Using Scarlet Mist
Can I ask the ticket seller a question? How quickly can I sell my tickets? Why do I always get 'NO TICKETS' I have lost my Security Codes Can I swop my ticket for a different ticket? How do I report an illegal posting? How do I delete my posting and remove the ticket I am selling? What is the best way to Search the Mist? What Restrictions are there on using Scarlet Mist? I don't want my name to appear on the InternetMusic festivals
What should I take with me to a Festival? Drugs and alcohol The Scarlet Mist party at Glastonbury?Protection and Escrow
How does an escrow service work? What is the Auctionchex escrow service? How do I create an account with Auctionchex?What are the Police doing about it? Are Ticket Agencies safe? Should I look on other Internet sites?
Touts and other Pests
Can you stop Touts using Scarlet Mist? Do Touts pay Tax on their profits? How much money have eBay & co made out of this? How can I recognise a forged ticket? Internet Crime and HackingAbout Scarlet Mist
Keeping in touch - newsletter, RSS and My Yahoo! Who is behind Scarlet Mist? Press, Marketing, Blogs and Website Links Scarlett Tshirts for Xmas?
Important StuffHow to buy tickets hereScarlet Mist can introduce you to a person with tickets to sell. We will give you their name, email and phone number. We try to match people up geographically, although that is not always possible. If you are not sure about a particular ticket, you can ask the seller a question by email. Once you have decided to buy it, and clicked on the BUY page, the ticket will be removed from view and nobody else will be able to see it.We recommend that you meet the seller face-to-face and pay with cash. If that is not a practical proposition, we recommend that you use an escrow service. How to sell your tickets hereTo sell your ticket here, you need to register the details and validate your email address by replying to our email. Your tickets will then be displayed for sale, and they will remain on display until someone clicks to buy them. Your email and phone number will not be shown to everybody who visits the site.A potential buyer may wish to ask you questions - they can send you an email via the site. Once someone decides to buy it, your ticket will be removed from view. The individual buyer will be sent your name, phone number and email, and you will be sent theirs. You should be contacted by only one person. Hopefully, it will be someone who lives close by. If it doesn't work out with that person, you or they can put the ticket back 'into the Mist' and find another Buyer. We recommend that you meet the buyer face-to-face and exchange the ticket for cash. If that is not practical, we recommend that you use an escrow service. Tickets are sold on Scarlet Mist at face value. Please do not try and sell them for any more. It doesn't matter how much you paid for them. These are the rules. If you cannot stick to these rules, please go elsewhere. To prevent someone buying a ticket from you at face value and selling it on at a profit, we suggest that you write SCARLET MIST clearly on the back of your ticket before you sell it. If a street tout tries to sell it after that, please notify us; we will check through our records and identify him. We cannot tell how quickly your tickets will sell. It depends on too many factors. They might sell in a few seconds. They might sell in a few hours. They might take a few days. They might not sell at all (even at face value). It all depends on who and what and why and where and when. Cancelling a sale on Scarlet Mist and changing your mindTicket sellers:- If you have not yet validated your ticket then it will be removed from our system after 24 hours.Once the ticket has gone on sale you can delete or change your listing from your Seller Page.You can get there from the 'Sell a ticket' page. The instructions for doing this are also in the email we send you. If someone has offered buy your ticket then Scarlet Mist considers them as being Sold. They are automatically removed from display so that nobody else can see them. Tickets are also automatically removed from sale once the event has finished. Ticket buyers can also change their mind! We ask you please to put the tickets back into the Mist, so that someone else can buy them. Again, the instructions are in the email we'll send you. Can I be notified when a ticket becomes available?We can now notify you by email alert if the ticket you want becomes available. To register for an email alert you should click on the event you are interested in and attempt to buy a ticket. If none are available you will be taken to the NOTICKETS page, where you can follow a link to add an alert.There are some restrictions on the alerts we send out. We only accept 20 alerts for any one event. Once you have registered for an alert we will notify you about the next 5 tickets that are placed on sale. After that your alerts will stop, and you will need to re-register to receive more. If you buy a ticket then you will automatically stop receiving alerts. You can also use our RSS/My Yahoo feed, which will let you see the last tickets that entered the Mist. Re-listing, second chances and sales that fall throughIf your sale falls through. you don't need to relist your ticket. You can return to the Sellers Page and make the tickets available for someone else. Full