12/2017, while “surfing” on the internet, I read a news that the SIMPLE MINDS were coming this 2018 to Spain. Instead of going directly to the source, the official page of the group, I searched for Google sale tickets S.M. and direct, and almost exclusively, I took to VIAGOGO, even another that I typed to check, once you requested the tickets I forwarded you to VIAGOGO. I entered then, and saw that it had 3 dates, one of them in Madrid, which is where I was interested. At all times (since there is nothing on the page that makes you see otherwise) I thought I was on a legal platform where they offered me official tickets. Start the purchase for S.M. for June 30, 18, they warned me that at that moment there are only 9 tickets left, and I encourage you to request two tickets on the track for 175 tickets. When I continue with the purchase process, the initial amount becomes, among management expenses, taxes and other charges, at 215.10, in total € 430.20.
At that time, I decide not to continue with the purchase, but what is my surprise that I did not allow it. Feeling scammed, and thinking that I could not prove that I had canceled, but that the screen had not assumed it, and after receiving the message from VIAGOGO giving me the congratulations for my purchase, telling me that I will have the tickets three days before the event! and in the invoice it appeared to me without breaking down the amount of 430.20 €, with which, I did not even know what I had really paid for the entrance and what for taxes or expenses, I decided to look for information on consumer rights, in case there was some way to recover my money. I checked that the law allows you to request the cancellation within 14 days. In addition, sadly I discovered that the tickets that I had supposedly bought had not officially gone on sale, so, with that argument (which I did not need) I asked VIAGOGO to return the amount on the 29th.
I came across the abusive clause that tells you that, once the transaction is made, does not allow cancellation, or even have a document to claim, the only solution they give you is to resell them on your platform “without any expense” . That is, they encourage you to sell some tickets that you don’t have, with the condition that if they do not reach your future buyer you will be solely responsible for it and the costs of the claim will be charged. Of course, I answered that I was not going to enter that game, but I still checked if what they told me was true, and, when I proceeded to sell my tickets (only to check if this time they said the truth) it turns out that they put me the price of the tickets, the seller’s rates, but it’s me! and, in the end, they told me that after the sale, I would receive 180 euros less than what I had paid. To my complaint that I had “sold” a non-existent tickets, it is then when they tell you, and you find out for the first time, that they have not sold me the tickets, but that they have put a seller in contact with me. That is, the official tickets have not come out for sale and yet there are supposed buyers who have already done with them and are reselling them? It sounds like organized SCAM. The fact is that I managed to get the organization of the Simple Minds event to send me a letter confirming that they have not gone on sale and have not yet negotiated who their official sales channel will be.
Despite all this, neither my bank, to which I quickly requested the rejection of the invoice for unrecognized charges, nor, of course, Viagogo, allow me to recover my money.
1) Only proof of purchase. I do not have tickets
2) Claim to VIAGOGO, I’m sorry, everything in Spanish
3) Official document organizer event saying there have been no tickets left for sale
The last time I bought tickets for Bruce Springsteen, I was logged on and as soon as tickets went on sale, the site crashed. When I finally managed to get on again, the best ones available were right at the back. Yet ten minutes later, very good seats were for sale on secondary sites for ten times the face value. Ridiculous!
Viagigo took over 1000 usd of my account without my acceptance and never mailed any U2 tickets. This company still alive and scamming and no one does anything about this!!!!
In the middle of a fight with Viagogo about Michael McIntyre tickets in Birmingham. I searched Google for The Ticket Factory, a Primary site that I trust, I was in a rush so clicked on the first site listed, not noticing it was ViaGogo, not The Ticket Factory.
Because I had entered the artist’s name as well, the Viagogo pages did not identify that it was their site (you can only just see their name in faint grey type on a grey background at the bottom of the page, below where you would look).
The price seemed reasonable for 4 tickets but I was put under real time pressure to move through the pages so I didn’t see until too late that the price was for each ticket! And on top of that they put huge charges!
I feel such a fool for falling for this as I hate secondary ticket sellers, but as well as blaming myself, I blame Google and of course Viagogo.
Viagogo have of course refused to refund me but only in a standard worded email that didn’t deal with the points I raised – they must get a lot of complaints so don’t botherr reading them!
Not too happy with Barclaycard either as they have refused to cancel the charge on the basis that there is no evidence that Viagogo have overcharged me!
Good luck to you in your efforts to rid us all of these shady operators – scum of the earth.
It was all a mistake , at first my brother purchased 2 tickets for a show for 400$ and I didnt even know that he did so, 5 minutes after it he told me he did it and immediately I told it to Viagogo’s so called customer service and asked for a refund , their only answer was that they cant and if I want I can try to sell it on their site…
Frustrated as hell since then
Ticketmaster must think touting is fine if their resale site can sell tickets that are 3 times the value 4 minutes after the U2 general sale started. The people selling these tickets obviously could not attend and this is clearly a way of making money from true fans. This is appalling. There is a lot of talk about putting an end to this but not enough action
I really wanted to see Jack White I was so excited he was playing London, he hasn’t been on tour for three years. I wanted the tickets for my son’s birthday.
I went on the site on the 25th of January looking for tickets, they stated they were running low, not many left etc. So I should act quickly to get some. I paid over the face value , but didn’t know this as the face value wasn’t mentioned. Also as I hi to the last page they added a whopping £37 booking fee for each ticket. At this point I tried to cancel the he transaction, press cancel said I wasn’t happy but to no avail the funds were taken. Ok we need up paying over £500 for 4 tickets which should have cost just the over £250. I feel such as idiot, I contact my bank but they said they couldn’t cancel the order. I contact viagogo but they won’t give me the funds back. The worst thing is the tickets weren’t even on sale Monday night, they didn’t go on sale until Tuesday. I’m still trying I keep asking for a refund, have contacted citizen advice. The worst bit is I fought we will get the money back, that we won’t see Jack White play and it won’t be my son’s birthday present.
I bought 2 tickets for the Rugby from Viagogo. They cost me over £450! When is received the tickets I saw, to my shock, that the face value was £65 each! They had made a profit of over £300. This is nothing but greed. I contacted them 2 times and got waffle replies. No explanation as to their mark up!
I was ripped off and feel so stupid!
A couple of weeks ago I was so excited when it was announced that U2 would be touring again. But once the excitement rushed through my body,the reality of trying to get a ticket became real.
I am a regular concert goer and in the last 10 year’s approx I have only managed to get 1 ticket at face value.
I have then been driven towards the secondary touting sites and it’s been a do or don’t situation. At first I would just pay for whatever came up, in fact I don’t think 10years ago I was clued up up about these rip off sites. I had idea I was quite possibly buying tickets from the “Super Touts”
So getting back to U2, knowing how popular the tickets would be I investigated how and where I could purchase them as to stay ahead of the game.
First place you could buy them frombefire general release was the fan club.It is my understanding that you have to join first with a £50/$50 joining fee. I declined to do that, not because I thought this was a rip off but I just felt that I may not get standing tickets as they were limited.I’m glad I never as friends of mine struggled to get the tickets they wanted, ie deemed poor positions in the arena, and they were the most expensive tickets on offer. I know that this has took the shine away for them as they wanted to be standing. But I guess you takes your chances and they have paid the price as on the ticket. So it proves that you don’t get the best tickets because your signed up to the fan club.
After this event, I was surprised that if I googled U2 tickets I could buy them, but through the secondary websites. How wrong is that? Surely the super fan doesn’t want to give up their tickets? Well delving deaper I could see why as they weren’t the most desired tickets at the venue.
On the 24/1/18 I registered onto another priority event O2.
I required 3 tickets, so at 8:55am I scheduled my break at work.
Prior to entering my details the information page said max 2 tickets.That put the mockers on everything! But I carried on regardless as my friends had asked me to help them get tickets, but said sort myself out first as I was going to attend on my own before they expressed an interest. I was unsuccessful, and that was that. I kept rehitting the button for at least 20minutes hoping tickets would magically appear.
The following day it was Live nations turn, I had the same issue with their pre sales site as I was limited to buying 2 tickets only. By now I was frustrated with the whole experience.
That evening I arrived home and my parents asked how did I get on.I told them of my disappointment but was kind of hopeful for the following day when the tickets went on general sale. I even booked the day off. My dad had been making a few enquiries and started showing me tickets, I told him he was looking at the secondary websites and that all the tickets had been marked up. I was tempted to just get a ticket, but really wanted to share the experience with my 2 close friends and all be together at the event.
The evening before general sale, I asked my friends what their price per ticket limit was, as I explained that we may end up paying top ticket price as often we don’t get to chose your position it’s just what ever tickets your offered. I soon realised that this was causing us a problem. As our budgets differed. This wasn’t going to stop me trying though and i’m not disputing the price of the general sale tickets it’s just that it was looking like we had to try and get tickets around £100 per ticket mark. We all wanted standing tickets,priced at £79.95 each tickets were advertised as anything from £40-£207 approx. We were prepared to be seated though if within my friends lower budget. Failing getting the tickets within budget my friends told me to sort myself out first.
Still determined to get all 3 of us there and be together, I was up early on the 26 January and I had an arena plan, I knew what tickets I was after and where. I logged on my 3 devices my phone, computer and Tablet (haha! not as sophisticated as “bots” unfortunately),the clock was ticking and dead on 9 o’clock I hit them buttons, a minute passed and I got offered my first lot of tickets but at top price!! Ahhh! Refreshed again and got offered obstructed view seats more expensive than standing ?
I didn’t get a third chance and by now it was approx 9:10am.
I kept trying till 9:30 I got offered VIP tickets several times but even I was outpriced!
By now I had lost the will to live and as the song goes “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for !”
So, I had some breakfast, and then logged back onto my tablet
And started my searches through the secondary sites. I was shocked that within only40 minutes thousands of tickets had made their way to these sites.
I found plenty of standing tickets and I was prepared to pay more than face value so I did it, I was not happy about this situation, and I couldn’t face the should have, could have, would have scenario if I didn’t.I contacted my friends and, they said it was too expensive for them, I felt gutted for them and it took away the shine for me. I have been left feeling guilty and numb all weekend when I should be over the moon.Later on, I kept trying for them determined, I could get seated tickets within their budget but again the reason why there was lots of these tickets left was because they had restricted views.
I was left speechless around 1pm, as standing tickets with a general admission price of £79.95 were selling at £1320 !!!!!!(screen shots to proof it).
The whole experience is something I never wish to have to go through,as the chances of buying face value tickets is very small these days. It’s stopping the real fans get the tickets they want.
I recently read about a new piece of legislation that has been drafted but I have no idea when this is going to be looked at.
Sick of the supertouts having the upper hand!!
I don’t understand why years ago it was made illegal for the man on the street to sell a handful of tickets at a marked up price, but its acceptable for this secondary touting to be allowed at such a monstrous scale and is currently legal and been going on for years.
I have started my own petition as I feel so strong about this.
I am ashamed to say that I was “putty in the hands” of these people and feel ripped off. I just want to be able to buy a ticket with my friends without this ordeal!
Rip Off Company Viagogo – I thought I was paying £180 or so for tickets to see Jeff Lynne’s ELO at Birmingham on the 13th May. Before I knew it I had clicked pay and suddenly realised I had paid £250. This in my view is cheating. Tried to contact by phone but impossible as they only provide a number for those not receiving tickets with three days or so to go before the concert. I emailed them reminding me of my rights under the Consumer Contracts Regulations – which came into force on 13 June 2014 and implement the Consumer Rights Directive – give customers of online merchandisers, rights when shopping online.
NFL UK put their tickets on sale today for the two Wembley games. These were only available for previous season ticket holders to renew their tickets for this year. I went online just as the tickets went on sale and I found my previous seat was no longer available. Instead of a front row seat in Block 2 at the 45 yard line, I’ve ended up with row 2 at the 40 yard line. It’s even worse for other fans. The whole of section 226 is greyed out, and fans are being stopped from renewing their tickets there. Ticketmaster has completely messed this up.
Worse still, tickets were on sale on Viagogo fifteen minutes after they went on sale on Ticketmaster – and for areas that I couldn’t get tickets for! Not only that. Viagogo appear to be offering tickets for the White Hart Lane game when they aren’t going to go on sale until April because the seat configurations are not yet known.
As for the WHL game, NFLUK have stated that season ticket holders will be restricted to the same number of seats for that game as they bought for Wembley. I wanted to bring a friend along to WHL, but he can’t come to Wembley. Effectively, I’m being told that if I want two tickets for WHL, I must buy two for Wembley and then sell one on. No I didn’t do that, because I’m not a tout. However NFLUK’s policy is making touts out of ordinary fans who don’t want to be touts. They need to be told to sort this out.
