Daniel m.

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