instructions for putting your ticket back into the Mist are included in the email we send.I *must* get a ticket. How can you guarantee it?You can't. Really. Think about it. If it is sold out, be realistic. Particularly if there's a large group of you. Look for something else to go to. There is plenty to choose from. Then relax and start looking forward to it. Things with the most publicity don't necessarily have the best music. The music industry invented the word 'hype'.Don't be blind to what else is going on. And do it NOW before everything else sells out too! I can't find the gig/festival I want.We are happy to receive suggestions for new festivals, gigs or events. Scarlet Mist works well with large gigs, festivals and stadium-size events. For smaller concerts, it isn't so succesful. We only handle music events at the moment. We don't carry sporting events. Generally speaking, we prefer not to add something until somebody has got a ticket to sell.You can add new gigs or festivals yourself from the Sellers Page. You can send general suggestions to us at:- My email from Scarlet Mist hasn't arrived.Once the emails have left here, we cannot track what happens to them. However there seem to be two common reasons why emails don't arrive.1. Spam and junk-mail filters that are too vicious. Have a look to see if an email from Scarlet Mist has gone into your junk/bulk folder. 2. If you typed in your email address incorrectly, you'll probably never hear from us. We can send you another copy of our emails. We can also send it to a different email address if you want to try that. You can send emails to yourself as often as you wish. To send yourself another copy of our email, click here. Cricket Rugby or Opera; events in Europe and beyondAt present, we only provide ticket exchange for music gigs and festivals in the UK. Ticket touts are a global problem, and we would like to expand into other areas. We are looking for a suitable partner to work with.New ticket sales on Scarlet MistScarlet Mist is an affiliate to Ticketswitch. This means that you can buy new tickets from one of the worlds largest ticket sellers via Scarlet Mist. We receive a small commission for this, which will help pay for the free ticket exchange. If you use this service, you are buying directly from Ticketswitch and not from us.Do you have a blog or a Myspace page?Yes - it is at www.myspace.com/scarletmistUsing Scarlet MistCan I ask the ticket seller a question?You can email ticket sellers a question, and they will reply to the email address or phone number that you have given us.We cannot determine how quickly they will reply. How quickly can I sell my tickets?After you have validated your email address, your tickets will go on display instantly.I have lost my sellers Security CodesIf you have lost your Sellers Security Codes then they can automatically be reissued if you need to change or remove your listing. You will need to log in as a ticket buyer and check that your tickets are still on sale. Then click on REPORT THIS POSTING - when you are asked for the reason that you are reporting them then enter REISSUE CODES. The registered seller will then be sent an email with the codes.Why do I always get 'NO TICKETS'Scarlet Mist works. It really does. But it cannot work for everybody. Think about the numbers, think about the chances, think about Probability Theory, think realistically. The closer the date of the festival or gig, the more likely it is that tickets will become available.Scarlet Mist is an experiment. Nobody has done this before. Can I swop my ticket for a different ticket?We do not permit swaps or exchanges. All tickets are assumed to be for sale only. We have reached this decision because of many complaints about swaps.How do I delete my posting and remove the ticket I am selling?You can remove tickets from display from your Sellers Page - follow the link which says CANCEL MY SALE.If someone offers to buy your tickets they are automatically removed; you will only get one person offering to buy your ticket. They are also automatically removed after the gig or festival has finished. How do I report an Illegal posting?Scarlet Mist does not check the price of every ticket that is posted for sale and we do not check every listing. If you see a posting which you feel contravenes our rules, you can click the link to Report it to us. Please let us know exactly what the problem is. We will automatically pass your complaint on to the seller, but we will not reveal your identity. Tickets will not be removed from display until we have reviewed them.What is the best way to Search the Mist?Tickets come and go on Scarlet Mist with great speed. It is worth searching at different times of day. If you and your friends have internet access at different times, you might want to check for one another.Experience suggests that most tickets are placed here during the daytime. However as the actual date of the gig or festival approaches, tickets are placed here pretty well round the clock. The commonest time for ticket buying seems to be lunchtime. What Restrictions are there on using Scarlet Mist?If you are selling tickets, you are limited to TWO SALES/SUBMISSIONS PER EVENT. This restriction is to prevent touts using the sevice. If your ticket sale falls through (eg buyer changes their mind for some reason), you can put the