Viagogo ticketing scam rips off fans

Norah Jones performing in Los Angeles late last year. Photo: Getty Images
Norah Jones performing in Los Angeles late last year. Photo: Getty Images
Scammers have left Norah Jones fans out of pocket and ticketless after seats for her Dunedin show were sold multiple times through a controversial reselling website.

Promoters have cancelled 24 tickets to the American artist's April show at the Regent Theatre which were being resold in violation of the terms and conditions.

The tickets were being sold through the Switzerland-based website Viagogo, which is being sued by the Commerce Commission for allegedly breaching the Fair Trading Act.

A Frontier Touring spokeswoman said the company, along with the Regent Theatre, had taken action against scalping on Jones' show and cancelled 24 tickets which were now available again through TicketDirect.

Frontier Touring owner Michael Gudinski said promoters, artists and venues were frustrated their tickets continued to be sold through the website.

Both Australia and New Zealand needed to follow the United Kingdom's lead and force the website to give customers more information about what they were buying, Mr Gudinski said.

Google also needed stop accepting advertising money from the company which almost always appeared at the top of searches for concerts, he said.

He applauded the proactive approach taken by the theatre and ticket company and said it needed to be done across the board so no-one else got "ripped off" when trying to buy concert tickets.

He also warned those who still had not bought tickets to the Eagles concert in Dunedin next month to avoid Viagogo or any other reseller.

"We're over 30,000 already and it's going to be a great show but people need to know there are still tickets for the Eagles left and they shouldn't be going to any of these sites."

Regent Theatre director Sarah Anderson called the website "Vianogo" and said people should avoid using it.

Theatre staff noticed tickets to Jones' show were being bought by people based in countries where there had previously been problems with Viagogo and contacted the ticketing agents and promoters, Ms Anderson said.

Anyone who had purchased tickets to the show through the website and worried about the validity of their seats needed to contact Viagogo, she said.

Viagogo has responded to questions from the Otago Daily Times via email.

Will Viagogo contact those who have purchased the resold tickets which are now invalid?

"Event organisers sometimes make claims that they will deny entry to people who have purchased resold tickets. These types of entry restrictions are highly unfair and in our view, unenforceable and illegal.

"Therefore, as with all tickets on our platform, Viagogo customers should feel confident that they will gain entry to the event, and that is why we back every ticket with the Viagogo guarantee."

Will those ticket holders be refunded? If so, how do they go about getting a refund?

"If a customer has any problems with their tickets, we urge them to contact us immediately on our event day hotline.

We are often able to find replacement tickets right away, and in the rare instances we are not able to, customers receive a full refund."

Will Viagogo continue to let tickets to Norah Jones' Dunedin show be sold through the website?

"All tickets on Viagogo are valid and it is perfectly legal to resell a ticket or give it to someone else if you want to."

 

Comments

Bye, bye, Viagogo.

How many times does this have to get mentioned before people get enough brains to stop buying anything off that site. Its on the news every week and yet people are still stupid enough to get caught

 

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