Well the title of the Dispatches program was called the great tickets scandal. Undercover investigation found that the public are being ripped off big time by these companies. The promoters are allocating tickets directly to Agents such as Viagogo and Seatwave at large markups but the staff are told that this must be kept secret from members of the public.When tickets went on sale at the 02 for the group Coldplay they sold-out cost within minutes after going on sale. Within 15 minutes of the box office opening these seats were being sold on secondary websites at many times over the asking price for instance £1000 for a single ticket. This is one of the shocking reasons why tickets cost so much and I find a really alarming.A Paul McCartney fan camped out to get tickets to see him at Liverpool Echo Arena. They had, apparently, 1 million hits online as soon as the tickets went on sale. Despite the fact that this lady was number one in the queue she could not get any front-row seat for the show. Soon after the tickets are being sold online from £126 to £1100. this lady ended up buying a ticket £190 from Seatwave -double the face value.These agents say that they are only in business to enable fans to sell tickets to one another in fact this is actually a very small proportion of the business they do as mostly they get tickets directly from the promoters and do a 90/10 split with the Agent, so the public end up paying way over the odds for the ticket.If people think this is a fair practice than I'm sorry but I do not agree.These agents also had loads of credit cards with over buying a ticket in their own families names in order to sell on at hugely inflated prices.Now I agree that another annoying thing is the fact that some of these theaters and places like the 02 have a booking fee, whether one pays in cash or by credit/debit card. In fact my friend and I went on The One Show last year because we were charged £8.25 each when buying a ticket at £75 and this was paid in CASH and in person at the Box Office!The O2's claim that the additional fee was for security, staff, opening hours, all sorts of excuses to justify the fee. A few years ago I booked at the 02 and didn't have to pay a booking fee because I paid in cash. This is a new way of getting more money out of the public.So although I agree that the government has lots of things which need sorting out I still think this is another matter which needs attention. I for one I'm fed up being ripped off!
Jean F Fernandez ● 5179d