VIAGOGO IS A SCAM – STAY FAR AWAY! I'm writing this in absolute anger and frustration, and I hope it serves as a warning to anyone even thinking about using Viagogo. This company is nothing but a scam operation, and they should be shut down immediately. In December 2024, I bought tickets through Viagogo to see HURTS at Brixton Academy for my fiancée's birthday. The show was sold out, and I was desperate to get them because she loves the band. I paid nearly £200 for the tickets – and honestly, I had a bad feeling right from the start. But I pushed it aside because I wanted to make her birthday special. Weeks turned into months, and there were no tickets. I contacted Viagogo, and they casually told me they "weren't available yet." That made no sense – I'd paid for them in full months ago. Two weeks before the show? Still no tickets. Their response? "If they don't show up, we'll refund you." Seriously? That's not a policy – that's gambling with people's money. The day of the concert arrived, and guess what? Still no tickets. I had spent nearly £700 on a hotel, dinner, and travel – all for nothing. I called Viagogo in a panic, and they told me the tickets would arrive. Then, just 20 minutes before the show, they finally emailed me two dodgy screenshots of tickets. I was suspicious but desperate. We went to the venue, had them scanned – and shocker – THEY WERE FAKE. We were pulled aside by security and brought to an area where at least 10 other people were also holding fake tickets from Viagogo. It was a sickening moment of realisation – this is a full-blown scam. I called Viagogo, absolutely furious, and the woman on the phone shrugged it off. No help, no apology. Just, "buy new tickets or miss the show." Luckily, the venue released a few more tickets and the security staff helped us get in. If not for that, we – and all the other victims – would've missed everything. Viagogo would've walked away with thousands of pounds, and no accountability. Now it's been over a week, and still no refund. First they blamed my bank (laughable), then after I threatened legal action and police involvement, they magically admitted the refund hadn't even been processed yet. I rarely write reviews, but this experience was so appalling I have to speak out. Viagogo is a predatory company that preys on desperate people. They sell fake tickets, offer zero accountability, and rob people of their money, time, and memories. PLEASE DO NOT BUY FROM VIAGOGO.
Use a reputable company. Listen to your instincts. Don't let these scammers ruin your plans like they almost ruined mine. VIAGOGO IS A SCAM – AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Appalling company to deal with and repeatedly lied to by employees. Flagged to them a week before my event that the venue themselves had informed me that I would not be able to access the show with the e-ticket I had from Viagogo and it had to be transferred into my name by the original seller from point of origin, Ticketmaster. I called Viagogo and told them this and they denied it and told me everything would be fine. I repeated the information given to me by the venue and asked them to contact the seller and request this and also invited them to call the venue themselves to verify. They allegedly contacted the seller who told them it was fine and not necessary. They relayed this back to me while I was still on the line and I explained that this was not acceptable and they needed to contact the venue and speak to them. They said they would do so and call me back the next day. At no point during the many times this was promised over the course of the next six days was this followed through. I explained to them that I was registered disabled, did not live on the UK mainland and would have to book a hotel etc and if I would be impacting my mobility in recovery for several days after the weekend away that I needed assurance I would not have a wasted trip and be turned away from the event. Again, I was told to go and I would be let in. When I continued to insist that the venue themselves had told I would not be able to enter I was then told to call them from the venue on the Saturday night if there was an issue and they would help then. I reiterated my situation and explained why this was not an acceptable resolution. I called repeatedly through the week to have this conversation again and again, sometimes with agents and sometimes with supervisors, all of which promised to make different efforts to verify the information I was giving them and would call me back and never did. I was in contact with them right up to the morning of the event asking them to call the venue and verify the information as it was impossible to supply them with a screen grab of my verbal conversation. I then asked for the option I had been offered by a supervisor (Joshua) three days before to have the transaction cancelled and my money refunded. The supervisor I was speaking to that day refused and said they could only do this if I attended the event and was refused entry.

Literally travel for half a day each way, pay for a hotel and then get potentially turned away just for the pleasure of saying I told you so and then *maybe* getting my ticket refunded.