tickets back on sale. This is then counted as only one submission.The biggest restriction on the use of Scarlet Mist is that TICKETS ARE EXCHANGED HERE AT FACE VALUE. It doesn't matter how much you paid for them. That is an absolute restriction, there are no exceptions. It doesn't matter how much you paid for the tickets in the first place. Read our Terms and Conditions on the Front Page to learn what we do to people who break our restrictions. Scarlet Mist is provided to the world as a free service. Its a good service. The official ticket sellers won't buy back tickets once they've sold them. We're here to help people out, but a service like this can only exist if we deal ruthlessly with rip-off-merchants, scalpers, touts, hackers and blaggers. Protection and EscrowHow can I recognise a forgery?It can be difficult to spot a forged ticket if you have nothing to compare it with.A genuine ticket seller will have matching documentation - this should include the receipt and the envelope the ticket came in. Many tickets are delivered with a 'stub' showing the original purchasers name and address. We recommend that buyers ask to see this documentation. To avoid any misunderstandings, you should agree this with the seller in advance. How does an escrow service work?Escrow is a financial service designed to protect both parties when buying or selling from strangers. It acts as a 'middle man' in order to reduce the risk of you being ripped off.There are a series of stages in using an escrow service:- 1. You both agree to use it. 2. The buyer sends the money to the escrow service. 3. When the escrow service receives the money, and the funds have cleared, the seller is notified that the money has been paid. 4. The seller then posts the ticket to the buyer, ideally using recorded delivery or a secure form of posting. 5. When the buyer receives the tickets, he notifies the escrow service that they have arrived. 6. The money is then paid to the ticket seller. An escrow service makes a charge for its services. For most ticket sales, the charge would be around £5, though it may be more for ticket sales over £200. They may also make a handling charge depending on the method of payment. We would suggest that the buyer and seller split the escrow fee equally between them. What is the Auctionchex escrow service?Auctionchex is a financial services company based in the UK. They are licensed under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 to carry on the business of Consumer Credit and Consumer Brokerage, and hold a Credit Brokers License Class A and C # 248399 issued by the Office of Fair Trading. They are licensed by HM Customs and Excise as a Money Services Business (License Number #12145060). They are also a member of the eBay Developers Program. The company was founded in June 2000.Auctionchex is an independent company. If you use their escrow service, you will deal directly with them. Scarlet Mist can facilitate opening a free account with them but is not directly involved with the running of their service. For more information, visit their site directly www.auctionchex.com How do I create an account with Auctionchex?You can create a free Auctionchex account by clicking here.I don't want my name to appear on the InternetRegardless of whether you are hoping to buy or sell, your email and phone number will not appear publicly on the internet. You will each receive emails sent from here to introduce the two of you to one other. The system is private, between you and us. After this introduction, your records will disappear [into the mist ... ... ]And we will never send you spam or junkmail, nor will we sell your email address to carefully chosen marketing partners. What are the Police doing about it?The police are obviously taking an active interest in ticket touts and forgeries. They have also been involved where shady dealers have tried to rip people off.If we are aware of fraudulent ticket sales or other criminal activity as a result of using this site, we will pass information to the police or other authorities. The police who serve at gigs and festivals are on our side. They are looking for thieves and other petty criminals who can seriously mar your weekend. Spare them a smile. They often enjoy working at music festivals (much better crowd to deal with than football matches where there's a lot of aggro). Make sure you thank them. If they look like they're having a better time than you, thats because they're being PAID to be there! Internet Crime and HackingUnfortunately, both of these exist, and we are not exempt. We have previously had one episode where a number of festival ticket frauds took place. The culprit was traced (with the close cooperation of eFestivals) and subsequently charged.We have had a number of attempted hacks by users attempting to cheat the system. There are now strong tough measures in place to protect against further attempts. Using robots and other hacks is ultimately selfish, futile, and easy to spot. Careful logs are maintained. It is an insoluble paradox. The only way to be greedy in the mist is to set that bot to ping slower than the fastest finger. Tickets and ticket toutsCan you stop touts using Scarlet Mist?Scarlet Mist is designed to look for touts who try and use the site. Anyone trying to sell overpriced tickets here is usually spotted pretty quickly.We