Every time I fancy going to a concert these days (which is not often) I think these “re-sellers” must have been outlawed by now. Still end up disappointed. I first got ripped off in 2009 by Seatwave to see U2, when I thought they were the primary sellers. I now very rarely bother going at all.
As I’m currently being treated for cancer and as a result suffer from chemo brain I fell for the flashing countdown on the site.. and the constant reminder that tickets were going at a rate of knots.
It was only when I got to check out that the total price was given and by that time I had a minute to book “at that prices. I panicked and paid..
Tickets arrived today
Face value £40 per ticket, total price paid £240 give or take a couple of pence. Not even the best seats as promised.
How is this company still allowed to trade.. surely there are laws to allow people to change their minds on purchases when they realise that they are being ripped off.
I discovered that the tickets I bought on Viagogo for Stricly Live at the O2 (at too high a price – my fault entirely) were right at the back of the upper tier, only the section having been given in the description. I decided to re-sell, as my wife would have had great difficulty in climbing the steps, but, despite being asked to do so, could not upload them, so they were withdrawn from sale early as they were deemed undeliverable. I lost all my money, obviously.
I bought replacements on Stubhub, the official resellers for the O2 at a much lower rate of commission.
I have learned a valuable but expensive lesson. Partly my fault, but I will avoid Viagogo like the plague in future.
I bought two tickets for Erasure at Liverpool phillamonic Hall for feb 2018. I paid £293 for the tickets. When they arrived the full value of the tickets were £60.00 each!!!! What a rip off. How can these sites (Viagogo) get away with it and charge so much. I know now to stay away from this site imparticular. People work hard to go out and have nice things and they get ripped off by these people. Disgusting!!!
I live in India and for the first time after considering it for years, decided I would make the trip to Primavera Sound in Barcelona this year. I purchased my tickets on Viagogo, which to start off charged me a more than hefty booking fee which really should be monitored. One of the most frustrating part of this booking process is the ticker right on top that constantly prompts you saying that there are other people waiting for the same tickets and the ticker causes you to grow more anxious, and I must say, great marketing strategy for tricking people into doing something because it certainly got me to buy my ticket at a much higher cost than I could have purchased it for even on the official website. While every other customer on reliable websites receive their tickets immediately, Viagogo claims that I will receive my ticket upto 3 days prior to the event. This 100% hurts my travel application process and their customer care is absolutely no help.
Hello everyones,
i supposed to be cheated by Viagogo. One month ago i have bought two tickets for Florence – Italy Foo Fighters will take place in next june. I have received anything and Viagogo told me one time that it is not possibile to cancel my order and also they invite me to re-sell or re-list the tickets. So i have answered that i will open a complaint through my bank and after that (via Twitter) they wrote me: “I’m happy to say your seller has confirmed they’ll be able to send my your tickets as soon as they receive them”. This is not satisfactionary for me, because at least i am not having my tickets, and i can’t trust them.
Hi i purchased tickets through viagogo for erasure in manchester the ticket value was £45 and they charged me £450!
Tickets which I sold (face value) unfortunately appear to have gone astray in the post from the initial dispatch. “See Tickets” can make new tickets available for me to collect from the box office on the day. Clearly if they have gone astray this is something unanticipated and beyond my control.
I asked if there may be any chance of contacting the buyer to meet in person, but have been informed this is not allowed. I accept that this means my sale would have to be dropped.
However, my complaint is that Viagogo not only prematurely cancelled my sale without my confirmation, but then subsequently and immediately imposed a £40 fine. This is completely unethical given that the situation – It is an unforeseen circumstance and certainly not a failure from my doing.
I have been given no information about what a £40 fee covers, nor have I been informed of this fine to this amount. In an email reminding me that the tickets needed shipping you write “Failure to ship by 27 February 2018, 23:59 may result in us having to cancel your sale and replace the tickets for the buyer, which may incur a fee.”
If this is what the money is being used for – to purchase new tickets for the buyer? If so then I am entitled to request some kind of receipt for that transaction, given that it is my money.
Whoever is responding to their Twitter account messaged me to say ”
viagogo
Hi there, once we have found suitable replacements for the buyer, you will be informed via email and charged accordingly .
Suggesting that not only will there be another charge to come, but also that they haven’t yet bought replacement tickets (despite the charge). If they have bought the replacement tickets then I have not been informed by email.
Furthermore, the buyer’s paid £39 each for the 2 tickets I listed. There are equivalent tickets available on Viagogo available for this same gig on the same date at £35. I have screenshot these listed on your website. Clearly the buyers previous payment would cover the cost of these tickets, concluding not need the additional money from my account to pay for these tickets so your argument is flawed, fraudulent and the charges to my account unjustified.
Just tried to buy Darius Rucker Tickets for the Royal Albert hall on 28th Oct 2018 via AXS, was in the waiting room for 20mins before sale open but was unable as they sold out, however within half an hour of going onsale they were on StubHub for nearly 4times the price. Industry is a joke and needs more regulations for genuine fans.
The secondary ticket market is awash with Rolling Stones tickets, many listings not including the row and seat number. I contacted one such agency to enquire as to why that was the case and their reply was that it was because tickets hadn’t yet been sent out. Having obtained my tickets for Twickenham through a reputable (??) agency, I know that one is advised of row and seat number on purchase, so the reply I received was incorrect. Could row and seat number information be excluded in order to prevent secondary market seats being cancelled by the artist? Surely not!!
I purchased 3 tickets for my Son my grandson and his girlfriend at Reading festival to see Eminem last August I paid £458 pounds at the time and queried the extra amount with no useful response also when tickets arrived they looked copied and dodgy also face value of tickets was £72 as my grandson girlfriends family had paid £150 for her ticket to me I was eager to let them know I had not made the extra on the ticket and found ‘victims of viagogo’ and shared it on Facebook so all could see. They gained entrance but the worry leading up to that time was extreme as they were going as a tribute and memory of my other Son (my grandsons dad) who was a massive Eminem fan and had died in 2014 aged 34 yrs old so the stress of it all was unbelievable. I had never heard of a chargeback from your bank so I did not go down this route
I rarely do Arena-sized gigs as most of the bands I like tend to play Academy-sized venues or smaller, but when I do see larger bands, Iron Maiden for example, I always get a band or venue pre-sale so I am fortunate.
However I do have a big problem with primary ticketing sites owning secondary sites. In any other industry this would be seen as a conflict of interest and banned. After all, if a primary ticketing site has tickets for an event they know will sell out very quickly there is no incentive for them to place the tickets for sale on their primary site as they can make far more money fleecing fans on their secondary site.
The T&Cs of most if not all tickets is that they must not be resold above the face value of the ticket, why isn’t this enforced? I know more bands are actively involved in preventing fans from being ripped off, Iron Maiden are a good example, but tickets being sold that break the T&Cs should be void.
In other countries the authorities have taken steps such as limiting the mark-up on ticket resales to 10%, why can’t that be brought in here? Fans can’t always attend gigs, you often have to by them up to a year in advance these days, and so have genuine reasons to sell tickets in such circumstances, but the industrial scale reselling we see today is obviously commercial reselling and should be stopped.
I tried to buy tickets for the cricket at the oval last year on ticketmaster from the minute they opened but already most tickets were sold out – thats impossible unless there is some automated system to buy them immediately. When I went on to their getmein site there the tickets were for sale – this is a scandal – who is buying them up and how and when? genuine resales are of course needed but they would never happen immediately (perhaps there should be a time limit before this could happen say 24 hours?) – this aspect does not seem to be receiving enough attention. Result I just dont buy tickets any more unless I can get them direct from the venue.
Like everyone else, I am sick to death of excitedly hearing my favourite bands are touring only to spend hours on Ticketmaster trying to obtain tickets and the only ones you can get are at the very back of the venue (if at all) because touts have somehow secured the very best seats. The internet is supposed to make everything easier yet buying concert tickets has become a nightmare. I remember a time when you had to go to the venue to buy the tickets and often camped out overnight to ensure I got front row. Now even the most casual of fans can get front row tickets if they are extremely lucky to get immediately through on the website or if they have the funds to pay a tout. Whilst they aren’t regarded as touts, I recently bought my daughter 2 tickets to see Kendrick Lamar from Live Nation via ticketmaster. They were classed as VIP and as well as top priced tickets, you received a Hat, Tote Bag and a Lanyard. This cost me over £420 but as it was a Christmas present, I thought it would be worth it. When the tickets arrived (3 days before the event) I noticed the ticket price of £70. Now the Hat, Bag and Lanyard were maybe worth £40 which, when added to the ticket price made it £110 each X 2 bringing a total of £220. Where did the other £200 I spent on the package go? It is merely a massive con so that they can charge you an extortionate amount of money for the best seats.
I purchased a concert ticket to see the Killers as a Christmas present on viagogo and seen the ticket on there for £120 which even then I thought was pricey but I continued with the purchase. I was astounded when I proceeded to checkout to see the full price was in fact over £200, every gig on there was being described as “ almost sold out “ which I assume is another ploy to get the sale. I for one won’t be buying from here again it’s false trading in the highest possible way.
Hi Purchased tickets for my daughter for dua lipa in Birmingham April 2018
to find out I purchased 3 tickets for her birthday and since buying found floor tickets got to be 14 and above.
That’s fine and understand safety reasons but why didn’t viagogo tell me this !
I now have bought another 3 tickets direct from venue for seating just so my daughter isn’t heartbroken.
Viagogo complete con price was nearly double as well
Avoid with all expense
Got ripped off by ViaGoGo and their glitched website.
Pissed off and considering legal action.
Unwittingly, we bought four tickets for the Albert Hall, Jingle Bells concert, unrestricted view through Viagogo. Total cost £269.72. E ticket showed ‘restricted’ view. Asked for refund. Denied and promised correct tickets would be forthcoming up to 3 days before concert. (Phoned Albert Hall, if booked directly total would have been £78.00).
Pursued Viagogo by e mail daily up until a week before 17th Dec, date of concert. No positive response. Contacted Daily Mail who secured us refund. Cannot believe they are still in business.
$575 NZ for Queen and Adam Lambert. A 6 hr drive to Auckland and 2 days in a hotel. Arrive at the venue and find out our seats had been taken. 2 more tickets worth $490 to get in. Vianogo say I have no account with them despite me having several emails copies of the tickets and proof of purchase from my bank. Good luck to all who are in the same position. Hope you get the result you want
Yet again another gig and another complete sell out without anyone i know being successfull in getting a ticket. Bloc party playing 8000 Ally Pally sells out in seconds and within the same amount of time hundreds if not thousands of ticket are on secondary touting sites. The premise of these sites beign that people who can’t go to the event can resell their tickets (well thats obviously not the case is it). Lets say that half of the tickets on sale this morning end up on a touting site at say £40 more than face value (thats £160,000) fans have paid over the odds for one gig. Whats more important, the ability for the odd forgetful person to be able to honestly resell their ticket or fans to be ripped off to the tune of £100’s millions ever single year.. Its an absolute disgrace that we’re even still discussing this, its essentially legalise theft and could be stopped tomorrow by banning these sites..
My wife today put under time pressure (last 2 seats) for a theatre booking by Viagogo who she found on an internet search, when on the actual theatre website there were plenty of seats at a much lower price.
She has since been in floods of tears on a panic attack.
Websites like these should be closed down and the credit card companies should not allow them to take money in their name.
I have received my two tickets to see Tom Walker at Oran Mor in Glasgow on Thursday. I had searched for them online and found a company (one I thought was genuine) with a few left. I went to their page and found 2 tickets at £26 each. I was on a timed countdown immediately and was asked to create an account. I was fairly happy to pay the price but at no point was I told of the extras which would be added on – and so when the receipt for the sale came through and said I had been charged £81 for the tickets I almost fainted! I thought there had been a mistake and I had pressed 3 instead of 2! I got in touch with the company via twitter and they have told me that I would have been given the price breakdown before I completed the sale. Part of that price was £12 to post the two tickets in the same envelope, ffs! The tickets arrived in the last hour and I am utterly horrified that the face value for one is £11.50. I am completely disgusted. I have contacted the company again and they are not interested in assisting me.
Unbeknown before my purchase of tickets and selecting them the final cost was a shock 2 tickets at £28.50 each.
Showed on my statement £138.24!!
Who in their right mind would agree to this if it was clearly highlighted.
Principle and ethic does not exist with this operator.
Jean Davies.
I searched for tickets for the Antony Joshua fight. Selected my seats via “Get me In / ticketmaster. Paid £105 for £40 ticket. Next day I was Contaced to say” the ticket provider could not supply the tickets” I was offered alternative tickets but had no choice of where. It was “this or nothing” so I accepted.