They disavowed all responsibility for their lack of due diligence checking the ticket details because it was not their responsibility as a marketplace and they just made sure money and goods changed hands. I work in customer service and lead a large team of agents and supervisors and every single one of the people I spoke to would either be on disciplinary action or be fired outright for the shocking lack of knowledge and disrespect they showed in the course of the phone calls. Agents and supervisors were accusing each other and me of lying, repeatedly putting me on silent hold for up to twenty minutes at a time and then dropping the calls and eventually caused me to miss a much anticipated event all because they refused to make a thirty second phone call - with a number I supplied to them - which would have resolved the situation on the first day. This is the truncated version of events as the catastrophic calls really are too numerous and involved to drag others through point by point. Avoid this company at all costs as a general consumer and also as anyone with accessibility needs or issues, they are NOT disability friendly and couldn't care less about supporting their customers as soon as they get your money. I will follow through with my refund request but have no expectation of acknowledgement much less success. I cannot stress enough how dreadful this first and only experience with this company was.

I purchased tickets for Bruce Springsteen as a gift for my parents, but I faced several issues with Viagogo. Initially, the tickets were supposed to be delivered a day before the event, but on the day of the event, they had not arrived. I made multiple attempts to contact Viagogo support to address the problem.

The support team members I interacted with were Princess, Crystal, Wisdom, Andreea, Ardeleanu, and Juliana. Unfortunately, their responses were largely similar. They assured me that it is common for venues, artists, and teams to release tickets closer to the event and emphasized that I was covered by the Viagogo guarantee, which guarantees valid tickets or a refund.

However, despite my repeated requests, they failed to provide a specific timeline for ticket delivery or information about replacement tickets if the originals were not delivered. I tried calling their customer support multiple times but received no response. Eventually, when I did manage to reach them by phone, they informed me that there was a deadline for the seller to provide the tickets within the next hour. If the tickets were not received by then, Viagogo would arrange replacement tickets.

Unfortunately, even after almost two hours from that call, I had not received any replacement tickets. Frustrated, I called them again and requested the replacement tickets, but Juliana from Viagogo informed me that my case had been escalated to the relevant department. They promised to call me back within 30 minutes. At this point, the concert was only one and a half hours away. However, I did not receive any call back as promised.

Feeling anxious and running out of time, I decided to contact the customer service department again. With the concert starting in just one hour, they finally provided me with a link to select new tickets for the event. However, it was unclear whether the newly acquired tickets needed to be printed out. Unfortunately, it was no longer possible for my parents to print the tickets as they were already on their way to the venue.

At this time, there were limited options available for selecting desirable seats for the concert. Additionally, the price difference from the original tickets was refunded to me in the form of vouchers for future use on Viagogo, although I have no intention of utilizing them.

In light of this situation, I inquired about a refund if the digital format tickets turned out to be invalid, considering the circumstances and the lack of time to print physical tickets. Disappointingly, the customer service representative suggested that I could try selling the tickets through their platform if they turned out to be unusable.

Overall, this entire experience with Viagogo was the worst customer service experience I have ever encountered. I have decided not to use their services again in the future.

I was promised the world and got nothing after getting off the phone with Viagogo agents for the fifth time in a week after getting a email to say that my tickets have been transferred I booked a flight and hotel to go to a Concert in Leeds but when I went to get the tickets they were not there in my account either in Ticket Master or The account I had to set up with Viagogo All the agents I spoke to all very nice and all promising to sort it out for me (what a load of bull) I still don't have tickets for the pconcert and at this stage I believe that they were never any tickets there in the first place This has rightly upset my holiday plans and all I got from Viagogo was we will issue a full refund and we apologise for any inconvenience caused
They knew this problem was there a week ago and every agent I spoke to and had to wait over 45 mins at a time listening to the same repeated music they all had a different excuse and were all going to solve this issue for me and were very sorry for this happening till eventually the last agent told me that the tickets that I had purchased had disappeared and that I could purchase another set of tickets from a different sight but it would cost me another €200 extra but I would be getting my refund on the first amount
So much for telling me that Viagogo would not let us down in any way and that if my tickets were not there they would replace them with the same value tickets or even better ones that was their quarantee my advise is not to deal with this company you are dealing with different agents around the world in different countries all very nice on the phone all very polite and apologetic for any hassle caused but in the end all singing from the same sheet not worth any of the stress and financial loss that I had

Tottaly bulldhit! This platform for tickets is useless and no customer support…. I don't recommend!