also are on the lookout for touts who try to buy tickets here in order to sell them on. There are internal algorithms to detect these people - they are very predictable. They buy too many tickets for too many gigs too often. We recommend that when selling a ticket you write SCARLET MIST clearly in ink on the back of it. If we are notified of a street tout selling these tickets we will check our records to identify who had bought them. A genuine buyer should be happy to enter the venue with you (they might even buy you a drink!). If you are selling more than one ticket, you can check that the whole group is present. When the seats are numbered, you can easily confirm where the person you sold it to is sitting. If a tout uses Scarlet Mist, please let us know. We will blacklist them for ever, and take any other action we think is appropriate. You should notify us at Do Touts pay tax on their profits?There are a small number of professional touts who earn large amounts of money. Because their business is largely cash-based, they may find it difficult to keep accurate records.Scarlet Mist believes that eBay (and similar sites), who keep careful figures of their financial transactions, should be compelled to provide the necessary figures to the Inland Revenue. We like to think of this as a kind of 'Tout Tax'; it only seems fair to us that the illegitimate market should pay tax like the bands and festival organisers do. How much money have eBay & co made out of this?Who knows?In our opinion, selling some tickets is already against eBays own code of conduct (which they themselves take very seriously). Read what they say about 'Contracts and Tickets'. Their Policy states:- Prohibited and Restricted Items > Contracts and Tickets. Before listing an item on eBay, you should carefully read any contracts that you have entered into that may limit your right to sell your item on eBay. Some items, such as event tickets, have terms printed on the item that may limit your ability to sell that item. Glastonbury Festival tickets clearly fell into this category (look at the Terms and Conditions of their sale), and the organisers of Glastonbury asked eBay publicly to ban their resale through their on-line auctions. At the time, eBay chose not to. Maybe they are unable to do anything about it (although they do apply a ban on the touting of most Football Tickets). There isn't much other criticism of eBay on the internet, people are generally happy with them and they provide an excellent service. Strangely, people use eBay and services like it in order to get a bargain, not to get ripped off. Bear in mind that eBay rake their commission based on the final selling price, not just on the touts mark-up. Take a look at their list of Prohibited Items next time you visit eBay. If you feel that they are contravening their own policy, or that their policy should be reviewed or tightened, send an email to them. Send copies to any newspapers you think may be interested in investigating this difficult issue. eBay take customer feedback very seriously and would not want to offend their supporters. We'd be interested to see your letters -- and any replies you may get (though you may get a fairly 'standard' reply). And thanks to all of you who have already sent us letters of support on this. We can sense the Scarlet Wrath. If you do decide to buy a ticket from an eBay tout, please be very careful. You could consider keeping auction prices down by leaving your bidding until the last minute. Take precautions to avoid being ripped off. One way to get stitched up is by someone who asks for your money and then disappear without trace. There are also forgeries to beware of. Take the same care with any tickets that you buy from any unauthorised Seller. 'Sellers Profiles' is a useful service which eBay provides. It tells you how many of their other customers they have previously ripped off. Are Ticket Agencies safe?Most ticket agencies do a decent, honest job, and provide a good service, at reasonable prices. But there are exceptions. There are a few agencies who specialise in selling tickets at extortionate prices for 'sold-out gigs'. They may not be doing anything illegal, but you may consider what they are doing does not fit in with your moral standards. They crop up on internet search engines. Some of them advertise.You might think that buying from them is more secure than buying on the street. Then again, you don't know whether or not their tickets really exist. Some of the dodgier ones work in the 'futures' market - they will take your money for a ticket that they haven't got, and they will try and get hold of it in the future. You won't know whether or not they can fulfil your order until very close to the actual date, which could leave you little time to make alternative arrangements. A cautionary tale appeared in the magazine Private Eye recently. An agency called the "Online Ticket Shop" was selling Glastonbury tickets for £278 (face value £110). According to this article, a Private Eye reader who had used the Online Ticket Shop did not receive his ticket and, at the time the magazine went to press (well after the festival had finished), was still anxiously waiting to get his money back. The article summarised:- Even paying these extortionate rates is no guarantee of getting a ticket, it seems. If you buy from an