Our seats were nowhere near my original choice and our view of the fight was only watchable on the bid screens.
How can tickets be sold when they dont exist?
I bought 7 tickets advertised by Viagogo as for Royal Opera House London. They supplied tickets for Austria. This would have been the first time my family could have gone and now we are £400 out of pocket. Bank of Scotland have refused a chargeback on the grounds that the checkout basket showed the tickets were in a different theatre. I did not notice but I want expecting any change. However I have never before experienced an online sale where I put something in my basket and the seller just changed it without notice. It is very bad and dishonest practice. A shopkeeper would not be allowed to sneak up behind a customer and change the items in their trolley so why should it have acceptable online? Very disappointed with Bank of Scotland as well as Viagogo.
I was on holiday in Turkey last summer when ex Sheeran tickets went on sale, so managed to get 2 but when bank details came in they worked out £850 for 2, then got told that the tickets aren’t going to be valid as got through viagogo! I’ve rmailed them and they told me no refund and to re sell them! I’m going to seek legal advise!
I purchased tickets from Viagogo that said ‘reserved gallery’. I emailed VG and they confirmed that they were seated tickets. I have since called the venue only to find out that I am standing in an unreserved section. I paid £200 for tickets that I can still buy for £35 from the event directly. I have tried unsuccessfully to get reimbursed and they refuse. This is a total rip off!
I searched for the band “souther culture” playing in Brooklyn on 6-23-18. I paid $195.00
The same tickets are available from the venue for $15 each.
How do I get a refund ? Not possible.
Even the credit card company can’t give a refund.
It’s a usury !
Top tip: Avoid viagogo like the plague!
We all know Ticketmaster are janky (“tickets on sale at 11am” – 11:25 as I write this and still not on sale) …. so I have to go to the other official ticket partner of the event Viagogo – not even a tout, an “official ticket partner”.
Only once I have confirmed my card details, and they’ve taken the money, do they bother to mention there are €80 worth of “fees” tacked on to the purchase (essentially the price of another ticket)!
I used a well-known platform, which came up in the Google ticket listings, presumably due to artificially boosting their search ranking.
I was not made aware at any point that they were only a marketplace to sell other people’s tickets, and I would say that this is intentional.
During the process I was only shown that there are two tickets available, not that they were being sold together.
I clicked through, expecting to be offered a chance to select ticket numbers and the next thing I know, I have been charged for two tickets (I needed one..). At no stage was there a clear indication of what was on offer.
I was offered the usual relisting, which presumably is done to get people to panic and tie themselves in even more.
In my follow up with the company, the feedback has been dismissive and uncaring. I would like to see them face up to their misleading process.
I purchased a ticket for Groovin’ The Moo – Bunbury (Saturday, 12/May/2018) for $259.42 on Viagogo today. I then found out that they were $119.95 on another website. Also, they did not send me the actual tickets via email. Instead they stated in the email that the tickets would be available for download in a week prior to the event. Further researching online, I found out that some tickets from Viagogo have turned out not to be valid when the person arrives at the event. I have cancelled the card that I used to purchase the tickets with but unfortunately the payment has already gone through.
I bought 2 tickets through Viagogo in Novemeber for the Roy Orbison concert at Leeds Arena on 14th April. The website led me to believe I was paying face value for tickets ie £47 each inc booking fee. They also led me to believe that the tickets were running out and only had 18 tickets remaining and I only had 5 minutes to complete the transaction otherwise I would lose the purchasing right. They ended up charging me £96 each for a £47 ticket. When I checked with Eventim which is official ticket seller they had hundreds of tickets still for sale with better viewing at £47 each. I had been conned by viagogo. When my tickets arrived 3 days before the event they had been purchased through Eventim at only £47. These con artists need stopping!!
I spend £216.99 buying what I thought were two premium tickets, from Viagogo to see George Benson at the Albert Hall! X imagine my surprise when I got my etickets and printed them off – the ticket value was only £52.50 each. I had paid over £100 more! Feel really ripped off.
I searched for rugby tickets online and came accross Viagogo.
I booked 2 tickets, but because the currency was not my countries currency, i did not realise the price.
Only after the booking was confirmed, did i see the conversion.
I paid R654 for 2 tickets.
Firstly, they make you think that all the tickets are almost sold out. Only to find out, that they are scamming.
Secondly, then they ask a fee for buying tickets from them. A week before the event, i contacted them to hear when ill be getting my tickets, on which they said latest a day before event.
Two days before the event i got my tickets.
I was so happy because it was a bday gift for my husband. When i download the tickets, i saw that the tickets face value is R150 each. Meaning that i paid more than double for the tickets.
When i booked the tickets, i booked grand stant tickets on the upper level middle section. On review of my tickets, i saw that the tickets given to me were lower level corner tickets. But because both of these sections are on the grand stand, they said that i got what i paid for.
We all know that corner and middle section is far from the same.
After numerious mails, threads and hair pulling on my side, they kept on saying the same thing with a generic reply.
I bought tickets from another vendor at R150 per ticket, with my name on so spent almost R1000 for 2 tickets.
On the day of the game, i took the tickets that i bought from Viagogo with, just to check, and they were not valid!
They are scammers and this is pure white collar crime.
After numerious
I booked 3 tickets for the Barry Manilow show for 2 Sept.18 from Viagogo. When I downloaded the tickets they were for someone else. It is impossible to contact Viagogo by phone. When I follow the instructions on line the reply was that I would be able to gain a access with these tickets. That is not good enough. When you book seat for what should be a stress free enjoyable evening,
If they do not resolve this problem quickly I will never use this company again.C
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am a fan of American Football, and managed to get down to London to watch games at Wembley and Twickenham in the last three years.
On each occasion, the tickets were immediately sold out, but then seconds later, appeared on the likes of Getmein, Stubhub or Viagogo. Whilst the price shown on a typical ticket was around £40, the resale cost was often double or even triple the price.
This year it is no different. We registered with NFL for a pre-sale ticket code, where you would be able to purchase tickets at the time of release. The site was slow, unresponsive and once again Ticketmaster sold out of seats, but you could buy these via a third party.
Whilst I am no expert, it would appear that there is some collusion or deliberate mechanism at play here to ensure that genuine fans are forced to pay over the odds for tickets. I appreciate that there is an argument for supply and demand, but this whole experience feels entirely wrong.
I have to resign myself to the fact that I will not be able to go to the game this year and that is really quite disappointing. I personally feel that this industry needs a shake up to improve such practices. Even if the original face value cost of the ticket price was increased, at least I would know what I am buying, but this resale market is ripping people off.
I can only hope that some form of regulation or legislative measures can be put in place to protect consumers and allow genuine fans to attend the events that they want to without paying exorbitant fees to people who are clearly profiteering from this system.
Kind regards,
David
My partner went online to try and get Biffy Clyro tickets this morning for the Cardiff concert.
Supposdly the tickets would be on sale at 9.00am on the Ticketmaster site.
No luck. All tickets gone a few minutes past 9.00.
Found out that even those who had pre order codes couldn’t get tickets either.
Yet tickets are on sale on viagogo for £600 plus.
It’s not the first time this has happened.
We are thinking that it’s pointless trying to go to live music concerts as it’s hard to get tickets.
Viagogo sold a ticket for more then a $1000 its been 5 months and I have not received a ticket or a straight ans .
I have just been ripped off by Viagogo.
I wanted tickets to see a band in Newcastle so I clicked on buy tickets, thinking that I was dealing with the primary vendor, the website said the tickets were scarce and more or less all sold out, but they had 2 tickets at a higher price, so stupidly I clicked on buy, the next day I went abroad on holiday for 10 days and when I got back to the UK there was a message in my email inbox from the Viagogo, I didn’t have a clue who this company was, then it dawned on me, I had a message to download my concert tickets, when I downloaded the tickets they had charged me 3 times the price marked up on the ticket as the face value, and the tickets had someone else’s name on the top, when I checked my bank account this Viagogo company had also charged extra fees, I have since found out that Viagogo had not told the truth about the scarcity of the tickets that I wanted, they had deliberately misinformed people to sell tickets, I contacted their customer service dept by phone and the girl there told me I should have read the small print and I was not entitled to a refund, she just fobbed me off.
I have contacted Trading Standards and reported this company.
The really annoying thing is that I have no idea how I was redirected to this companies website, I thought I was dealing with primary vendor, and to make matters worse there are tickets still available at the correct face value price.
I am still unsure if my tickets are fakes, there is Russian persons name on the downloaded tickets, so I will probably give the concert a miss as I am not prepared to take a days holiday, drive down to Newcastle, pay for parking and then be turned away because I purchased fake tickets.
This company are taking money by deception, and are refusing to refund the money.
I am extremely angry.
Hi,
From Sydney, Australia. I bought 2 tickets for a concert at Opera on Sydney Harbour – La Boheme . The price indicated on the screen was $157 each ( on a viagogo Australia site) which doesn’t say it’s a secondary market place.
Upon exiting the purchase after being prompted to enter all card details, the invoice then is only generated to advise the price is $405. There is no conversion rate . It ‘s just a jump in price with additional Booking Fee ( 86.50) , VAT (9.14) and Handling Fee (4.95) . There was no indication of the booking fee otherwise I would have gone to another site.
Bank would not refund on this reason
1) My card wasn’t stolen
2) I have entered my passcode.
I take it’s how they lead the customers across the purchase screen which is very misleading.
Miss Hooi Lin Yap
I’ve found that this issue doesn’t just affect music events, this extends into sporting events too – for every rugby game I go into Cardiff to see (international or national) there are touts everywhere – and as I wanted to see the NFL in London this year – I struggled to get 2 tickets to see either of the 2 games at Wembley, when tickets for the area I eventually ended up in (at £55 per ticket) went up immediately on GetMeIn for near double that price!!
The government need to stop this practice at its ordinary people getting ripped off or missing out on these sorts of events which sometimes are not very frequent (music events especially!).
Rows of empty seats at Alison Moyet Palladium concert last year which was “sold out”.
Funnily enough the empty rows that were on the left of the theatre were identically matched by empty rows on the right!
Seats which were available on secondary sites.
What are the chances that every single one of the fans in those rows couldn’t go and chose to resell their ticket and no-one bought them.
Secondary sellers don’t care if their are empty seats as they only need to sell a few to make a profit.
Well done Ed Sheeran for cancelling the tix advertised on these sites.
Well done Fanfare – hope you are successful in hurting and exerting much needed control of these touts!
Charles Aznavour is one of my musical heros and I have been lucky enough to see him at the Albert Hall a couple of years ago. When I saw he was there again I jumped at the chance of a ticket. In my excitement I clicked on the first link that came up (assuming it was the Royal Albert Hall). I entered a website that looked legit and went through the stages with the website telling me that many others were looking at these tickets and that there were only a few left. There was even a countdown clock going. I scuttled through the site and got to the end only to be hit by a bunch more charges. Once more I felt a weird pressure to finish and eventually secured the elusive tickets, only to realise that I had paid hugely over face value. I looked again and realised that I had used Viagogo. I then looked harder, found the actual RAH site and discovered the tickets had only just gone on sale and there were plenty available. I felt ashamed and cheated; humiliated even… I decided to call Visa and try to cancel the transaction, but the man I spoke to informed me that there was nothing I could do about this. It was incredibly frustrating and even writing about it now feels embarrassing. I’m not usually naive and think I rarely get taken for a ride, but on this occasion I was. I think Viagogo is a completely unscrupulous company, preying on the enthusiasm of fans.
i think it is totally unconscienable that touts can buy huge numbers of tickets to resell at inflated prices, why do the Government not make this illegal, I have so much respect for artists like Ed Sheehan who are taking a stand against this, IMO if the artist doesn’t care enough to protect their real fans maybe we shouldn’t be buying tickets to their gig anyway, maybe its time we all voted with our feet
This disgraceful rip-off is the reason why Prince never brought his solo piano tour over as he hated secondary ticketing.
Too many acts are colluding with the secondary sites and allowing fans to be ripped off.
The whole practice should be made illegal and tickets should only be sold to customers who can later prove to venue entry staff they bought them direct and not through other agencies.
That would stop the touts.
Back in the day there wasn’t a problem as the old school requirement was buying direct from the box office.
The bloody internet makes exploiting the public too far too easy and the industry needs to get a grip.
