Buying tickets for gigs these days
Coldplay - Emirates Stadium June 2012. Tickets on sale 9am Friday 18th November 2011. I was online, logged in and punched in 3 for the unreserved seating at exactly 09:00... after a couple of mins - can't allocate your request. Try again - 7 min wait... think I'll be clever and start a second window - neat eh! No they've thought of that somehow via Cookies I presume or IP tracing spot it and tell me to start again - bugger. So go again about 09:10 now... more than 15 min wait. Hmm... not looking good. Not unexpectedly it tells me again cannot fulfill the request. One last try - instant rejection... sold out! What a joke.
So I try another site - that says all the cheaper ones are sold out already so I elect for the more pricey reserved seats... yippee success, however we'll need oxygen due to the altitude we are sat at and we're in a different postcode to the stage - how come they are £20 dearer than the nearer unreserved seats? Oh yes - of course they were all sold out... in 10 mins.... so I had little choice. Call me a cynical old git but I bet they are already available at inflated cost on the "fan ticket exchange" sites. The whole thing these days is a total sham. Still I'll have a happy teenage daughter when I tell her we can go to the ball... ;-) And of course we're lucky I have a job where I can have a coffee and have unrestricted access to the internet... how anyone who works in a job like a teacher or lorry driver or policeman etc. is ever likely to be able to buy concert tickets in the modern world is frankly beyond me - seems less than equitable. Maybe the old days of bunking off school to stand in a queue at the box office was in fact actually fairer.
So I try another site - that says all the cheaper ones are sold out already so I elect for the more pricey reserved seats... yippee success, however we'll need oxygen due to the altitude we are sat at and we're in a different postcode to the stage - how come they are £20 dearer than the nearer unreserved seats? Oh yes - of course they were all sold out... in 10 mins.... so I had little choice. Call me a cynical old git but I bet they are already available at inflated cost on the "fan ticket exchange" sites. The whole thing these days is a total sham. Still I'll have a happy teenage daughter when I tell her we can go to the ball... ;-) And of course we're lucky I have a job where I can have a coffee and have unrestricted access to the internet... how anyone who works in a job like a teacher or lorry driver or policeman etc. is ever likely to be able to buy concert tickets in the modern world is frankly beyond me - seems less than equitable. Maybe the old days of bunking off school to stand in a queue at the box office was in fact actually fairer.
I don't understand why no-one has the will to stamp out reselling. If I buy a plane ticket, I can't resell it to some bloke I've never met for him to use.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine wanted to go to Glastonbury last year so we spent about an hour on two different computers repeatedly pressing the refresh button until one of us got a window and got in.
@lobby - it is easy. I went to a Metallica fan club gig at the O2 a few years back. It was my son who bought us the tickets. Simple deal - print out the email with seat numbers etc. on it. But also - turn up with the credit/debit card you used to buy them. On the door loads of people with handheld scanner things that a) read the bar code off the email and then b) swiped the card and confirmed the details. SIMPLE! So if they can do it for one gig surely etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteHowever - after the stamping out of eBay reselling the "ticket exchanges" have become popular have they not, as the original supplier of the ticket (Ticketmaster et. al.) verify it is a genuine ticket and you aren't getting something knocked up in 5 mins on a computer... Who makes the commission on the exchange sites... oh yes the ticket merchants!
Teachers: we set the kids off on a very very long activity where they can make as much mess as they like, and you sneak on the internet while they are doing it, allowing your TA to keep a good eye on the class. I should not, perhaps, divulge this information. Don't tell anyone.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got the tickets. Even though it is Coldplay. ;-) P
Hahaha, I'm with Pixie about Coldplay, but whatever floats your boat... Gratz on the Tix.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't really a black number, your blog is just a few varied shades of grey (gray?).
Anyways, it's all in how we feel. I just knew I was in need of a little something to pep me up on mine.
You always rock... J
How nice that you can share the with your daughter.
ReplyDeleteAs for the inflated pticket prices? Somethings are just not negotiable. You know what I mean? And at our age, we can afford it.