I ordered 4 Phantom of the Opera (Melbourne) tickets on 26 June 2022. The event date is 27 Dec 2022. I ordered early to ensure seats, as this is for my 2 daughters' birthday celebration, and we're travelling interstate to see it.

When I searched for tickets, the first results that came up were from Viagogo. I was pressured into buying right away as there was a red & bold phrase that says "there are very few tickets left". (In hindsight, I now realized they're referring to just tickets listed on their website. I didn't know this then because I thought they were like Ticketek or TicketMaster). So I ended up paying $584.73 (Section D Reserve). After purchasing, I received my confirmation email for Order no.*******.

On August 7th, I received an update from Viagogo after I followed up on my tickets. They confirmed by email that I will receive them no later than Dec 6th. Their app also showed this info.

On Dec 7th, I checked the app again and the eTickets are still not loaded. I emailed and called customer service as I was getting anxious. I wanted to print the tickets before we travel from Sydney to Melbourne, as we might not have access to a printer there.

I then went to read reviews about Viagogo and only then did I realize that they are a 3rd party marketplace/reseller website. Their website did not look like one and I was under the impression I was buying from a legit ticket seller. You can easily be fooled.

After a lot of emails, a phone agent named Cesar called me. I was informed that the individual seller of my ticket will load the eTickets and I will receive them on Dec 16th.

I was getting anxious because I read reviews from people who paid for overpriced tickets and ended up not receiving them. I didn't want to risk it, so on 09 Dec, I went to the official website of Arts Centre Melbourne (event organizer) and bought my tickets from there. I only had to pay $446.00 for 4 tickets and the seats are better (Section A Reserve). It's $140 cheaper. I also received confirmation that the eTickets will be emailed 3 days prior to the event. That's on 24 Dec. So in this case, why is Viagogo giving me an empty promise that my tickets will be sent on Dec 16th, when the organizer themselves can only send the tickets on 24 Dec? They tell lies just to appease their stressed out customers and to keep them hanging on.

So I called Viagogo on Dec 9th to request to cancel my order and have my money returned. I spoke to 3 agents (Daisy, Theresa, and Mitch). They said they will not be able to cancel the tickets. Their only solution was for me to resell or relist the tickets (which I still don't have, by the way). They sent me a link by email, and here I have the option to resell the tickets and even mark up the prices! Since I was left with no other choice, I relisted my 'non-existent' tickets under relisting no. *******685. I did not mark it up. I just wanted to get back what I paid for. They said that once I have a buyer, they will notify me and pay me a few days after the event. If there will be no buyers, then they said they will not be able to assist - so I would end up having 4 tickets that I won't be able to use. But I think the more likely scenario would be that I will not receive the tickets and also won't get a refund.

By the way, I also got an email that said my re-listing could not be posted to Viagogo, because I haven't uploaded a proof of face value or screenshot of the original purchase of my ticket. How can I do this when I am not the original seller and I have not received any tickets!? It also said "Listings are rejected after 15 days from their creation date. If we don't receive the required proof within that timeframe, we will unfortunately not be able to activate your listing for sale in Australia." Is this a joke? The phone agent told me to disregard that email, but at this point, I don't trust anyone from Viagogo.

That is why I am writing everything now to get ready for lodging a complaint with NSW Fair Trading. I also kept all email correspondence just in case. This scam company needs to be closed down for good.

Viagogo does business in an extremely shady and unethical way.

Before adding my personal experience at the bottom of this review, I took the liberty of offering up a few facts about the company below. I encourage you to take the time to read this before throwing your money out the window.

As of October 2020, the company had 26 legal and government actions filed against them by multiple countries. They also have class actions suits filed against them by countries (not just individuals).

Their CEO was let go from StubHub in 2004, after which he started Viagogo, and has since encompassed quite the negative reputation:

In May 2018, BBC News reported that the UK Government's digital minister advised that consumers should not use Viagogo, one of the big four secondary ticket sites. Margot James said: "Don't choose Viagogo - they are the worst".

In August 2018, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority took Viagogo to the High Court for breaking the law; Baker did not issue any comment or statement. The company reached a resolution with the CMA in November 2018.

In January 2019, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Eric Baker risked jail over failure to properly protect customers.

My story: As you can see from the first picture, below, they do not show you the actual seat numbers they are selling you. It wasn't until I accepted the tickets and they were transferred to Ticketmaster that I found out they had sold me tickets quite a distance from the exact section that I had clicked on during the purchase.

