5 Tips to Buying Tickets Online
The Internet has completely revolutionised the way event tickets are bought and sold. No more standing in lines for hours – unless you are getting an iPhone 6. The Internet allows buyers to obtain any last-minute tickets or hunt down those hard to find, sold-out event tickets.
With international musical acts visiting in the spring and summer, and finals fever hitting across the nation this weekend (Go Swannies!), we can again see how getting tickets to highly sought-after events can be tough and also quite inflexible.
With my team playing in the AFL Grand Final, I was interested in seeing if there was much action on Ebay and – if I missed out on tickets – what I should do to ensure the ticket wasn’t a scam.
Here’s what I learnt:
1. Don’t use PayPal to buy tickets! Yes, PayPal gives you protection when using Ebay, but it does NOT give any protection for event tickets. You can find out which other items are not protected by reading PayPal’s Buyer Protection Policy. Use your credit card for tickets because you have more chance of being covered by your bank.
2. For Ebay and Gumtree, check any re-sell policies, terms and conditions with the original event organiser. You might find that some tickets require Photo ID at the actual event or some tickets may have a very clear strict policy that limits the ability of the original buyer to sell them to someone else.
3. Always confirm what form the tickets are in. This is very important, because there are a range of forms such as:
- Physical Tickets which are known as “in-hand”, and
- Ticketek or Ticketmaster electronic tickets which are emailed to the original buyer
I appreciate the convenience of buying Electronic-tickets as once the payment has been confirmed all that needs to be done is to email the tickets from seller to buyer. However, as these tickets are normally downloadable PDF attachments, it means the seller could have downloaded the tickets and sold them to several buyers – and whoever is at the event first will be authorised to enter.
“In-hand” means you know the seller has the tickets and they can be sent via Registered Post; this is the only secure postal option and items are insured, guaranteeing they reach you safely.
4. Always look into who the seller is. Check out the feedback of a seller on Ebay and for Gumtree and Ebay, always contact the seller if you have any questions. The amount of times I have asked the seller a question on Ebay and never got a reply… that answers my question straight away. No buy!
5. There are websites out there designed to on-sell your event tickets and to be a site safe for buyers. Some include:
Viagogo – this is great because if you are a buyer you can sign up and be the first to receive any update on any ticket news for the event of your selection. One of our members recently bought Rolling Stones tickets on this site and when they cancelled, she got her money back in full.
TicketsRus – make it easy to sell any unwanted event tickets and TicketsRus find the buyers and guarantee a ticket is valid for entry and described to the buyer or money back. There is no communication between Seller and Buyer, TicketsRus do it all for you.
So if your event ticket has sold out in 3 minutes or less (it happens) and you are finding alternatives, keep yourself covered and always investigate, find forums or policy pages, check the seller’s feedback and check with the original event organiser.
That way you can laugh at your favourite comedian, sing along to your favourite band or cheer on the Sydney Swans (or your sports team of choice of course), without getting scammed.
