Concert Tickets on EBay

[Joanne UK]

Has anyone ever bought any concert tickets on EBay?

I'm desperately trying to get hold of one - preferably two tickets to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in December. The concert sold out in a minute when they went on sale Thursday.

Naturally there are hundreds available on EBay but I've got reservations. It's alot of money to part with but maybe I'm being overcautious. Several sellers say they will give proof of purchase to the winning bidder as the actual tickets aren't being sent out until two weeks before the concert. Also some are offering refunds if the concert is cancelled for any reason.

I don't want to get stung so, if anyone has bought tickets in this way before, is there a particular seller, or should that be tout, that they could recommend?

 

[Lisash]

I'd be very wary. A friend of mine's daughter has just been ripped off for a few hundred pounds on Ebay for tickets for this years Leeds Festival. She went to great lengths to make sure her seller seemed above board but he dissappeared as soon as money had changed hands. She has contacted Ebay who will hopefully sort things out for her but it will probably be a while before she gets her money back

 

[florida sun]

The problem is even if you pay by paypal and have buyer protection, you can only claim for up to a certain amount of days after you paid, Im not sure of the actual number of days this is, however what it does mean is because most concerts are sometime in the future, by a few months normally, by the time you know you have a problem, normally a couple of weeks before as that is when the tickets are being sent out, its very unlikely that you can then claim your money back should anything go wrong.

I woud be very careful, to be honest it always worth waiting until nearer the concert as then genuine sellers that can not attend for a particular reason will then try and sell their tickets on ebay, where as now, they are all being sold by people who have bought them purley to sell on Ebay to make money.

 

[natalielongstaff]

i don't think its worth the risk myself, a friend of mine lost over a hundred pounds on robbie tickets

 

[Joanne UK]

Thanks - you've all echoed or confirmed my fears over doing this.

I wouldn't be able to relax until the tickets were actually in my hands and that wouldn't be until early December, by which time the PayPal protection would surely have expired.

I'm going to try a local coach company first thing tomorrow and see if they are doing trips to see Bruce Springsteen - it's not the ideal way to go but at least I'd have peace of mind.

 

[Hilary]

I agree with other advice to be cautious, and also Sue's suggestion of waiting until nearer the date (if you haven't been able to find any from a reliable source before then) when they are more likely to be up for sale for genuine reasons, rather than a quick profit.

We've been fortunate in having no trouble with purchasing 2 x Reading festival tickets from eBay a couple of years ago, but have heard many horror stories from others not so lucky , and I wouldn't be as keen to do it now

 

[fizz13]

I have bought a few sets of tickets over the years and so far i have been very lucky. i always check all feedback and seek out the negative, i look at how long they have been operating on ebay, and i ask the seller a couple of tricky questions to see how clued up they are, so far so good I can understand why you would think twice though as i too have heard horror stories and its better to be safe than sorry. the only time i do it is if it is incredibly important to me, and i do mean life or death, like Bon jovi

 

[T16GEM]

I bought some Take That tickets last year from ebay and had no problems, but having said that it was only something like £70 as the person was selling them at face value as she couldn't go, but to be honest if the bids were going sky high I doubt that I would risk it no matter how genuine I thought the seller to be.

 

[T16GEM]

I bought some Take That tickets last year from ebay and had no problems, but having said that it was only something like £70 as the person was selling them at face value as she couldn't go, but to be honest if the bids were going sky high I doubt that I would risk it no matter how genuine I thought the seller to be.

 

[cheryl.UK]

We often buy tickets from ebay. If we are working on the day they are released, we often miss getting what we want so have to resort to ebay. We have never had a problem but I do lessen the chances of problems by:

always buying from sellers who have sold more than 50 items
always buying from sellers who have a 98% positive rating or more (and checking the comments)
only buying from people who accept paypal

I know it's not foolproof but it lessens the odds of there being an issue. I've probably bought about 10 lots in the last 3 years via ebay ranging in price from £15 to £180 each.

 

[wayneg]

Will never buy tickets for anything again off ebay. Bought DisneyQuest tickets 2 years ago. Seller 99% feedback on about 100 transactions. When we got there to use them they had already been used. Too late to do chargeback by the time we found out. Lost money on Ebay and had to pay gate price for DQ.
Have bought others with no problem but too many scammers now for me, not wirth the risk.