Arts features

Have you been the victim of an online Reading Festival ticket scam?

Liam O'Reilly
Not a victim but someone with a weekend ticket who is unwell and unable to go.It's too late for me to post it on the official sales site so if anyone is interested in BBC Herts, Beds and Bucks area post a response and my Mum will meet up to sell it for me.I'm a student so can't afford to take it on the chin!This is not a scam, my sister is still going and i got both tickets at the same time.

pat
bought a christmas present for my sons first festival as he did well on a2s. 210 pounds later for v festival and caming and have egg on my face as have realised i have been scammed, i feel gutted to have to tell him as he is going to be sooooo upset.

michelle
Hi everyone sorry to hear about the sort of people tht will rip you off ,right from under your feet. These people are low-life,s I will not give anyone that;s asks me for my details and im glad now that if seen the extent of the scams one thing ive learned about these type of people is they all work in a slimair way theres a pattern in every thing they do, iget em all the time saying that sum bloke has died in a plane crash and he has all this money tied up in a forgen bank account 'yer right as if thats the case and im a mulitmillionnear these people must think were gullable ok we all make the wrong judge ment at times but you all way learn for your mistakes before you do get carred away with any one time deals that being offerd to u,get more information on there web site that are providen a services if they want you to have sum tickets for any event then ask em for web site addresss and if they dont responed or contact you back, then before you have been scamed they have been rumbled now who,s the fool the scammer that thinks he knows it all

DC
Excite tickets.com are another fake company scamming consumers at the festival time of year. I paid for two tickets to see blur at hyde park, and here i am, 2 days before the show and still i have no tickets! I have tried to contact them, website is down, and there is a flurry of people in the same boat as me who have been writing vitriolic pledges to bring these crooks to justice. I am one of them, and i am not letting this go. The police are currently investigating, but i want as many consumers to know how these liars & thieves work, and what to look out for...

Anna
Not been victm of Reading scam but have recently lost approx £160 on Bruce Springsteen tickets from theonlineticketshop.com. Tickets never arrived and the number advertised either rings dead or is never answered. My friend has had exactly the same problem for a recent ACDC gig. It seems this company may have even gone into liquidation so how are they still allowed to advertise and operate? Watch out and read the reviews of them before buying!

Cathy
I wasnt a victim for the Reading Festival but have just found I have been scammed for the Bruce Springsteen Concert in Hyde Park this Sunday. Am so disappointed as the tickets were for my husband birthday. Watch out for this website. www.hydeparktickets.com

sarah
have also bought two tickets for reading 2009, anyone had any dealings with this company?

Georgie
Hey tracey :)i ordered tickets from exite. seriously. get your money back asap. ring up the woman and be like "i want to order more tickets" she'll ring you back and then just be like "i want a refund" because if you say to the woman "i want a refund - put me through" you'll never ever get throughthey'll send you a refund form - fill it out and you'll get a refund.

tracey wood
brought 2 tickets from excite tickets 4 leeds festival 4 this year please could you tell me if company legit thanks

ryan
we bought 3 tickets on SOS ticketmaster for reading festival 08 which came to £570!! luckily we got refunded by halifax as paid by credit card and are covered, even though it took so long we got full refund.

sarah
currently in the process of trying to resolve my scam experience with nationwide over sosticketmaster. £372 is alot ot money to me and meant i had to pay back a friend out of my own pocket for his half of the loss, people who say it's our fault for being scammed should wait till it happens to them, then you won't be taking the micky.

ros
BE warned. just been scamed by THE LONDON TICKET SHOP apparently they are part of SOS.How can GOOGLE let them have a site

Emma Walker
Sadly I to bought tickets for a special gift and paid a lot of money for them about 4 months ago Please dont have a got at vunerable buyers that just really want tickets , I had a systems administrator who checked out their domain and confirmed they were properly registered .So stop the harsh comments i also goggle them and there was very very little and about them adnd certainly none of the comments that are available today.other wise i certainly wouldnt have bought them.

Debbie Coyle
Ive been 'done over' by Sos Masterticket for Coldplay tickets. I actually spoke to someone who confirmed my tickets and took my credit card details, unknown to me the idiot was conning me. It was our first anniversary and are now left with nothing.

James
I have very little sympathy for any of you..... Stop paying ridiculous prices for tickets sold by touts!!

Emma Isitt
brought 2 madonna tickets for wembley they came at last minute went last night to be told they were fake totally gutted the site is called www.madonna2008tour.com

Natalie Creevy
I "bought" 4 tickets for a madonna concert on 13th September from SOS mastertickets- turns out that she was never doing a concert on 13th september so I was completely scammed by the rip off merchant that is SOS mastertickets to the value of £305! Im so angry! How can we stop this from happening?

