Worldticketshop I was totally ripped off when buying 3 tickets for tennis at Roland Garros, paying 558 euros too much!! Internet

Dear Lucy,

First of all, I would like to state, Worldticketshop is not a 'total' ripoff - we are well known and well respected member of the secondary ticketing industry in Europe with a staff of well over 35 and consider ourselves to an honest company with strong business ethics.

The bottom line is - we did not paying face value of the HARD-TO-GET Tennis tickets either - and we mark up a fair and reasonable amount when it passes through our company to get to you. According to our records, the markup on the tickets we were able to get for the event were four times face value - which is what we had to pay - and you paid five times - leaving us with a 25-30 percent markup.

The tickets were sold out if you noticed... you were not able to buy 49 euro tickets off of any website.

About you not comparing, well that's hardly our fault - as a consumer the onus falls on you not us to compare and shop wisely. How can you call us a Rip-Off when you don't take the care and time to look? It's like shopping for anything else - if you want high end brands and buy them on the High Street, you will pay more. If you want to walk some more - and look around, you might very well find the products cheaper elsewhere. Calling the High Street shops a rip-off is hardly fair, as they pay huge rent to be there - as we invest significant resources (money) to make sure are found on search engines.

We always try to get tickets together, but we cannot always do so - hence our terms and conditions. If you don't take the time to read them, then it's not really our fault either. Your decisions as a consumer are at fault, not ours as a seller. We cannot be called a 'rip-off' because you did not care too, or take the time to take a few minutes and read what you are buying into.

Worldticketshop connects buyers and sellers -and we ourselves rarely buys tickets directly from primary tickets sellers, but rather via other reliable secondary tickets sellers or brokers who mark it up prior to us. It's very likely the tickets you bought passed through several hands prior.

Also... these tickets can come via other sources rather than just public sales - such as sponsors or other corporate block seats - which are available before general ticket sales.

According to an eBay spokesperson who spoke to the London Times:

Companies such as eBay claim that sports such as rugby and tennis are the victims of their own policies of selling large allocations to sports clubs and corporate bodies, rather than the public, thus fuelling secondary demand." The real reason people can't get hold of tickets for sporting events is because more are going to corporate bigwigs."

These tickets often end up on the Secondary Market. And it's likely where yours are coming from.

The natural law of supply and demand coupled with the way the Internet is changing the landscape in terms of the ticketing industry in general, means that the real prices are reflected - rather than the face value of the ticket - when it comes down to the consumer getting tickets to events that they want to see.

Attending events holds a lot of emotion for many - whether they are finally going to see the band they have followed on CD's since they were children, or national fervour is spiked when Holland plays Germany in soccer.

But the fact is, attending such events is a privilege, not a right.

It's simple economics - if the demand outstrips the supply then the market dictates prices will be high. And just because people really want to go, does not mean they have a right to cheap tickets.

Many people would love a Ferrari as well - but unfortunately, not everyone can have one. We are not talking about a commodity such as grain or soy which is essential in keeping people alive... we are talking about entertainment and leisure, which - as it happens, are not food groups.

If you pay for something with your own cash, you're free to sell it at the best price you can get. No one would dream of telling you what price to sell an unwanted CD for. If someone has an unwanted ticket, why shouldn't they have the right to sell it at the price someone else is willing to pay, just like anything else?

The main service of the Secondary Ticket Industry is - to essentially take the pain out of getting a ticket. Clients no longer have to stand in line, they don't have to hit the event with 'hope' and try to find and deal with 'shady' characters who vanish into the night at the gates and offer no guarantees.

In the online secondary ticket market, buyers, such are yourself, can kick back from the comfort of your home, pay for their tickets and then simply attend the event...

Trading in the secondary ticket market is slowly becoming a legitimate business in the new marketplace of ideas and the de-monopolisation of businesses that used to have a strangle hold in various industries brought on the advent of the Internet.

It's not an easy task for legitimate, honest companies in the Secondary Ticket Market to shed the residue of the past with words like 'Tout' and 'Scalper' deeply ingrained in the English lexicon... probably since the days of Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre in London.

Those that are honest, fair traders in the Secondary Ticket Industry such as Worldticketshop work hard to chip away at the prejudicial attitudes that stain the industry.

We hope this clears some things up.

Richard
Rotterdam