Following news that the Rolling Stones Australian Tour has been officially postponed, fans who obtained tickets through scalpers have been cautioned that they may miss out on new tickets to new dates or a refund.
Frontier Touring announced yesterday that the Stones would be rescheduling their Australian Tour after the shock death of Mick Jagger’s longtime girlfriend L’Wren Scott postponed the seven-date ’14 On Fire Tour. Frontier says ticketholders should keep their passes until new dates are finalised when they will be issued with a new ticket or be given the option of a refund.
The same however, may not apply to those who paid exorbitant prices for flogged online tickets to the Stones’ first visit Down Under since 2006’s A Bigger Bang tour.
Speaking with ABC News, consumer group Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey says that ticketholders of a cancelled show have an “automatic right to a refund,” but that the same stipulation does not apply to those who did not buy tickets directly from ticket agencies. “The shows are postponed at this stage and only the principal purchasers are entitled to replacement tickets or a refund.”
“Consumers must be able to show proof of purchase of tickets in order to be eligible for a refund,” Godfrey said. “If you bought your tickets through a third party, such as through eBay or a ticket scalper, this may be difficult to get.”
Back in December, when the box office officially opened, official vendor Ticketek sold out passes ranging from $199 to $580 in minutes. Almost instantaneously, Rolling Stones tickets could be found through online re-sale facilities and auction sites such as eBay and Gumtree for nearly twice the price tag, and as much as $3,000 for the band’s concert to re-open Adelaide Oval.
Suzanne Daley, director of policy and programs at Live Performance Australia (LPA), says that ticketholders are “throwing away their rights” when they buy from scalpers.
“We always warn people against buying from second-hand ticket providers for these reasons,” Daley said.
“The shows are postponed at this stage and only the principal purchasers are entitled to replacement tickets or a refund,” she continued. “It’s up to the person the ticket was bought from whether it is passed on. There are no guarantees in this case.”
LPA is currently lobbying governments for uniform ticket scalping laws across Australia, where each state currently has its own approaches to dealing with third-party sellers and inflated prices on re-sold tickets. Such measures have already been proposed in New South Wales earlier this year, but the reforms were heavily criticised as doing more harm than good by ticketing companies, including Ticketmaster and viagogo
Viagogo spokesman Alex Levenson says that fans who bought Rolling Stones tickets through the online platform (which launched in Australia last September during a media furore over ticket scalping legislation) are covered by a guarantee when events are cancelled.
Frontier Touring have already been at the target of a spate of ticket scalping once already this year. Responding to the backlash over fans who missed out on tickets to Bruce Springsteen’s recent Australian Tour, last August Frontier boss Michael Gudisnki damned “unscrupulous scalpers” and warned fans over being “duped” by online scammers for tickets to The Boss’ February dates, which eventually grossed $26.7 million.
The ‘14 On Fire Tour was scheduled to see the legendary rock institution playing five ‘one night only’ concerts across capital cities including a sold-out headline performance to an audience of 70,000 to open the refurbished Adelaide Oval, the band’s first performance in the SA capital in two decades.
In addition to the capital cities, the Stones were scheduled to perform a special outdoor concert at Hanging Rock in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges.
The postponed shows are:
Perth Arena – 19 March – postponed
Adelaide Oval – 22 March – postponed
Sydney Allphones Arena – 25 March – postponed
Melbourne Rod Laver Arena – 28 March – postponed
Macedon Ranges Hanging Rock – 30 March – postponed
Brisbane Entertainment Centre – 2 April – postponed
Auckland Mt Smart Stadium – 5 April – postponed