I was excited to see Tim Vine was appearing at the Hammersmith Apollo on May 11, 2018. I (as it turns out naively) went straight to Google to search and went for the first site with tickets – Viagogo. I had never heard of Viagogo and had no reason to distrust the site. It was only at the point of purchase, when feeling under pressure to hurry up by the drop down warning about time running out, that I got hit with the extra, hidden costs: £5 per ticket for delivery and £17 per ticket ‘administration’. For the two supposedly face value tickets I therefore paid an extra £44. I felt stupid for not checking and it spoiled the excitement of planning the show as a surprise for my son. I had no idea which seats we had and was so anxious that the tickets would be invalid. They did arrive in good time and we were, thankfully, admitted to the show but I will never purchase tickets from Viagogo again. The whole experience was marred by the annoyance at the extra costs and by the fear that, despite all the arrangements including buying train tickets, we would be turned away at the door!
I found out from purchasing my tickets from Viagogo,imo glorified ticket touts that for general admision at Old Trafford to see The Rolling Stones,tickets they were selling were ￡152.00 each.When i received them,they were priced at ￡89.00 each.If i was on David Beckhams money, a strange ￡116 extra wouldnt bother me.Viagogo are ticket tout thieves.
Having briefly looked at your site, and knowing friends who have recently had problems with Stones tickets, should you not also be including sports events.E.G.:World Cup Rugby World Cup Ashes Wimbledon Ascot
To name but a few.
Do what I do, refuse to pay inflated prices and only pay face value.
I know thats hard when you really want to see an event , but its the sure way to beat the touts !
I bought tickets that are new off Viagogo for Ed Sheeran and their admin charges etc are really expensive,it makes the price of a ticket a lot of money! I would not buy anything more off them .
I have on occasion been unable to attend concerts due to the tout / harvesting problem. It is clear to me that there are people who have more money than sense and pay these well inflated rates for tickets. If they refuse to do so then as there is no demand the touts will lose. I have bought from Ebay before but it was genuine fan who could not go and I got tickets for Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds at face price and front row seats. There has to be the flexability to allow the genuine re-sale if unable to go.
I just want to support your work, hoping this follows through to the football ticket touts sites afterwards they are just as bad if not worse!
Good Luck, keep it up!
And THANK YOU! 🙂
Me like thousands of others have waited up for hours to buy tickets as the box office opens only to be obstructed by robot bulk buying, then see the tickets for sale at inflated prices. I hope laws can be amended and get some substance and that government agencies drive this illegal practice off the internet. Put someone in prison, they’ve plenty of money so fines mean nothing. Loss of freedom has an effect of focusing the mind.
I got my tickets for about triple the amount I was supposed to pay; and those were one of the cheap ones. The most expensive ones were more than ten times the amount!
My daughter loves Ed Sheeran so when his tickets were on sale I took time off from work so I can monitor the online ticket sale, but just like an old tale, tickets were sold out withn minutes into the sale. I lost all hope until a friend of mine told me they got some tickets from another site (viagogo). As I always bought my tickets from ticketmasters, i never really had experience using other sites, and I wish I hadn’t! Bought 2 tickets at £95 each only to find out that it got £45 face value when tickets arrived. Worst thing is finding out the day before that they were deemed invalid as it was purchased from the above site. The heartbreak and stress are unbelievable. It was supposedly a surprise and reward for my daughter’s hardwork at school but now was more of a let down. I support this campaign to crackdown on touting site as it brings so much financial stress and emotional heartbreaks to true fans of all artist.
I paid for the following event below on Viagogo, confirmation was received on the 13th of Jan 2018.
Order Placed: 12/01/2018
Event: Katt Williams
Ticket(s): Section Golden Circle Seating, Row 4, (2 Ticket(s))
Listing Note(s):
Venue: AFAS Live (Heineken Music Hall)
Date: Monday, 04 June 2018 20:00
Unfortunately, on the 29 May 2018, a few days before the event, I have received my tickets with the wrong date. Instead it shows 25 November 2017. The date is clearly wrong as I made the purchase on the 12th of January 2018.
Why would I purchase tickets for an event that was in the past? It doesn’t make sense
Thank you
I purchased four tickets on viagogo website Damian Marley at Brixton Academy 2 July 2018. The tickets were not the originally advertised ticket price and discovered the total price is way above the face value price per ticket. The total for four tickets are £326.
I brought Wireless tickets from Viagogo that we’re advertised for £114. It wasn’t until after I checked my bank balance that £160 had been taken out from Viagogo. I tried to contact them and it turnt out that you could not directly contact them via a telephone number. Also I sent numerous emails and they had not replied at all.
This caused me huge distress as I am a student and this affected me hugely. I advise anyone not to buy from Viagogo
Hi I have ended up paying almost £400 to Viagogo for two £80 tickets to see the Rolling Stones at the Ricoh arena on Saturday 2nd June , none of the extra charges were shown until my credit card details were given and I was informed that once I’d clicked “buy” there would be no refund .
I was ripped off when I booked Neil Diamond last year when i an extortinate figure for two seats. We were so eager to go to this because we felt that this would be the last time he would be over here, this was proved with the statement of his illness.
I was shocked at the final figure and being pressured into agreeing by them saying your time is limited to agree and proceed with the transaction. When you have followed this artiste for years you obviously continued. BAD MISTAKE
Last year we bought out daughters 21 st present 2 tickets for Bruno Mars in Nottingham via Get Me In a month befor they sent me an email saying your event is coming up don’t worry if you have not got your tickets yet they can arrive just a week before. So with 4 days to go I started chasing them up only to find out that they were via someone else? (a tout no bought) and they could not contact the person selling the tickets, so I had to wait and then(2 days before) tell my daughter that the tickets would not be arriving sorry.
The ticket company had no interest in getting the tickets and just sent my money back a number of days later!!!
The problem is in my opinion that tickets are not sold via the place in which the show or gig is being held any more they have farmed the ticket sale out to others and you cant contact them direct at 8 or 9 am to get a ticket in your area.
So you cannot go anywhere else but these rip of merchants to get a ticket!! They all should be shut down.
I’ve just received my tickets from viagogo for Jersey Boys in Edinburgh in 2019. Was surprised to see another person’s name on the tickets and a price of £31 each I’ve a really paid £195.01 for my two tickets. Feel very ripped off and contacted viagogo for an explanation as to why the difference. Their response was the tickets were resold from another person who set the price for the tickets. Not happy.
Hi
I purchased tickets for a Tears For Fears concert on 10/12/17 via viagogo the tickets were around £65 each (2 x tickets) from memory but when I went to pay, it was suddenly £191! I could not believe it.
The concert was subsequently postponed but I never got an email to advise of this, purely by chance a colleague commented on the day we were about to travel to Liverpool. They are a dreadful service provider.
Ed Sheeran concert tickets – 24 June
Purchased 3 tickets paid over £500 including over £100 in fees and delivery charges. Unaware until the end of the transaction what I was actually purchasing, felt under pressure to purchase tickets/clock ticking, failed to receive immediate confirmation. Shocked when I saw the overall cost. Viagogo continually respond with automatic answers. Feel ripped off by them . I have reported them to my MP, Trading Standards and they should be shut down. It has caused me a lot of anxiety and stress, in my haste I resold the tickets on , Viagogo are holding customers money and gaining interest from it because as far as I am aware no one has been refunded. I continually ask them where are they holding my money that I paid and when will I receive my money back. They cannot give me any straight answers. Its’ wrong to cause so much worry and stress and totally ruined the whole experience. STOP THEM NOW
I tried to get FOO FIGHTER tickets on day of release, 20 oct 2017 gigsandtour.com ,unsuccessfully. sold out fast. I took a risk and bought from VIAGOGO. on 21st oct. I didnt know better at the time. now got tickets, they are value at 60.50. I paid over £600 for 4 tickets. web purchase was, with hindsight, unclear and pressured to make a decision. ticket price, then after card number, mystery handling fee and booking fee per ticket, on 1 transaction all plus vat. what is this madness. I must have had a momentary lapse of common sense. to pay the costs. but the thing that is ruining any “looking forward to going to see the foo fighters” is that the tickets are likely to be invalid, because they may be deemed to have been sold unlawfully or others such T&C of the event organsier that I dont really understand. trying to resolve this before the event is impossible. It is not possible to contact viagogo directly with any question, everything goes to the web site FAQ. No one is interested I may have had more pleasure spending the money on a night out out and burning the rest. I have got the pdf self help tips and have gathered all the info I can. I still have not decided if it is even worth turning up at the venue.
“i’m alone and I’m an easy target….”
Bought two tickets for this years F1 GP at Silverstone through viagogo, caught us unaware with viagogo knowing that purchasers will trust the internet based sites to get a FAIR deal but resulted in disaster of 25% OTT price, total rip off merchants should fetch back capital punishment for these con merchants
BTS tickets for Europe and UK went on sale today and within minutes vastly depleted/sold out. Within same minutes many of these tickets appeared on websites for tenfold + the face value.
BTS is a rare phenomena for UK and Euro fans and for touts to snap up tickets and deprive mostly youngsters who cannot afford up to £1,000 for a ticket that should have cost £69+ is beyond reprehensible. Hard action is certainly needed against touts; jail time, massive fines, freezing their assets, etc. These people are pure, pure filth.
I have foolishly bought 2 front row tickets for an Andre Riue concert in December as a surprise for my husband’s 50th birthday. After a few things raised my suspicion I searched for reviews on the company and my heart sank. I read heart breaking stories from so many people who’s tickets never materialized, could get no response to their enquiries and sadly could get no refunds due to the concerts being more than 3 months from the sale date. After contacting my credit card company they blocked my credit card as they felt it had been compromised and now they refuse to help in any way until after the date of the concert and only if the tickets actually don’t arrive. I am so worried as I have read stories that the company often arrange for buyers to meet up with so called agents at random areas around the venue on the day of the concert and they often don’t even show up. I can’t even book accommodation or make travel arrangements in advance because of all the uncertainty. Please please be careful all you music loving people out there.
Viagogo is a rip off site
Shut them down.. now
I have not been ripped off by touting, but today I have experienced something very sad within this industry. My Daughter wanted BTS tickets, who are performing at the O2 arena in October. The tickets went on sale at 9.am Friday Morning through AXS.com and TicketMaster. We were on-line at 8.30am ready to purchase tickets, waited in the cue. Within minutes the tickets had sold out. But a few minutes later the tickets were on the resale sites for hundreds of pounds. I don’t think this is fair and how do they get hold of so many tickets in the first place when they just came on sale and when it says only 4 per person. I only hope more Artists support what Ed Sheeran is doing. I was hoping there is someone out there who can help stop this as I here it is legal for people to this, to exploit people. It is totally unfair for true fans of artists.
Tried to buy tickets this morning at 10am when florence and the machine tickets when on sale
Only to keep getting thrown out after inputing my 3 pin number on my card
Only to find less than 5 minutes after they went on sale they were up on the get me in site for more than double
Ticket master / get me in are ripping off fans
Got 2 upset daughters as i wont get ripped off by these companys
I have never bought tickets from Viagogo so haven’t been affected, and I commend Ed Sheeran and his promoters for cancelling tickets sold on the site, but sad to see they are still selling ONE Ed Sheeran ticket for a staggering £700+. I do hope the authorities can close them down somehow through legal action.
I wanted to buy tickets for an upcoming music tour in October 2018 at a large arena in London. At the time of sale 9am (Friday 1st June) I had open a few ticket websites on my computer and joined their virtual queue to get a ticket. The band are playing two dates in October so I had selected both dates in order to increase my chances of getting tickets. I waited in the virtual queue for 40+ mins to then be told there were no tickets available, but that I could buy tickets on their own resale site at this time. I looked to see how much the tickets were… the lowest price was around £900 and the most expensive was £1170, just for one ticket. How on earth this is legal I don’t know! How are people allowed to buy tickets and resell them within minutes!!? What’s worse is that some people are willing to pay that much for tickets that originally cost £71 which is fuelling the market even more. The venues and ticketing websites should do more to stop this but as long as they’re getting they’re money they don’t care. The law needs to change ASAP!
I found this site as I was looking for a way to begin putting a stop to ticket touting. BTS – a massively popular Korean group released tickets to their upcoming tour on the 1st of June. They were sold out almost instantly on Ticketmaster and surprise surprise tickets were already up on resale sites, including one owned by Ticketmaster for ridiculous amounts. The company BTS work for had kept the prices affordable between 60-220 max. And there are people out there pushing the prices as high as 12,000 on resale. This is BTS’s first European tour ever and there are thousands of fans that have been disappointed even though there are still so many tickets on these resale websites. Any money made on those tickets rightfully belongs to the company, not greedy individuals/companies. It will be heartbreaking to see empty seats at this concert. Something has to be done.
