Cameron England: Viagogo needs to be shut down completely
It’s rare to come across a company totally lacking ethical standards, but congratulations Viagogo, you fit the bill. Here’s why you should blacklist the ticket reseller immediately, writes Cameron England.
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It’s rare to come across a business so irredeemably bereft of ethical standards, so grossly misleading in the way it operates that the only rational option appears to be to shut it down completely.
But congratulations Viagogo, you fit the bill entirely.
If you haven’t come across this poor excuse for an online ticket reseller, thank your lucky stars and place it immediately on your blacklist.
But you shouldn’t have to. If our regulators were on the ball the sort of behaviour exhibited by Viagogo should have been knocked on the head years ago.
The consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, has instituted court proceedings for misleading and deceptive conduct against Viagogo — which is based in Switzerland — but there’s been no outcome yet in the case filed in 2017, and the company still brazenly goes about its business ripping off Aussie consumers.
And it does so with the help of Google, which places Viagogo ads at the top of virtually every search to do with ticket sales online.
RELATED: The ACCC accuses Viagogo of lying to the Federal Court
It’s always seemed odd to me that if you nick your neighbour’s telly you’re quite likely to get caught and end up facing a judge in the dock. You’d also soon find yourself in trouble trying to flog off Crows tickets for double the price outside Adelaide Oval. But ripping off thousands of Australian consumers with the numbers likely in the millions is something we need to debate in court before we can shut it down apparently.
So what has lead bands such as Aussie rockers Gang of Youths to dub Viagogo “one of the most disgraceful and disruptive scams our live industry has faced in recent years”?
RELATED: Gang Of Youths join campaign to oust Viagogo from Australia
After hearing a horror story from a friend who’d paid a ridiculous amount to buy two concert tickets (with someone else’s name printed on them, possibly rendering them useless anyway) I thought I’d have a look myself.
The litany of deceitful manoeuvres on the Viagogo website would be impressive for its scope were it not so inherently harmful.
I decided I’d have a look for tickets for the upcoming Rob Brydon show in March.
The process begins with clicking on the Viagogo Google ad — conveniently placed above the actual ticket sales outlet for the show.
A progress bar ticks down while three icons let me know that there are only a limited number of tickets left, and another “less than 2 per cent of tickets left for this event”.
These icons, and many statements on the Viagogo website, come with a small information logo attached, think of it like an asterisk. These will tell you, to paraphrase, “we lied to you to instil a false sense of urgency, the numbers of tickets left refers to the amount left on this site only’’.
Once you get through to the ticket sales page you are told that “this is the cheapest ticket in Adelaide”.
RELATED: Viagogo looks like an official concert site but they’re stealing our money
This is unfettered bulls**t. As the little info icon will tell you, it’s actually the cheapest ticket on the Viagogo site. Bit of a difference. Click through to buy a ticket and website screams “tickets are in high demand”, and “you have entered the waiting room for these tickets”.
I don’t even know what that means.
Once you’re at checkout a five minute timer starts to count down, another device designed to create a false sense of urgency.
It is only at this stage that one of the great frauds perpetrated by this site is revealed, and with the timer rapidly wending its way towards zero, you probably won’t realise that the entire transaction is to be carried out in $US.
So for a ticket available for about $82 on the legitimate vendor’s site, Viagogo is offering a $US78 ticket, plus a $US3 handling fee, plus a $US24 booking fee, for a grand total of $US106, or just a bit more than $150.
So not quite a mark-up of 100 per cent on the $89 or so the tickets go for, but not far off. And if you attempt to get your money back, having experienced the shame and disgust that you fell for this deceitful scam, you’ll simply be told that you can resell your tickets if you like, but no refunds will be forthcoming.
Viagogo has no avenue for media contacts in Australia, no spokesman, and no address that can be discovered online to our knowledge.
Viagogo’s vile practices are carried out across the globe, with the company rating one out of five stars on the website Trustpilot.
One of the recent reviews read “If there was a lower rating than 1 star, I would choose it”.
Viagogo was founded by US businessman and current chief executive Eric Baker.
He’s apparently “reclusive”.
I can imagine why.
But don’t bother pondering how he sleeps at night.
As the old joke goes, it’s “very soundly, on a big pile of money”.
Cameron England is Business Editor for The Adelaide Advertiser.
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