Ricky Gervais fans who used the Viagogo resale site to buy tickets for Scottish gigs have been warned they may be turned away at the door.
The warning was sounded after scores of fans were denied entry to the comic’s Armageddon stand-up gig in York’s Barbican venue on Wednesday night.
Ticketing investigator Reg Walker, of the Iridium Consultancy said Viagogo customers heading to the gigs at the SEC Armadillo in Glasgow on January 31 and February 1 should be “very nervous”.
The primary Ticket sale on Ticketmaster for The Office's creator was hammered by an army of greedy touts, some of who were able to get more than 100 tickets across the tour using illegal methods.
And Viagogo happily sold on the briefs, even though their own site, in small lettering, warns that people might be turned away.
Walker said: “My advice to anyone with tickets for future Ricky Gervais gigs - including those in Scotland - would be to be very mindful that they could be turned away if they bought them from Viagogo.
“The terms and conditions clearly state a limit on how many tickets a person can buy.
“The reality is that the Ricky Gervais tour, like many others, has been hammered by ticket touts, who have used totally fraudulent methods to get scores of tickets, using multiple identities.
“These strategies are proven to be fraud and it is the consumer who is losing out - in this case many of them have paid way over the odds for tickets and they haven’t even got in.
“It is known that more than 80% of all trade on Viagogo is by touts and Viagogo has benefited massively from the criminal actions of a proportion of those people.”
He added: “Any promoter or venue who knowingly allows the trading of tickets which were bought fraudulently risks becoming complicit in an offence.
“They have a very clear responsibility to turn people away if they have breached ticket conditions of where multiple credit cards and identities have been used to buy tickets.”
Despite Viagogo offering a “guarantee”, this only offers a refund for the ticket cost - and many fans travel to different cities and book hotels for big gigs.
The latest new Viagogo storm blew up on the second night Gervais played at the York Barbican.
It is understood that many tickets had barcodes that would not scan.
The venue was forced to rigidly enforce the ticket conditions - which ban resale - and allow only people who bought from Ticketmaster to get in.
The murky situation is further complicated by Ticketmaster’s own “platinum” pricing - which simply slaps a huge premium on high demand tickets.
In response to complaints on social media from fans, Gervais said: “The promoter, Live Nation, is investigating what happened. So frustrating, I know.”
The Barbican billed the event as their most sought after gig with 40,000 applying for tickets.
The venue has now said that all tickets were sold via Ticketmaster under the condition that they were not to be resold as per the T&Cs.
Despite Viagogo being legally forced to tell fans that resold tickets may result in no entry, the site said it was “shocked” to hear fans had been turned away.
Fans complained of spending a fortune on tickets, transport and hotels.
Many took to Twitter to complain about mistreatment.
One said: “If anyone is contemplating buying tickets from the UK and Europe’s biggest secondary ticket scam site, Viagogo (aka Scamagogo), please for the love of God don’t! You’ll regret it (as many Ricky Gervais fans discovered last night!)
“Basic logic really. Just because you dont agree with paying more from scalpers on principle doesnt mean those that do should be punished.”
A Viagogo spokesperson said there was no evidence of fraud or any duplicate tickets being sold on Viagogo, saying: “Every ticket was a legitimate ticket, bought and sold legally – and that remains the case for future dates.
”Those viagogo ticket holders who were denied entry to the York events were contacted and will be provided with a full refund in line with our guarantee.”
The Daily Record’s Stub Out The Touts campaign has made it clear that buying tickets using multiple identities and bank cards is illegal.
