For anyone who may be thinking about buying gig and festival tickets from agencies other than the genuine ticketing companies – masterticket, seeticket etc - please take heed of this tale of woe.
Naïve Madonna fans including me have recently bought from an agency called SOSmasterticket.com who have been selling tickets for a Madonna night that didn’t exist – Sat 13 September when the only night is actually Thursday Sept 11.
It’s a frequent ploy of promoters to announce additional nights after the initial nights have sold out. Die hard fans often go to gigs on several occasions, and it’s a way of getting a second bite of the publicity cherry. So to hear that there was an additional night available that hadn’t yet been announced wasn’t that surprising.
At the same time, we purchased tickets for V from the same company: the prices looked pretty good, not massively exploitative unlike some but a reasonable mark up.
However, several weeks after ordering, I started to get slightly twitchy. A mate heard a radio competition to win tickets for the only London Madonna concert and called me about it. I’d been trying to ignore the niggle in the back of my mind for some time, on why my tickets hadn’t arrived and when friends started asking what camping area we’d be in for V I decided it was time to chase.
Repeated calls informed me the V tickets would be sent out 3 weeks, then 2 weeks, the 7 days then 5 days prior to the event.
I then received an email informing me that I could pick up the tickets at the venue on Friday the 15th, the day before the festival but the day most people go down to set up tents etc. To get my tickets I would have to contact a bloke called Richard. On his mobile. I kid you not.
So furious, I contacted Richard who I can’t actually believe picked up the phone – clearly all very professional as I heard a child whining and the tinkle of an ice cream van in the background during our conversation (maybe that’s how he delivers the tickets “so that was a 99, a solero and a couple of tickets for Madonna at the Hackney Empire?”) I asked him about the situation and he assured me that according to the terms and conditions they are allowed to deliver tickets up to an hour prior to the event.
Apparently this particular company operates out of Spain – not illegal but not confidence inspiring – though according to one of the people I spoke to they also have an office in Farringdon – this was later denied by another person I spoke to.
Don’t credit cards have a black list for companies like this?
So, I’ve written to my Visa company hoping I’ll get money back from them. There’s also a facebook group - don’t touch sosmastertickets with an elongated bargepole - group which in 6 days has 46 members. I’ll keep you posted on the outcome from Visa, and if you’ve ever been affected, please join the facebook group, for what it’s worth.
But as a word of warning, don’t bother with this company. Some forums have said they’ve received tickets from them without hassle and I’m sure that’s the case. But there are also many who haven’t. Another individual who unfortunately bought his tickets by debit card has been trying to get money back for 9 weeks – they keep promising it but it’s yet to appear.
As for the Madonnna tickets, the additional night they were promoting was never going to happen. They said it had been cancelled – a phone call to Wembley proved it had never been considered - and when we asked why hadn’t they informed us they didn’t answer just said our tickets would be transferred to the one and only night. I’m thinking, that’s pretty unlikely and even if legitimate would surely be attempting to get a pint into a half pint pot. Web comments indicate that those who have received tickets have received fakes as the genuine article states doors open at 5.30pm with those from sosmasterticket state doors open at 7pm.
I’ve learnt several lessons on this
· A dodgy ticket tout is a dodgy ticket tout and a flash website instead of no teeth and smelling of lager doesn’t make them any more likely to provide a decent product. In fact less so as they are virtual and almost untouchable - at least the old fashioned way, you get to see the product.
· Always read the terms and conditions for any organisation for which you not 100% sure of.
· If you are in doubt but go ahead anyway, always buy by credit card and a straw pole suggests that Visa are company of choice in terms of getting money back.
· Do some hunting round the web under the ‘name of the organisation’ plus the word ‘problems’: it generally makes quite interesting reading.
I’ll keep you posted, but for those who have bought stuff from any dodgy online outfit, hassle your credit card company into blacklisting them. If these organisations can’t get money through credit cards their business is as good as dead.