Online ticket scalping: Montgomery venues warn against inflated reseller prices
Many think of ticket-scalping as people walking outside of sold-out sports events or concerts, waving tickets for sale at jacked up prices.
While that does happen, a major part of today’s scalping is through third-party websites. It's an issue that stretches into other types of events in Montgomery — including live theater.
Montgomery’s Alabama Shakespeare Festival has learned to be wary of third-party ticket scalping.
“It’s hard to detect exactly how big it is,” said Layne Holley, ASF’s director of marketing and communications. “In fact, we wouldn’t have known it was happening except for a performance cancellation.”
A patron who’d purchased tickets elsewhere at an inflated price reached out to ASF about getting a refund.
“If something like that happens, we can’t make you whole,” Holley said.
After that first catch, Holley said ASF was able to detect several instances of scalping.
“And that was just with one production,” Holley said. “We’re not really sure just how long it’s been going on.”
Holley explained that scalpers are known to buy ASF’s least expensive tickets — $25 seats — and put them out for sale for around $200 or so.
Modern ticket scalpers often use bots (automated programs) to buy tickets in bulk in a fraction of the time it takes a person to buy just a few. Scalpers then sell the tickets for much higher.
The Advertiser searched online and found third-party sites that claim to offer tickets to ASF productions. Tickets there for the current production of “Million Dollar Quartet” were inflated to a range of just over $100 to $477.
Unless there’s some kind of experience package attached, Holley said legitimate ASF tickets from their box office cost no more than $64. They’re available online at asf.net, or by calling the ASF box office at 334-272-5333.
“The only place you should buy our tickets is from our website or by calling the box office,” Holley said. “That way, you know you’re going to get a legitimate ticket.”
MPAC sees scalping on site and online
At the Montgomery Performing Arts Centre — a downtown venue that hosts major concerts, comedy acts, dance, theater productions and more — General Manager Allen Sanders said physical on-site scalping is an occasional issue.
“Every now and then, there is someone trying to scalp tickets,” Sanders said. “You can’t do that… If we find them, we move them out of the building.”
Like what’s happened with ASF, Sanders said most of the scalping at MPAC happens through third-party websites.
“If you show up with a ticket that you bought from a third party, I can’t help you with it,” Sanders said. “That’s like you going to buy something from Home Depot and trying to exchange it at Lowe’s.”
The Advertiser did a check online, and found a few websites offering MPAC tickets at inflated prices, at least one of which spelled MPAC’s name incorrectly — using “center” instead of “centre.” They have most of MPAC’s events listed, including the upcoming Blues Traveler concert on May 5. The unofficial site looks somewhat legitimate and even has a seating chart, but its tickets for that show range from $99 to $189.
“They’re not selling for us. They’re selling for them,” Sanders said.
The actual Blues Traveler tickets — which are still available and range from $42 to $67 — can be purchased through MPAC/Ticketmaster at mpaconline.org.
One way MPAC assists guests in tickets is by listing ticket price ranges directly on its website. With many other venues, you don’t see the prices before you click the link to get tickets.
Alabama visitors are at high risk for scams
Along with local ticket buyers, productions at ASF and MPAC often draw audiences from outside Alabama who may not be familiar with the venues and their actual websites.
The third-party sites seem to offer no link to actual venue pages, and sometimes seem disguised as the official venue ticket sites.
“Entertainment venues across the country are seeing it,” Holley said. “It’s a really tricky scheme. They kind of skim your website, pull down your graphics. They work really hard to boost their returns on search engines.”
There’s an impressive but entirely unofficial website online for Oak Mountain Amphitheatre in Pelham. The concerts listed all appear real, but the ticket links all go to a third-party ticket seller. The site’s web address gives a tell, since it uses “theater,” instead of “theatre.”
Betsy Kiser of Red Mountain Entertainment confirmed that site isn’t officially from Oak Mountain Amphitheatre, and said all official online ticket sales for that venue should be made through livenation.com.
Along with inflated prices, there’s always the risk that third-party tickets are completely fake.
Basically, it’s buyer beware out there, Sanders said.
Holley said the simplest way to avoid an issue with scalpers is to contact the venue directly.
“The venue will tell you if they have a partner that they use (to sell tickets),” Holley said. “A lot of venues may just use Ticketmaster… Check and make sure you’re using that venue’s trusted platform.”
They said that's the only way to know your tickets are legitimate, covered, and potentially refundable.
Ticket scalping elsewhere in Montgomery
The Advertiser contacted community theaters across Montgomery to see if scalping was also an issue for them. Most said they were unaware of any issues.
At Montgomery’s Cloverdale Playhouse, artistic director Sam Wootten said they’ve been vigilant against scams on social media. He said there have been comments written under Cloverdale Playhouse posts from people claiming to have tickets for sale that they can no longer use.
“I think the key way the scammers find out is that they have a notification link on their end if we use the word ‘ticket’ in our posts,” Wootten said. “They ask for anyone interested to message them directly. I then have to go block the scammer's post, and then make an additional post about how we offer refunds to any actual ticket holders with proof of purchase. We like to remind potential Playhouse patrons that no one should purchase tickets to a Playhouse event from anyone other than us via our website (cloverdaleplayhouse.org) or Eventbrite page.”
Alabama law and ticket scalping
While there are no federal laws prohibiting scalping, Alabama has a statute related to it — Section 40-12-167. It doesn’t prevent the practice, but does require scalpers to play a license fee of $100 to sell tickets at a price greater than the original ticket’s cost.
“I want to remind consumers that their awareness and vigilance are our best weapons against deceptive and unscrupulous practices,” said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall. “My office stands ready to provide education and assistance, and I am proud of the specialists who last year handled numerous complaints and worked to prevent many scams from being successful.”
The AG’s office offered this advice for ticket buyers:
Get tickets from the venue hosting the event, or at least from a reputable ticket reseller.
Most tickets are electronic and are transferred directly from the original purchaser or a certified reseller, who ensures that a buyer cannot purchase tickets unless they are legitimate.
Reputable resellers should allow individuals to post tickets directly and will guarantee the tickets or refund the money if there is an issue.
Other Alabama venues
Ticket scalping is a widespread issue, and affects Alabama venues in a variety of ways.
At the Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, tickets for the April 30 Robert Plant and Alison Krauss concert have a limit of four that can be purchased by an individual. Tickets are delivered to the purchaser’s AXS account 72 hours prior to the concert. With some other Orion events, they officially state that resale tickets are included that may exceed face value. Their official site is theorionhuntsville.com.
The Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC) uses Ticketmaster. A link to the May 18 Brooks & Dunn concert states that the verified resale ticket prices they officially list may exceed face value. Those tickets were listed between $25.75 and around $260. The official site to buy BJCC tickets is bjcc.org. The Advertiser found a third-party site offering tickets for that same concert for up to $669.
At Tuscaloosa Amphitheater, tickets remaining through Ticketmaster for the May 12 Hank Williams Jr. concert appear to be mostly, if not all, verified resale tickets, with prices ranging from $41 to one pit row offering of $1,225. They’re available at tuscaloosaamphitheater.com. On a third-party site, they go as high as $1,700.
Third-party ticket resells with much higher than original prices can also be found online for upcoming events at Von Braun Civic Center in Huntsville, Iron City in Birmingham, Saturn in Birmingham, and the Mobile Civic Center in Mobile.
Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel covers things to do in the River Region. Contact him at sheupel@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Alabama venues warn guests to beware of ticket scalpers
