Beating the Ticket Tout problem once and for all!
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So, i'm sure you've all read my problems ordering tickets for Green Day thanks to ticket touting. This is an issue, which i'm sure many of you will agree, needs to be fixed! There's lots of different 'solutions' that companies have tried to solve this problem ranging from Limiting the amount of tickets per person to needing a utility bill when you go to a gig. However this isn't solving the problem. In the first case, ticket touts clearly just purchase less tickets on more cards! In the second case touts tend to just provide a utility bill when you purchase a ticket from them. Both of these 'solutions' do just add more effort to the legitimate purchases like myself.
So the solution has to be in our faces. Photo identification is required almost everywhere from Passports and Driving Licenses to a simple club membership card. So where is the problem with printing a photo of us onto our ticket?! Companies like ticketmaster already have a nice back ends for clients so they already have our name and other such details on file. So with a quick modification to the code we have something like the following...
Now the photo that's on my profile then gets printed directly on to my ticket. This would be done during the normal printing system so we don't have any issues with laminating and touts being able to remove the picture. Then through the post we get tickets that look like the following..
Right, so now we have a reasonably fool proof way of proving that I ordered the ticket, it has my face on it! There's a few provisos on this though. The picture on your ticket MUST be the one that was registered on your profile at the time of ordering. This would mean that touts couldn't simply replace the picture in the profile depending on who bought the ticket. The name of the person the ticket was ordered for would also be printed under the photo so extra proof of ID could also be asked for.
In the admin section of the ticket selling website we could have a list of all photos used previously, what tickets they were used for and a way to upload a new photo like the following...
Finally, this system would also mean it would be possible for you to remove the limit on ticket ordering. Ticketmaster could use people's profiles almost like a facebook friends list. This would mean Chris, Del, Feeney etc etc could add me as friends on ticket master. Once this has been done I am then free to order tickets for them through my account and card but their photo would be printed on their ticket.
Yes, this system would mean that if someone decides they cannot make a gig their ticket would be useless, but it should certainly cut down the number of tickets for sale on ebay and mean that the true fans can actually see bands they like without having to buy tickets for 2+ times the price from touts on ebay.
Fans vs. Ticket Touts for The Green Day Tour – Touts 34 Fans 0
As a rather big Green Day fan I was excited when the dates for Green Day's UK tour were released. Two gigs at the MEN (Manchester Evening News Arena) in Manchester. Tickets went on sale at 10am on 1st May. This is the story of my morning of excitement and disappointment!
UPDATE: Get the dk101.net new range of ticket tout t-shirts now available! Show your hate towards touts! - http://s.dk101.net/80328/
9:55 - I'm sat here with my card in hand ready to order 7 tickets for myself and friends. It had been rumoured that it would be limited to 2 tickets per person so I had friends standing by ready to order in case this was true.
9:58 - I starts refreshing the page waiting for that Order link to arrive.
10:00 - Order link is there, I clicks it and finds out that it is 2 per person all is fine I start the process to purchase my 2 tickets and let friends know they have to go do the same.
10:01 - I'm greeted with the "Please wait" sign on ticket master
10:03 - "No Tickets Found" appears on screen! Presuming this is just an error with the site due to clicking to fast I goes through the process again, and again, and again. Finding the same problems, cries of "It's sold out" appear through MSN and text messages.
10:05 - I visit 3 other ticket selling websites only to see a massive "SOLD OUT" sign plastered across all the Standing tickets for both days!
10:10 - After many phone calls and chats about what we are going to do I decide to check e-bay. A search for "Green Day MEN" results in 6 pairs of tickets already available. This is 10 minutes after the tickets officially went on sale. Prices range from £80 starting bid to £250.
10:30 - The same search on ebay now reveals 34 tickets available to purchase on ebay! The buy it now tickets have vanished giving some lucky touts a nice hefty profit.
So here lies the issues with ticket sales... Why is it possible for 34 tickets to be available on ebay at this point in time for over double the price, however it's impossible for me to get hold of 7 tickets for dedicated fans! Something NEEDS to be done about the state of ticket sales in this country! Limiting tickets to 2 per person clearly isn't working and all it does it mess up legitimate fans. For example, if we now want to go purchase seated tickets, we need to purchase 7 of them. The odds on us managing to get 7 seats together are probably less than winning the lottery, which will leave the possibilty of 1 of our friends having to sit alone. THat's not a fun time for anyone!
I think it's time we started having Photo tickets! Sites such as ticketmaster have profiles of people and when tickets are printed they appear with your photo and name! This would not stop people like me ordering for friends as you could have your account set up with details of all your friends so you could specify which people you were buying tickets for. This would completely stop touts as you would know that if your ticket didn't have your face on it you'd just get rejected anyway!
It's time something was done about this! Why should real fans be expected to pay over the top prices on ebay due to ticket sellers inability to think of a better way to verify ticket purchases!
