Twickets have made a U-turn this afternoon (September 2) following criticism about the amount of fees they applied onto those re-selling Oasis tickets for next summer’s gigs.
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It followed a tumultuous weekend for fans trying to buy tickets for the highly-anticipated reunion shows next summer. Tickets sold out eventually, but it came after a day that saw many fans – including Louis Tomlinson – left disappointed after a series of issues arose.
Fans reported that Ticketmaster crashed shortly before tickets were due to go live after receiving “503” errors and many also had to content with giant queues, which saw many fans stuck in a queue to get onto Ticketmaster for hours on end – let alone the ticket sale point itself – which lasted a further several hours for many.
After that, many fans started to complain about being kicked out of the queue after being mistaken for bots, while those attempting to purchase accessible tickets reported being unable to get through to the phone lines, despite some fans calling the designated number over 400 times.
Some who did eventually manage to get through the queue were then disappointed to see the cost of remaining tickets had increased due to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing policy – something that resulted in Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy calling for a review earlier today (September 2) into “dynamic pricing” and secondary ticket sites following the scramble for Oasis tickets at the weekend.
Twickets also came under fire. Last week, they were announced as the official re-sale partner of Oasis for the gigs – a place where fans could buy unwanted tickets for no more than face value plus booking fees.
However, some fans found tickets on the site only to see fees of well over £100 or more, leading to even more despair. The platform explained yesterday that “our fee is for buyers only and is 10-15 per cent of the face value of the tickets.”
Now, as per Sky News, Twickets have taken a U-tun on the fees and announced it is lowering its charges due to “exceptional demand” from Oasis fans.
Richard Davies, Twickets founder, told Sky’s Money Blog: “Due to the exceptional demand for the Oasis tour in 2025, Twickets have taken the decision to lower our booking fee to 10 per cent and a one per cent transactional fee (to cover bank charges) for all buyers of their tickets on our platform. In addition we have introduced a fee cap of £25 per ticket for these shows. Sellers of tickets already sell free of any Twickets charge.
“This ensures that Twickets remains hugely competitive against the secondary market, including sites such as Viagogo, Gigsberg and StubHub.
“Not only do these platforms inflate ticket prices way beyond their original face value but they also charge excessive booking fees, usually in the region of 30-40 per cent. Twickets by comparison charges an average fee of around 12.5 per cent.”
The cap is reportedly being implemented today and will apply to anyone who has already bought resale tickets through the site.
Davies added that Twickets was a “fan first” resale site and a “safe and affordable place” for people to trade unwanted tickets.
He continued: “The face value of a ticket is the total amount it was first purchased for, including any booking fee. Twickets does not set the face value price, that is determined by the event and the original ticketing company. The price listed on our platform is set by the seller, however no one is permitted to sell above the face-value on Twickets, and every ticket is checked before listing that it complies with this policy.”
Earlier on, fans had been complaining on social media about the fees which were over a hundred pounds in several cases.
If we refused to accept them at the price paid to the original retailer, the only person losing out would be the person who bought them originally. Would have no effect on TM as they have already sold them.
— Twickets UK Ticket Feed (@TwicketsUK) September 1, 2024
All sellers of “platinum” tickets are required to confirm the original price paid to TM before they are accepted on our site. No seller will be paid until after the shows have taken place so all purchases are fully protected.
— Twickets UK Ticket Feed (@TwicketsUK) September 1, 2024
If we refused to accept them at the price paid to the original retailer, the only person losing out would be the person who bought them originally. Would have no effect on TM as they have already sold them.
— Twickets UK Ticket Feed (@TwicketsUK) September 1, 2024
If we refused to accept them at the price paid to the original retailer, the only person losing out would be the person who bought them originally. Would have no effect on TM as they have already sold them.
— Twickets UK Ticket Feed (@TwicketsUK) September 1, 2024
Our fee is for buyers only and is 10-15% of the face value of the tickets. SH charge buyers and sellers up to 30%.
— Twickets UK Ticket Feed (@TwicketsUK) September 1, 2024
Ticketmaster outlined its strict rules for purchasing tickets last week – confirming that customers will only be able to order four tickets per household and card.
However, following Oasis’ pre-sale many tickets started to pop up on secondary ticket sites for as much as £10,000 prompting the band to warn fans “people attempting to sell tickets on the secondary market” will have them “cancelled by the promoters”.
The Culture Secretary said earlier today that it was “depressing to see vastly inflated prices” and said surge pricing would be included in a government review of the secondary gig sales market.
Nandy said (via Sky News): “After the incredible news of Oasis’s return, it’s depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans from having a chance of enjoying their favourite band live.
“This government is committed to putting fans back at the heart of music. So we will include issues around the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the technology around queuing systems which incentivise it, in our forthcoming consultation on consumer protections for ticket resales.
“Working with artists, industry, and fans we can create a fairer system that ends the scourge of touts, rip-off resales, and ensures tickets at fair prices.”
As for surge pricing, this isn’t the first time Ticketmaster have come under fire over their strategy. Most notably, The Cure‘s Robert Smith previously took aim at the company, saying he was “sickened” when he saw Ticketmaster fees for the band’s tours totalled higher than the face value itself.
He continued: “To be very clear: the artist has no way to limit them. I have been asking how they are justified. If I get anything coherent by way of an answer I will let you all know.”
After cancelling over 7,000 tickets on secondary resale sites, Smith was later able to convince the ticketing giant to issue small reimbursements to verified ticket buyers to compensate for “unduly high” fees. He later had to ask Ticketmaster to explain why tickets in its promised face value ticket exchange were “weird” and “over priced”.
Paramore’s Hayley Williams also previously told the company to “get their shit together”, saying: “We don’t take it lightly, we know, honestly, especially now, it’s a huge sacrifice to come to a show because Ticketmaster need to get their shit together.
“We’ve put a lot of pressure on ourselves too because we were like, ‘People are spending money that they don’t have to come and hang out with us and we better give them something that’s worth that’. We just love you so much.”