TicketNetwork Direct, On Line Ticket Company Total Rip Off - Buyer BEWARE Internet

TicketNetwork is another layer of a middle man. For us, we bought tickets from TicketNetwork for a concert. But when we recieved the tickets, I realized that we paid TicketNetwork a service fee, and then paid TicketMaster another service fee! I don't understand what service TicketNetwork provided. The original tickets cost $55, but TicketMaster tacked on a $9.50 fee, and then, on top of that, TicketNetwork tacked on another fee of $15 per ticket.

Had we done a little research on the internet, we would have realized that we could have bought the tickets directly from TicketMaster and only paid the $9.5 fee! I'm nervous that the tickets aren't legate!

Bottomline: Whatever you think you need to buy tickets from TicketNetwork, try to go to TicketMaster directly.

I am an employee of TicketNetwork Direct responding to the complaint made against the company by Donna. Essentially, Donna's complaint can be divided into two major halves: First, she is angry because the tickets she bought from one of our sellers were $18 above their face value. Second, she is angry because we allegedly advertised ourselves as "the company to buy from" for Arizona Diamondback tickets.

To begin with, I shall first explain what exactly TicketNetwork Direct is and what it is that we do. Simply put, TicketNetwork Direct is a software company that owns an online exchange where individuals and licensed organizations throughout the country can post tickets for re-sale to the public. For a fee, TicketNetwork Direct then provides its online inventory to various ticket-selling websites and also handles customer service issues arising from orders purchased through those websites. Consequently, TicketNetwork Direct does not own the tickets that are posted on our websites nor do we ship the tickets out or charge your credit card for them. Instead, these responsibilities are handled by the aforementioned sellers who sell tickets on our website affiliates and who price their tickets for whatever they think the public is willing to pay. Typically, as Donna discovered, this means that tickets on ticket resale websites will be priced either above or below their face value.

On that note, I have to say that I sympathize with Donna regarding her frustration with the mark-up in ticket price. Indeed, none of us like to pay more for something than it was originally valued. However, I would reiterate that we at TicketNetwork Direct don't price the tickets on our website and that ticket sellers have a perfect right to price their property however they so choose. Besides, there are a large number of cases in which supply and demand in the marketplace mean that tickets end up selling below rather than above their face value. In other cases, it is wise to bear in mind that the mark-up in ticket prices on the resale market is often designed to cover the numerous expenses incurred by sellers to obtain hard-to-get tickets. Due to their services, we are all able to access good tickets to events that would normally be sold out and to do so on a convenient schedule that does not require us to wait by the phone the minute tickets go on sale at 12:00AM on Ticketmaster six months before the event.

However, that being said, we at TicketNetwork Direct do not want to "scam" anybody and therefore make it prominently known in the Terms and Conditions on our affiliate websites that ticket prices may be above face value. Indeed, one look at such Terms and Conditions will reveal a paragraph that begins prominently with Above Face Value in bold. Aside from that, we at TicketNetwork Direct 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're not able to find good seats at good prices, should a consumer turn to the secondary ticket market for their ticket-buying needs and prepare to pay a mark up on baseline ticket prices.

Unfortunately, though, it seems to me that Donna purchased a little too hastily from our website before fully realizing what she was doing. Occasionally, indeed, this happens to customers who buy from a secondary market ticket website. Nevertheless, while I understand Donna's anger, I fear that it is misplaced. We at TicketNetwork Direct did nothing wrong to the customer concerned. We delivered our product and we followed through on our policies. Donna is simply unhappy that she didn't know what she was purchasing. However, in all fairness, I would point out that that was Donna's fault, not ours. Consumers should always research prices before they buy tickets and we support them in doing so. Why? Because we know, if you need a ticket resale site, chances are you will choose a TicketNetwork Direct affiliate. We generally have the lowest prices on the secondary ticket market and we are very proud of that fact.

That being said, Donna also claims in her complaint that TicketNetwork Direct advertised itself as the company to buy from vis--vis Diamondback tickets. Unfortunately, though, this is patently untrue and nowhere does Donna provide evidence of her accusation. None of our websites advertise themselves erroneously as the official ticket source of any team or performer. True, it is a possibility that some fan-based forums may link to one of our ticket-selling websites. However, this is no way means that a given affiliate of TicketNetwork Direct is crowned as the official buying source for this or that event. Apparently, Donna, in her purchasing haste, mistakenly identified TicketNetwork Direct as such an official source. Once again, that mistake is regrettable, but it is not due to any erroneous or disingenuous advertising on our part. Overall, in fact, it seems that Donna is basically angry because TicketNetwork Direct affiliates appeared high in search engine results for Diamondback tickets. But then the ordinal placement of search engine results is calculated by the individual search engine and has nothing to do with TicketNetwork Direct.

Having said that, we now come to the frustration voiced by Donna when she called our Customer Support Team. Specifically, Donna was angry that no one transferred her to a supervisor. But why should they have? There was nothing unethical or illegal about our conduct. The attention of supervisors should be directed to matters having to do with substantive order issues. Donna may have been upset by her order, but her anger was not due to an order mistake. Furthermore, Donna claims in her complaint that the customer service representative told her to file a complaint by writing to our internet address. Clearly, Donna must have made a mistake, because all order complaints at TicketNetwork Direct are processed through our physical address in Vernon, Connecticut. Indeed, Donna and any other customer is free to write us with whatever complaint, suggestion, or praise they might have.

Therefore, overall, while I am sorry for Donna and her frustration regarding her ticket price, TicketNetwork Direct is far from a scam and there is no evidence at all that we behaved unethically in our dealings. Far from it, we followed through on our order obligations flawlessly. Indeed, even Donna herself does not dispute the standard or level of our ticket delivery. In the end, she received her Diamondback tickets and she was able to attend the game. Any other order issues with which she expressed disappointment were not caused by company errors. As a result, any ripoff accusations against TicketNetwork Direct are most unjust. In fact, we brag the largest inventory of tickets on the secondary ticket market and generally the lowest prices. Consequently, our customer satisfaction and repurchase rates are very high and our continuing growth as a business exposes the myth behind claims to the contrary.