Is Ticketmaster Legit? Top Consumer Questions About Ticketmaster Answered

Ticketmaster is an American ticket sales and distribution company. It is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, but has a presence in many countries worldwide. Ticketmaster specializes in buying and selling tickets for live events online.

Despite its popularity, there are numerous complaints regarding buying and selling tickets on Ticketmaster. These complaints often make customers wonder: Is Ticketmaster a scam? 

Number of Ticketmaster reviews – 24.9K

Ticketmaster rating* - 1.6⭐⭐

Claimed losses – $7M

Successful call – 4%/320K

Resolved issues - 217

Key Insights

• According to Statista, Ticketmaster dominates the online ticketing landscape in the USA, significantly ahead of other online ticketing companies like Eventbrite and StubHub.
• Ticketmaster has over 113 million monthly active users, with an estimated 20,000 tickets processed per minute in real-time.
• Customers commonly express their concerns about fake tickets on Ticketmaster. As such, one of the most common customer questions is how to verify Ticketmaster tickets.

Is Ticketmaster Legit?

We checked customer reviews and ratings on PissedConsumer to help us answer the question: Is Ticketmaster safe and legit?

Ticketmaster is notably one of the most reviewed companies on PissedConsumer.com. There are 11,000 Ticketmaster reviews on the platform, most of which are negative. Its rating is 1.6 stars out of a possible 5. 

Only 14% of reviewers would recommend Ticketmaster to a friend or colleague, and 45% of users say that they will not use Ticketmaster in the future.

Although it prides itself on a wide range of tickets and an easy-to-buy process, Ticketmaster customers often encounter challenges on the platform. Top Ticketmaster complaints include poor customer service, missing tickets, glitches on the app or website, wrongful billing, and difficulty getting refunds.

53% of reviewers said that Ticketmaster needs to improve its customer support. Evidently, out of over 310K calls made to the company, only 5% of callers had their issues resolved. Customers mostly call Ticketmaster to seek ticket refunds. 

For example, in a Ticketmaster review, the customer attempted to buy 7 tickets for a concert. When they entered the verification for their credit card to complete the purchase, they were told that they had ran out of time. 

So, the customer’s son bought the 7 tickets under his account, only for the reviewer to receive an email shortly after saying that the initial purchase had gone through.

…Now Im stuck with seven tickets and I cannot get a refund.

How to Transfer Tickets on Ticketmaster?

According to their FAQs page, you can quickly transfer tickets on Ticketmaster. The exact procedure depends on whether you are using the Ticketmaster app, website, or a venue/team-branded site.

Here are the steps to transfer tickets on various platforms:

Ticketmaster app

1. Log in to your account
2. Under “My Events,” go to your order.
3. Tap on “Transfer” 
4. Select the tickets you would like to transfer
5. Tap “Transfer To” and provide the recipient’s details, such as phone number and email address. You could also add a note.
6. Click “Transfer Ticket.”

Ticketmaster.com

1. Log in to your account
2. Navigate to the “My Tickets” section to find your order.
3. Click on “Transfer Tickets”
4. Select the tickets you would like to transfer, then click on “Continue”
5. Provide the recipient’s details and “send.”

Team or venue-branded site

1. Sign in to the team or venue’s site
2. Go to events and choose the specific event for which you want to transfer tickets
3. Select the tickets you wish to transfer
4. Enter the recipient’s details 
5. Click on “Transfer.”

Once the transfer is complete, the respective tickets will show as “sent” or “waiting to be accepted” on your account. The recipient will need to receive the ticket on their end, upon which you will receive an email indicating that the ticket has been accepted. The tickets will now be shown as “accepted by” or “claimed” and will no longer be valid. 

The transferred tickets will be allocated a new barcode, allowing the recipient to enter the event with their ticket on their own. They can transfer the tickets or resell them to someone else if they wish to.

Source: help.ticketmaster.com 

Note that not all tickets can be transferred. The “Transfer” button is grayed out if the transfer is unavailable.

Some customer reviews indicate incidents of ticket transfer fraud. For example, in review #6220661, the customer said: 

My tickets were transferred without my consent. My tickets were never recovered.

They attempted over 40 times to contact Ticketmaster customer service to recover their tickets, but they did not get anywhere. However, when they called Ticketmaster via PissedConsumer, they were able to get through to customer support and had their problem resolved in 48 hours.

