This morning, as tickets went on sale for the Australian Coldplay Tour, complaints on social media streamed in from fans wondering how on Earth, at 9:00:30, when tickets had only been on sale for 30 seconds, had all premium ticketing sold out?
Who could say? But you can bet, it may have something to do with he following.
1. Ticket scalpers were using bot or macro technologies to scoop up tickets and beat anyone using a keyboard.
Or:
2. Ticketek and Ticketmaster had already sold off premium tickets to "authorised premium sellers" that offer outrageously priced packages, accessible to only the cashed up and privileged.
Apparently tickets for the Coldplay shows have been appearing on E-Bay for between 100 and 300% more than you would pay through Ticketmaster..... Ticketmaster's helpful response was to isssue a statement on their facebook page this morning warning fans against purchasing from unauthorised sellers.
Once again, a piss weak response to an ever growing problem. If fans can't purchase tickets through authorized dealers due to scalpers sucking more than there share, fans are forced to pay their over inflated prices if they want to see the show. Most fans are willing to do this in order to see their favourite acts....The survival of scalpers is not due to these fans but to antiquated ticketing systems that do not require ID with purchase and entry.
As per usual you can voice your opinion at www.thesefans.com.au and hopefully in a magical and wonderful future world, we will all be able to purchase our tickets at RRP.
