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Feb 11 2010
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University

Have you used websites like Seatwave or Viagogo?

Teignmouth ticket

I posted this on The Musical Chairs on Tuesday but I’m going  to reach out to readers of this blog as well:

Some regular readers will know that I am a university student and I am now in the final few months of my BA Honours Journalism degree, fresh off handing in a very long dissertation. For my final project I am considering doing something about ticket touting for a feature piece; more specifically about companies like Seatwave or Viagogo who market themselves as well-used, well-respected and industry backed (in some cases) ticket re-selling companies. The article, if I decide to do it, is to establish whether or not these companies are genuinely the real deal or whether or not they are ripping off people in terms of the overall experience – ticket cost, reliability, customer service, hidden costs etc.

I am looking for people who have used any of these types of sites (please don’t state eBay) to comment on their own experiences of using them. It can be good or bad feedback but I will need the following information:

  1. The concert you bought a ticket for.
  2. The website you used.
  3. How the transaction was carried.
  4. The price of the ticket (if you can, state how it breaks down so ticket price, booking fees and so on).
  5. How long it took for your ticket to arrive.
  6. Did your ticket differ from the description?
  7. If you had any problems, how helpful were customer service?
  8. Any other feedback from your experience.

If you’ve had an experience with Seatwave or Viagogo and want to help me in my research, leave a comment on this post with your real name, as opposed to some alias you use on other parts of the internet, where you are from and detail your experience based on the above points. Unfortunately, I can only accept people from the UK for the purposes of this investigation. If you don’t feel comfortable posting a comment, feel free to e-mail me at raymondm[at]hotmail[dot]co[dot]uk.

Thanks!

On a completely seperate note, I got a lot of positive feedback from my Sky News open letter last week. I was very overwhelmed by it all. Thanks for the kind words. I did e-mail Sky News suggesting  that they read it but, surprise surprise, I’ve had nothing back from them. Particular thanks to @antonvowl for sharing it with his Twitter followers. I urge you all to bookmark The Enemies Of Reason.

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Jan 25 2010
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University

Dissertation: done

Well, I say done, what I mean is that the first draft is finished. Tomorrow is going to be spent going over it and tidying up some stuff and then Wednesday and Thursday will be spent dressing it up with the usual academic conventions. Either way, the end is very much in sight now and I’m relieved that I’m at the final stage.

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Jan 18 2010
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News, Media & Sport, University

The home straight

Dissertation

It’s dawned on me that this coming semester is my last as a university student. Blimey. It’s a miracle that I’ve managed to survived for as long as I have without going insane but what I do know, eh?

Anyway, the next two weeks will be spent finishing off my dissertation. I am currently at 4,500 words and need 3,500 more to complete it. It’s just a case of writing done all the ideas in my head into coherent sentences that are constructed in a way that flows well. It’s now gotten to the point where I’m not too fussed if I am right or wrong…I just want the thing to make sense. I’m going to show my girlfriend some of it before she goes off to Finland next week for a two-week holiday (which, incidentally, couldn’t have been better planned as, even though I adore her, I am free of distractions). Once it is handed in on the 4th February, I will be going to a pub in a state of relief. I don’t care what pub it is, just any pub will do that sells Peroni.

After that is all done and dusted, I have two things to work on. One is my work experience placement, which is going to be a demoralising experience just to find one, and then my final project. Even though my skills are more suited towards online journalism, I’m going to take a gamble and go for print. The way I think of it is that the print project will actually allow me to focus a lot more on what I’m trying to achieve with it – something that has been lacking in the previous two group online projects. I’ll have to re-acquaint myself with InDesign, but it’ll be worth it.

The other reason I’m skipping online is because I’m working on another project at the moment that is quite ambitious and may well take up a lot of my spare time in terms of organisation alone. I’m not willing to explain much at this point but all I’ll say is that we think it’s something that people will be interested in.

Before I go, if anyone is going to the Future Of News Meetup organised by the brilliant Adam Westbrook on Wednesday, feel free to say hi to me if you want to have a chat with a journalism student who couldn’t possibly predict the future of news. This should be an interesting evening and I’m really looking forward to chatting to new people, especially those are happen to be in a similar position to me.

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