The featured image is sourced from Flickr.
We’re rapidly coming up to that time of year when tickets to summer music festivals go on sale, and theInternet groans under the weight of hordes of music fans maniacally refreshing every ticket site in the world in the hope of attaining that elusive golden ticket. There are though a couple of simple rules that you should follow for the best chance of getting tickets, as well as some vital things to look out for if you want to stay safe online and not get ripped off.
Staying safe and secure
First of all, verify the site you are dealing with. Ideally it should be one that you have used before – or, at the very least, make sure that it’s an official seller for the event in question. The easiest way for you to find official sellers is to google the event or festival in question and find its official webpage, which will have a list of official sellers. If you take this precaution, you can help make sure you don’t get scammed by a spoof site – which may not only take your money, but also your credit card details.
In general, it is best to pay for tickets with a credit card, as your card issuer may be obliged to give you a refund that may not normally be available if there is a problem.
Finally, make sure that the web address you are on starts with “https”, as this indicates that the site is secure and therefore resistant to hackers and identity thieves. One of the BlackBerry PlayBook reviews on this page highlights the ability of the provided browser to easily handle secure websites.
Acquiring the tickets
So, that’s how to stay safe when looking for tickets – but how do you make sure you don’t miss out?
Well, firstly, make sure you’ve already registered your details on the ticket sites beforehand, as the last thing you want to do is to waste time registering while the tickets are being sold to other, more prepared customers. Also, be sure to get online half an hour before tickets go on sale, so that you are prepared. It is probably best to have multiple tabs open, just in case. Constantly refresh them all, as there’s a high probability that tickets will actually go on sale before the previously stated time. Ultimately, however, your chances often rest on how quickly you can refresh the ticket pages. Again the PlayBook comes into its own here in terms of tablets, with The Verge’s BlackBerry PlayBook review singling out the speed of the tablet’s browser for praise.
Most importantly though, stay calm. Once you’re through to the page where you’re entering your details, you can’t lose your tickets – so take a deep breath and make sure that all the info you’ve put in is correct. Hit a wrong key and you’ll be back where you started, so be sure to double check.
Follow these rules and you should be well on the way to getting those elusive festival tickets!