Unauthorised Ticket Agents and Ticket Touting
The easiest way to avoid obtaining a suspect Electric Picnic ticket is to only buy from Festival Republic’s only authorised seller: Ticketmaster.
NON TRANSFERABLE
If you see tickets for Electric Picnic advertised anywhere other than on Ticketmaster you stand a good chance of getting ripped off and possibly being refused entry. The most usual reasons are listed below.
Festival Republic will be unable to assist you if you have bought from an unauthorised source, as we will have no purchase history available for the ticket.
All event tickets are checked by our staff at entry to the event and again at the wristband exchange for camping shows – any forged tickets will be confiscated from you, you will not be permitted to the event and you may face questioning from the police.
We do not issue ‘Print at home’ tickets for Electric Picnic, any tickets that are offered for sale fitting that description are a scam.
A second common scam occurs when genuine tickets, have already been cancelled by the seller with Ticketmaster, and are then sold to an unsuspecting fan. These may appear to be genuine when received, but will not scan at the
gates when you arrive on site. To be as safe as you can and to avoid obtaining a suspect ticket, follow these simple guidelines:
- Do not buy from an unofficial ticket agent – The only authorised ticket agent for Electric Picnic is Ticketmaster. Do not buy from internet auction sites.
- Do not buy a ticket online without seeing its face value.
- Do not pay more than the authorised standard booking fee per ticket. These are displayed on Ticketmaster.
- If you live in Ireland do not buy from a website with an overseas office address or with no registered address shown.
- Do not buy from another individual or tout, either in advance in your home town, or outside the event.
If you ignore these pointers you are likely to pay a lot of money for something worthless as your ticket will be invalid.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Authorised agents will always make available the ticket Terms and Conditions applicable to the sale and make the transaction as transparent as possible. This protects both the buyer and the agent and offers the customer legal
protection. You will not be afforded the same protection if you buy from an unauthorised site.
TOUTS
We are often asked why we allow touts to buy tickets. The simple answer is that we do not knowingly sell to touts.
We take great time and effort to prevent multiple purchases and work hard to prevent tickets being touted, but unfortunately the law is not on our side and it is a difficult and time consuming exercise trying to police purchases;
however we do try our best.
Many touts buy tickets from a number of sources using numbers of people to buy for them. They will buy from auction sites and also advertise on websites that buy up unwanted tickets.
AUCTION / RESALE SITES
Each year we receive feedback about people buying from auction sites, unauthorised on-line agencies and elsewhere with tales of tickets that never materialised, fake tickets and customers being told to ‘meet our rep
outside the venue on the day’. Despite our best efforts to protect customers there is very little we can do as a company to help if you buy from anywhere other than our authorised agency.
IF IN DOUBT, DO A LITTLE RESEARCH FIRST.
Would you give you card details out and permission to debit your account to an anonymous person in the street?
No. So don’t give them to an untraceable person on the internet or phone.
Certain things should immediately ring alarm bells such as:
- Websites/agents with an address overseas (e.g. Spain, Hungary, USA etc.) for a supposed Irish or UK based company.
- No address details at all on the website, just a contact phone number (especially a mobile number) and email address.. Try ringing the number and asking a few questions before attempting to book on-line.
- Festival Republic agents are committed to keeping a set booking fee. Electric Picnic tickets are subject to max €7.15 per ticket service charge. Anyone charging above this is not a valid agent.
- Research the agent / website. If you are suspicious then research the company. Try Google and other search engines and also web forums are an
excellent source of feedback. - Most tout websites use a drop address. There will be no staff to talk to just an office with someone collecting mail for 20 or 30 different companies. If there is an address displayed, Google the postcode/address and see how many
separate companies are registered to the same address. - Use web service such as whois.domaintools.com to find the domain details and who they are registered to and where they are hosted.
- Festival Republic cannot be held responsible for any purchases made through unauthorised sources.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE CAUGHT OUT
If you do encounter problems contact your credit card issuer as soon as possible, and if you believe a criminal offence has taken place contact the Police. If you are not sure that a criminal offence has taken place then ask advice
first from your card issuer The Competition & Consumer Protection Commission.
SEARCH ENGINES
As a search engine Google is very effective, however typing in Electric Picnic will not automatically display the official Electric Picnic website or Ticketmaster first. Please check you are buying from the valid agent (Ticketmaster.ie) and
not an unauthorised site set up to look like the official one. Some sites will carry ads/links from unauthorised ticket agents. Only use the official Electric Picnic site (https://www.electricpicnic.ie/) for ticket links.
SOLD OUT EVENTS
The number of tickets available for any event is limited by the venue capacity. Once the tickets have all sold the safest thing to do is accept the fact it is sold out. We all understand the disappointment of missing out – but is it really worth risking your hard-earned cash buying from an authorised source when there’s no guarantee you will get in?
There are people who currently buy extra tickets to sell on to cover their own ticket costs. In doing this you deprive genuine fans (the ones you party with at the festivals) from buying at the correct price. Please be considerate and think of others and only buy for personal use.
SPARE TICKETS
Occasionally due to genuine circumstances you may find yourself with a spare ticket.
Please do not be tempted to sell it on an auction site or to sell to a ticket tout or on-line agency. This just perpetuates the problem. You are risking the purchaser not being able to enter the event (under the Terms and Conditions). You are liable should this happen and you may end up on the wrong end of legal action if something occurs to prevent the buyer from entering or you fail to supply information relating to the event entry Terms and Conditions e.g. age restrictions.
If you have a spare ticket and your point of purchase are unable to offer a refund, please use a genuine fan to fan resale site such as https://www.toutless.com/.
If you have a genuine reason for not being able to use your ticket such as a bereavement or accident please call our Information line for advice. We will do what we can to assist you.
If we work together to buy fairly there’s a good chance that genuine fans will get tickets and less people will find themselves out of pocket.