As thousands are ripped off buying concert tickets, it’s time to tell Viagogo exactly where to gogo
This isn’t just about Ed Sheeran concerts (and it’s not his fault)
GOT your Ed Sheeran tickets yet? The ginger minstrel is doing a bunch of concerts next summer.
Be careful. Be very, very careful. You might end up paying three times the amount you thought you were paying.
So — in debt up to your eyeballs. Your money in the pockets of scum who pay next to no tax in the UK.
Your tickets may not even be valid. And your bank won’t help you. And the firm you bought the tickets from won’t give a toss.
They’re laughing all the way to Switzerland. This isn’t just about Ed’s concerts — and it’s not his fault.
It’s about a firm I mentioned last week, Viagogo. I got done by them two weeks back. It’s a familiar story.
Tried to get tickets for a classical music concert. Used the Viagogo website.
MOST READ IN OPINION
It kept telling me there were only three tickets left and I had only two minutes to make my purchase.
Quoted a total of eighty quid for the tickets. Come to pay — and it’s £250.
My missus checked out the official site and found there were more than 100 tickets left and I could have had them for £80.
But my problems are nowt compared to what thousands of others have suffered at the hands of this vile company.
Take Sun reader Simon Bull, from Barry in South Wales.
Just married, setting up home, not very well off.
The firm is run by a smirking Yank called Eric Baker, who deserves a punch in the face
He and his wife decided to spend the rest of their wedding-present money on an Ed Sheeran gig.
Used Viagogo. BIG mistake. Quoted a price of £180 for the tickets. Come to pay and it’s an extortionate £520.
Simon’s wife is in tears. They can’t pay the rent now. And the tickets aren’t even valid because they’ve been resold.
Bank won’t query the purchase. Viagogo won’t reply to emails and there’s no telephone contact, apart from a robot woman who just tells you to get stuffed.
As Simon told me: “Pardon my French, but we’re f****d.”
This repulsive firm is an outlet for tickets at a humongous cost.
There are thousands more of these stories.
Kerry West, from Kent, says she was “tricked” into paying almost two thousand quid for Ed Sheeran tickets which were meant to be £350.
And the tickets are not valid. And here’s Sue Burch: “I had a ticket to see Ed Sheeran and now told won’t be of any use as can’t get in.
“Paid nearly three times the original price too. Bloody disgusted.
“I have emailed, tweeted and Facebook messaged the bastards. They emailed but made no sense so I have done all of the above again.”
There’s even a Facebook page “Victims of Viagogo”, full of stories like this.
The firm is run by a smirking Yank called Eric Baker, who deserves a punch in the face.
Viagogo execs failed to turn up to a House of Commons Select Committee hearing. It doesn’t give a monkey’s.
Paid a total of £26,000 tax last year on its multi-million profits.
Here’s what should happen.
First, people who bought tickets which are not valid should be reimbursed by the company.
Second, Viagogo should be kicked out of the country and its assets seized.
Third, the Government should enact a law which stipulates that secondary ticket agencies can charge an extra ten per cent tops on resales.
Whatever way you look at it, Viagogo are odious. The unacceptable face of capitalism.
Sort them out, NOW.
Up yours, Si-moan-a
WHAT a huge pleasure it was to watch brilliant Brit Johanna Konta march through to the Wimbledon semi-finals.
First time we’ve had a woman in the last four since 1978.
And almost as pleasurable was the fact she beat Romanian Simona Halep.
The world No2 moaned that someone shouting from the crowd had put her off on the final point.
She said the point should have been replayed. Up yours, Simona.
A year ago Konta and the rest of the British ladies’ team were subjected to horrendous abuse when they played in Romania.
Called “bitches” by that moron Ilie Nastase, the Romanian captain.
And constantly barracked by the crowd when on court.
What did Simona say at the time? “In my opinion, the public was very fair.”
Ah, what goes around comes around, Simona. Back to Bucharest with you. And new balls please.
Brat-tle royal
HEY, good news! Looks like Buckingham Palace is available for hire – for parties, raves and the like.
Harper Beckham has just had her sixth birthday bash there.
Isn’t that lovely? All set up by that scrounging ginger lump Fergie.
Listen, you royals. We like you well enough – or some of you, at least.
But we pay for Buckingham Palace. Through our taxes.
And we don’t want to subsidise the celebrations of some pampered offspring of multi-millionaires.
Got it? Good. Onwards and upwards.
— BEATS a toaster, doesn’t it?
One wedding present received by an Isis bride was a suicide belt.
“Just strap it on, love. Ooh, you look lovely.
“Now wait for a few seconds while I retire to a safe distance and then press that button.”
The woman was marrying a gentleman known as The Decapitator.
You know, with the best will in the world, I don’t give it long.
Farcical Kirst aid
MORE helpful advice from the brilliant Kirstie Allsopp.
Don’t keep your washing machine in the kitchen, she orders. “It’s disgusting.”
Quite right, Kirst. It is far better to keep one’s washing machines in the servants’ quarters.
Or even more convenient, not to have a washing machine but to hire a troupe of dwarves to carry away your dirty laundry, burn it on a bonfire and provide you with identical new clothes. Once a week.
I’m not absolutely sure Kirstie inhabits the same world as everybody else.
But then she is the woman who once said Middlesbrough was the worst town in the country.
When everybody knows it’s the best.
Revvy to help OAPs
WHY did the Dutch pensioner cross the road? Because he had an app, that’s why.
Elderly people in the Netherlands have been given a useful device by the government there.
It’s an app that interacts with pedestrian crossings.
Press it and you get longer to cross the road without some Dutch maniac mowing you down.
I don’t think we need this over here. Our pensioners are quite a bit more sprightly, I think.
And if any of them are struggling to cross the road in time, I always find a quick rev of the engine puts a spring in their step.
— HARD to blame him, isn’t it? Our new ambassador to the European Union, Sir Tim Barrow, has yet to move to Brussels.
He was appointed to the job seven months ago.
But he apparently jets back every weekend to London.
Brussels is an awful place, boring beyond belief.
I spent a weekend there once and have had a more enjoyable time grouting the bathroom tiles.
— I DON’T usually have much time for Hugh Grant. A rather wooden actor who can’t stand journos.
If you’re me, then, what’s to like? But he’s got one thing right. And he was not only right but very succinct.
He saw a photograph of Donald Trump Jr holding aloft a severed elephant’s tail.
He had been on a safari in Africa, killing animals.
Hugh simply tweeted: “Wanker.”
Yes, that’s about right.
How do we stop the relentless persecution of endangered animals by poachers when we let rich Westerners loose with their rifles for sport?
And who but a w****r would want to murder an elephant anyway?