How To Spot a Ticket Scam

Here at Tickets300 and Jade Presents, we are committed to our customers and we strive to provide affordable ticket prices to great shows for the enjoyment of our consumers. With that in mind, there is an issue that threatens to scam our customers out of their money. This issue, of course, is ticket scamming. Tickets300 provides a comprehensive system for ticketing any event. Experienced and friendly staff take pride in providing an easy turnkey solution for event organizers. Despite this, scalpers still find ways to deceive customers into buying tickets at elevated prices when they could otherwise purchase tickets from Tickets300 and save a few pennies along the way.

To provide further detail on this issue, we sat down with Lani Hedberg the Director of Ticketing at Tickets300 to get her expertise on this issue.

What issues if any have you come across with ticket scams?

A common question I receive is, “Why are tickets so expensive compared to other sites?” Tickets300 and Jade Presents are committed to bringing affordable prices to their customers. If you find an overpriced ticket, most likely you weren’t on the Tickets300 or Jade Presents websites, but on a third-party website. You more than likely are looking at a scalper or you are on a scalping website. This is when people purchase a large amount of tickets and resell them at an inflated price.

What is Tickets300 doing to stop ticket scalpers?

We look for certain scalping behaviors. One is if the mailing address is several states away, we consider whether that individual is really going to attend the show in question, especially when that same artist has several other shows across the country. Another tactic we utilize is we can control the delivery methods for certain shows with the artist’s approval. This is typically done with higher-priced tickets, which are the tickets that are most often targeted for scalping. This is done to make sure that the tickets are purchased in person, but the downside with this option is that we restrict convenience for security.

What would you recommend a person do to get tickets?

The best thing to do is to find the venue and go to the website directly. Look who is putting on the show; the venue, promoter or the band itself. The information on their website should send you to the correct site to purchase tickets. If the ticket was purchased through a third party, we will try our best to verify the ticket is legitimate. There is no way to prove if the ticket was third party.

What can be done if someone was to purchase a scammed ticket?

The person should try to get a refund from the third party that the ticket was purchased from. We can confirm with the venue and the band and see if the ticket is legitimate. Other than that, we can’t track down who bought the ticket. We again strongly recommend that you do your research before purchasing a ticket. If you do somehow purchase a ticket from a third party, the ticket could be under someone else’s name, but can be transferred to the new purchaser so you can still go to the show, but we just can’t refund your money.

If at time of show, a patron approaches with a ticket that won’t scan and is proven to be purchased off a third-party site, there is nothing Tickets300 or Jade Presents can do to solve the issue. The patron will have to address the third- party company they chose to buy their ticket from.

Best way to reach Tickets300?

We encourage our customers to reach out to us if they have any questions through website or phone. If they call the venue they will be directed to Tickets300. We are open Monday through Friday 11am-6pm and we are available by voicemail 24/7, our phone number is 1-866-300-8300.

Here are some tips to avoid overpriced tickets:
• Take your time and do your research
• Purchase tickets from Tickets300 or from the venue that is putting on the event
• If it’s a Jade Presents show, download the Jade Presents App (iPhone & Android)
• Avoid third party sellers if you can, and always check with the venue beforehand
• Look at the artist’s website which will send you to a legitimate website for ticket purchasing