machinegun said:

Where I feel most for the VIP buyers, is not because people like myself were able to buy gold circle seats at £31.21, but the fact that we got better seats.

The original VIP seat buyers should have had the closer ones, while I should have been given the row 5 to 10 seats behind them.

It was TM themselves that said seats would be allocated on a first come, first served basis. This was obviously a lie.

and now even Floor Block C2 for sale. Up until now I did not see a single C block for sale.

Anyway, you live and learn. At least I'm certainly no longer a Very Ignorant Person when it comes to ticketing strategy...

machinegun said:

Where and when are these on sale for....I might upgrade again!

Just seen them! Floor tickets for tonight at £31.21! Fuck me!

SquirrelMeat said:

Just checked for tonight's show a few minutes before posting and was offered Floor C2 Row F if you pick best available.
However, I think 111/E is better (need to choose lower tier for that)

machinegun said:

I just got offered Floor block C2 row C, then F, Then D, then E!

Plenty of seats not sold then!

Just got C2 row E. Now need to sell my Block 115 tickets.

just tried now for tonight this is what it came up with...



also you can have tickets emailed to you for £2.00



so if anyone want tickets for tonight theres still a chance you could get some

Here's a thought....instead of us all going on and buying yet more tickets, why not just go to the gig with our already paid for tickets and hop forward as far as possible into those great seats that haven't sold yet???

Seems like there could be quite a few of these and I'm sure there will be people monitoring and potentially preventing us from going too far forward, but it's gotta be worth a try.

My credit cards just can't take any more ... and frankly they don't deserve to get any more out of us!

Just go for it, if you can, hop forward a few rows when you get there (and assuming everyone else is already in ... don't be stealing seats from those who arrive later who paid good money for em!).

Enjoy the gigs!

Floor Block C3 row A and B now up for sale.

C2 as well. Is that sound I hear the piss being taken? I think it is.

Block F2 up for sale now.

Floor seats for tonight currently available. I will be waving from WAY UP HIGH in my prestigeous presale seats!!

Block A1 ! now on sale

i got block c2 row c this morning

What's more of a piss off is that basically all of the so called VIP tickets would have been bought by true genuine fans anyway, with just a few set aside for hangers on and corporate bods. As there are 2 floors of corporate boxes around the arena most true VIP's that don't want to 'rough it' with us lot would be in those anyway.

A bit of a scam all round.

Not being funny here, but seriously, i think we need to take action on this, its probably the biggest disgrace i have ever witnessed in regards to Consumer Law..

Disgusting

FunkyBrotha said:

It's ironic, actually, as the one legality we had to trap them on finally went out of the window today! Previously the ASA might have had something to say about the 'all tickets £31.21' claim. But actually it's now true!

It stinks that I got crappy seats just because I wanted to get tix as soon as possible...(row L) P will be a tiny dott moving around on a little symbol stage. Well, I hope the view won't be that bad.
[Edited 8/1/07 13:48pm]

jillis said:

I agree. This has to stop!! AEG have done this with all the concerts and it's seems very wrong to me. It should be best seats given out in order of sale not lets sell all this section to to people who are desperate (ie. 9am sale day) and then we will offer great seats to people who rock up last minute for the face value. Should we all stop buying tickets when they go on sale and wait until show day would AEG like that? AEG you have a lot of explaining to do.

Even though I agree that this was totally mismanaged, this is how ALL concert tickets are sold. It is NOT unique for the Prince shows OR for AEG. You just probably never noticed it before so I seriously doubt anyone has any legal recourse.

To summarize, the scheme works like this:

Everything hinges on creating the illusion of scarcity and huge demand.
To do this you release a limited amount of relatively poor seats, and tell the world the shows are sold out.
You proceed with releasing better seats through a number of channels for much higher prices. This can include any type of agency, auctions, packaged deals.
When nearing the performance date, you release left overs in any way possible. To do this you can reach out to fans, smack everything on TM, sell them through hotels and at the box office.
Then you hand them a free cd to make everything better

m3taverse said:

yep. this is where the promoter turns in to a tout.

machinegun said:

It's actually the whole scheme, not just that part of it.
AEG effectively capitalizes on what has kept traditional scalpers in business. High demand resulting in scarcity means people can charge small fortunes for tickets. By 100% controlling the perception of demand while at the same time staggering ticket release, the promotor effectively takes the place of the scalper.
The net result for the customer is the same as in the traditional scalper system, except now the high margin sales go to the promotor, not the scalper.
So while this effectively solves the scalper problem, it only solves the business end of it, not the consumer end.

i got row c of block A3 yesterday for 31.21 wasnt going to go but wanted to see what the veiw was like etc and for that much i couldnt resist

b3xy said:

Lucky!!!

b3xy said:

I was in block A3 row C on Friday (seat 44). Cost £31.21. The view was fine although, like all the other floor seats, you can't see the top of the stage. What seats are yours?
I'm in block C2 tomorrow row F. Same price.

just to add that the sound quality wasn't that good in the area. Bit like a train station. Not sure how it compares to other areas though. Still enjoyed it though.
[Edited 8/6/07 10:56am]

SquirrelMeat said:

Wow...
My sis went last Wednesday, nose-bleed seats, could see entire stage even though Prince was tiny. For tomorrow night (Tuesday) she paid an unbelievable amount for 2 VIP seats (as well as the aftershow), the day they went on sale. She will be in the 3rd row in section D1 but stated she won't be able to see due to the height of the stage and it's more like 30th row until he comes to the front of the stage which he did approx. 5x last Wednesday.
Hopefully he will go to the front of the stage more often tomorrow night as Amy Winehouse supposedly has tix in D1 as well...
Glad I did not fly across the pond to join my sister as I would have been so bummed with the cost of VIP and airfare! I've been spoiled living 6 hours from Minneapolis and my heart goes out to all screwed who put the money up front.
Peace out, D

After this last fiasco with trying to get tickets for this tour. I can honestly say, hand on heart that I am never going to fall for this again, ok in the past I have been lucky to get good seats and I guess I will just remember these good times, I will never use ticketmaster again, and "queue" for 15 minutes thinking I have got tickets, when after that time there were "none available" I did attend the first night and of course enjoyed it immensley as I always do,even though I was stuck in with a load of people who just sat in thier seats and most of them looked as if they were at the cinema, however, I do think the whole thing "stinks", and as for offering tickets to former npg music club members, weeks after they have first gone on sale "use this special code"is an insult to the fans, ,I was tempted to put some bids in in the auction, then I came to my senses. Never again

I had floor tickets to the opening night, block B 2nd row back.

These were a surprise as i had normal 'lower tier' tickets but my hubby surprised me before we went that he had bought floor tickets. I don't have a clue how much they cost (he wont tell me) but I'm fairly certain he bought them through a broker but they were suggested by a reputable company i believe.

Unfortunately he wont tell me any more info, but it would support your theory that the first few rows closest were sold off to brokers.

By the way. We had an EXCELLENT view and saw everything really close up because section B was at the side so i had a clear view of the middle of the stage where he did most of his performing (and I'm only 5'3") Every time he came over to our side i ran up to the stage and frankly couldn't have been any closer. He even pointed his mic at me and a few girls that were there dancing away below him hehe.