Complaint Review: Ticket Liquidator / Ticket Network

To begin with, I understand the frustration felt by the customer regarding the mark-up in ticket price. However, there are a few things I have to explain in regards to this and why it is not a "scam":

First, the customer refers to the TicketNetwork-TicketLiquidator congruity. TicketNetwork Direct is the parent company of TicketLiquidator. TicketLiquidator is the actual name of the ticket-selling website from which the customer ordered. As such, TicketLiquidator only goes by one name -- TicketLiquidator.

Second, the customer was angry that the tickets purchased were above their face value. This is not surprising, because it is the norm across all secondary market ticket websites.

To explain: TicketLiquidator is an Ebay for tickets, where various individuals and licensed organizations from across the country can re-sell tickets they previously purchased from primary sources (Ticketmaster, the venue, etc). That being said, these sellers usually price tickets above or below their face value depending on what the market will bear or what they THINK the market will bear. Thus, if you look at our website, you'll see tickets for a given event going for different prices despite being in the same section or row. This is because the tickets are all being sold by different sellers who have chosen (God knows why) to price the tickets however they have chosen. That, indeed, is what the customer meant in her comments when she referred to a call center representative telling her that "it is (our) policy to only put the cost that their customer have requested" -- the "customer" being the ticket seller.

That being said, the fact that tickets may or may not be above face value is the norm across all secondary market ticket websites. It is also stated explicitly in the "Terms and Conditions" that must be agreed to in order to place an order on our website. The question now remains: why are tickets price above their face value in the secondary ticket market?

The first answer is that sometimes they're not and that sometimes tickets are priced BELOW face value. An Oscar De La Hoya match in December of 2008 evidenced this with $700 tickets going for $400. (Source: http://www.ticketnews.com/Brokers-struggling-selling-tickets-to-Oscar-De-La-Hoya-Manny-Pacquiao-fight12841)

The second answer is that the customer is paying for convenience by buying tickets on the secondary ticket market. Typically, indeed, events are sold out within days or sometimes even hours of their tickets going on sale. Secondary ticket sellers keep these tickets available on the internet so the everyday consumer doesn't have to wait by the phone at 12:00 AM for the big Ticketmaster release. They also allow the best seats that would normally be bought up by VIP clubs and connected individuals to go on sale to the general public following special pre-sale opportunities. One Bruce Springsteen concert in May of 2009 saw only 108 of the 1,126 seats closest to the stage being officially listed for sale to the public. Some of these seats later appeared on the secondary ticket market so that Joe Six-Pack consumers unconnected to any influential source could access them. (Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/06/14/springsteen-concerts-who-gets-the-best-seats-hint-not-you/)

In short, therefore, thanks to the secondary ticket market, consumers across America are able to get good tickets to good events at the last minute that would normally be denied us.

However, that being said, we at TicketLiquidator do not want to "scam" anybody and therefore make it prominently known in our FAQ and TL Help Center that our ticket prices may be above face value. Indeed, we openly encourage all customers to be intelligent consumers and to shop around for tickets actively before making a purchase decision. Specifically, due to the fact that primary market prices are usually cheaper, I recommend that you always, always, ALWAYS check Ticketmaster or the venue of your event for tickets first. Then, only then, if you can't get the seats you want, should you go to a secondary ticket website like TicketLiquidator and pay the possible mark-up fee. Indeed, among these secondary market ticket websites, TicketLiquidator generally boasts the cheapest prices and the most expansive service.

Occasionally, though, there are times when customers purchase tickets from a secondary market ticket website without knowing that they are doing so and thus without being prepared for the mark-up. This seems to be what occurred with the customer who wrote the adjacent commentary. However, I would point out to all and sundry that we at TicketLiquidator advertise our secondary market status openly to the public. There is no secret about it and we cannot possibly be more blunt. Therefore, while I understand the customer's anger, I fear that it is misplaced. TicketLiquidator does not engage in any "unethical" or "unlawful" business practices. Everything we do is completely legal and our transparency in this regard is exemplary. In fact, we are the third largest secondary ticket market website on the internet. We could never have obtained this distinction nor been in business for the following seven years (since 2002) if we were as "unethical" as the customer claims. As a result, I'm sorry for the customer's anger, but his disenchantment is not due to any irresponsible practices on our part.