Are you a fan of The Eagles? I would certainly enjoy going to one of their concerts, but I will never buy a ticket from Ticketmaster again.
You can try this on your own. Here is what I did.
1. I picked a city where The Eagles will be putting on a concert. I chose Saskatoon.
2. I tried to purchase one ticket at any price in the best possible seat in the best possible location. In other words, find me any seat.
The result was that there were no seats left.
Had I been successful, I would have been paying $199.50, $159.50 or $99.50 for my ticket.
So I hopped over on the Internet to a company called TicketsNow. Guess what? It had tickets for this concert. However, if you want to go, get out your wallet. The cheapest ticket is $241 and the most expensive $588.
When the tickets go online, TicketsNow seems to be able to scoop up a good number of tickets, even though there is usually a maximum number you can buy at one time.
If I buy a ticket from a guy on the street for more than it’s value, it’s called scalping, which is illegal in Ontario, although it is rarely enforced. If I buy a ticket from TicketsNow, it is not considered scalping, even though I will probably be paying more than double the ticket value.
But here is the kicker. TicketsNow is a Ticketmaster company. Don’t believe me? Go to the TicketsNow website. It is there for all to see. Ticketmaster is allowing its own company to buy tickets so it can rip you off. One of the excuses it uses is that it wants to make sure that the true fan has access to attending a concert. Right! Those Ticketmaster people are really nice, always thinking of loyal Eagles fans.
This activity should be filed under the category of “there should be a law against it.”
The second question I ask is to the artists themselves. Are they aware this is going on? Do they care that somebody is charging more than the face value for their tickets? No wonder concert ticket prices keep going up and up. If The Eagles realize that people are willing to pay over $500 to attend one of their concerts, then they will have no problem asking for more next time.
.
In 1964, I could have seen The Beatles at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto for $5.50 for the best seats in the house. Compare that with seeing The Eagles in Saskatoon through TicketsNow.
While not illegal, it is just not right. As I said, I will never use Ticketmaster again.
2 comments:
So, John...my question is THIS..are you going to saskatoon to see the Eagles or did you just do this for fun?
Just for fun, sort of. I wanted to rant on the unfair practice of Ticketmaster of buying its own tickets and selling them at a higher price through another company. There is no way I could afford these high-priced tickets.
Post a Comment