Good and bad experiences with ticket scalpers?

[medicinejar]

There has been a lot of discussion of ticket scalpers or touts that are not trustworthy. I thought it might be worth sharing some stories about scalpers. I have one that is a little more positive but it does have a downside too. Just to be clear I am not a scalper and do not regularly buy from scalpers. However, I did have one good experience and it was good in the sense that when things did not go right I got all of my money back.

So here is the good part and the bad part of my experience with Ticketsnow (a huge scalping company). In late Oct/Nov 2006, the Rolling Stones played 2 shows at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. Getting tickets was quite difficult because 1) most of the first night tickets were used as a fundraiser for the Clinton foundation, 2) Scorcese was filming both shows for Shine a Light and there was extra space needed for cameras and hired extras, and 3) its always hard to get tickets to the Stones when they play a small venue.

The bad part: After striking out on tickets that were sold through ticketmaster, I found what I thought was the Beacon Theatre's official website. (it was what first came up when you googled beacon theatre at that time) The remenants of that site are: http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theat ... eater.html though it looked much more official at that time.I noticed they had tickets for sale for a very high price but thought it was money that would go to charity since all ticket revenue was for charity. So, I spent $650 using my AMEX and got a ticket. A scalper met me in NYC, put a wrist band around my wrist and gave me the ticket. The organization I found out that I was buying the tickets from was Tickets Now which is a huge scalper that does millions of dollars of business each year, perhaps even more than 100 million. Even when I found out, I still thought it was above board. Since then I have learned that they sometimes do run above board operations but It appears that they mostly work with invidual scalpers who they pay for the tickets but who also agree to abide by their rules and rule number one is that the tickets are guaranteed.

The good part: I found out the night before the show (but after I got the ticket) that you needed photo ID not only to pick up the ticket, but to get into theatre when you went to the show. I called Tickets Now the next day and explained this to them. They said the scalper would be by to pick up the wrist band and ticket within the hour and that I would get a full refund on my AMEX - which I did.

Based on that experience, if I were ever desperate for a ticket again and willing to pay the $$, I would go with them because they stood behind their product. The biggest fear I have always had when dealing with ticket scalper is trusting that you are getting what they say you are getting.

Cheers