Buyer beware on big ticket days with Ticketweb (ticketweb.co.uk)

Member Name: mrjoegoodwin

Product:	ticketweb.co.uk
Date:	28/07/09 (130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Alternative to Ticketmaster, Seetickets etc, lower than average booking fees

Disadvantages: Queue to buy tickets, reservation system that doesn't reserve tickets, charged multiple times

When Pearl Jam, my favourite band, announced an intimate show at the London O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire for this August, I knew that I would have to do whatever I could to secure tickets for such a small gig. For a band that normally sells out arenas across the world (including the O2 and MEN Arenas in the UK later on in the month) to be playing such a small venue is very unusual, and with such a large UK fanbase, tickets would be very difficult to obtain.

As one of the O2 series of venues that have slowly been rebranded in the past year or so, Ticketweb have a deal with the venue which allows them to have a portion of tickets for each show at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. Duly at 9am last Thursday morning, I logged on to Ticketweb and began to refresh the page until I could see the listing I was looking for.

As soon as the event in question appeared, my page status changed, and instead of the regular Ticketweb site, a page displayed telling me that I was in a queue for tickets. Not good I thought, and this proved to be the case, as a progress bar appeared shortly afterwards and made very slow progress across the screen. Miraculously, I was able to get tickets in my basket and complete the transaction. However, upon checking my credit card statement the following day, I discovered that I had been charged 3 times for the same transaction! I know I'll only get one set of tickets, so clearly there was something amiss with Ticketweb's payment clearing system that day. That would be bad enough, except I have heard from other people who tried to buy tickets to the same event that were charged for tickets, despite receiving a message saying that the event was sold out!

Additionally, a friend of mine who was using the site at the same time as me, was able to get tickets in his basket, and received a message that the tickets were reserved for 15 minutes until he completed the checkout process. He duly did so in under 5 mins, yet received a message upon trying to complete payment to say that tickets had sold out, and no more were available. It seems that the 'reservation' process didn't work at all, and unlike say, Ticketmaster, who operate a similar system (ironically, Ticketmaster now own Ticketweb), just because the tickets were in your basket did not guarantee that you would actually be able to buy them.

I really want to like Ticketweb, because after the initial panic, I had a look round their site to see what other events were available, and whilst they don't sell tickets for some of the major artists, there was a good range of listings available, at reasonable prices and with lower booking fees than some of its bigger rivals.

It's a shame that my one experience so far with Ticketweb was so negative. Whilst the end result was what I was looking for (getting sought after tickets), the process of queueing and 'reserving' tickets was not as slick as some of the bigger ticket websites, and I was not filled with confidence about their ability to cope with high levels of internet traffic at the same time for a big sale such as the one I experienced.

In my eyes, overcharging people who successfully buy tickets is bad enough, but to charge people who didn't receive tickets, and then make them wait several days to receive a refund is unforgivable. The second star in my review is only there because I got the outcome I personally wanted, even if so many of my fellow fans failed.

I want Ticketweb to do well, and provide a viable and cheaper independent alternative to the bigger ticket companies, but at present, I cannot say with any degree of confidence that they will be able to compete to a level where I have confidence in my transactions with them.

For now at least, buy elsewhere if you can.

Summary: Avoid Ticketweb for the big ticket occasions unless you have no alternative