I wanted 2 tickets to see Hollywood Vampires and as I’m signed up to Ticketmaster I received an email notification from them that tickets were now available. I duely tried through their website to buy some. All sold out, nothing available. So I Googled a search for tickets and Viagogo popped up. They had 2 tickets, seated, but they were fairly expensive. I assumed that Viagogo were the sellers and that the tickets were Premium/expensive seats. When I received the tickets they were £52 tickets and had been issued/sold by Ticketmaster. None of this information was available/disclosed when I purchased. Had I known they were only £52 tickets I’m fairly sure I would not have bought. My bank statement also shows that Viagogo as the recipients of my cash. What rip off merchants they are. I shall still go to the concert, but it has been spoilt a bit by these greedy exploiters!
Me and my daughter wanted to see BTS a k pop band so we did the search and found out they’d be playing in October 2018 , so excitedly waited for the 1st of June this year for the tickets going on sale , as we waited I thought I’d book a hotel room and flights into London City Airport as we are from Scotland ( I did all the check thing to make sure we where close by as I recently had my leg amputated so thought this would be best) also would have to drag my poor son with me who has Autism and loves heavy metal and ain’t into pop music at all.
So thought with all this we could treat it more like a holiday as we have not been away for a good few years. So the 1st of June came and we where all set up to get on the ticketmaster to go for the tickets in which we did by 9am that morning.
We got placed in the queue and waited and at 10.20ish it came up with the gut wrenching words that tickets where Sold Out
My daughter was in bits then she saw there was tickets left on other sites, so I told her to go for it as I was so gutted too (after spending a small fortune for the hotel and flights).
Then next thing she was over excited shouting YES!!! I’m in, then she told me the price 432.00 each I panicked and told her No Way but she was gutted and as mums do I said ok then ( thought I’d just have to pay by credit card) then went and pushed the buy button OMG it came up that she had 2,530 dollars to pay so chances this on my credit card and it went through . I actually started freaking and thought WHAT THE …… HAVE I JUST DONE…
She had savings so she has had to come up with some money as there’s no way I could afford that.
That Saturday Viagogo contacted me saying that the seller had not got the tickets to give me and I thought ….Oh no after all that hassle what else is gonna happen even though I’m usually a very positive person.
Viagogo offered me alternative seats or a refund because of their guarantee policy.. I searched again to see if any others where cheaper in which there where some cheaper, there me and my daughter where punched in the stomach AGAIN!!!
We looked up the seating and floor plan to see where the best availability was and that was no where near where the first tickets where originally ( what ever happened to true meaning of original)
Thought oh maybe get some money back as they quoted that we wouldn’t pay more by selecting the seats offered, but hey we never got any money back either.
ARGHHHHHH this makes my blood boil it’s just not right and certainly ain’t fair.
All this money we all could’ve went on a trip across the world as it’s cost the bloody earth!!!
I have never bought tickets over phone or online and never will!!I used viagogo to buy 2 tickets 4 my wife and myself 4 Chester races 16 june as a treat(birthday) tickets were 4 quote”best seats” cost £134 just arrived well happy till openend envelope to find quote again “best seats”are 2 4 Dee stand price £15 each!!Suppose ime just a fool but£104 seems bit much 4 admin jst darent tell wife eh!!!
I ordered tickets from Viagogo. At the time I wasn’t aware that they were re-sale agents. At the point of sale the pricing was very unclear. The face value of the tickets wasn’t given, although it did say reserved seating. The total at checkout for 2 tickets was £211.89.
The highest price face value tickets are £51.50.
I requested a refund immediately which was declined. I emailed everyday but for standard computer generated replies. I did manage to speak to customer services once but when I advised her that I was recording the call, she ended the conversation immediately. I have asked on numerous occasions for the seat numbers, so that I can sell. These tickets but they say that I’ll know when they arrive. The tickets are available now, but I haven’t received them. I’ve asked them to contact the seller. But I’ve had no luck. They offered to re-sell the tickets for me at no fee. I was offered £132.00 (after charging 12%) I’m emailing constantly but getting nowhere.
Hi there, bought 2 tickets to Beyonce and Jay Z for £85. It was not made clear that there as an additional £30 booking fee on top of EACH ticket. On top of that, £5 EACH for shipping. This is crazy. There is no way this should be allowed. As its one order, I don’t mind the booking fee and shipping cost but the fact that it was billed for each ticket is insane. This is not affordable and feel very ripped off. My total is £231 for two tickets which cost £85 each.
I traveled to Paris from London specifically for the Rolland Garros tennis final just to find out that the tickets were already used.
On top of the price of the tickets I ended up spending considerably more on train and hotel just to be told there’s no way to get into the event.
Viagogo could not offer a solution or any reimbursement for my expenses except that they are terribly sorry!
I’d like others to be aware of the risk and viagogo needs to let customers know the risks of travelling from a different country/location purposely for an event.
It has been about a decade since I’ve last been able to get a hold of tickets to top name artists. I initially started marking the on sale dates on my calendar and trying to buy in the evening, followed by my lunch break, followed by getting a sneaky break at the exact sale time. When I couldn’t buy tickets at 1 minute pay the sale time I realised that something is very wrong with the music and spring event sales industry. I’m glad that other people have realised and are actually trying something to change the practice. Well done
I bought 2 Royal Opera House (ROH) tickets for Swan Lake, 19th June 2018 not realising I was not on the ROH website. I paid £240.33. Viagogo refused to cancel when I received their confirmation email and have been sending auto-replies since.
The ROH website says their tickets are invalid.
I have over 100 emails, mainly to them with all the replies computer generated. They tend to be ‘The tickets are valid’ or ‘No refund’. I have emailed ASA, CMA, Trading Standards, Citizens Advice, made a report to Action Fraud and instigated Chargeback via my bank.
Purchased 2 tickets from Viagogo for England/Australia cricket match at the Oval back in December 2017. Tickets arrived a week before match which was yesterday & I realised their face value was £65 each – charged £359 in total – 3 times the value of the ticket costs – there is no justification for charging this amount it is ‘legalised’ ticket touting and time the government & venues stepped in to prevent this! Whilst purchasing the tickets was my choice as a special treat for my partner l still feel l was ripped off. I will never use a secondsry ticket site again no matter how much we want to see something.
I was waiting for the pre-sale fan code to come through for Rolling Stones tickets from their official site in February. The code didn’t come through so after a while I panicked, googled Rolling Stones tickets and first on the list is Viagogo. I didn’t realise they were a secondary site. I went on the site looking for 8 tickets as a special one off treat for my family. I was asked if I wanted the seats together which I did as I have a disabled partner and my parents amongst my party. I was offered General Admission tickets and was so ecstatic to be offered them, I naturally thought they were seated tickets. I went through the process of booking them very quickly to avoid disappointment. I phoned my daughter excitedly but that soon turned to stress and disappointment. She said she thought they were standing tickets when I mentioned they were General Admission, which were of no use to me as I had my partner who is an amputee and my parents who are in their seventies who cannot stand for long periods of time! Also,shortly after, I received a confirmation email which showed the total cost, no breakdown shown of just under £2000! I emailed them to ask for help as the tickets were useless to me but all they could do was offer the option of reselling them which of course had to be through them! I listed them in March and there was no response so approx 2-3 weeks before, I tried to reduce the cost but it wouldn’t save it on my account with them. Time was getting on, there was more bad press about Viagogo and it was becoming obvious I wasn’t going to sell them! I emailed them a few times, to which they sent back automated replies that didn’t really make sense. I decided to write to my bank and request charge back and report it to the CMA. I notified Viagogo of this subsequently they asked for copies of the tickets with a deadline date of 11th June. I emailed them a couple of times asking for clarification and the reason why they needed them to which they replied they needed them to try and resolve my case. Thinking they might be trying to help, I sent them the copies. They responded saying the tickets have been checked and are valid! That was not what I asked! I sent them three further strong emails saying I would be phoning them later, so they decided to phone me! They said that the case had been reviewed, I had chosen gen admission and there was nothing they could do! This was two days before the event. They have missold me by not making standing/seating tickets clear plus the face value of those tickets says 89.95 on them, add another hundred to them for the price they were charging them at, and then virtually another £60 each for booking fees! They mislead me again by asking for copies of the tickets making me think they were trying to help me! I had to buy more tickets from the official site in order for us to have seats and I could only buy 6 together so my parents ended up not coming! Absolutely disgusting from start to finish, the event has passed and I have 8 tickets sat in my home I could not use and I have lost £2000, not to mention the fact that my family could not enjoy the event together! They take advantage of people’s excitement and rush to buy tickets that are usually for a very special one off treat. They are still continuing to be allowed to rip people off. It needs to stop, NOW!
I purchased secondary tickets from Get me in for Demi Lovato at the O2 10th June went to the venue Demi cancelled 40mins before but because I purchased the tickets from Get me in for £125 total (face value £37.50 per ticket) & Demi has re scheduled for 25th June I am not entitled to a refund, I cannot make the 25th as I am on holiday
Spoke to Get me in they said under their terms & conditions I can only re sell the tickets but there are so many tickets up for sale I am struggling to re sell they are now up for sale for face value so if they do sell I have lost money if they do not sell I have lost £125
There is absolutely nothing I can do about this but I do not think this is fair at all
I made the mistake of buying through Viagogo, who I’d never heard of, but magically had tickets weeks in advance of the official seller for this event. Ordered up from their website choosing a specific seating location. Upon checkout had to pay extra for a secure signed for courier delivery. No mention of the face value by the way. 10 weeks later the tickets were changed to E-Tickets & lo & behold – nowhere near where I chose. They mislead you by their mis-naming of the seating area you’ve chosen, but cleverly trick you by this naming convention make you think you’ve got tickets where you think you have. Upon closer inspection, they altered the stadium layout. When queried, all one gets back is endless generic replies saying the tickets are valid. As it happens, the official vendor of these tickets (Springboks v England Rugby in Cape Town) have invalidated them for fraudulent selling. VG however have offered me the chance to re-list them on their website, which I find somewhat strange given they know they are invalid & would therefore implicate them in a fraudulent sale. But they obviously don’t care as that’s why they’re still in business. They now refuse to respond to any messages and it’s in the hands of my credit card company.
Queens of the Stone Age tickets Brisbane Australia were purchased and never sent. My order was cancelled saying I would get a refund and I have never received my refund. I lost over AU$460.
I have been a fan of Kpop sesnation BTS since 2016 and they announced that they will be coming to the O2, London (for the first time) in October. I was trying to get two tickets which were £62.50 for my friend and I and we queued on Ticketmaster and AXS for two and a half hours and got none, but so many reselling sites such as GetMeIn, StubHub and ViaGoGo got thousands. They are selling them for at leat £455 which is completely unfair and these people are taking advantage of fans like me who have waited years to see BTS.
This is a brilliant idea and I support it all the way. Tried to get boyzone tickets today 22.6 for their farewell tour. Tried at 9am and low and behold sold out. Some went on presale and vip but there are loads on get me in and Viagogo. £300 for 3rd row when tickets should be £65. It is not fair on the fans who miss out
Promised my god daughters that i’d take them to the BTS (bangtan boys from south korea) so i waited for the pre-sale for O2 customers then for unknown reason, O2 cancelled and moved it to another date…on the said date we waited and literally did not take our eyes off the countdown but still got outsold by touts like viagogo and stubhub..these days, they are the only ones selling it from 400 to 13,000/ticket!!! I’m amazed with what ed sheeran did against this touts. I wish all artists would do the same.
On the 9th April this year, I bought two tickets for The League of Gentlemen Live Again at the first direct Rena in Leeds, on the 15th September at 7.30pm.
The tickets were advertised by Viagogo, Block D, Row G, Seats 17 and 18. The cost was Full Price Ticket – £39.50 + Fee £7.50
I only had a few seconds to make my purchase, so stupidly, I hurried through the payment process only to find that the total cost had escalated to £170.15!! Such a shock!
The tickets were in the name of Laura Robinson, who had bought the tickets originally from TICKETDIRECT.
What a rip-off.
My daughter told me about your website only this morning. I understand that you offer support/ self help tips on how to get a refund. I am indeed a Victim of Viagogo.
I went on line to buy a ticket for Hampton Court Flower Show and unfortunately ended up buying my ticket via viagogo. Face value of the ticket is £24 and I have ended up paying £69. Absolutely disgusted. I have never bought a ticket on line before and never will again. Such a shame
Thank you Claire, we followed your advice after Ed Sheeran event and have received full refund.
I have payed a lot of money for tickets through this company. I turned up to Justin timberlake today in Manchester after paying for a hotel and travel and got to the arena to only be told there that it’s cancelled. I’m now £500 down because I was not contacted once about the cancellation and I want an immadoate refund. When I try to log on to contact it says I have the wrong email and that I’ve never made a purchase when I have the bank transfers and the email to prove I have
The only times that I have ever written to my MP relates to ticket re-selling. Years ago, I wrote to Ken Clarke, MP for Rushcliffe, Nottingham and was fobbed off with a letter from his PA saying that there had been a review and that there were adequate laws in place etc. etc.
