Around 100 Billy Ocean fans were turned away from the singer’s Melbourne concert at the Palais Theatre on Wednesday night after being caught with fake tickets. Most reported that their tickets were purchased from ticketing reseller Viagogo.
Noise11.com hears that around 60 pissed off punters left with venue after being refused admittance to the show. About 40 people with the fake tickets bought new tickets to the almost sold out show but instead of the premium seats they thought they had purchased they were relegated to the “helicopter section” of the back few rows.
100 fake tickets is a high amount for any show in Australia. Viagogo has an aggressive digital marketing strategy using Search Engine Optimization and paid advertising to have its brand prioritized by Google. Google takes no responsibility if fake tickets purchased through the prioritized service. Viagogo claims it is doing nothing illegal as it is acting as a reseller of the ticket.
Artists with an older demographic, such as Billy Ocean, as more like to have fans who do not understand the process of the digital ticket purchase and are more likely to buy a ticket from an unauthorized ticket seller because Google places the ad for the fake ticket above the legitimate purchase.
The Billy Ocean ticket scam is a timely reminder that when buying a ticket you should only purchase your ticket through the legitimate seller as advertised by the promoter. If you purchase a ticket from a reseller and the ticket turns out to be fake, the promoter and the venue is under no obligation to admit you to the show and you will lose your money.
An unauthorized ticket reseller may or may not have a fake ticket but there are additional problems for even a legitimate ticket purchase through an unauthorized seller.
For instance, yesterday Melbourne’s Jimmy Barnes concert original planned for Margaret Court Arena was upgraded to Rod Laver Arena. If you purchased your Jimmy Barnes ticket from an unauthorized reseller you will not be notified of the change of venue and you will not receive new seating allocation information because the legitimate seller does not have your details. It is highly likely that people who have purchased Jimmy Barnes tickets from an unauthorized reseller may not even know of the venue change and will turn up at the wrong venue on the evening.
Billy Ocean will play his two final shows in Wollongong in 22 June and the Gold Coast on 24 June.
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