Action 9

Action 9 investigates risky ticket sales

Local families thought they bought tickets from a venue for an event. But when they got to the theater, the tickets were not what they ordered.

It was the only show Edmund Brann's wife wanted to see—"Disney’s The Lion King" at the Dr. Phillips Center of the Performing Arts.

He paid $420 for three tickets, but his family was turned away.

“When I was told that, I was devastated. This doesn't make any sense,” said Brann.

Brann thought he bought tickets online from the Dr. Phillips Center. But onlinecitytickets.com featuring Dr. Phillips, is really a ticket re-seller in Chicago.

Brann unknowingly paid three times the tickets face value. It got worse from there--the tickets weren't the handicapped seating he ordered.  At the theater, the managers told him that because he bought the tickets from a third-party site, there was nothing they could do.

Brann and his family couldn’t be seated.

Onlinecitytickets.com has a pattern of Better Business Bureau complaints, including exorbitant fees, wrong tickets and customers who felt redirected to third-party sites.

Dorene Kastsi, of Longwood, thought it would never happen to her.

“It makes me crazy. I’'m still aggravated,” she said.

She thought she bought premium Amy Grant concert tickets from Nashville's Ryman Theater.

Instead, she paid three times the actual price to another copycat site that left her in the rafters.

At Orlando's top venues, like the Amway Center, online copycat sites can trigger dozens of complaints for a single event.

Sites such as amwaycentertickets.com can fool people into buying concert or game tickets.

“It pops us when you do a search for Amway Center. I would love to have it shut down, but I have no legal means to do that,” said Allen Johnson, a manager at Amway Center.

A proposed state law that would ban copycat sites failed in the legislature this year.

Third-party sites could be high risks for two big upcoming events--"Hamilton" at Dr. Phillips and Elton John at the Amway Center.

Those sites are already re-selling tickets for more than $1,500 each.

Action 9 Investigates risky online ticket sales

A warning before you plan your next night out. WFTV Action 9's Todd Ulrich investigates online ticket sales and exposes the red flags that can really cost you, today at 5:45pm on Channel 9 Eyewitness News.

Posted by WFTV Channel 9 on Monday, May 14, 2018