I've tried resolving it and received multiple robotic emails, one of which makes absolutely no sense referring to my UK Ticketmaster account. I live in the US... don't have a UK account.

I spoke with customer service to request an exchange of these bogus tickets (offering to pay more if I had to) for ones that I had originally tried to purchase. The woman kept insisting that they have a strict policy of no refunds because the third-party seller needs to be paid. That would make sense if it weren't for the fact that the last email I received, after being forced to resell my tickets (my only way out of this) states that I will not receive my money until 8 days after the event.

In my defense, I am very fuzzy right now with COVID and a little off my game, but I am not dumb enough to just take them at their word.

Please be wary of this company. Their practices are helping them remain extremely profitable!

NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM VIAGOGO UNLESS YOU WANT TO GET CHEATED OR RIPPED OFF LIKE I, AS WELL AS SO MANY OTHERS, HAVE. Viagogo once again proves how shady and sleezy they are by screwing over yet another consumer (me). I purchased tickets on 4/26/2019 from viagogo for an event on 5/8/2019 and was promised my tickets no later than 5/5/2019. I didn't receive the tickets by 5/5/2019 so I filed a dispute with my bank and purchased alternate tickets from a reputable vendor (where I received tickets immediately after purchase) and only then, when Viagogo got the dispute notice from my bank, did I receive tickets for the event at 3pm on 5/7/2019. At this point I now had duplicate tickets ($230 worth from Viagogo) and since they did not transfer them to me until last minute I was then unable to post them to any of the ticket sale sites (Viagogo themselves, ticketmaster, and stub hub) for sale as the event was "too close to guarantee the buyer would receive the tickets" that I would have obviously transferred immediately, unlike the shady people at Viagogo. Not to mention, reaching any kind of logical and helpful customer support is impossible and I was told that I would not be given a refund for the tickets, despite having a written promise from viagogo in my email of when I would receive the tickets by and did not receive them. Viagogo needs to get shut down as this is about the shadiest ticket resell service I have ever seen and the condition in which I was treated has spiraled out of control. If I could give a 0 star review I would. I can't believe that shady business like this is allowed to continue. I am not going to give up and I am going to keep fighting Viagogo and keep working with my bank to show what has happened to me and so many other people to get this resolved and get my hard earned money back. They never once responded logically to my concerns or addressed any of them directly, they lied about trying to call me to resolve the issue, and they sent me emails with fake URLs to have me "send in screenshots of the problems" that I could not access.

My husband purchased 2 Trevor Noah tickets for Dec 21st for my Christmas present last week. A few days later it was announced that the concert was postponed. There is no contact number for Viagogo so we called Ticketmaster. We were told we have been scammed and that our tickets are fake. We were told the original name of the purchaser is A. Nesterov in Russia. Apparently these scam artists buy one real ticket from Ticketmaster and make several copies of this ticket and post online with huge admin mark up fees. I can't believe we have fallen for such a scam. I guess Viagogo's response (if they ever respond) will be that until we turn up and present our tickets at the venue they may not be fakes. However, we are not in the UAE next year so cannot even try turning up to discover if they are fake or not! As the Ticketmaster guy said "good luck trying to get your money back, it will never happen." It would be interesting to hear how many other people have bought tickets off a Mr A Nestorov!

I have since found out that Viagogo are under investigation in the UK.

CMA secures court order against viagogo. Hopefully this will apply in the UAE.

Ticket resale site viagogo must overhaul the way it does business to comply with a court order, secured after CMA enforcement action.

Published 27 November 2018
From:
Competition and Markets Authority
Image of fans at a gig watching a band
This development results from legal proceedings launched by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in August over concerns that viagogo was breaking consumer protection law.

The court has agreed to make a legally binding order instructing viagogo to comply with the law by:

Telling purchasers of tickets if there is a risk that they will be turned away at the door
Informing customers which seat in the venue they will get
Providing information about who is selling the ticket, so people can benefit from enhanced legal rights when buying from a business
Not giving misleading information about the availability and popularity of tickets - which had the potential to lead to customers being rushed into making a buying decision or making the wrong choice
Making it easy for people to get their money back under viagogo's guarantee when things go wrong
Preventing the sale of tickets a seller does not own and may not be able to supply
It will also ensure that viagogo does not repeat historic failures to make its customers aware of the face value of tickets on sale through its site.