Carol Naylor Jennings
i bought tickets from sos for Stevie wonder tonight just heard on radio company is a scam absolutly gutted.

Mair Jones
I bought two tickets back in May for Stevie Wonder in Birmingham on 8th September 2008 at a cost of £177.60. When they hadn't arrived two weeks ago I tried contacting SOS Masterticket - who by then had long since legged it. Managed to get other tickets via e-bay from genuine sellers and will claim for the tickets I didn't receive via my credit card company. Such a pity these kind of companies find it so easy to rip off genuine fans - hope they rot in jail when they are caught!!!

A W
We are victimas too!We paid £800. for tickets for a non exsistant Madonna concert from sos masterticket in march this year and have not recieved any tickets. the date I have purchased for has not even been released as a genuine date, it was supposed to be confirmed months ago I was told by sos and there is just over a week before the said date!sos have promised to move me to the date that is going ahead or refund me if my booked date doesnt get confirmed..as yet they have not done either.I have contacted my credit card company and BBC watchdog program in some hope of getting my money back.

Karen (South Wales)
Another victim of SOS MasterTicket - bought 6 tickets at £100 each for Stevie Wonder in London on the 11th September - a family event before my son goes traveling for 11 months. Gutted doesn't even match how I really feel! Can't even get the money back, paid by debit card!!! No response by telephone and the website has been shutdown. Was supposed to have a weekend in London to boot as well, can't see the point now, will only rub salt into an open wound! Never been caught before and won't ever again!

Stu (Woking)
I too, have just discovered today that SOS Mastertickets are a bunch of thieving criminals.It was not just for the V and Reading Festivals but it would appear they falsly advertised tickets for just about any event they could. I booked two tickets for the Mighty Boosh Live at Brixton in October.They took my card payment immediately without any intention of ever having or supplying your tickets.You wont find any trace of them now, the best you can claim back from your card company Credit you should be covered, Debit not so easy.Good luck and tell everyone you can about these thieving con-artists

richard
i to have been conned by sos i heard they have gone out of bisness i cantacted company house and even thou they havnt informed them that they have ceased tradeing there registed address is on company house web page in london

Mark (South Wales)
I'm a victim too. I bought a ticket from SOS Matertickets in April for my daughter to go to Reading with her mates. I pad £202 including the "Special Delivery" Needless to say no tickets arrived, I can't get SOS Materticket by phone, their website is down "for non payment". My credit card company have been fine and I expect a full refund, however explaining to your daughter that you've been 'conned' and she can't go to the rock festival was a little harder to sell.SOS will be needing exactly that if I ever find them.

Lance Omsky
i got scammed for 372 quid by sos. i am gutten not by the loss of money but by not seeing the festival. surely the card guarantee company that sos materticket uses is to blame for not checking the company they are processing the transactions for! i am outraged that something like like could happen in a modern country with heavy bank laws like england, whats the point? that we can just be ripped off because the company is based internationally. its a copout by the authorities, which i have seen alot of coming from south africa, its so lame, wake up and dont let this happen again.

Angelo Virciglio
I bought a ticket to Reading Festival off SOSTicketmaster, waited for weeks, then two days before the festival, the site went missing and I am know try my hardest to get my money back. Its an outrage!

Mrs Pamela Heath
Unfortunately I ordered two tickets for the Madonna concert in September back in May for my grandsons 21st birthday from SOS Masterticket. As I had not received the tickets by 27th August (normally sent out a couple of weeks before the concerts) I decided to check on what was happening. |Imagine my dismay when I look at the webside and discovered all these poor kids who had been conned by this Company. My Grandson was gutted as he was so looking forward to this birthday present, I only hope Visa stand up to their advertising and help pay back some of the money I paid out. I have learnt a lesson albeit the hard way but I will always book with Ticketmaster in future at least I have always received tickets from them.

Helen
They have done this regarding Madonna tickets too. my b/f paid £300 for a pair as a gift for my 21st birthday....ive contacted and complained too every consumer service i can think of, but as my b/f paid by debit card I doubt i will ever see the money again...but i live in hope!

