Exaggerated ticket prices from secondary sites is not just a problem plaguing major sporting events and concerts anymore — it’s causing audience members at local venues to pay top dollar for events which regular price tickets are still available for.
Last week, local venue leaders joined forces to warn customers to avoid overpaying for tickets by making sure they’re purchasing tickets straight from the source.
“The secondary ticket market is not something that’s only occurring in larger communities or in international sporting and concert events that most people think of when they think of exaggerated prices on tickets,” said Kate Williams, executive director at the Ashwaubenon Performing Arts Center. “This is happening here at home, and that’s why all of us are here together and united on this topic. Even at a venue that’s the size of the Ashwaubenon Performing Arts Center, which is 700 seats… We get calls frequently.”
“It’s almost getting out of hand how many people are buying tickets from secondary sites to our venues for events that are not sold out,” said Terry Charles, senior manager, corporate communications at PMI Entertainment Group. “It’s one thing if somebody chooses to use a secondary site to buy a ticket to something that they can’t get a ticket to from the venue, but for us, we have tickets to events that are not sold out and they are mistakenly going to other sites that look like our sites and are paying tremendously more money, paying more fees, and getting little customer service because they technically aren’t our customers.”
For the 7 p.m. show of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra coming to the Resch Center on Wednesday, Nov. 13, TicketStar, the official source of tickets for Resch Center events, lists tickets starting at $60 with prices topping out at $110.
TicketsCenter (tickets-center.com) — a third-party ticket sale service which appears as the ‘sponsored’ link in a Google search for Trans-Siberian Orchestra tickets in Green Bay — shows available tickets for that evening’s concert starting at $159 and going as high as $509.
Getting overpriced tickets, though, is actually one of the more positive outcomes of purchasing tickets through a secondhand site. The alternative? Paying top dollar for tickets that won’t work.
“It’s safe to say that for every major event we have, whether it’s Alabama or the Trans-Siberian Orchestra or maybe even Disney on Ice, there’s probably at least one to two to a handful for every show that it’s a scam. They have a ticket that looks real, but that ticket has already been scanned in. And the first one that scans it is the one who gets in.”
“We had the Styx concert recently, and we had a gentleman that bought eight tickets and resold them not only once, but twice to individuals from two different parties…” said Charles Edinger, director of TicketStar. “We take it very seriously when it comes to the box office because the patron is the one that’s actually getting short changed here.”
So how do people find themselves on secondary ticket sale sites? It’s easier than you might expect.
“What will come up is going to be a number of choices and maybe the TicketStar of the Resch Center site is maybe going to be third or fourth down on the list and there’s going to be other sites above that… They’re essentially paying to get the higher spots in the Google search. And we’ve done things to optimize where we can land up there, but we don’t have unlimited dollars to make sure we’re the first choice.”
Ticket buyers aren’t the only ones losing when they purchase from a secondary site — the practice harms venues, too.
“We don’t know how many people are seeing those inflated prices and saying, ‘I’m not going to pay $250 for a nosebleed seat…’” Charles said. “We don’t really know how many people are making this decision not to buy tickets because it’s so high. We see it on Facebook if we announce an event… We see in the comments, ‘Wow, tickets are $300…’ And that’s when we have to be on our mark and chime in and say, ‘They’re not that expensive, you’re on a secondary site.’”
“There is a financial loss here that comes in the form of the trust from our patrons,” said Kelli Stickland, executive and artistic director at the Weidner Center. “As a venue, we frequently get people standing in front of us as they’re learning that they’ve been taken advantage of or misled, and often these are folks who’ve been very engaged with us and supported us for a long time. And they will ask, ‘Can you refund the difference?’ Well, we don’t actually hold those dollars… Maybe intellectually people understand that, but it still has an impact on our relationship because the venue — the folks who are there with boots on the ground the night of the show — that’s who absorbs the feelings that our patrons have about the experience that they have with is… There is a financial jeopardy here for us in the trust that our patrons have with us.”
While TicketStar has implemented some safety measures to help alleviate the problem, little other action can be taken.
“I don’t know that anybody’s doing anything illegal here,” said Edinger. “If you look at the site, they’re telling you how they do business — that they’re not associated with a venue, this is a ticket reselling site, that you bought tickets from a third party. Ultimately, what they’re doing is they’re selling you a promise… Many times they’re promising tickets even before tickets are on sale to the public… You’re simply buying a promise, and if you read all the fine print, which rarely anybody does, you see that information. I don’t know that there’s any legal thing that can be done… Yeah, they’re posing as venues or they’re posing as ticket sellers that make it look like the venue, but they don’t ever say they’re the venue. That’s where it gets tricky.”
The burden of making sure tickets come from a legitimate source, then, falls to the consumer.
When looking for tickets to an event, the first step should be seeking out the venue’s official website.
“Most venues are going to use their venue name in their web address,” said Charles. “It’s meyertheatre.org. It’s weidnercenter.com. It’s reschcenter.com.
That’s the simplest way to make sure you’re on the right site… And then once you’re there, venue sites are pretty obvious in how they’re laid out. These other sites, even though they have pictures of our venues, they just don’t have the same feel. It really goes back to the old ‘buyer beware.’”
If you’re ready to check out, double check that the information being provided to you is consistent with what you would expect from an official site.
“When you’re checking out, if they haven’t been able to provide you with an exact seat location, that’s a red flag,” said Kate Williams. “What happens to customers that I’ve spoken with in our venue that have this happen to them, they call me after they’ve made their purchase saying, ‘I’m curious and I’m wondering if I can find out where my seats are.’ And the reason they don’t have seat assignments is because, again, they’re buying a promise from another party. That other party doesn’t have the tickets yet. They’re just offering the service of ‘If you pay us x amount of dollars, we’ll go find those tickets for you and then you’ll get what you get.’ If it just doesn’t feel right, go with your gut. If the price seems way too high for something that you think you have a pretty good sense of what those tickets are going for, double check your source.”
And if you’re still unsure or something just doesn’t feel right, don’t hesitate to contact the venue via social media or a phone call.
“If you’re having trouble finding the venue’s website because of various circumstances — like if you’re using a search engine and type in Weidner Center, you might see a couple look-alike sites… Use social media as a tool to your advantage,” said Troy Williams, marketing manager at the Weidner Center. “The Weidner does have a Facebook account — we have all the social media accounts. We will send you from our social media accounts to where you need to go to directly buy tickets… Or go to the artist’s website, Instagram or Facebook. There will be direct links there to get you where you need to go. The artist never wants to steer you wrong… And listen to your gut. If it feels wrong or if it feels too expensive, it probably is.”
TicketStar’s official website can be found at ticketstar.evenue.net.
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