Punters hoping to secure their seats for Nelson’s inaugural All Black test are being warned to go through the official channels after a man was slapped with almost $200 in booking fees.
Like many local parents, Andy Marr plans to take his children to see the greatest rugby team on the planet when the All Blacks come to town in September.
However, the Nelson man was shocked to discover hidden booking fees when trying to purchase tickets on a resale website, Viagogo.
“I did a Google search for AB tickets and the first result was ‘Viagogo,’ I looked at the ‘take a kid to footy’ packages, initially I wanted to take my whole family, (wife and three kids) but, looking at the prices, that was going to be pretty extreme.”
Andy says tickets on the website were advertised at $216.
“I thought I’d check with my wife to see what we were actually happy to pay to take the kids to a game of rugby and then tried to purchase two tickets for my son and myself.”
However, upon transaction, Andy was told he had exceeded his credit limit.
“I checked the price thinking I must have selected too many tickets, but I saw there was a booking fee of $86 per ticket.”
The cost of Andy’s tickets had risen from $432 for two, to more than $600.
“I cancelled the transaction and wasn’t particularly looking forward to having that conversation with my son.”
Andy also looked into the possibility of taking his boys to a test in Wellington, but again booking fees on Viagogo were over almost $50 per ticket.
“The booking fee isn’t advertised anywhere, it’s completely disingenuous.”
Andy posted his disappointed to Facebook where a friend suggested he try allblacks.com
“I went on there and managed to get three tickets at $120 each behind the goal posts, so I can take both of my boys to the game.”
Andy says the booking fee on allblacks.com was negligible.
“It wasn’t an issue.”
Tasman Rugby Union commercial and marketing manager, Les Edwards, has warned punters to go through the official avenues to buy tickets.
“We want people to go through the right channel of the All Blacks website and not use resale sites.
Les says fans who have bought through resale sites have had issues at both the Auckland and Wellington tests against France.
“The only way to guarantee your seat is to go through allblacks.com, Beggs Musicworks, (264 Hardy St) or at the i-SITE (77 Trafalgar St).”
Les says he knows of a number of locals who have been caught out on re-sale sites.
The hottest tickets in town have been getting snapped up fast with less than 2000 seats available in the North and South stands.
Andy says he was almost fooled but says allblacks.com is the “way to go”