Linda
I booked 2 tickets to see Stevie Wonder with SOS, have tried to contact them only to find that telephone and website have been disconnected. Will I see my tickets? I think not. Luckily I paid by credit card so will be refunded, but this is not the point.

caz
Everyone should get money back from cc company thats why you have a cc to buy on line.If people have complained about the same company sos masterticket it should be a straight forward refund as nobody recieved tickets.

dave
woops, come on people, its not hard, they list the ONLY places to buy tickets on the reading site

rachel johnston
I bought my mother two tickets for stevie wonder concert 8th sept which cost £177, she is absolutley devastated, she has waited 13 years to see her idol, and now this, i emailed sos , no reply, i had called them to find out where the tickets were as they were to arrive on the 16th by special deleivery and was told they were being sent out, when i tried to call on the 18th a dead line and the web site then went down, hwo do these people sleep at night and the people on the lines taking the bookings knowing full well, some of these people are just desperate to see people they adore in concert, i feel so bad for my mum as she has no way of seeing stevie now as they were sold out in 10 mins of the ticket lines opening as we tried as soon as the box office opened, i hope these people are caught or some new laws around secondary ticket sales.

Chris
I am a victim of the knock on effect that the scamming has had. I wasn't conned online although I can see why people would choose to buy from other sites when the official site is so jammed with traffic you would be frustrated to just get one from anywhere. I sat on the computer for 5 hours to get tickets for last year until I got the message that they had sold out.This year because of all the people that have been scammed, the day tickets (that are always held back to sell on the day itself) were sold in advance, so when I turned up yesterday 8am to que I was told I was wasting my time. The ticket touts are selling DAY tickets for £250. The worst bit is I live in Reading so I can partly hear what I'm missing.

Debbie Roberts
My son also purchased 4 tickets from SOS ticketmaster having experienced similar difficulties in getting through on the usual sites he uses. Unfortunately he also paid for them with his debit card. The Halifax have told him that the more people who go into their banks and complain (there is a proper form to complete) the more chance there is of getting your money back.

Alan Cottee
My wife booked 3 tickets for her best friends birthdays this weekend for George Michael! Luckily on Barclay Card who are investigating at the moment but say we should get the money back! But that is not the point the govenment should tighten up the laws covering this sort of "scam" it's allways the inocent people that get hurt!!!!

christine fair
paid £500 for 2 tickets on ebay in june. they never arrived and person i bought them from doesnt reply to emails or answer his mobile. because i bought the tickets so long ago can't get my money back from ebay.

Fraser Young
I bought a weekend ticket for Reading Festival back in April from SOS Masterticket, starting chasing them up last week with no e-mail replies, and their listed phone number has been unregistered. Frustrated that companies can get away with this, especially since I used a debit card and cannot claim my money back.

Heather Taylor
I bought two George Michael Tickets for this coming monday, completely gutted does not explain how we feel!! It's not the money it's the fact it is his last ever gig in the uk and we so wanted to be there. I cannot believe that this website has been allowed to advertise as a goggle sponsered website they should take some of the blame too!!1

Jane
I'm a single parent and £100+ just to see Metallica is a lot of money for me. I wonder if the bands/artists are remotely interested that we're all getting scammed in the process of trying to see their concerts? Probably not as they will be making a fortune out of the festival anyway!!

Katy Daffarn
Not SOS Ticketmaster this time but Reading Festival Tickets. They looked reliable enough and I couldn't find anything said against them online but the week of the festival we find out our tickets aren't comming through. We're still waiting to find out if we get a refund or have to chase one through the card company.

Gillian Anderson
I have been conned over tickets for Earls Court for George Michael. I paid for them in June and was assured that they would arrive 7-10 days before the concert and would be sent by Royal Mail Special delivery so that their progress could be tracked! What a farce as there never were any tickets.

paul
i paid £500 for a front row for george michael show on monday as its the last,e mailed,phoned,so now its in the hands of the credit card company,its taken a long time to save for this

Anon
I bought tickes from xclusivetickets.com and had no clue they were a scam until Monday when I tried to urgently get my tickets and realised their website now directed me to abc.com!! It seems people only realised they were dodgy when tickets for V Festival never arrived last week.I’ve bought tickets online before and have been successful in receiving them every time. It never crossed my mind that people scam you like this. That’s very niave of my now, but I do get frustrated by people who mock those who have been scammed. Yes, I wouldn’t buy a car from somewhere dodgy, but from generations of people being ripped off I know what to look out for and not to do it. Now I’ve been made aware of dodgy websites and ticket sellers I will in future be more cautious and do my research and look for warning signs. Luckily my two tickets were bought by credit card for £350 and should be refunded after the event. Until then I’ve missed out on the whole festival and worse – I live in Reading and can hear the muffled music and see everyone enjoying themselves around the town… just to rub my face in it!!I feel particularly sorry for parents who must feel they’ve let their children down when they have to tell them they can’t go. I’m gutted enough, but for kids it’s such a major thing.