Andrea Coscelli, CMA Chief Executive Officer, said:

This court order is a victory for anyone who decides to buy a ticket through viagogo. We have been clear throughout our investigation that people who use these resale websites must know key facts before parting with their hard-earned money, including what seat they will get and whether there is a risk they might not actually get into the event at all.

Viagogo has agreed to a comprehensive overhaul of its site to ensure it respects the law, just like the other resale sites who have already signed commitments to improve the information they offer and give people a fair deal.

Today's court order, which is a significant outcome for consumers, must be complied with by mid-January the same deadline set for other resale sites that have already agreed to change their practices. It has been secured after viagogo agreed to address all of the CMA's concerns, without the need for a trial. The order is legally binding and enforceable by the court.

The order the court has agreed to make today will now ensure consumers' rights are protected quickly, without the need for further legal action.

The CMA continues to work closely with partner agencies and enforcers to drive up standards in the sector.

I've just been subject to the horrible sham that is viagogo

Upon rushing to get presale tickets to an artist I was desperate to see, I didn't realise I didn't realise the 1st result that came up on google search was an ad for a reseller website not a legitimate ticket sales site like Ticketmaster. I clicked through and missed the small text up top saying the were a ticket marketplace (which doesn't exactly explain their inherent difference to something like tickmaster at all) and all the large pop up banners saying "only 2% of tickets remain" and "your tickets will be sold in 10 minutes to another buyer" and "80 people buying these tickets now etc." (also great timing I had almost run out of dat and had been waiting to see this artist back in nz for 8 years) I rushed through the buying process scarred I would miss out.

After being sold the tickets for apparently $319 an extra $160 was added in book fees to my order on the last page... Having gotten so far with only minutes to go before my tickets were supposedly forfeit (and thinking these were the legitimate prices) I reluctantly accepted and paid
Via credit card.

I received a email confirmation but no row or seat number, which raised my suspicion. Having called my partner excited with news of our tickets she informed me the website was a
Scalper scam website. After doing some research I saw the same tickets would have cost approximately $220-280 on ticket master including booking fees, versus the $480 I was just rushed into spending, and I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth for paying for basically 4 tickets and receiving 2.

But it got worse,

Able to accept my foolishness this once and accepting my lesson-learnt; never to use anything but ticket master, I'm now looking further into at the abhorrent track record of viagogo in its reviews on trust pilot (1 Star from 25 thousand reviews).
https://nz.trustpilot.com/review/www.viagogo.co.uk
It seems there are countless cases of people getting far worse seats than they paid for or worse completely denied entry at all.

I could accept my mistake in buying overpriced tickets, but now it seems entirely likely I'm to either be put in the worst seat in the house, having paid double what those around me had, or flat out denied entry to a show I'd been waiting 8 years for.

This concerned me greatly, so I found with much difficulty the contact details of viagogo to pursue a refund, though their faq assured it was impossible. I received again and again copy and paste generic responses assuring refund was impossible, and it was unlikely I would not receive the tickets or I could try sell them myself, losing $160 in booking fees, with a chance they wouldn't sell at all.

I also contacted my bank only 20 minutes after the purchase once I realised my mistake and they said there was nothing they could do.

I've never felt so conned and mistreated with an online dealing and that this company is still afloat baffles me entirely. It's perfectly apparent their website is designed to mislead customers into thinking they are buying legitimate tickets and rushes them through the process. The exorbitant $80 booking and processing fees are clearly a part of this scheme, designed to make easy money when people realise their mistake and try to resell the tickets (an option and link they provide all too easily) and then again make the booking fees off of the next unfortunate soul to stumble into their hell-spawned website. For the record, these "booking fees" were nowhere to be found on the invoice emailed to me, showing only $319 for the tickets, with $480 gone from my account.

This company mistreats it's customers at every turn and it's infuriating it's survived at all. I wouldnt have believed a company could get away with so much bull$#*! for so long although it looks like the law is not far from cracking down on them. Back to the shadows whence you came viagogo.

In short, tickets at twice the normal price with a high chance of getting worse tickets than paid for or flat out no entry all, and I've read even then a refund is difficult.

What a joke, never again, everyone please boycott this mess. If only the billionaire behind it had to give it all back... hope he likes his island and jet haha.

Sent from my iPhone