The Central Coast is rich in events. My805Tix is going on seven years of being the official ticketing platform for venues from Agoura Hills to San Miguel, servicing 262 companies last year.
“It's an event-centric community and that's kind of what we do for our recreation around here is go to events,” said Paul Irving of My805Tix.
But according to John Pranjic with Libertine Brewing, the past decade has seen ticket scams mar the experience for many trying to get into the venue’s shows.
“We understand that tensions might be a little bit higher than normal when you experience something unfortunate like a ticket scam,“ he said.
Ryan Orr, the entertainment director at SLO Brew Rock, explained that at their soldout concert for country star Dasha in October, they discovered that bots had purchased a large number of tickets and re-released those tickets to the public.
Sometimes, tickets sold by third parties may be legitimate, but they may also be much higher than the original price.
Irving showed us the process of buying tickets online, using the upcoming Adam Carolla Show at the Fremont Theater as an example.
Upon clicking on the first few sites that popped up in a web search, prices for the “cheap seats” on one site were listed for $85. On the theater's website, the same tickets are listed for $25.
“All of a sudden, you just spent three times more than you needed to for a ticket that may or may not be legitimate,” Irving said.
Pranjic added there are other places where you should avoid purchasing tickets.
“It's never a good idea to buy tickets on Craigslist or Facebook or Venmoing people for tickets. Those are not things that venues support,“ Pranjic stated.
Irving says the best way to guarantee your ticket isn’t a scam is to purchase directly through the venue's website.