Jacqueline Reburn
My 16 year old son bought 2 tickets from SOS for the Reading Festival, costing £400. I had checked out the site, which at the time had a UK address, called them and emailed to check credentials. I know it was a risk, but felt I had done as much as I could and he was desperate for tickets. Like many others I called often last week, and was assured tickets would be here by Tuesday. I am furious that criminals like this are stealing money from young people and students. I am also concerned that this illegal site was high on a Google search engine - do these suppliers not have a responsibility to check out their advertisers?

Rachel Garrard
I've had the worst luck this year for a Leeds festival ticket. I was scammed via an add on Gumtree.com for two tickets costing £300. The seller requested payment via moneygram supposedly to an ebay agent, which I never received. After dealing with this I thought I found a genuine site at SOS Masterticket and spent a further £200 on another ticket, which I have not received and have also been unsuccessful to contact the company via email or telephone. A very expensive lesson for a student I will always buy from the official sites in the future.

sean Farrell
I was a victim of the V festival. Paid out for a 180 ticket for the weekend and was told that a delevery would be made 5-7 days before the event. When this didint happen i emailed them and was told everything was ok and i would reciieve them son. I was later emailed to say that i would have to collect my tickets on site and was given a number to ring to do this. i rang a day before this time and was agin reassure everything was fine. However only on the day od the festival was i told that i would not be getting my tickets.Now i am aware that some were not even given this email but i am fumin g that i then had to to pay out anothet 180 to a legitiamte (and life saving) selller in order to go to this festival. I doubt i will ever see my money but many of my friends did not even see the festival. i am so angry that ppl can opperate like this when the internet is ment for helping this situation and i am 180 i cannot afford ut of pocket

anon
people panic buy into selling from un official sellers when they dont get a ticket on the initial sale day but fetival republic release them in batches i have never heard of someone not getting a ticket who wants one from a geuine seller even if they buy it in june.to those who have re funds but no ticket do not panic! last year my friend and i got our tickets stolen on the way to the festival i managed to que up in the morning and get one from the box office and on the friday she bought one for £180 of a tout, i know buying from touts is wrong but when your tickets been stolen, your mates are inside and your bags packed, your desperate.so if you have the money just go and see if you can get in, we did and we got in fine. last year £250 was what touts were asking they were everywhere selling, if you burst into tear and make them feel guilty you can get it down, £180 on the day of the festival for a weekend ticket isnt bad.

anon
Not this festival but paid 350 for 2 madonna tickets , luckily have managed to get some more have been ringing them for weeks asking when the tickets would show I with a promise that they would be sent a week before the event , gutted just hope the bank pays up as paid on a debit card in May , had to cancel card as have read that they have also been taking small amounts from peoples accounts, they should not be allowd to get away with this !

Karim
Not Reading but George Michael tickets, booked them early doors on SOS Master Ticket, kept chasing them and said it be with us 10 days before the gig, now its a few days and called them and the line goes dead. Not good at all!!! I want my money back plus i want to see the owners of SOS put up for fraud!!

Rob Sharpley
I've also fallen for this scam, costing me £207 as well as a £10 cancellation fee for my train ticket. It was literally only this monday that I discovered about the whole fraud, I've cancelled my debit card that I used to pay in case of further theft. Hopefully I'll be able to claim back most of the £200 however as my local bank had been made aware of SOS they were able to help my fill out a fraudelent theft form. I should know within the next 30 working days if I'll actually be refunded... until then i can only hope :-(

Lola
Regarding Rockgeek's comment - Can you save the 'I told you so' attitude for another site. The last thing someone wants to hear when they have just been fleeced out of £400 is how bloody stupid they are for buying the tickets in the first place. NOT GOOD! Do you just scan websites hoping to find some poor bastards that have been short changed so you can stroke your own ego by thinking how clever you are for not taking the 'tout' route. These guys have been kicked in the nuts already without you adding salt to the injury. Get a life and show some compassion. I take it your life is mistake free??!

Bunty
Bought a weekend ticket for Reading for my son to celebrate (hopefully) his AS results with his mates from sosmasterticket.com on 30th April. It hasn't arrived. This company was featured on Radio 5 Live today. Not only are they a scam, they're also scum.

Catherine
me and my friend bought tickets on sos masterticket on the 18th of april... little did we know we werent gonna get them. its such a shame that it happened 2 so many people and i know how gutted everyone is.. as i am one of them, lets just hope tht our bad expierence can teach others to look more closely for nexy year... i know for sure i will!

