Groupon is just everywhere these days. Now the deals site has teamed up with Live Nation, which oversees Ticketmaster, to target another area: cheap concert tickets.
The system will work much like Groupon, offering local discounts to music concerts, theater shows and more for users. But will this service be any different -- or better -- than some of the other sites offering discount concert seats?
StubHub has long been the go-to site for cheap or last-minute events tickets, but consumers seem to be souring on the company. The site pools tickets together from various sellers and posts them, often for a price higher than face value because they're for sold-out or short-notice events. The site gets a mix of reviews from users, and the negative ones mostly have to do with inflated prices. Some like the ease of use, but a San Francisco Yelp user said she paid double the face value for four tickets. Others report on ePinions and Review Centre problems with ticket sellers either not realizing their tickets had been purchased or never releasing them to be printed.
There are several sites that basically do the same things as StubHub. What you'll get with these sites is pretty much the same batch of tickets looking to be resold. RazorGator is one of these third-party brokers that seems to have a few more theater offerings than other similar sites. Top 10 Reviews likes that the site has a good range of tickets, but says the prices aren't always the best. Star Reviews says the Fan2Fan Exchange makes it easy to buy and sell tickets. While legitimate, both StubHub and RazorGator seem to jack up prices too high for us to recommend using them.
A TripAdvisor user said CoasttoCoastTickets.com is a reputable ticket broker, but like StubHub and the other major sites, it often sells otherwise sold-out tickets at higher prices. A ComplaintsBoard.com user said he got tickets three times the price of face value. Top 10 Reviews says it generally has higher prices than other brokers and isn't so easy to use. TickCo is deemed a mediocre discount concert seats site with not-so-great prices, an inability to sell tickets and no option to print tickets. Pass on both of these.
According to reviews, Tickets Now is definitely a cheap concert tickets site to stay away from. Users on Epinions report tickets never arriving, being sold to other people after they paid and being substituted. Pissed Consumer users claim they got tickets for events that they didn't order. GoTickets is another cheap tickets site backed by few. Reviews are scare, with one TripAdvisor user saying she hadn't received her sports tickets in the mail by the right date and a Pissed Consumer user saying he got charged three times the face value. Don't go there.
Ticket Liquidator is another broker for discount concert seats, and Epinions users give it an overall four-star review, saying it processes tickets quickly, is legit and has a good range of tickets and prices. Some Topix users got a little squirrelly waiting for their tickets, but they eventually came in time for the event. SiteJabber users give another discount concert seats site, TicketNetwork, three stars for getting great seats and great prices in a timely manner and being connected to helpful, prompt staff. Both Ticket Liquidator and TicketNetwork seem safe to try for your discount concert seats, plus they appear to have cheaper prices.
While rare, other sites actually have the tickets for discount concert seats in hand, such as Ticket City. This means many buyers can get tickets for as much as 30-percent off face value. A Yelp user says ticket prices for big events are especially cheap. Austin CitySearch users liked the site for both buying tickets, especially hard-to-find ones, and selling them easily. One user said she's even been upgraded to better seats for free through the service. One con to this site is that it doesn't always have seating charts. Still, this appears to be the best discount concert seats site to shoot for. Removing the third party helps cut down on worrying about getting tickets on time, and since you're getting them off the site, you have fewer service charges and fees tacked on. All these elements help ensure that going to a live event doesn't become a headache.
Stay tuned for Part II of our cheap ticket site roundup tomorrow.