Clearly that did nothing as the practice continued. I tried to get Ed Sheerhan tickets (again) for my daughters and typically within minutes, thousands of pounds worth of them were on Get Me In and no tickets left one the primary sites. Clearly, not fans who couldn’t attend wanting to re-sell. It is clear that the government are not the slightest bit interested and presumably are lobbied or funded by organisations behind re-selling tickets at a huge profit.
I wrote to Alan Duncan, MP for Rutland and Melton outlining how music was becoming only available to those that could afford to pay extortionate prices and sent him a screen dump of the GetMeIn page showing the Ed Sheerhan tickets.
He didn’t even reply – which said it all to me.
If the government want to do something about it, it’s so simple as other contributors have said. Make it illegal to re-sell tickets at anything other than ticket value plus postage.
They obviously, actively, do not want to sort it out or they would have done by now. Shame on them.
I ordered tickets to the England vs India t20 at Old Trafford on 3rd July at a hefty £160.67 for myself and my wife. When I arrived at the gate I was turned away as they were ‘concession’ tickets and yet I have an email from Viagogo clearly stating “your full order details can be found below”. No mention of child tickets!
I rang their call centre and was stonewalled by someone who wouldn’t give me their name, wouldn’t pass me on to a manager or director and wouldn’t answer the question “Does this represent ‘full details’ or not?” She eventually just put the phone down on me. In my view Viagogo are utterly despicable shysters.
Just looking to get tickets for Jess Glynne in Nottingham, they dont even go on public sale until tomorrow, but many of the best seats are already on Viagio for grossly inflated prices. Chances are when they actually go on sale tomorrow there will be little left and we then have no choice but to go to these rip off sites.. Resale for profit should be outlawed as the real fans either miss out, or bet ripped off
Hello,
My name is Lorina Lako.
I have bought 2 tickets with VIA GOGO for event of 14 JULY beyonce Jay z paris and i have received an empty envelope.
I have to travel to paris for this event and still have no tickets.
Thank you.
Kind regards.
Hello.
I was charged £720 for 3 tickets for Roger Waters, Arena Birmingham, Jul 7. Believing tickets were scarce (as the Viagogo website implied) I reluctantly paid the price.
When the tickets arrived a short while ago they had a face value of £108 each. The concert was not sold out and the people in front of me told me they got their tickets last week for £90.
Just doesn’t give you that warm fuzzy feeling does it?
Recently my wife inadvertently entered the Viagogo site and proceeded through their dubious process to purchase four tickets for an Ed Sheeran concert in Johannesburg, with a face value of R850 each. Their clever online process, not only failed to give her a final amount but it also switched the currency (Czechoslovakia, which is very conveniently close to 10:1 conversion rate) so that what she thought was a final amount of R3800, once she pushed the buy button and received confirmation on her cell turned out to be R27000, almost 10 times the face value. We have been trying to get a refund and gone though all processes but are being stonewalled by Viagogo and there pathetic responses. These people are fraudsters and should be in jail!
Recently I inadvertently entered the Viagogo site and proceeded through their dubious process to purchase four tickets for an Ed Sheeran concert in Johannesburg, with a face value of R850 each. Their clever online process, not only failed to give her a final amount but it also switched the currency (Czechoslovakia, which is very conveniently close to 10:1 conversion rate) so that what she thought was a final amount of R3800, once she pushed the buy button and received confirmation on her cell turned out to be R27000, almost 10 times the face value. We have been trying to get a refund and gone though all processes but are being stonewalled by Viagogo and there pathetic responses. These people are fraudsters and should be in jail!
I’ve been in a queue since 10.00 am for Paul McCartney tickets unsuccessfully.. I’m angry at the fact I’ve given up half of my day off for nothing and tickets have gone on sale at treble the price on other sites.. I’ve always managed to get tickets before for his shows, so disappointed !!
Just tried to get tickets for Twenty One Pilots in March next year. Had a fanclub presale code and was waiting for the 10:00am sale time to roll around.
They were instantly sold out on Ticketmaster but just as quickly available on Viagogo for over twice the face value.
Who is going to put an end to this?
Firstly Red Hot Chillis were rescheduled to almost a year later which was in 2017 in Dublin. They would not accept the tickets that were printed at the door as there was no barcode on them. A kind lady working there took my details to try and reprint them however she said the tickets had no barcode. They refused entry and we had to purchase new tickets. Viagogo don’t accept this and won’t reimburse., I’ve been trying to get this sorted with a website called Resolver however no luck. I paid over 300 euros for those first tickets. I don’t want to drop this however I don’t know where to go with it now.
I have looked at ticket prices and have been put off buying because of the ridiculous cost and that tickets are ‘sold out’ within minutes, forcing people to look at the secondary market.
Instead of trying to use complicated electronic means to defeat the touts, the answer is so simple – the Government needs to introduce legislation that makes it illegal to sell tickets and other goods other than at face value before and including the date of the event. After that date, the tickets can be sold openly to allow collectors to buy them.
I bought tickets for Goodwood festival of speed through viagogo they turned up one day late as i complained I hadn’t received them. Iwas told I would get my money back and I still have not received it. These 3 tickets were bought for my son’s 25th birthday as he has been ill for 7 years we thought we would treat him. What a joke that was!
I mistakenly paid £340 for two face value £75 tickets to see Paul Simon and James Taylor in Hyde Park from Viagogo. I was mis -sold the tickets which were advertised as costing no more than £90 each. When they arrived the tickets were clearly earmarked for Amazon (ie a corporate account). I decided not to use these tickets and subsequently bought two tickets at face value from TicketMaster and went to what was a great concert. With Mastercard’s help I am now challenging Viagogo for a full refund as on the reverse of tickets the T&Cs clearly say that the tickets are not transferable. I will let you know when this process is completed!
Ticketing touting has affected not only just myself, but the fan base I am a part of… BTS LONDON tickets were “sold out” at the O2 arena on the 1st June and I wasn’t able to get my hands on any, which broke me. Knowing this, I decided to check resale sites; It was then I felt nauseous looking at the prices. P4 tickets orignially at 60 pounds were being sold at 1,000 and P1 (the one I planned on purchasing) were even more! which was crazy especially for a teenager who doesn’t work lololol… Something has to be done and so after procrastinating I’m finally speaking out about it. As of today myself and many others wait for resale prices to decrease, but the concert is fast approaching and they may never be close to original price, it’s so sad how there isn’t a max you can sell a ticket for… so scalpers are buying it as its original price and making profit off of helpless/desperate teenagers through manipulation and gamble of hard earned money.
Pleased to report I have just received £420 refund from my bank for overpriced Paul simon tickets recently reported here.
So I encourage anyone with a claim to take it to the bank/credit card company to pursue a refund. Viagogo did not acknowledge any of my e mails, the bank did great !! (SANTANDER)
Thanks for the advice here
Touting in the UK needs to stop!
I have only purchased resale tickets once as I was unable to get them in the normal sale. I paid double the price for face value for these tickets! Luckily, there were no issues with them when we arrived at the venue.
I look out for all the pre-sales I can possibly find so I have the best chance of getting tickets to events I wish to go too, but even then it is hard to get a ticket as the genuine sites lag out or they say ‘none available’. These sites need to do more as it is not long after these tickets go on sale that I find them on secondary sites. They need to stop people from being able to sale them on the same day of sales and if people do upload them at double the price then they need to be taken down immediately. Maybe all ticket purchases should have an ID that can track if they are put on other sites so companies like Ticketmaster and AXS can remove resold tickets and give them to fans who actually want to be there.
Once this issue is cracked down we need to sort out the fees that are added on to ticket sales on general websites
Not from the UK but. Woke up. Morning of the first ticket sales for band I was awaiting. Word was they’d go fast.
I checked Google as soon as I woke up. I clicked on the first page, (all the pages under it were just articles about the tour) also didn’t see the page I clicked was an ad.
This page was ‘viagogo’ never heard of it and assumed it was just the legit seller as it looked very professional. I became panicked instantly as it promoted “only 3℅ of tickets remaining”. I quickly got my card and fought to secure a ticket, I noticed the price was high ($150 each) but I had to have the tickets and with a 10 minute timer I rushed to the check out. When I went to pay it’d added extra unmentioned fees making it ($200 a ticket). I felt annoyed but paid anyway. I felt like a champion having the tickets and took a deep breath.
Not long after I checked Google again and noticed further down was ticket master also selling tickets. Dread quickly set in, I checked ticket master and saw tons of tickets for only ($100 each no extra fees). I realised what had happened, I’d been scammed. I felt violated, as if someone had walked right into my home, not wiped their feet and taken that money right out of my wallet and left with a smirk.
I was a fool. Did some research and found out ‘viagogo was just some second hand ticket thing’ I thought it was the legit seller and it honestly was trying to come across that way. Only in the small print does it say it’s not, I should have been smarter but no. Many will fall for the same trick, especially older folks, young kid and other silly people. Stupid I was or not, you can’t take advantage of people like that, this is wrong, they’re all scum bags from top to bottom and ‘viagogo’ should be banished forever to page ’30’ of Google where no one goes.
In the end I brought the tickets again off ticket master because I don’t know nor care if those tickets were even real. There’s much more to say about how deeply wrong everything about ‘viagogo’ is, but this is just one story and I’ll leave it at that..
Good bye.
Groove Armada at the Electric Brixton tickets went on sale and sold out within a minute this morning at 9am (face value £28.50). By 9:15 these were selling on secondary ticket websites for £99.50 + ridiculous booking fees.
My Wife tried to buy Elton John Tickets from Ticketmaster today (Hove cricket ground) it only has a capacity of around 9000. They went on sale at 10 am and at around 10.20-and was told they were all sold out . I have since seen people saying that were on the Ticketmaster site at 10am only to be told the same. This would be annoying but acceptable if the tickets had all been sold to genuine fans. However, I have since discovered tickets being sold for £200+ on Viagogo and other sites-something has to be done to stop this -it is outrageous.
Viagogo…need I say more! Hidden costs, delay in getting the tickets, no customer service, subscription fees being charged to my credit card without my consent after the ticket purchase, false claims, pressure selling, false guarantees…
Why can a gig sell out. then 5 min later a rip of site is selling 29£ tickets for 300£. Pink liverpool spent 1 hour on line ticket master only to be droped just before i pay for tickets.
I’ve tried to buy Still Game tickets this morning. The ticket on sale at 10:00 but it was no tickets available at 10:02 when I was logging in. There were tickets available straight away at Viagogo but you have to pay 5 times more. It is ridiculous. I am furious. Same thing had happened when I’ve tried to get the ticket for Prince’s concert.
This would not happened if nobody buying from the secondary sites. We can win if we all stand up boycott the greedy money grabbing monsters.
Tickets for Michelle Obama’s book tour in London went on sale to members only this morning, prices £30- £125. Sold out really quickly. Within an hour Viagogo had them advertised for £2300 to £4600. Absolutely obscene
My Son, who is autistic, was given some money for his 18th birthday. He found a concert he wanted to go to Tom Walker, on line, in the morning, I told him to put his money into his bank and we could look to purchase the tickets in the evening once I got gone from work.
Because he was excited and legally able to – he went ahead to buy the tickets before I got home from work. But instead of going to the venue website as he had done in the morning – this time his website search brought up Viagogo and he purchased tickets through their site instead. There were still tickets available from the venue with the face value of £20.50 ( he purchased two tickets) but he was charged £104.00. I tried to ring them, email them – I did manage on two occasions to communicate with them where I explained my sons difficulties and asked if he could get a refund, and was told that was not possible. All they could do is sell them on for him, but they took £35.00 ( as a selling cost) and that they couldn’t pay him until 8 days after the concert had taken place – as they needed to ensure entrance. I pointed out that the tickets had come from them in the first place so there was no need to withhold the money once the tickets had been sold, my sons birthday money was tied up with them from June – Oct. he was very distressed by the whole experience – I can’t believe how applauding they acted – and how they justified selling a ticket that was still available at £20.50 per ticket at the price of £47.00 per ticket + charges… my son could not understand why he had not been charged £20.50?? I wanted to try to tell his story and make sure people are warned from using the site!!
I paid more than double for tickets to see Miss Saigon through Viagogo, disgusting company that are getting away with fraud, I was hijacked from Bradford Theatres to this scam company, why are they allowed to do this in our country??
I purchased 3 tickets on the 26th of November 2018 for The Nutcracker in The Royal Albert Hall on New Years Eve
At the time of booking:
I was not presented with the seat allocation or verification of the seat number.
