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/li> 0 comments   Reselling websites are a forum for those selling on tickets to events they had no intention of going to at high prices, but why is this a problem and can they defend themselves? Tara Evans investigates Fair deal: Tickets to Adele in London are selling for three times the price on reselling website GetMeIn. The problem with ticket reselling Last month we reported on the proposal to put a cap on the rate of profit that secondary ticketing websites. Secondary ticket websites claim to be a forum for fans to resell tickets to gigs that they can no longer attend. But, as This is Money has found in the past, it's not that simple. Fans are often denied seeing their favourite band or artist because people buy up tickets to popular events and then use a reselling website to legally and legitimately sell them on at a profit. Websites, such as Seatwave, Viagogo and GetMeIn (owned by primary selling website Ticketmaster), argue that they provide a s

/li> 0 comments   More than half a million people will be fleeced by fraudsters selling fake tickets to high-profile events this summer: here's how to avoid being one of them. • Always pay by credit card. The Consumer Credit Act allows you to claim back your money from the issuer, as long as the transaction is at least £100. Debit card users are covered by the charge-back rules. • Be wary if sold-out tickets are on sale. • Use online consumer forums to research the ticket company and check if it is registered at Companies House at www.companieshouse.gov.uk. • If you are buying tickets for music festivals such as Reading or Glastonbury, go to the official festival website to find out where tickets are being sold. • Tickets for the 2012 Olympics can be bought only from the official site at www.tickets.london2012.com. It is illegal to sell on your Olympic ticket once tickets are released, except on the official resale site which is being set up early ne

/li> 0 comments   Ticket resale website Viagogo has used company credit cards to buy tickets to popular events which it then sold at inflated prices, a former worker has alleged. Not the ticket: An ex-employee has said Viagogo has not acted in the best interests of customers The member of staff, who wishes to remain anonymous and worked at Viagogo last year, contacted This is Money with complaints about how the website operated to the detriment of ordinary ticket-buying fans. He said staff snapped up popular tickets from primary sellers, using company credit cards, to sell on at inflated prices and worked with external brokers who regularly sell large numbers of tickets at more than face value. Viagogo's stated aim is that: 'Our mission is to bring efficiency and transparency to what has traditionally been a murky market place, thus allowing consumers to buy and sell tickets in a safe and guaranteed way.' Viagogo charges both ticket sellers and buyers

/li> 0 comments   Good news for sports fans who failed to get any Olympics tickets: Another batch is available. Top draw: King of sprint, Usain Bolt The bad news? You might need to remortgage your house to afford one. The cheapest price now quoted by London 2012 for a guaranteed seat at the men's 100m final is £27,000 per person for a corporate hospitality package - equivalent to £2,700 per second of the iconic race. It also emerged that more than half of sports fans who applied for Olympics tickets have been unsuccessful. About 1.8m people made 20m bids for the 6.6m tickets available. Some 55% of applicants - around a million - missed out completely in the public ballot. Those who were unlucky will get priority in the next release of tickets. As if the £27,000 price tag for the men's 100m final was not painful enough, you have to place an order for a minimum of ten people, which adds up to £270,000 - though you will get some top-quality wine thrown

/li> 3 comments Channel 4’s Dispatches programme has defeated an attempt by ticket reselling website Viagogo to get a High Court injunction against broadcasting its investigation into how ticket reselling websites work. The show exposes how customers are paying the price for hidden practices used by the 'fan-to-fan ticket exchange'. The current affairs programme went undercover and found that major promoters allocate hundreds or even thousands of tickets to be sold at well above the face value. Enlarge   Scandal: Coldplay was one of the acts that Dispatches found major promoters allocating hundreds or even thousands of tickets to be sold through Viagogo at well above the face value. Tickets for recent gigs and tours by Coldplay, Rihanna, Westlife, Take That, and the V Festival have been allocated by the promoters in this way. The probe also found large scale organised ticket re-selling. In May last year This is Money exclusively revealed allegations fro

/li> 3 comments Ticketmaster is developing a face value ticket exchange where customers will be able to resell tickets after it buckled to pressure from fans, event organisers and artists to stop tickets from being resold at much higher values. The ticket selling website launched a ‘paperless’ ticket service earlier this year for some events, such as Radiohead and Michael McIntyre, where organisers requested a system to prevent ticket reselling was put in place. When a customer buys a 'paperless ticket' it means that they cannot resell it, but in order to collect it they need photo ID and the card used to purchase it.  Cleaning up: Ticketmaster has introduced a 'paperless' ticket system to stop the reselling of tickets at a higher than face value price. Michael McIntyre is one of the events for which 'paperless' tickets were sold for. It is now developing a face value ticket exchange for paperless tickets after some customers complained a

/li> 1 comments A new paperless ticket system from Ticketmaster which prevents customers from reselling them is punishing fans when they can't make the event. Today in the Guardian Lisa Bachelor wrote an article about Radiohead fans who are annoyed by the new system from Ticketmaster which means people cannot access the event without the card or card holder present and are unable to sell them on. It’s very annoying for those genuine fans who can no longer make the event and want to sell the tickets on at face value. But in the long term could this help fan get lower ticket prices? OK computer: Thom Yorke from Radiohead who have put paperless tickets in place for it's UK gigs. Ticketmaster told me last month, when I covered the same issue, that it was developing a face value ticket exchange where customers will be able to resell tickets. The website has introduced the system after pressure from fans, event organisers and artists to stop tickets from being