Clare Charlesworth
Well I too used SOS ticketmaster/masterticket (the sos should have been a warning!) for madonna concert tickets and although iwasnt due to get the tickets now, I'm not holding me breath. I paid ALOT of money as i was treating my two sisters but now we all won't be able to go. The word 'eejit' springs to mind for me!unlucky to everyone else..sadly i know how all of you feel!:/

leeeds fan
down 800 quid for 4 leeds tickets off sos masterticket

Sonia Dyson
Bought tickets for George Michael concert from SOS Masterticket back in June. Surpise surprise NO TICKETS, NO ONE TO CONTACT!!! I actually spoke to someone last Thursday who said tickets would be with me on Monday 18th August. Phoned up on Monday and phone line no longer in use! 0207 978 0136. The tickets were for my birthday present.

Matt Hutton
I got scammed £325 for 2 weekend tickets from a KC HOGAN, advertised on gumtree. I did a bank transfer and Barclays refuse to reply to my emails. If anyone knows a KC Hogan (Kevin Hogan from Edinburgh he said in his emails) that is likely to have done this please let me know where i can find him....not happy

Emma Williams
I too have been scammed by SOS Master ticket...i paid 404 pounds for two weekend reading festival camping tickets. I was constantly assured that they would be with me...but to no avail. I received a receipt and a confirmation email and started to believe that they might turn up. I paid by visa and have been assured that i will get my money back...but money is not the point! its the careful planning and psyching myself up for a fantastic weekend. I hope they are put away for a long, long time, they deserve to suffer like we did

Geoff Goddard
oi Rockgeek, put a sock in it and don't rub it in, you're not helping these people are you.

helen Elward
my son and his friends bought tickets from ticket master @£200 each. like others have received no tickets, web site no longer exists and phone line it not in use any longer. They paid by debit card and have lost their money.

Harry
"Why does the government allow this sort of criminal activity to continue ?"because they cant do anything about it. why do people continue to buy off of these sites?!

Tracey
Yes! we have been ripped off too! 4 weekend camping tickets - just foudn out TODAY. A friend of mine has also been ripped off on ebay but for 2 x lots of tickets.. £700 down and no tickets to show for it. Ban ebay selling tickets and also why not go for photo id option same as Glastonbury??

laura
I am another victim.In march 4 friends and myself ordered 5 tickets from sos ticket master.We contacted them twice and both times we were reassured that we would recieve tickets by this monday.surprise surprise no tickets arrived and when we tried to contact them we were unable.The website has gone,the phone has been cut off and it appears they have vanished.We are all devastated

laura
I am another victim.In march 4 friends and myself ordered 5 tickets from sos ticket master.We contacted them twice and both times we were reassured that we would recieve tickets by this monday.surprise surprise no tickets arrived and when we tried to contact them we were unable.The website has gone,the phone has been cut off and it appears they have vanished.We are all devastated

S Wiles
Same for V festival last weekend. Hundreds of dissapointed people scammed.

Mark Prestige
I bought two Sunday tickets for Reading from SOS Masterticket in June, I have been looking forward to seeing Metallica, Tenacious D and Pendulum all this time. I was getting worried last week when there was no sign of the tickets. I decided to email SOS Mastertickets from their website, to which it seemed like I got an automated response saying the tickets will be with me Monday Tuesday of the next week. Monday and Tuesday went by without the tickets dropping through my letter box. I tried phoning them and the mumber is no longer in use and their website is not on-line anymore. Luckily I brought them on a credit card and can redeem my credit back after a 60-120 day investigation period from the credit card company. Its not the money its the fact I am not going to be going. The site looked genuine enough, Im just gutted.