agency, read their Terms and Conditions very carefully. Greed is the same, cash or credit card. Swanky offices, receptionists with red nail varnish and cutesy logos don't change anything. Their motivation - and raison d'etre - is the same as Arthur Daley. But they aren't as funny. Every time you click on one of their Google adverts (the ones on the right of the page) it costs them money. Our advice is only to deal with reputable ticket agencies. Save the Scarlet Rage for the agencies that are taking the p*ss. Should I look on other Internet sites?There are a number of other chatrooms, forums and blogs that let you buy or sell tickets. Some of them are free. If you selling a ticket, make sure you remove your ad after you have sold it, otherwise you may get inundated with replies.About Scarlet MistKeeping in touch - newsletter, RSS and My Yahoo!Scarlet Mist does not produce a newsletter or send out junkmail. We figure there is too much junkmail clogging up our inboxes already.If you want to keep up to date with the latest tickets that are on sale, you can subscribe to our RSS feed. If you use My Yahoo! as your home page, you can subscribe automatically by clicking on the icon on the front page. The site uses RSS2.0, and our feed url is:- http://www.scarletmist.com/feed.rss Who is behind Scarlet Mist?Scarlet Mist is independent, and is not formally linked owned or connected with any of the festivals, concerts, promoters or bands listed here. For more information click herePress, Marketing, Blogs and Website LinksInformation about linking to Scarlet Mist and information for the press is available hereScarlett Tshirts for Xmas?Our Tshirts, boxer shorts, thongs, lunchboxes and other fancy items are available from our CafePress shop. We think they're pretty tasty. You can order your Scarlet Wares via the internet, and your orders will be despatched from the manufacturers in the USA. Because an American company is handling the merchandising, all our prices have to be quoted in US Dollars. A small part of the price for these items (typically $1-2) is paid to Scarlet Mist, and hopefully will pay towards the cost of running this free service. To visit our shop, click here.Music FestivalsWhat should I take with me to a Festival?(apart from a ticket)Spare Car Key -- and give it to someone else to carry. Baby-wipes. The toilets are famous. Want to know why? Decent shoes - you'll be doing a lot of walking. Cure for headaches and exhaustion. If you want to consume illegal drugs, you are better off taking them with you rather than buying them there, but remember that they are just as illegal inside the fence as they are outside. If you are taking alcohol, remember that glass bottles are not permitted on the festival site, so buy plastic ones. Drugs and alcoholMost people like to have a drink now and then, and laying in the sun listening to a band must be the ideal time for this. Unfortunately, there is a down side to this. If you take thousands of people away from home for the first time, bombard them with alcohol (which they can prebook, or buy from unregulated off-site traders), and then whip up some Hysteria, you may end up with Trouble.There are indisputable links between alchohol and road accidents, violence, child abuse and accidents. Overall, the cost of alcohol-related crime and disorder is over £7billion. There is less violence, aggro, trouble, vandalism and litter at festivals where cannabis is the intoxicant of choice. Cannabis is not totally safe, and is associated with respiratory and other diseases. There have been vehicle accidents where cannabis intoxication has been the cause. Anyone who wishes to use it needs to balance the potential benefits to them with the potential risks to themselves and those around them. It can be hard for users to gauge the strength of the drug, increasing the risks of using it. The law could be changed, to protect users from unscrupulous dealers, who add impurities. There should also be 'quality control' over the additives, and there should be imposed standards of hygiene purity and storage (though as an aside, there aren't any lists of e-Numbers on cigarettes). Presently, users are forced to mix with criminals, and paradoxically teenagers find illegal drugs easier to get hold of than legal ones. The sellers operate under different restrictions. Prohibition has failed, and may be counterproductive. We need to be realistic. The Scarlet Mist party at GlastonburyScarletto invites everyone who has bought or sold a ticket through the mist, and all Scarlet Mist supporters, to our Glastonbury party. Meet the people you've been dealing with across the internet. Lets see what we all look like. Its on Thursday, the night before the music starts, at the Jazzworld stage mixing desk from 8.30 till 4 am. Get your tent up, then Get Down to Scarlettos Party. Wear your Scarlet Robe and your Red Dancing Shoes! Music festivals are about Music, but they are a lot more than that. People go for the atmosphere and the buzz of being there. Our prefence is for dance music of all types - Dance, dancing-jazz, dancing-gospel, dancing-reggae, dancing-soul.GLASTONBURY!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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At the end of the day, if it is sold out, then it is sold out. |
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