To anyone who is hunting for concert tickets, beware of "The Online Ticket Shop" (www.theonlineticketshop.com).

Please don't get screwed over!

This story starts on 25th April this year, when a friend was looking for concert tickets for George Michaels UK tour.

There were various tickets available from various online retailers, varying from £60 to over £400. After seeing all the options, he opted to go for tickets from "The Online Ticket Shop" (www.theonlineticketshop.com), for £155 each, plus £7.50 for Royal Mail Special Delivery. He bought these tickets over the cheaper ones as they were reserved seating near the front of the stage, as to get the best view possible of the performance.

He bought 2 tickets for him and his girlfriend, and a third for his little sisters birthday present. He was told while ordering that the tickets would be delivered to him by Special Delivery within 7 days of the event. (A usual practice by most online ticket retailers). After ordering, he thought everything would be fine, and he'd get his tickets as promised within a week of the gig.

Jump forward to November, and 10 days before the gig, he contacted "The Online Ticket Shop" (www.theonlineticketshop.com) via e-mail to check that the tickets would be arriving as promised.

No reply.

He then phoned then the following Sunday, and he was told that the tickets would be delivered to him the following EVENING, which already is odd considering that Royal Mail does not deliver during the evening, even for Special Delivery.

Monday Evening - No tickets.

He phoned them again on Tuesday evening and was told that there was a delay and the tickets would be sent out that night for next day Special Delivery.

Wednesday - No tickets again. He phoned them again, and was again told there was a "problem" which they did not elaborate on, and was again promised that the tickets would be with him by 1pm on Friday.

Friday - No tickets (not surprising by this time). He contacted them again, and was this time given someones mobile number and told to meet him AT THE VENUE to collect the tickets in person!! (So much for Special Delivery!!). He told them that he was far from happy about this, but given that the concert was the following evening there was little he could do but go along with it.

Saturday - They traveled to the venue, and he then contacted "Pebbles", the courier for their tickets. Amazingly, Pebbles turned up, but only to hand him a envelope and them disappear again before he had chance to open it. Inside were as promised three tickets, but far from being the £155 reserved seating tickets for the front of the concert, they were £40 face value tickets for the very back of the second tier, just about as far from the stage as it was possible to be without being outside the building. Not only this, but the tickets had someone else's name printed on them!

They did get to see the concert, all be it from the worst possible view for the most possible money, but everything about this screams touter with a website.

Considering that the ticket must have been transferred (as the person who these tickets were originally for is a Mr. Kenyon) then "The Online Ticket Shop" (www.theonlineticketshop.com) must either be the Promoter (no), the Arena Operator (nope again), Ticketmaster (obviously not) or "one of their authorized sub-agents".

After reading this, i needed to find out if they were an authorized sub-agent, so I went along to their website to see. I found absolutely no mention of Ticketmaster at all, all I did find was a notice at the bottom of the page stating -

"The Online Ticket Shop is not affiliated with any box office."

So, after my little investigation i can pretty much conclude that "The Online Ticket Shop" (www.theonlineticketshop.com) are nothing more than a bunch of scamming, lying, thieving touter's with a website.

In summation, you should never, ever, at all, even if they're the only ones with tickets, use "The Online Ticket Shop" (www.theonlineticketshop.com).

I repeat - DO NOT BUY TICKETS FROM "The Online Ticket Shop" (www.theonlineticketshop.com)