Andy Linford
With the age of technology increasing, and more and more reports of Music and Media companies securing successful legal action against individuals downloading and sharing music and videos across the internet, it’s amazing that neither the large music label’s, the bands themselves, nor the Government are willing to act and stamp out companies such as SOS MasterTicket.com. Companies that prey on innocent concert goers who want nothing more than to get close to their favourite artists and to soak up the atmosphere of top gigs like Coldplay and Madonna and the Reading and V festivals…Almost every day, we all hear about concert’s selling out in record time and the promise of extra dates being added to world and UK tours. We all have our own tails of waiting for ticket’s to go on sale and frantically redialling telephone sales lines, or refreshing your web browser trying to purchase the equivalent of wonka’s golden ticket in order to be a close to the stage as possible.In reality, what happens to the majority of us, is that we never even get that far, being left disappointed that all tickets are sold or you’re left with the furthest seat possible from the action and are reduced to viewing a live gig on a giant screen!For those willing to go the extra mile and were possible dig a little deeper into their pockets, searching the internet and ebay, looking for tickets on sale, they inspire to get as close as possible and sometimes at great cost.Take Coldplay’s current tour as an example. Tickets for the O2 went on sale this June, and no matter how hard you tried to even secure tickets via TicketMaster, O2’s ticket agent, thousands were left disappointed and failed to even receive the option to purchase seats via TicketMasters own website, let alone purchase one. Less than an hour from tickets going on sale, countless tickets began to appear of ebay for values reaching eight hundred percent profit for the sellers. Both Reading and V Festivals have also been hit with tales of disappointment, from concert goers that parted with their cash, with the promise of weekend tickets, to be left worrying anxiously, and even arriving at the location to be left high and dry and receiving nothing for their patients. Yet no one seems to care are wishes to act on the huge profits that are being made, at the expense of the real fans. Most organised events have their allocations snapped up even before they go on sale to the public, and companies that promise tickets for sold out events, can openly charge £500 or more for a £40 face value ticket. As with the case of SOS MasterTickets, a so called Spanish based company with links here in London, promised Festival goers, tickets. Many were left at the last minute desperately phoning to be told that tickets would be sent via next day recorded delivery, only then to receive an email informing them that their tickets could be collected from a man called Richard outside the event and were provided with a mobile telephone number, which when phoned was permanently switched off…Trading Standards, are often left flooded with calls, and are sometimes left to break the sad news that in the majority of cases, nothing can be done to bring these criminals to justice. If you are one of the lucky ones, that paid by credit card, you may be able to secure a refund. But all you credit card will do is reclaim the money from the receiving bank, and it’s left for them to recover the loss. Something which is almost impossible as the perpetrator has long since moved on and is often trading under a new company within a matter of days.Funny that you never hear about Music labels or the Government taking on the ticket tout’s and why, because they’re not losing out, and ebay clear feel it’s not their responsibility to prevent such activity. So who is willing to listen and act? The long and the short of it is that no one will and it’s left to buyer beware. Where’s the fairness in that??

Amy
Gutted i wont be going due to sos ticketmaster. Hopefully we will get the money back but still not the point.

bobby
I bought 2 tickets in julythey emails me straight away confirming the transaction. They said yoiu will recieve your tickets 10 days befor the festival.leeds fest in sunday and today is wednesday" no tickets".The site is down no anweron phone no suprise there!!I have contacted the credit card co and inder consumer act section 75 they have to do a charge back.Contacted Trading standerdsthey said it is fraud and so did the police. They areopperating from Spain tookthe money and ran.Leaving lots of festival goers with no hope in hell of getting a ticket.

Adrian
I to paid £200 for my sons ticket that has not arrived, surely the credit card companies should refuse to allow payments to go through when they are aware of these type of companies I will now be making a claim against them. Is there no way to highlight these companies better My son now seems determined to go to Reading and try to get there! Hope he doesnt get scammed again

Bob
My daughter orederd 2 tickets from sosticketmaster paying £400 by credit card.Got no tickets, it is a SCAM company.High time the orginizers of the festival sold all the tickets themselves and cut out ticket agencies altogether then no one would get fleeced

Sarah Davey
We bought tickets off SOS Ticketmaster for Stevie Wonder in September and had our fingers crossed after reading all the bad reviews everywhere but today it seems the company no longer exist and i'm sure our tickets never did! Luckily we bought o2 priorty tickets before they went on general sale so although we'll be sitting at the back, at least we'll be there!

Danny
Chill out.every year for the past 4 years i have bought tickets from people outside reading train station for less than face value !

Steffan
We bought Reading Tickets from SOS Master Ticket also. Nothing has turned up. Gutted.DO NOT USE SOS MASTERTICKETS.

Emily Hardy
Gutted. I used readingfestivaltickets.co.uk. What a joke. No RAGE for me or my brothers.

tom
i have traveled to england to the attend the reading festival and i have been ripped of! i think they should let the few hundred people attend anyway!!! that would be the right to do! insted of going on about how sad it is just make a good move dear organisiers of reading festival and let us poor people attend!

mother of a festival fan
We paid £184 for a Chelmsford V festival ticket back in April. A week before the event we had an email saying they could not send ticket but we would have to meet a guy at V and he would hand over ticket - they gave a mobile number. This all sounded a bit dodgy and we did a bit of research only to find all the warnings about tout sites!! my daughter then tried to find another ticket for herself and a friend through Gumtree and was very lucky not to lose another £300 when she was caught up in a moneygram/paypal exchange that was another scam - luckily she was able to stop the moneygram exchange to paypal and got the money back. In the end she and her friend paid over the odds for two tickets through ebay where they arranged to meet the seller and exchange cash and tickets - seemed the safest way!! In the meantime on the Thursday before V we received an email from sos masterticket to say they had been let down by their supplier and would no longer be able to supply ticket - we were told in the email that we would have a refund paid by 29th August - just waiting to see if that happens but not holding out much hope!! before we go down the refund route through bank.

