In an effort to protect Iowa consumers from the purchase of fake tickets to many events, Attorney General, Tom Miller, has used the story of a Carroll woman who found herself a victim of fraudulent sales practices. Paula Lambertz, wanted to purchase Iowa State Fair Slipknot concert tickets for her son. A quick web search brought up a page boldly displaying the Iowa State Fair information. She added six tickets to the cart for a total of $302, which seemed correct, but she could not find any final notification of what the charge would be with fees and taxes. Add to that the miniscule screen size for a buyer who wears bifocals, increasing the difficulty of actually being able to see what the cost of the tickets would be. To her surprise, Lambertz received a text from Discover Card that showed a new charge of $2,362.43. This is where she learned she was on a site called Ticketoffices.com, a resale marketplace for concert, sporting and theater tickets. These second-party sites appear official, but often sell tickets at double or more the list prices and then add high fees. Lambertz attempted to get a refund from the site, but her request was refused. She disputed the charges with Discover Card to no avail before contacting the Attorney General’s Office. Their intervention resulted in a full refund. As March Madness and other events come to the state, Miller urges everyone to use caution when purchasing tickets online. Several tips for event shopping can be found below.
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Tips to shopping smart for event tickets
Here are some tips from the Better Business Bureau on buying event tickets online:
Purchase from the event venue or a licensed reseller. For example, in the case of March Madness tickets, you can go directly to the NCAA site, the official Iowa Events Center website or PrimeSport.com, which has a partnership with the NCAA.
Research the reseller. Compare prices at several sources. Look up the broker are bbb.orgto see reviews. Also go to VerifiedTicketSource.com to see if the reseller is a member of the National Association of Ticket Brokers.
Buy only from trusted vendors. Look for the lock symbol in the web address to indicate a secure purchasing system.
Check out the refund policy. Read the sales terms, privacy policy and other information, and make sure your questions are answered. Are the details clear? Is the location of the seats represented accurately on a seating chart? How will the tickets be made available to the buyer?
Use protection when ordering. Always charge your purchase by credit card so you dispute the charges if the tickets are not as promised. Debit cards, cash and other forms of payment do not offer the same kind of protection.
If you feel you’ve been misled or defrauded, file a complaint with the Iowa Attorney General. Call 515-281-5926 or 888-777-4590 (outside of the Des Moines metro area) or email consumer@ag.iowa.gov.