I was not presented with the face value of the ticket
and there was no mention of any restrictions.
I have since discovered the face value of the ticket and have paid more than double! Plus an hidden extra £120 booking fee. I have contacted The Royal Albert Hall and they will have nothing to do with Viagogo and my tickets are void under their terms and conditions – non transferable and void if resold.
The prospect of driving from my hometown of Wales to London on new Years Eve for my daughter to watch her first ballet to be refused entry and access to these seats is not appealing.
The feeling of anxiety and disappointment caused by Viagogo has been quite overwhelming.
I have also had my intelligence completely insulted by their in compassionate approach to any queries I have requested. They just simply fire back generated emails. This has just added to my frustrations. Total lack of respect.
I purchased 2 tickets for Elton John’s Farewell Concert @ SSE Arena Belfast on 30/11/2020.
When I received the tickets my wife and I decided not to attend and I listed the 2 tickets on Viagogo for sale.
The tickets were resold within a few minutes. I was given the contact details of the purchaser and posted them using UPS.
After the tickets were delivered and signed for, I contacted Viagogo regarding my payment. To my utter shock and disbelieve I was informed I had to wait at least ten days after the concert date.
That is two years away!!! No-one knows if Viagogo will be trading two years from now or indeed if I will be living or dead.
I am entitled to a payment of £298. Surely this is unacceptable. I can’t believe this has happened. Any advice greatly appreciated.
Bought tickets last night on a Live Nation presale. Supposed platinum tickets for £150 each. Went into the venues site the following day when tickets were on general sale & tickets around the same row were priced £61.50. This is how the companies now get around charging 2.5x the face value!
Apparently these platinum tickets are based on supply and demand however but how can they truly calculate this when they are in control of how many they release.
So annoyed.
Tickets for a country artist at the county fair went on sale today at 10am. I was online to purchase them at 10am sharp. The tickets were already sold out! Oh, and how convenient the tickets are already for sale on 3rd party sites for triple!! How is this legal??
I searched tickets for the angel via go-go came up I assumed it was a ticket selling place as Ticketek as well anyways it rushed me as I was buying tickets making out like you’re going to miss out it came up as Australian money and then my bank was all in US so many hidden cost and fees as well as international fees which I never approved of spoke to my bank cancelled my card still waiting to hear back from my bank So fingers cross two tickets which should have been $700 and they have taken $1500 not happy
They charge a HEFTY booking fee. My Toronto Raptors tickets without the booking fee (including taxes) is supposed to be $284.76 but they charged my visa $330.00 and my Visa statement states its a foreign exchange transaction? How could that be when the website itself stated it was in Canadian dollars?
They don’t allow you to cancel either! They also have a 5 minute time limit to book your tickets so you don’t have the opportunity to double check any other information (recheck any details).
This is fraud.
Laver Cup tennis tickets went on pre-sale today and Viagogo had them already for sale on lower tear for over £7000! There are over 200 tickets being sold. I didn’t get any and have bought flights to Geneva. It is appalling that this site is still allowing this practice to continue and stopping real fans from obtaining tickets.
BTS came to the uk for the first time last October. Within minutes the tickets were sold out and on resale sites for ridiculous prices. My teen is a huge k pop fan, she loves BTS the way only a teenager can, I ended up paying £900 for £90 tickets. It’s ridiculous. I did it so my daughter wasn’t broken hearted. Thousands of genuine fans missed out and it was beyond unfair.
The second BTS tickets came out I pressed the button and put in queue. An hour later it appears the tickets are sold out but I can get tickets on resale for twice the price! My daughter will be devastated she cant go because of these greedy people. Just not fair
So very angry, tickets sold online for a one night UK concert sold out in minutes. Then immediately available for prices up to over £1000 per ticket on other sites. Why oh why don’t ticket buyers have to give ID. Passport or driving licence numbers,even N I numbers could be used to stop resale of tickets, it’s not rocket science, why should the greedy few make a fortune from others hard work! The artists don’t see this revenue, neither does the concert venue. Closing down sites doesn’t stop resale of tickets, I’d linked tickets would.
I purchased 2 tickets in may 18 from Viagogo. Vastly overpriced but I purchased anyway. Concert was scheduled for 16 April Sean Mendez at the O2. On the 13th viagogo emailed me to advise me my tickets were no longer available and offered me alternative tickets and and £80 voucher. This then happened again on Monday 15th so I accepted the tickets and they emailed so I could download and print them . When we arrived at the O2 the staff advised us the tickets were fraudulent and we would not be able to enter. I can’t explain how gutted I was after spending £30 in train fares and £25 on food also to turn around and go home. Contacted Viagogo who have told me they will issue a full refund within 10 days and give me a voucher for £197.10 weird amount and why would I ever use their website again after this .
Let’s hope I get my refund otherwise I will be contacting my credit card provider to see if they can assist.
Unbelievable that they allow people to sell dodgy tickets !!
I bought 3 Ozzy tickets and unfortunately the date was postponed. I can not make the new date but Viagogo wont refund as it wasnt cancelled. Consumer Rights say I should be refunded, but Viagogo are constantly refusing. They tell me to resell them.
I didnt realise they were just a bunch of common touts, I thought it was a legitimate site – will never use these again.
Still want my money back but no luck yet.
My 18 year old son brought me tickets to Micheal bubble for Xmas and we have downloaded the tickets and the price on them is £63.25 including £8.50 admin charge yet he paid £114.40 per ticket plus £67.50 booking fee plus vat plus admin totalling £315.50 this has totally ruined the experience and the gesture as he was totally ripped off and we have contacted them and are also going to trading standards but this company should not be allowed to trade as he is an apprenticeship and so it took him months to save for this special gift which has been totally ruined by greedy rip off business !!!! I want too start a campaign to get them too be put out of business .
I had no idea Viagogo was a secondary ticket website. I was taken straight to their website via a google search. It cost me £170 for 2 tickets. After I spoke to someone they informed me of this site and the cost in comparison. I had no idea they were cheaper and thought they were original cost of tickets. Once i found a primary ticket vendor I realised the tickets only cost £60. I have been charged an extra £100 by being unaware and tricked. I now start the process of trying to get my money back.
NFL UK the worst run ticketing ever. All
The touts buy the tickets and sell them double price on stubhub. Now they can do something about this but won’t. All they neeed to do is check the seat number that’s being sold on stubhub find who’s bought that ticket and ban them, reissue the tickets back on sale. Simple
2 tickets bought from Viagogo for Fleetwood Mac total paid £539.00. No sign on the site of face value so obviously I thought what we were paying was the face value of the tickets. 5 days before event, tickets arrive …….. face value …… £75.00 each , service charge £8.70 – total per ticket £83.70 ….. so my question to Viagogo is how the hell do they justify adding £371.60 to the price of the tickets – they added 69% markup to base price of tickets.
I attended the New Zealand v British Lions 3rd test match in Auckland in 2017.I bought my ticket from Viagogo some months before.It was delivered to my hotel in Auckland two weeks prior to the match.When I took my seat at the match I was surprised to find an Irish man had an identical ticket to mine which he had also bought from Viagogo.It was obvious that theft/fraud had taken place.I reported the matter to the NZ police.When I returned to the Uk I emailed Viagogo requesting a refund.They never replied.So….please don’t use their site !!
Somehow I was directed to viagogo when getting tickets for Fleetwood Mac, probably in the heat of the moment and excitement of actually getting tickets. I have no idea of the face value but we paid around £250 per ticket. I couldn’t then go and tried to relist as well as sell on FM fan page. There were many occasions I couldn’t find my listing, it was so so far down the page which o thought was weird as they were supposed to be incredible seats, £250 each right? I tweeted, emailed, called – all Impossible though emails I did get just said the tickets were listed and sorry but what could they do. Finally they sold and what I find so incredible is that they won’t pay me until 8 days after the event I case my buyer has problems getting in, these are tickets viagogo sold ME! Remember they’ve taken my money since December (6months) and my buyers money! So they now have £1,000 for four tickets earning interest in their account and that’s only me! Of course there are 1,000’s of others like me. What is simply disgusting is that the Dublin event was sold out on the official website, ticketmaster, and yet viagogo has loads of tickets to sell. Feel a bit pissed off that the artists don’t support their fans more. I would do ANYTHING to encourage people to NEVER use viagogo – you’re completely out of control of your tickets and the mark up is unbelievable!
**PLEASE, PLEASE READ THIS AND BE AWARE**
My wife has been a fan of Bon Jovi for many years, but had never had the opportunity to see them. So, on the first of November 2018 I booked tickets through Viagogo for their tour in June 2019. This is where the story begins.
I do know and appreciate that I have been at fault and I have should have checked the Viagogo website, but of course, we get so complacent about things and we think that everything and everybody is trustworthy. Unfortunately, this is never the case.
I paid the Princely sum of £254.96 two tickets on my credit card, which I thought, although quite pricey, was still within reason for such a high profile band such as Bon Jovi, who were possibly performing their last ever concert, (time will tell on that one).
Not once did I think to go to Viagogo’s website and check my account, being such a trusting person.
The concert came and went. Bon Jovi were excellent and the whole weekend was just lovely. It was only the next day when I had a look at the tickets that I noticed that the actual face value of the tickets, together, was much, much less than what I had been charged.
It was only then did I decide to go onto the website and check up on things. I immediately noticed that there were four seat numbers showing on the website, yet, clearly above that, it states that I purchased two tickets, not four.
The face value of each ticket was £45.00, plus a service charge of £6.10 equals £51.10. Multiply this by two gives a grand total of £102.20, not £254.96. So, it was quite obvious that I had been charged for four lots of tickets, and some other unbeknown charge, that doesn’t even show up on my account.
Obviously, it is far too late for me to try and do anything about this, and I except, with a heavy heart that I have been well and truly ripped off. But, the one reason that I write this email is to try and warn as many people as possible about Viagogo, and similar ticket selling companies, of the UNDERHAND, DISGUSTING, DESPICABLE, CHEATING, ROBBING AND LYING (the insults are endless btw) ways of these companies.
I pity the poor people that work for these companies, probably at minimum wage. Are they aware of their employers CHEATING way’s. And, if they are aware, I hope that the employees and their employers can sleep at nights, knowing just how DISGUSTING they actually are as human beings.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, make sure that you check everything correspondence wise, that you have with any of these companies, and deal with any discrepancies immediately, if you have unwittingly bought tickets from one of these CHEATING websites.
I thought Bob Dylan would sell out, so on the day tickets came out I rushed onto google and searched.
I stupidly clicked on the first sponsored page that came up (something I never do usually) just assumed it was a primary site and bought the tickets. This is my first issue – very disappointed that google allow this type of manipulation to exist via their platform.
My second issue is viagogo. As soon as I landed on their site I was aggressively sold tickets. I was led to believe there were only 20 tickets left and to hurry, that these were hot tickets.
My third issue is that when I was paying I was quoted a price, only to go on and confirm I noticed the booking fee was substantial in comparison to usual booking fees. Alarm bells should have started ringing.
I foolishly bought the tickets, two of them. 160 each. The gig is still not sold out and available on ticketmaster for 100. This is sheer robbery and completely misleading the customer.
I cannot find an email address for aiken, but I intend writing to them – they have failed to reply to my tweet
Paid £603 for tickets face value £51 via Viagogo for Hugh Jackman concert. Not made aware of face value or break down of costs during booking process. Stupidly thought that was the price for tickets and countdown on the site made me think i wouldn’t get tickets, which were for my brother who has learning disabilities and was desperate to go to concert. We got in thankfully although lots of tears and upset from him as I had to tell him we might not get in, incase tickets were invalid. We could have been sat on Hugh Jackman’s knee for that price!!! I’m making sure everyone I know does not get ripped off like this. I have emailed Google ads and informed them of this. Disgraceful company.
Hi fleetwood Mac announced the uk tour in Oct I bought what I thought was front row floor block seats for£628 what I got on the day g
Before the concert some8 months later was indeed floor blocks seats but not what I paid for only £125 seats feel utterly distraught spoilt my whole experience of going to see this amazing band then when we got in the sound was terrible echoing all around Wembley
Was online at 8am for the ticket release at 10am for the Panthers @ Buccs game at the London Olympic Stadium. Only being sold on ticketmaster. Lowest price tickets £59 (+fee). Waited in the queue at 10am for half an hour before it said it couldn’t find me tickets. On stubhub someone was already selling these face value £59 tickets for £480 😡
Bought front-row tickets for my son and myself from Viagogo for a DanTDM show at Wembley Arena. When I checked the tickets, it was clear that the seller had either inadvertently or deliberately (I don’t know which) messed up the transfer. My son was very upset as we couldn’t get in and we ended up (luckily) buying at the box office the last 2x seats together at the whole place.