If you are having difficulty reaching Ticketmaster or any other company directly, you can do so through the PissedConsumer website. Here are the steps to contact a company via PissedConsumer.com:

1. Find the company you want to contact through the PissedConsumer search bar
2. On the company’s page, click on “Contacts”.
3. You may either send a message or make a call using the number for Ticketmaster provided in the customer service section.
4. Also, consider writing a review of your complaint for the company’s customer representative to respond.

How to Sell Tickets on Ticketmaster?

If you have an upcoming event, you may be wondering how to sell tickets on Ticketmaster. 

On its Tickets Sale page, the company states that it provides a variety of ticketing solutions to meet its customers' unique demands and offers tailor-made solutions.

You will need an event account to sell tickets for your events and fill out the form. Upon finishing this process, Ticketmaster's support team will reach out to you within a few days.

Source: business.ticketmaster.com

Though the ticket sales company promises their clients dedicated customer support around the clock, event organizers do not always have a smooth process as promised. One user reported in review #5656335 they started an event account to sell their tickets but had challenges with the process. When they reached out to customer support for assistance, they couldn’t get it:

Started an event account over 2 weeks ago to sell concert for my venue. Still *** around and not doing their job. Just keep getting 15 different people asking me the same…question every single time.

How to Resell Tickets on Ticketmaster?

Are resale tickets on Ticketmaster safe? This is one of the most common concerns for customers looking to buy resale tickets. Customers are also keen to find out how to verify resale tickets.

The official website describes the process of selling tickets on Ticketmaster as a hassle-free 3-step process. It applies if you purchased the tickets on Ticketmaster and the event organizer allows you to resell Ticketmaster tickets for your event. 

You may list and resell tickets on Ticketmaster either from your account or by using a barcode. 

Here is how to resell tickets on Ticketmaster via the app:

1. Sign into your account
2. Find My Events section and choose the order
3. Tap Sell and select the tickets you want to sell from your account
4. Set a price with the help of the Ticketmaster pricing tool and choose a payout method 
5. Get paid when the ticket sells. 

To resell your tickets with the help of a barcode, follow these steps:

1.  Search the event on the Sell Page
2. Select and tap Sell
3. Enter the ticket barcodes
4. Set your price and payout method
5. Get paid when the ticket sells. 

The money will reflect on your selected payment method within 5-7 business days. To ensure payment processing, you will need to add a debit card or a verified bank account, as well as provide your seller tax details.

The resale process does not always go as anticipated, and it may not be easy to reach a customer representative for assistance, causing customers to wonder: is Ticketmaster resale legit?

This was evident in a review when a consumer resold tickets on Ticketmaster but had not been paid.

It is stating payment on hold…This is Absurd!!! That this is taking this long and that I have NOT been able to get a person who can help me on the phone or email!!!...

How to Verify Ticketmaster Tickets?

Several reviews point to fake Ticketmaster tickets. For example, in review #6118278, the customer complained that they were scammed when they bought tickets on sale.

I bought the tickets thinking I would get them when I was charged. NO. They sent me a link to set up an account and to verify Ive gotta go back to my emailthen come back to the link and have to do it all over again. I never get to enter the code. It changes evertime.

In another review (#5239399), the customer suspected that they had bought fake tickets and wanted to find out how to check if Ticketmaster tickets are real.

According to their website, the only way to tell if your tickets are authentic is to buy Ticketmaster-verified tickets either on Ticketmaster or Live Nation. You can also get authentic tickets at the venue box office. Otherwise, there is no way to verify Ticketmaster tickets bought from a third party. 

Source: help.ticketmaster.com

Is Ticketmaster Worth It?

Undeniably, Ticketmaster is the largest and most popular online ticketing event. It is a go-to platform if you want easy access to tickets for a wide range of events. However, online reviews indicate that some customers encounter issues on the platform. 

Common consumer issues include ticket transfer fraud, poor customer service, technical glitches, and difficulty getting refunds. Ultimately, buyers and sellers should proceed with caution when using the platform and remain vigilant of potential challenges that may arise and Ticketmaster scams.

What has been your experience with Ticketmaster? Write a review on PissedConsumer.

*Disclaimer: Ranking and statistics are based on our users’ review texts and Pissed Consumer posters’ reviews. Also, a company’s rating is calculated using a mathematical algorithm that evaluates the information in the profile, including users’ rating, the number of resolved issues, the number of company’s responses, etc. The algorithm is subject to change in the future.