Philipp Hall
SOS MASTERTICKET ARE CLEARLY SCAMMING US. I foolishly purchased a ticket from sos masterticket for £102.00 which i thought was great in the haste to get a ticket after they've sold out I have searched on www.companieshouse.gov.uk and have found this address: SOS MASTER TICKETS LIMITED 065481992ND FLOOR,145-157 ST JOHNS STREET,LONDON,EC1V 4PY Previous 'Spanish' phone number was: 02079780136 The phone number is falce and the address is a flat in islington....if this isn't a setup company to scam us festival goers out of our hard urned (foolishly spent) money then i don't know. I ordered my ticket in june, never got confirmation email, never got a reply to my pleas of "where is my ticket" the website has now disapeared off the face of the internet and no contact numbers work. Unfortunatly i think the only thing we can do is hope that our payment protection plans on our bank accounts will work out....and that watchdog might go knocking on the door of this islington flat...probably to find a rich spanish student with a one way ticket to paraguay in his pocket.

John Hammell
Hi,Same thing , bought 2 weekend camping tickets for Reading at the end of March. I always get my tickets from Ticket Master and didnt think anymore of it until i tried to arrange delivery this week.... Spoke with Ticketmaster who have tried to sue SOS Ticketmaster for copyright.. Tried all day yesterday on E-bay , but very over priced. I bought them for my Daughters , they were going with friends and unfortunately they have been even more unlucky , as they lost out to SOS then only this week they got duped by some one on Gumtree! . my bank are hopefully going to refund the money , £ 400... its not fair to prey on genuine music fans....

Matthew Hughes
Yes, I'm another trusting idiot that these swines have connned - I bought tickets for the V Festival which took place last weekend, didn't get them and had to buy some from e-bay (thank you 'Gaz' from Chester!) and I also bought some for this weekend's Leeds festival (my 9 year old daughter wants to see Metallica, of course...) Looks like it's e-bay time again - not ideal as that can be pretty dodgy!

Nicholas Wood : 14
is there any way we can get our money back, we bought reading tickets from 'sos tickets' and the festival is 3 days away and we have no tickts???

Steve Norris
I've fallen fail to SOS Mastertickets as well... I've brought tickets for Coldplays O2 concert in Decemeber and todate have had no garantee that I'll receive my tickets. The fact that their website and phone lines are permantly down dones't bode well

Maxine
I bought two Reading tickets from SOS ticketmaster. I even called the company before sending my credit card details and the lady on the phone semmed really sweet and helpful providing me with information on the festival and when the tickets would arrive. Speaking to her put my mind at rest that it was a real company and I would get my tickets.It makes me sick to think she knew i would never get my tickets and the whole thing was a scam.

Jon
Hi, I am putting together an article investigating these sites and their activities and I'm looking to speak to some people who have been ripped off. If you're interested in talking to me please contact me at [email protected]. Thanks, Jon

Annoyed Victim
I bought a weekend ticket to Reading Festival from a website called xclusive.co.uk. Never showed up. I blame the organisers of the event as they know bogus websites selling tickets is an issue every year, yet they have not stopped the problem. Why not have ONE "official" website with ONE official price. Then there will be no question as to which sites are bogus or not.

ANON
I am also another victim of SOS Masterticket. Myself and my friend purchased tickets for the George Michael concert on Sunday 24th August as a pick me up as we have both suffered with berevements earlier this year and this was the one thing that has kept us going. I spoke to them on Thursday 14 August and they assured me the tickets were being despatched on the 15th I have no tickets and they have taken away are last chance to see George as he will not being touring ever again!We feel desperate to get hold of some tickets but like everyone else we would have to pay way over the odds for them and I am really worried about being scammed again. I think the organisers of these events and the government need to outlaw these sites as they ruin peoples lives and dreams.

