Earlier today, Sydney rock band Gang Of Youths released a statement shaming the oh so controversial ticket resale site, Viagogo. And no wonder. The number of scams and nightmare stories that have circulated in the past few years has been indescribable. From their Facebook page, the band said:
“As many of you have encountered through your businesses (and I’m sure personally through friends and family), Viagogo has become one of the most disgraceful and disruptive scams our live industry has faced in recent years. Viagogo impacts promoters, managers, venues, ticket agencies and most importantly artists and their fans. A number of different bodies over the past 12 months have been talking to both State and Federal Government regarding this issue. There is an opportunity to help eradicate this business from Australia. We are calling for as many examples of how this fraudulent operation has affected your business, additionally, we are encouraging artists to also post on their socials so fans can reply with real-life examples of how they have been affected by Viagogo. We intend to give this documentation to the Opposition Party to form part of their campaign pledge to have this site closed down.
It would be greatly appreciated if you could send these examples to [email protected] by Wednesday this week.”
The band, probably along with some fellow Aussie artists, plan to gather as many stories and experiences from fans and businesses around the country to submit as part of a bid to shut down Viagogo. The company has in fact been taken to court previously by The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission after it received more than 400 complaints about the organisation in one year. And from the array of comments already made on the post itself, it’s fair to say a lot of people are pretty pissed off. Hence the slogan they put up ‘Fuck Viagogo’.
My best guess is that a heap of you have had problems with the site in the past, so get those experiences written up and sent to [email protected] to see if something can really be done about it all.
Image Sources: Gang Of Youths, AAA Backstage
