The concert was being held at Budweiser Stage which is one of my go-to summer concert venues. The weather was great and I was stoked to see one of my favourite country artists. When I got to the ticket gate I was immediately told to head straight to guest services.
No one likes to admit they got taken. I buy concert tickets regularly and I still fell victim to purchasing fake tickets. Eventually, I got over my disappointment and decided to look at my mistake as a learning opportunity. Only buy tickets from trusted retailers: Ticketmaster, Live Nation and Vip Nation are the biggest ticket sellers on the market. Very rarely do musicians use other sites to sell tickets. If using another site make sure that the artist or venue posted the link on their official accounts or websites.
This will make sure you get real tickets that will get you past the gates. Sometimes you can get great deals at the last minute on secondary sites. These re-sellers guarantee the tickets are real and if they happen to be counterfeit they will try and get you similar tickets from their site or give you your money back. With our dollar hovering around. Programs like Photoshop have made forging fake tickets a breeze so purchasing hard copy tickets is like gambling at the casino; eventually, you will lose.
Unfortunately for me, the tickets and the business card were BOTH fakes. In hindsight, I should have googled his information to make sure it was all legit. Your recipient will also receive an email prompting them to accept your tickets. Once the ticket transfer has been accepted, the tickets in your account are no longer valid and you will not be able to get into the event with those tickets. If they do not have an account, they can easily create one when they accept the tickets.
Scalpers: If you run out of options and have to resort to purchasing off of scalpers outside of the venue, be extremely careful. Lastly, make them escort you into the venue before you give them the money to make sure the tickets are real. All in the details: Familiarize yourself with the look of hard copy tickets and the unique features that make them legit. If you follow these steps you will always make it in to see the show and never have to feel the pain of missing out! In my case, I ended up listening to Thomas Rhett on Spotify.
