I have a problem with ticket scalpers. No, i don’t want to shut them down. There are times when they do provide value. They bail ticket holders out of events they can’t attend. They also make tickets available to those who really want to attend an event, but have exhausted all other efforts to get tickets.
That’s all well and good, except many ticket scalpers, whether online or brick and mortar, sometimes take a little bit of license when describing where exactly the tickets are in the arena, or what the face value of the tickets are.
Therehave been far too many times when I have gotten emails from upset customer who have purchased tickets onlineor on the phone expecting their “50 dollar tickets” to be 50 dollar tickets. Naive or not, the scalpers have a responsibility to not mislead customers.
I would like to see a requirement that EVERY ticket resale transactionrequire the disclosure of the face value of the ticket to the customer.
If this was something I could enforce through the Mavs, I certainly would. But I can’t. The result is that we have Mavs fans driving in from around the state, credit card already charged from a transaction in previous weeks with a broker, only to find out that they paid 2x and 3x face value when they pick up the tickets. Feeling burned is not the way I want people feeling when they walk into a Mavs game.
It’s something we are working on here at the Mavs, and I urge you to contact your congressperson to ask them to take action as well