Letter to Phish re: scalping

[Play_It_Leo]

I've had enough of trying to get seats for the Fox. I'm sure a lot of you have seen me in different forums complaining about the prices. I found 2 ebay listings that explicitly say they got their tickets from the lottery and are selling them for $1500 or so for a pair. I sent the following email to the band:

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is to inform you of blantant disregard for Phish's stated policy regarding their ticket lottery system. The policy states that:

Phish Tickets has a zero tolerance for scalping and insists that all patrons of our service abide by our policy stated herein. Tickets made available through this site are intended only for fans who are actually planning on attending the shows requested. It is strictly prohibited to resell any tickets obtained through Phish Tickets for more than the purchase price. If you are found to be reselling, trading or brokering tickets that you purchased through our site for profit, Phish Tickets may at its discretion cancel your ticket order and all other pending orders in your name.

I am a St. Louis resident and have been shut out of seats for my hometown show at the Fox Theatre. In desperation, I've been trying to find a "deal" on various broker sites. In searching ebay.com specifically, some persons lucky enough to have been granted tickets via the lottery are stating such and selling their tickets for $500-$1000/seat. Following are a few of the links to these persons who arein violation of the terms and spirit of the lottery agreement:

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-Phish-Tickets-06-16-09-FOX-THEATRE_W0QQitemZ230331904549QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Tickets_all_in_one?hash=item230331904549&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1257|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-Phish-Tickets-at-The-Fabulous-Fox-Theatre-6-16-09_W0QQitemZ300301500240QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Tickets_all_in_one?hash=item300301500240&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1257|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50

Many of the other tickets listed on ebay for similar prices also appear to be in the same section(s), implying to me that they also may be tickets from the lottery. As a fan, I would like to think I would do anything to see a Phish show in my home town. As a father of 2 small children, I can't possibly justify paying anywhere near this much.

I am uncertain what steps you may be able to take to prevent the above tickets from being sold for exorbitant amounts. If you are able to intervene, thank you very much on behalf of all true Phish fans. We care too much for the band, music, and the fan community to stand for selfishness such as this. If you aren't able to put a stop to this, I appreciate all your efforts to end this abuse.

Sincerely,

Chris Dollenmeyer
St. Louis, Missouri

If any of you guys see similar auctions/"sales" that state that they have lottery seats, please report them and see if we can get a few more seats back into our hands instead of brokers.

[blatboom]

I read this today and got a chuckle out of it..

http://phish.portals.musictoday.com/

A FEW CHOICE WORDS ON SCALPING

Phish Tickets has a zero tolerance for scalping and insists that all patrons of our service abide by our policy stated herein. Tickets made available through this site are intended only for fans who are actually planning on attending the shows requested. It is strictly prohibited to resell any tickets obtained through Phish Tickets for more than the purchase price. If you are found to be reselling, trading or brokering tickets that you purchased through our site for profit, Phish Tickets may at its discretion cancel your ticket order and all other pending orders in your name. This cancellation will result in a refund of the total price for the tickets minus a $7.00 per ticket processing fee and any shipping fees that have been incurred with respect to the order. We reserve the right to investigate all orders suspected to be in violation of this policy.

[whyweigh5.0]

postal money order mail order

[whyweigh5.0]

phish could make a killing on all those 7dollar processing fees

[Play_It_Leo]

postal money order mail order

would be nice...

[noodle]

Noble effort.

[Ri©h]

Noble effort.

Indeed.  +k Leo, well done.   

[thechad]

postal money order mail order

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I NEVER got shut out for any show with the old system, not NYE shows, not Halloween shows, nothing.  I for one would love it if they went back to the old system.  But, the brokers would just hire people to fill out the forms and get the tickets mailed to them, so I don't really think it would solve anything, I just liked doing it more.

[Hicks]

postal money order mail order

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I NEVER got shut out for any show with the old system, not NYE shows, not Halloween shows, nothing.  I for one would love it if they went back to the old system.  But, the brokers would just hire people to fill out the forms and get the tickets mailed to them, so I don't really think it would solve anything, I just liked doing it more.

Yup, like it or not Phish is kind of a big deal in 09.

[thechad]

postal money order mail order

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I NEVER got shut out for any show with the old system, not NYE shows, not Halloween shows, nothing.  I for one would love it if they went back to the old system.  But, the brokers would just hire people to fill out the forms and get the tickets mailed to them, so I don't really think it would solve anything, I just liked doing it more.

Yup, like it or not Phish is kind of a big deal in 09.

QFT, and I don't really think that there is any end all be all system to stop scalpers and brokers from getting their hands on the tickets.  I fact, I think that on the whole, Phish fans have been lucky that no one has really paid that much attention to us and we have never really had to deal with this on this scale until now, where as this same thing has been plaguing the more well known "big" acts for decades.  Our scene has finally grown up.

[sunrisevt]

^^^Probably true.  :cry:

[mattstick]

A much better course of action would be to find eBay regulations that these auctions violate and report them to eBay.

Phish has no legal recourse over these auctions.

[nab]

A much better course of action would be to find eBay regulations that these auctions violate and report them to eBay.

Phish has no legal recourse over these auctions.

While I agree with you about the course of action, Phish does have legal recourse over the individuals that put these tickets up for auction through the agreement included in ticket purchase.  Admitting that the tickets came from lottery also implicates these individuals.  Reporting the activities to Phish couldn't hurt, and just might help.

[mattstick]

So you think they should try and figure out who this person is (based on their eBay ID?), then cancel or void their tickets?

How do you propose they do that?

Let's just get real about things for a second.

[nab]

Ebay's privacy policy does allow third parties to request personal information.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/privacy-policy.html#Disclosure