overpriced tickets with service fee

Hello! I am an employee of TicketNetwork responding to the comment by lalalalala2.

To begin with, as explained previously, TicketNetwork is a resale marketplace through which independent sellers resell (and thus reprice) tickets to events. This means that the tickets purchased through our website are going to be priced above or below their face value by the respective sellers. This is explained above every event listing on our exchange (all 64, 200+ of them) where our status as a resale website is clearly indicated. (We have a series of bullet points that outline for customers the major points they need to know before placing an order.)

Having said that, Ticketmaster is a primary ticketing source, not a secondary one -- meaning that TM is not a network of independent ticket sellers like TicketNetwork. Venues contract out their direct ticket sales through companies like Ticketmaster, which means they sell tickets for their face value. We recommend that consumers shop around for tickets first and always check the venue of their event as a primary measure. We at TN are simply here to give consumers more ticketing options, but, of course, the decision of what to buy and when is with the customer. We assume, as do all companies, that, when people buy through us, they do so after making a researched and considered decision.

On that note, I should mention, too, that the purpose of exchanges like TicketNetwork is to keep tickets on the market long after venues are all sold out. It's also true that event promoters routinely withhold large numbers of tickets from public sale in order to distribute and sell privately. Ticket sellers can access such tickets and list them for sale on sites like TN and thus give consumers access to tickets they were never allowed to buy.

In regards to the customer service experience, it seems that lalalala2 is confused by the difference between TN and the sellers who list tickets on our exchange. She mentions a phone conversation she had with a customer service representative who talked about a "pricing department." TN is a marketplace, like EBay, through which tickets are sold, and so we don't price anything or in anyway set the ticket prices listed by sellers. It would therefore seem that lalalalala2 was actually speaking with her ticket seller, not TicketNetwork -- a common confusion. If, indeed, there was any rudeness on the seller's part, we would appreciate lalalalala2 telling us about it by emailing [email protected]. We at TN are here to facilitate and monitor ticket transactions and want to make sure customers are treated with respective. It seems, though, in this case, that the customer was not primarily in contact with us about her order situation, but rather with the seller.