THE BBC has outraged music fans who claim they are collateral damage in the broadcaster's new war on ticket touts.
The taxpayer-funded broadcaster has warned fans buying resold briefs for the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival in Glasgow which have been sold for up to 30 times their face value that they will be barred.
Tickets for the electro pioneers Depeche Mode who are slated to play at the 2,100-capacity Glasgow Barrowland were sold out in minutes on Friday morning with £30 briefs immediately becoming available on the Viagogo ticketing resale site and were selling for up to £879 each.
The touting comes despite a BBC warning that tickets resold for profit or commercial gain by anyone other than nominated ticket agent, the Ticketmaster-owned Ticketweb will become void. The BBC has confirmed that they have approached Switzerland-based Viagogo about the promotion and resale of tickets on their site which the public corporation has said should not be resold.
The Beeb has warned fans with resold tickets that they will not be allowed in, which means they stand to be massively out of pocket.
The chaos has led to the BBC being bombarded with complaints with fans saying that the corporation had allowed them to be exploited through their handling of ticket sales and one describing it as "the real rock 'n'roll swindle".
To guard against tickets touts reselling for profit, 6 Music Festival tickets were printed with the name of the lead purchaser who will have to show their ID on arrival at the venue to gain entry.
And the Beeb have said that all fans going to the festival will need ID matching the lead booker's name on the ticket, and without that, fans will be refused entry. Officials have warned that there will be security around all venues to monitor for touting of tickets.
Other major ticket resale sites like Ticketmaster's Get Me In! and Seatwave and eBay company Stubhub which were among those which have come under fire in the past for becoming a forum for touts selling tickets for massive profits, did not appear to be hosting the BBC festival tickets.
Ticketmaster confirmed that it had put a block on the resale of tickets on its secondary sites, because of the BBC restrictions.
A BBC source said: "Viagogo are not a partner and we strongly recommend the public do not buy tickets being resold as the purchaser cannot guarantee they are genuine and not copies, and without the ID of the lead purchaser they will not gain entry to the festival."
The source warned that offering tickets for resale was breaking the Terms & Conditions buyers agreed to during the booking process.
And she insisted that the venues will be policed to ensure that people who have resold tickets will not gain entry. Asked if Viagogo has been approached about the promotion and resale of tickets, the BBC source said: "Yes, and to re-iterate, re-sold tickets will be void.
But Viagogo, which has remained silent about the criticism, was continuing to resell tickets on Saturday.
Tickets being snapped up on the Viagogo ticket resale site
Music fans became enraged after spotting the sales and have complained that the festival has become a target for profiteering touts.
Jim Cassidy, 47, from Airdrie, who lost out on buying tickets and was shocked at seeing them being resold on Viagogo said it seemed the the genuine fan would once again suffer in the BBC's fight against the touts.
"The fan gets shafted every way," he said. "He doesn't get the ticket in the first place, then he get done over when he buys with inflated prices from a secondary place and then when he turns up at the door because he has not bought it from the original seller as he should have done, he gets turned away at the door. The middle men are creaming it off and it's the fans that are getting ripped off.
"This is the real rock 'n' roll swindle. It's horrendous what is going on."
Brian Bell added: "I don't mind losing out on tickets if they are going to genuine fans but the way that this half-a*sed arrangement played into the hands of the touts just sticks in my throat."
The ticketing website takes a 12 per cent cut from the seller, then adds around 15 per cent of the full sale price plus VAT as a service fee.
For a resold £879 Depeche Mode ticket - the seller would make £770, Viagogo would take £405 including VAT and the buyer would pay around £1175 in total. The seller of these tickets is not known, as Viagogo protects their identities.
Depeche Mode tickets have been the most sought after of the Glasgow shows, as the band normally play to arenas and stadia at least five times the size of the Barrowlands. It would be their first live UK show for four years.
The festival is being staged in venues across Glasgow also features The Jesus and Mary Chain, Sparks, Goldfrapp and Belle & Sebastian.
StubHub and Ticketmaster were accused of acting like “old-fashioned fences” as MPs have been investigating websites that allow touts to make huge profits from illegal ticket sales.
In November, key people from StubHub and Ticketmaster faced an inquisition from MPs on the culture, media and sport select committee, who have been looking into allegations that touts use underhand methods to secure tickets at the expense of fans.
During the sessions Ticketmaster was accused of profiteering by potentially pocketing more than £600 on tickets sold by touts for Phil Collins concerts.
Seats for the tour sold out on Ticketmaster in seconds in October with many believed to have been booked by touts who sell them on for inflated prices.
Ticketmaster's website redirected fans to a re-selling site it owns called Get Me In! where the seats – originally priced at £55 to £175 – sell for up to £2,200.
A TicketWeb spokesman said about the latest row: “We worked in conjunction with the BBC to make sure that tickets got into the hands of true fans.
“The measures that we have put in place will ensure that it is these fans who get into the festival.”
It's not the first time Glasgow has been at the centre of a major ticket touting row.
In 2015, the Lawn Tennis Association warned disgruntled fans buying tickets resold by touts for the sell-out Davis Cup semi final featuring Andy Murray in Glasgow that they might be voided, after many complained that tickets were being swiftly resold for up to £1,399 each, over 14 times their original face value.
Fans had condemned the handling of the public sale for the big match against Australia at the Emirates.
Arena on September 18-20 and bombarded tennis's governing body with complaints.
Hundreds of tickets became available through resale and ticket exchange agencies including eBay company Stubhub for up to £750, Viagogo for up to £700, and the Ticketmaster firms Seatwave and Get Me In! for £500
and £750 respectively.
The face value of tickets ranged between £40 and £95 for each day of the three day tennis clash.
Depeche Mode tell how they they are looking forward to playing the Barrowlands again
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