Petition Tag - ticketmaster

Tickets for virtually all popular social events are being re sold at inflated, often unrealistic and unaffordable prices purely for financial gain, by people who buy tickets and then re-sell them to companies such as SEATWAVE, VIAGOGO, GETMEIN and EBAY, they make huge profits while genuine members of the public are unable to afford or have to pay vast amounts of money to see the event of their choice because tickets are already sold out though normal channels.

These companies are now working in conjunction with major ticket sellers such as TICKETMASTER who actually recommend customers try finding tickets from these sellers when their tickets have sold out.

It's time to make a stand and put an end to this way of re-selling tickets.

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Stop Scalpers - Take Action

Make it illegal for tickets & merchandise to be sold for more than face value.

For years I've found myself frustrated by scalpers. Their objective is simple, to buy event tickets & merchandise in mass & re-sell them to the public & make a huge profit. Tickets are most commonly re-sold via online sites such as eBay. It's a get rich quick scheme. A scheme which affects all of us, the fans. Whether it be music or sporting events, the fans end up losing out & not getting tickets to the events. If they do end up getting tickets, is because they've generally been forced to pay anywhere from double to 10x more than the official retail price.

I've had enough. It's time to fight back. With your help, we can take this to the top & change the law. My plan is to get as many people as possible to join this site & let their opinions known. Once a significant number of people have joined I will start by taking this to local parliament in each state, to federal parliament, to a variety of media including newspaper, radio & television, to ticket issuers & to eBay.

Examples of current legislation:

The Victorian Minister for Sport and Recreation has declared some events as “declared events” under the Sports Event Ticketing (Fair Access) Act 2002 (Vic). Examples of declared events include the Australian Football League Grand Final and the 2007 World Swimming Championships. This legislation deems the conditions on tickets to such events as valid and enforceable. Those conditions include the requirement that these tickets must not be re-sold above their face value. Tickets for declared events must be listed at the face value of the tickets or below, using the “Buy it Now” function.

Queensland legislation makes it unlawful for a seller to sell or offer for sale tickets to some events held in Queensland at a price greater than 10% above the original ticket price for the ticket. If you are selling a ticket to a national or international sport, recreational or entertainment event, or special event that is staged at a facility that the Queensland Government has declared to be a major sports facility, you must not, within or outside Queensland, resell (this includes offer for sale) the ticket at a price greater than 10% above the original price of the ticket. For more information, please see Part 4A of the Major Sports Facilities Act 2001.

Help put a stop to scalpers. Please sign this petition. Together we can make a difference.

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On several dates in March, many people logged on to the Ticketmaster website to purchase tickets for the 2009 Jonas Brothers World Tour presale. Withinthe first 5 minutes, the presale was almost completely sold out, leaving less that desirable seats scattered throughout the venues. Shortly after, many tickets, specifically VIP and floor seats began to appear on eBay.com for ridiculously escalated prices.

Assuming there would be seats left during the General Admission sale on the morning March 28, many fans signed on. Instead of a renewed chance at purchasing decent seats, they were only met with disappointment, and an even worse selection of seats than offered during the presale.

Having dealt with this during the Jonas Brothers' 2008 tour, I decided that perhaps my only option would be to purchase from one of these resellers. Upon contacting one in particular and making an offer of $400 for four floor seats (which are priced at approximately $80 each), I was informed that any offer not close to his requested $900 would be declined.

Tickets are already costly, and fans should not be forced to pay anything more than face value in order to enjoy their sought experience.

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On November 12 2007, many people logged on to the Ticketek and Ticketmaster websites to purchase tickets for the Bon Jovi presale. Within 1 minute, the presale was sold out. 30mins later, many tickets began to appear on eBay Australia for up to 5 times the original purchase price.

As an example of this:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BON-JOVI-TICKETS-SYDNEY-2nd-ROW_W0QQitemZ320182856948QQihZ011QQcategoryZ59968QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

These tickets have an original purchase price of $199. So the total face value of these tickets is $400.

On November 15 2007, tickets to the same concert went on sale to the General Public. Again, tickets sold in minutes and again, eBay was flooded with auctions only minutes later.

To address this issue, I started an auction on November 12 2007 for a mouse, in which I also told my story about how the mouse was unlucky and I proceeded to explain how scalpers had stolen our tickets. The auction was taken down by eBay 15hrs later as it was in the wrong category. In these 15hrs, I have over 300 views and over 35 emails of support to "Stop the Scalpers and enforce ticket sales on eBay to be at Face Value ONLY".

I relisted my unlucky mouse, along with my story on November 13 2007 (in the correct category). eBay shut down this auction on November 15 at 4:00pm. The reason this time was that I was expressing personal views in my auction (as I mentioned that I dislike the scalper scum on eBay). In the 2.5days the auction was up, it had over 1400 views and over 130 emails of support.

eBay will let scalpers sell tickets illegally, but I cant voice my opinion? So here I am!

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Dear Mr. Buffett,

We, your fans, are asking for your help. The problem is the difficulty that your true fans have had in getting tickets to your concerts. Many fans stand in line for hours or spend hours on the phone and end up with no tickets. Ticket agents are able to get plenty of tickets before they even go on sale, yet we as your fans are not able to get tickets unless we pay the scalpers prices which range from $140-$600 for tickets with a face value of $60. Not to mention the orchestra and floor seats that scalpers sell for around $1500.



We realize that this problem is due in part to Ticketmaster. The only solution we have come up
with is to try and protest the actions of Ticketmaster by not buying any tickets from them. However, that would also mean we would never be able to see you and hear you in concert. We would like for you to look into trying to find a way to ensure that your fans are taken care of. We realize that this is a big undertaking, but some other performers have already tried different ways of doing this, so we know that it is possible to make a difference.



We ask that you please try to help you fans who have stuck with you through the
years and are now finding it difficult to pay $140.00 per ticket or face the thought of not spending our summers with you. We ask for you help for ourselves but also point out the fact that you are not seeing any of the money that the scalpers (ticket agents) are making on your name, talent and popularity. Taking some of the power away from Ticketmaster and the ticket agents will not only benefit your fans, it will benefit you.

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