Torz
Even ebay isn't safe! (Surpise surprise some might say) But even with a good history seller, I bought 2 Reading weekend tickets beginning of July for £460. Able to contact the seller up until late last week and now he has been removed from ebay, phone number doesn't work, false name etc and because I bought them the beginning of July it is just over the 45 day protection so I may not get all my money back!I am gutted that I can't go to the weekend, Metallica were the main band I wanted to see so now I've just forked out more dosh for Sunday only tickets (at another £300) and just hope they come through ok. At least I got security on this payment worst comes to the worst yet again!!

Mark Tonkin
Paid for 4 tickets from SOS Master Ticket and nothing appeared and now nowhere to contact :-(

Mary Williams
Bought tickets in April and when I got a confirmation email and reference number thought things would be ok. It was only when I started to look deeper into SOS Masterticket that I realised it was a scam. Luck for me I have paid by credit card so I reported the site and have a refund. Managed to get a ticket through a friend of a friend who is sick but looked at Ebay and there are lots of qenuine people selling tickets all you have to look at is the persons feedback and ask for a contact number to speak to them before bidding. Not every ebay seller is a fake and people sometimes have emergencies they cannot get out of.

Adrian Stanton
It's not just the Reading festival, i bought 2 tickets to see George Michael on Sunday in Earls Court from SOS Masterticket for £260. Same old story with their website and phone number. I contacted police who have said because they are based in Mercia, Spain, there's not a lot of chance of their enquiries going anywhere (there's not even a division to police the web!!!). On a slightly more positive, although i paid by debit card, my bank, Smile, said that because i reported it within 60 days of purchase they will investigate and may be able to refund my money ..... still not seeing Grorge Michael though :-(

mrs janine burns
my husband purchased two tickets for my son for his 18th birthday,these tickets were for the leeds festival which is due to take place on friday 22nd aug,looks like it's a scam also,everyone who has ordered tickets for every forthcoming event has been conned by these criminals,we shouldn't be made to feel guilty for purchasing these tickets as everyone thought it was a legitimate website,we are also £408.00 out of pocket as we paid by debit card which we are tring to get refunded but hold no hope of that and my son won't get to expierence his first ever leeds festival for his 18th,he's totally gutted as well as his friend.

Mat Peacock
I'm another one of the victims :(I paid for the ticket on the day of the tickets becoming available. I was trying to get the tickets through ticketmaster but no success due to the server crashing and phone calls kept getting disconnected.My friend told me he managed to get a ticket with sos masterticket. So I went straight to their site and managed to get a ticket.Last week i rung up just to see where the tickets where and was told twice by two different people they will be here by Tuesday at 1pm at the latest.Come the Monday I decided to ring again and the number was dead and the site was down.Here I am now telling you I am not going to the event!I am another who is gutted and possibly £200 out of pocket.

liz
we've been scammed aswell my boyfriend got 4 day tickets for reading and a bestival ticket all from sos masterticket or sos ticketmaster. I'm really disapointed and im pretty sure we wont be getting any tickets

Eve Marshall
I bought my Reading ticket from SOS Master Ticket in the beginning of May. It has turned out to be a con and I'm shocked because they seemed so genuine. In future I will only buy tickets from private sellers. I can't beleive this has happened to me.

anon
to be honest your more likely to get a genuine ticket off ebay and actually get it....but wait till the last 2 week were you can see people have the tickets in hand pictures etc....

Rockgeek
Would anyone buy a dodgy looking car from a dodgly looking 2nd hand car dealership?I thought not.Themn why buy from sites that the OFFICIAL site says not to. The OFFICIAL forums say not to. Both sections have a list of OFFICIAL vendors.The information is plastered over the forums. People only seem to use the forum once they realise what a fool they've been.Yes, people are desperate, no doubt about it. However if I'm desperate for a car, I don't go to somewhere that's obviously dodgy. I wait, do my research etc

Liam Gilleran
I have just been scammed £450 from ebay as the user has removed their account :(

Katie Staton
My son and his two friends bought tickets through SOS Ticketmaster as it was then called (now SOS Masterticket) and surprise, surprise have not received their tickets, despite various telephone assurances from the company that they would receive them. Unfortunately, my son paid for his on his Barclays Connect debit card, so he may be not be able to get any money back. This has been a very hard lesson for a 17 year old boy to learn and he is now out of pocket to the tune of £227.45 - money which he had worked hard to save up. These people should be chased down and prosecuted.

Simon O'Farrell
I feel sorry for you guys who missed the Reading Festival. There are a lot of us now who are suffering as a result of SOS Mastertickets who are due to see George Michael this weekend and have no hope of getting our tickets. Why does the government allow this sort of criminal activity to continue ?