Originally posted by Bombay Chutney:
Originally posted by Arlette:
Not really. They circumvent the system, with sometimes illegal means, and prevent people from having a fair chance at getting tickets.
What do they do?
- hire people to go online and buy tickets to increase the chances that they, the scalpers, will get tickets, and get a good supply of tickets.
- buy multiple memberships to a band's fan club so they have more chances at advance pre-sales.
- hire people to stand in line at a box office in order to buy more tickets
Scalping is illegal in many states. Sure, you can argue supply/demand, but by circumventing the system, they sometimes create a false demand by purchasing a ton of tickets at the regular price, and then jacking up the price for re-sale.
I hate scalpers as much as anybody, but your examples don't demonstrate circumventing the system. They demonstrate how to make the system work for you. Standing in line, buying multiple fan club memberships, or getting a bunch of your friends to go online when tickets go on sale are all options available to everybody. There's nothing really underhanded about them. [/b]
But they are breaking the rules, and in some cases the law. That is underhanded.
From the NIN fan club. Pretty long, but first sentence says it all.
Ticket brokers may not join the Nine Inch Nails fan club, and if a member is found selling tickets for profit, his/her membership will be voided without return of the membership fee. All ticket orders must be placed in the name of the corresponding fan club member. If we discover that an order has been placed in another personā??s name, we reserve the right to revoke the membership and cancel the ticket order. If you are found to be, or we in good faith believe you are reselling, trading or brokering tickets for profit that you purchased through this site, we may at our sole discretion cancel all or part of your ticket order and all or part of other pending orders in your name and/or put all or part of your orders and all or part of your other pending orders in your name at will-call for pick-up only by you. If we cancel your tickets, a refund of the total face value of the tickets minus a $7 per ticket processing fee will be issued to the card used to place the order. No other service, processing or shipping fees charged at the time of purchase will be refunded. If tickets are placed at will-call, only the person whose name is on the order can pick them up. No will-call name changes will be allowed. We reserve the right to investigate, cancel or ā??will callā? all orders we, in good faith, suspect to be in violation of this policy. We are the final authority on the interpretation of the rules in this policy. As part of our efforts to keep brokers out, we will specify guidelines for ticket purchasing on the web site, and we will email members ahead of time as to any changes to these policies.
