NORWOOD, Mass. — Some community theaters are warning patrons of a sharp increase in third-party sellers offering inflated ticket prices to unaware buyers, often several times the face value.
“It’s been happening forever, but it’s been really bad this season for the most part and ramping up,” said Norwood Theatre business manager Amy Judd. “They sell them for two, three, four times the real price. And people get [to these] websites because, when you Google us or any other venue, we don’t come up first. All the ticket resellers come first.”
Boston 25 News found Norwood’s $50 Nutcracker tickets selling for $700 and $800 on various ticket resale sites. Norwood Theatre’s maximum ticket price is $63.
To combat the issue and protect the theatergoers’ wallets, Norwood Theatre changed its ticketing policies in early September, no longer allowing e-tickets, requiring buyers to pick up their hard tickets at will call with an ID and canceling their no-refund or exchange policy to remove any need to resell tickets legitimately.
All online purchases must be directly through www.norwoodstage.com. Tickets bought through third-party sites are not accepted.
Buyers online or in person must check a box agreeing not to resell their tickets.
But within days of the new policy banning e-tickets, some resellers found a workaround to sell their marked-up seats, Judd said.
Some are selling the tickets on speculation and using the buyer’s personal information, unbeknownst to them, to then purchase the cheaper ticket directly from www.norwoodstage.com under the buyer’s name. The reseller provides instructions to the buyer to pick up their tickets with their ID.
“We have someone who paid almost $200 for a ticket that should’ve been, like, $50 and found out because we handed her a ticket that had the price printed on it,” Judd said. “So many of the people I talk to are so embarrassed that they made this mistake.”
Norwood Theatre staff are busy before each show, checking identification and making sure tickets were not purchased through a third party.
“Our policy is that if we catch the fact you have purchased from a third party, we won’t let you into the show,” Judd said. “Usually, if a show is not sold out, we will have other tickets that we can sell at the time, and they can hopefully go back to the reseller and ask for their money back. But I’ve heard a lot of people have trouble with that.”
But if the show is sold out, the customer may not be able to attend.
If the reseller does not refund their tickets, the theater is instructing buyers to contact their bank or credit card company and dispute the charges.
“We sincerely hope that these measures will help eliminate the sale of tickets to The Norwood Theatre events through third party resellers,” owner Susan Lewis said the box office changes in a letter to patrons. “We want all of our patrons to be confident that they are purchasing real tickets, from us, at the correct price.” “
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