Hot tickets… but at the right price!

but at the right price!

How to navigate the online market

Securing tickets for sought-after events without paying way over the odds means understanding the online market.

Lisa Verrico gives a guide

From smash-hit theatre shows to little literary festivals, we now buy the majority of our tickets online. it is sometimes a confusing process that can result in fans buying fake tickets or paying considerably more than they intended.

earlier this year, Claire turnham made the news – and ended up in the House of Commons – after mistakenly paying £1,421 for four tickets to take her teenagers to see ed Sheeran in dublin.

Like many people unfamiliar with today’s ticketing market, Claire simply went to the Viagogo website. when £263 popped up, she assumed it was for four tickets – an easy mistake to make as they were initially sold for between £50 and £75 each – but £263 was the price per ticket! She was also charged hundreds of pounds in fees, which is perfectly legal.

Only when Claire took her story to the papers was she offered a refund. thousands of people every year in Britain are caught out by “secondary ticketing” websites – ie sites that resell tickets, often for much more than their face value.

the House of Commons, which has been looking in to secondary ticketing, invited Claire to tell her story to a select committee debating whether a change in the law is required. that change has yet to happen. the laws around reselling tickets were tweaked two years ago – seat numbers and rows now have to be shown on secondary sites – but have made little impact. Claire set up a “Victims of Viagogo” group on Facebook and has been inundated with stories from 2,000 fans, many struggling to get a refund. read on to find the best way to navigate the market.