My daughter really wanted to go to and see Pink at Eden Park. I agreed to buy tickets for her and I to go together as an early birthday present. This is more than I'd usually spend on a birthday, but she's been doing pretty well lately so I thought I'd splash out. When buying, as we were in a standing area I figured I'd help someone out by buying the ticket they put up for resale via the Ticketmaster web site. It was $10 cheaper than the sticker price. While this is a financial gain/saving, it's insignificant. The other ticket I paid full price for.
And then my daughter gets herself grounded. Seriously grounded. No Pink at Eden Park level of grounded, exactly 9 days from the show. 24 hours later I went to the Ticketmaster web site to list my tickets for re-sale. One can be listed, but the other one says it cannot be relisted with no explanation. The Help section of the web site lists half a dozen reasons:
• Events where the promoter or artist has requested that we do not offer Resale for their event.
• Bookings made over the telephone
• Events that are less than 3 business days away
• Tickets that have been purchased as Resale Tickets
• Tickets purchased as part of a package (VIP, Hotel, Parking, Album or Merchandise)
• If you received your tickets by ticket forward/transfer
• If your tickets are not digital tickets (Mobile or Print at home)
I approached Ticketmaster to ask them to make an exception as I felt this was unreasonable. They said no within 20 minutes. I appealed. They said no within 48 hours. In my personal opinion this is not reasonable, but my options are few.
I listed the tickets together on TradeMe at a heavy discount, taking great care to advise that the tickets would be sent to the buyer using the Transfer feature and linking to the article that explains this feature so they were fully informed. I felt fortunate that the tickets were purchased within a few hours so the cost of the tickets was partly recovered. The forwarding feature worked successfully, and the buyer had the electronic tickets in their Ticketmaster account promptly. She will not be able to sell or forward them to anyone else.
Something to watch out for.