Company called Seatwave....................

[lilacben]

Has anyone ever bought tickets from them.?

[rockyracoon]

My husband used them about 3 years ago to buy surprise tickets for me. If I remember rightly, you don't recieve the tickets til about a week before the event. No problems and tickets arrived as promised.

[mrs_overall]

No.

I once went to see the band Heatwave if that's of any use?

[Buenchico]

Seatwave don't (officially) sell tickets themselves. Instead, they act as a broker between you and someone who has tickets for sale. So you're reliant on the real seller getting the tickets to you in time. If, for some reason, they don't arrive, Seatwave guarantees to provide you with replacement tickets or, if they can't do that, to give you a full refund.

Since you're actually buying from people who've somehow got 'spare' tickets for sale, you're likely to have to pay really high 'ticket tout' prices for the most popular gigs.

Seatwave have always denied actually buying tickets themselves, and then reselling them at heavily inflated prices. However a recent Channel 4 'Dispatches' documentary sent undercover reporters inside the offices of such companies. They found that rival company ViaGoGo was actively entering into agreements with tour promoters to buy up blocks of tickets and then to sell them (under false names) as if they were being offered by private sellers. There was also evidence that Seatwave was operating in an unethical (if less blatant) fashion, by allowing its employees to buy up tickets for resale by the company.

If you choose to buy from Seatwave you can be confident that you won't lose your money. (You'll either get your tickets or a refund). However you'll probably be buying from touts (who might well be Seatwave staff) at prices which will be between 2 and 20 times the face value of the tickets.

Chris