I contacted Viagogo immediately and the process has been appalling. They have sent me 13 emails so far, twice asking for more “proof” even having previously confirmed I had already provided it. The links they send don’t always take you to a place to actually load up any more info and so you have to scrabble around and find a place and hope it goes to the right case. They provide no escalation path, no clear steps to resolution and, frankly are unreasonably transferring the burden of evidence to me. Surely consumer rights would suggest they need to provide evidence I received my purchase? All this on top of the fact that they set me a deadline of 24h to respond after I first raised it (whilst at the show) after which they would regard the matter as closed, which demonstrates an extraordinary disregard for basic consumer rights, never mind customer care.
I was recently looking to purchase tickets for an American football game in the UK for myself and 5 other people.
The website of the arena appeared to be down at the time the tickets went live, as such I was directed by my friends to viagogo (non of us knowing their M.O. at the time)
I found 6 tickets that were advertised on site with a price of £62 each. That was fine as I expected to pay about that via the arena’s website.
Once I had created an account I proceeded to look at payment. As I was checking out I suddenly noticed the price had inexplicably shifted and I was charged £1435.88 for these 6 tickets that should have been only £62 each. I was dumbfounded, and as I looked at the final statement it showed £62 as a BOOKING FEE!
This had certainly not been made clear before hand. I immediately contacted Viagogo advising a mistake had been made, expecting a simple refund to be processed to resolve the issue. Surely there is a cooling off period or a process for mistakes such as this. But no, viagogo completely stonewalled me. Totally unphased by the fact I can no longer pay my rent or afford to eat for a solid month.
This one small mistake and total lack of customer support has left me in a position where it will take me months to get back on my feet
Their only answer “resell your tickets” and thus continue this horrible venomous cycle. Passing this horrible stress and incredible pressure into another poor person.
I’m doing everything in my power to try and secure a refund right now, and I am so thankful you guys at fanfair are here to lend a hand.
This is not how live entertainment should be. Companies like this are criminals and should be shut down.
As much as this has destroyed me, I’m glad I can be a point of reference to the damage this kind of cowboy operation can cause.
I purchased 2 tickets for the Baseball at the London stadium from Viagogo on the 7th of December 2018, the advertised price was 134.00 each which i was prepared to pay. the price i was charged after agreeing to proceed was 683.81. When i received the tickets 4 days before the game had a face value of 65.40 each I contacted Viagogo and complained and claimed the difference between the advertised price and that charged they have ignored my email thus far.
I just bought two tickets for a Rod Stewart concert in Hove ! The cost was £187,they were delivered by ups to a store in the town for me to pick up .They arrived two days before the event with £30 printed on each ! A bit of a surprise ,luckily no problem using them and the event was amazing ,so thought no more of it until I’ve seen all these remarks ! Won’t be caught again !
I payed for 2 tickets in May as a small healing gift for my daughter who recently lost her baby, and my granddaughter. I payed £155.19 in total. I was told to give an address they could be delivered to, so they could be signed for. I was told,rest assured” we would receive them 4 days before the event! They never arrived. I contacted them, and they said the tickets would be sent to my email address so I could download them ? That never happened! I contacted them and spoke to them several times without any solution or satisfaction. They then informed me, I would have to open a Ticketmaster account with an email address of carlie Briggs,and the tickets could be downloaded from there? It never happened! They then said I would have to download the tickets on a laptop, and not by phone? It still never happened! Viagogo kept blaming Ticketmaster and said they had done everything correctly. After contacting viagogo several more times, someone phoned me 2 days before the event and said, REST ASSURED you will receive them within 2 hours.It never happened! I contacted them again an was told, REST ASSURED, I would receive them in the evening. It never happened! The day before the event, I received an email at 5am in the morning valued at £39 each in a completely different section. Previous to this par lava I had a letter saying the tickets were £54 each? I work on a stroke unit in a hospital, and I hope I respect and look after people better than this! What a con!!!!!!!!
Hi
I was duped by the Viagogo site in November 2018 and ended up paying £605.23 for 2 tickets to Goodwood Festival of Speed.
I was distraught when I realised what had happened but could not get any help from Viagogo – most of their responses were automated messages. A friend found your site and I was hugely encouraged by the determination, progress and advice it offers. My husband and I were refused entry at the event (July 2019) because the tickets we had been sent had been previously cancelled! We followed advice and the event organisers were extremely supportive and provided written confirmation of this. Our bank refunded the money and the case was handled by Visa. Our bank was extremely poor in communication but after a lot of pestering I have finally found out that my case was successful so the money will stay in my account. Thank you so much for your site with all the help and advice – it helped me to cope when I didn’t think I had any chance! I have to say a distant thank-you to the person that sent the ‘previously cancelled tickets’ – this enabled me to get my money back and it also defrauded Viagogo – which I’m not sorry about!
I have been trying to buy tickets to see Mick Fleetwood and friends at the London Paladium .
Pre booking went on sale on Wednesday all booked in 10min.
General sale today Friday 10min all sold. No matter how I tried I could not get a ticket. 2hrs latter tickets start to be advertised on the internet 3 x face value. Some of the profits from this concert are to be donated to cancer trust, it is a real shame that even for a good couse ticket touts will make a profit it is disgusting.
I have been to many concerts/gigs/festivals over the years and have experienced this problem on many occasions and now I really do not want to buy tickets other than from the venue.
Surely bulk buying tickets has to stop somewhere
Just missed out on Killers Tickets in Bristol which I accept however they are already on resale sites so you cannot tell me all who are selling are genuine fans who cannot make it. This has to stop! There should be no resale, you should simply just return and get your money back and offered to people who missed out.
My sister and I figured we’d buy coldplay tickets for as a present for my mum’s birthday. I didn’t really wanna look for tickets so I delegated that to her and just payed half. She came across Viagogo.
The Facevalue of the tickets was 64 quid per ticket (which they hid behind a small green symbol you had to hover over btw), they were selling them on for a stated price of 140 for 2, so not much of an increase. Turns out they were hiding VAT, Handling and Booking fees which brought the final price up to over 170 quid.
Currently in the middle of trying to get my money back.
Fully support this initiative in the hopes that no-one has to deal with companies like this.
Faith No More tickets for Manchester 2020, face value £47, Viagogo site £168+.
Not interesting in buying at that price to sit in a half empty venue.
So sad that the artiat don’t get the money but the touts, 3 times the price, band make a 3rd of all ticket sales.
I wanted to give my husband a gift I thought he’d really enjoy. So I got on line and started booking a ticket to hear Elton John on his tour of Australia. My husband caught me and on the net was touched by the gift. Instead he got on and paid. Who were the sellers – Viagogo. We did not realise we were on a re-seller site.
After reading of Viagogo we became concerned and decided we would prefer to get a refund. Do you think Via gogo would help. Absolutely not!!!
We have written numerous times and found Viagogo have cleaver ways to evade and avoid answering. The site appears supportive but it isn’t. It has been created to make it as difficult as possible to contact them. We are in Australia and we have phoned they number provided which is for the US -toll free number of the UK. Interestingly answered by the same English speaker. How do we get hold of these people. We are definately going to visit our member of parliament and we are going intending to follow up. My hope is that we can find a legal loop hole that knocks them our of business.
I mistakenly purchased tickets to Coachella festival for $400 more than original price, because Viagogo, the platform where I purchased the tickets, copied the interface of Coachella’s site at the day when the Coachella tickets went on sale. You might remember the “walking man” feature when you are in line, Coachella logo as if it’s Coachella’s site, the same colors and buttons. Their site ranked higher on google than the Coachella site even! I asked for return after I realized it 10 minutes after, but they said – no refunds. My bank said that I can not get a refund through them either, so I just got overpriced tickets that I don’t even know when I’ll get.
My Chemical Romance recently announced a reunion tour including a immense show slated for the MK Stadium.
As a dedicated UK based fan I was over the moon when they announced a huge capacity venue comeback show in the summer and was exited at the prospect of taking my partner – who had never had the chance to see them and has long wanted to.
However, after the usual anxiety of being in a ticket queue – a second show was announced for the following date for immediate sale.
Excellent I though, that offers tens of thousands more tickets up for grabs!
Fast forward an hour, both shows are sold out and I didn’t manage to get tickets despite logging in as the tickets went live.
This wouldn’t be misery inducing were I confident fellow fans had got fair priced tickets for what Im sure will be an amazing show.
However I checked Viagogo shortly after both shows sold out and could already find hundreds, if not thousands, of tickets being flogged at several times the face value.
We need improved legislation to outlaw such behavior and venues need to take greater steps to ensure ticket holders are the same people who purchased the tickets unless that ticket can be authenticated as purchased through a legitimate fantofan service like Twickets.
Companies like Viagogo are predatious, manipulative, exploitative, utterly morally repugnant and deserve to have no access to the UK or any other music fan market for their huge contributions to rendering concert going an experience reserved purely for the economically prosperous at the expense of the majority.
Was trying to buy tickets to see MCR, my favourite band and the maybe the only chance I would get to see them in my life. Thought my failure to get tickets was due to everyone trying, so was disappointed but accepting, but am now genuinely upset that I couldnt get tickets because of 3rd party sellers despite trying the second box office opened.
I purchased some tickets in February 2019 for a concert, which was due to take place in December 2019. This concert was cancelled due to ill health by the performer and I was due a refund for this. End of January 2020 and I am still waiting to be refunded for this by the ticket provider. I have been in contact several times with the provider and given my bank details to them several times and still no joy. Getting really frustrated now with this situation. I will never use a site like that again to purchase any tickets in the future.
I ordered 2 tickets for Swan Lake at Royal Opera House for my daughters birthday (thought I had been forwarded to one of ROH registered ticket sites). On printing the tickets I discovered these were in the name of Deepak Miah and the Face value was £8.00!!!! I have paid £214 for these tickets and not only that they are for BENCH SEATS which wasn’t advertised. Iam expected to sit on a bench seat at 50 years old with a bad back for 3 hours! There are still loads of Swan Lake tickets for sale on this site. Phoned Viagogo and had half hour conversation but they wont back down. Their solution is to RESELL them to another unsuspecting fool, which I do not want to be part of. Told them they are unlawful and breaking the rules. I may go and sit on the bench seat in protest with a banner on my body saying Viagogo Victim. I feel such a fool and very depressed. How can they get allowed with this robbery!!!
I just bought tickets to see Swan Lake in South Africa – one ticket cost R 650, Viagogo charged me R 1,800 per ticket -I bought 3 tickets. I did not authorise the payment, I had only put in my card details – next minute R 5,500 is deducted from my card – absolutely insane – when I ask for a refund they tell me to resell – its ridiculous and fraud
PLEASE DON’T USE VIAGOGO
I was so looking forward to buying tickets for Lana Del Rey’s concert in Paris. After being a fan for so long, I could finally afford to travel to and attend one of her concerts.
So of course I was looking at ticket sites and in fact it is the first time I used ticket sites. For some reason, probably because it was high ranked on the google search and I was too happy hippie to investigate deeper, I landed on the viagogo page. The tickets were on sale for one hour (only) and the page already alerted ‘tickets selling out fast’. Being that happy, excited and naive fan I believed that. I bought two tickets. Last second before checkout, another fee comes up – 25 euros per ticket. The tickets were around 85 euros each (later I found cheaper ones ofc). I did not receive them. They said they would be out in february.
I realized I can’t go to the concert (my travel route changed and it would cost way too much to get back to Paris) and decided to resell. I sold them just for that price for which I bought them. A friend was telling me that I could earn much money – but I was thinking how the buyer is another fan, another fellow, and I just wanted the invested money back – now it turns out it’s good if I get even that.
Although I didn’t receive the tickets, I was able to sell them, which sounds a bit weird to me. They were resold within one day. The money was on my way, they said. It never arrived on my paypal account. I called them and said I need to ‘confirm’ the receiving. Bull$%&, there’s no option like that on Paypal. A couple of days after that they send another email notifying that they paid me out to my paypal account – the money is still not on my balance. Wanted to call the same number I called the first time – the line was closed. Although there were several numbers listed for different countries, now I could only access the US number. I called and they only said that it can take up to 8 days for it to arrive and if not to send them the paypal confirmation that I didn’t receive anything. I didn’t know what to say and how to react because I went through that process already and the guy kept repeating the same lines – like they all get a script, which they very probably do.
I asked him for different customer support numbers that are at least in Europe which he gave to me. As I’m not very optimistic that I will receive the money I think I will have to call those numbers again.
Viagogo never again!