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John Mellencamp was a sold-out show at the Midland by AMC last Friday. But not everyone holding a ticket was able to get in.
Why? Shady ticket brokers and/or sellers. A number of people showed up at the concert with bar coded tickets printed off computers. However, because more than one copy of that ticket had been printed and sold to ticket brokers, they were unable to get it. That’s because once a ticket is scanned at the venue, its bar code is no longer useable.
In other words only the first person presenting a bar coded ticket gets in. Concertgoers presenting tickets with the same code after that do not, because the code has expired.
That’s what happened at Mellencamp.
I spent a lot of time in the box office that night. And we resolved any issues that came up for customers who had purchased tickets directly from Ticketmaster through our computerized system.
However, the people who buy tickets through a broker never enter this Ticketmaster system and their purchase receipts can only be traced back to the broker or purchaser who originally purchased them through Ticketmaster.
Not from the receipt the broker gave them.
So unless you’re getting the physical Ticketmaster ticket stock tickets from one of these brokers, there’s no way to guarantee that you’re not getting a ticket that the seller hasn’t already sold two, three or four times.
Meaning that if one of these brokers or sellers is sending you a link to a ticket that you can print, there is NO WAY TO GUARANTEE THAT YOUR TICKET HASN’T BEEN SENT TO TEN OTHER BUYERS!
Again, the ticketholder who had that ticket scanned at the venue on the night of the show first is in. Anynyone who shows up after that with what a ticket bearing the same bar code is going to be turned away.
And that, unfortunately, is what happened at Mellencamp.
How to avoid this? Only buy your tickets through Ticketmaster or make darn sure you’re getting the actual physical ticket which cannot be duplicated.
Not the printed at home on a computer ticket.
That’s fine, but
Ticketmaster sucks all sorts of ass, Larry. You can’t just pay for a ticket. You have to suffer through a "handling fees" and a "building facility charge," a "ball-scratching fee" and a "order processing fee" and of course the "delivery fee" (EVEN IF I PRINT THEM OUT AT HOME) and a "just give us $10 more – because you have to!" fee that make going to a concert at a Ticketmaster venue like having your balls squeezed.
Which is why the concert experience has been soured for a lot of us. Ticketmaster acts shitty for no good reason other than pure greed. Plus, as you just wrote, the system doesn’t even work. Because there’s another fee for having physical tickets mailed.
You should be ashamed for even using them.
Hey, Hugh
1. You can always buy tickets at the box office of a Ticketmaster venue and not have to pay any handling, "ball-scratching fee"s what-so-ever. You pay this nifty little thing called the ticket price.
2. These brokers Larry is referring to charge 2 or 3 times the actual ticket price, plus their own shipping fees, and they usually use fed-ex or ups which drives up the cost, and their own handling fees. Only for you to get the tickets via email and then have to print them out yourself. Oh, and there is no way to track it once the tickets get passed to the ticket brokers.
So while it may seem that ticketmaster venues are forcing you to spend more money on useless fess, you always have the added security of actually receiving a valid ticket. And the alternative of just simply driving on down to the box office the old fashion way and not paying any fees at all.
A Question
Hovick: And what, exactly, is it that you do to help combat these "shady ticket brokers and/or sellers"? Or do you just sit back and let it keep happening and claim it’s not your responsibility? Just curious.
Ticket brokers
"I spent a lot of time in the box office that night. And we resolved any issues that came up for customers who had purchased tickets directly from Ticketmaster through our computerized system."
Brokers do not buy etickets from the street and only very rarely have problems with tickets at the door. Most of the bad tickets most likely came from craigslist or private parties. If you don’t want to buy tickets from "shady" ticket brokers then check with the BBB. Many ticket brokers have better records than Ticketmaster with the BBB.