Looking for ‘Hamilton’ tickets? Be careful

THURSDAY, May 9 — The press folks with the blockbuster show “Hamilton” are in a dither about possible counterfeiting after City Pulse published a ticket on its cover this week.

The ticket was altered, by the way.

But just to stop the pants-wetting, we agreed to run a story reminding people to be careful buying tickets.

Here is a press release written by Wharton spokesman Bob Hoffman on how to be safe. The press release is out of date but still contains pertinent tips:

AVOID BEING SCAMMED

PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS ONLY FROM WHARTON CENTER’S OFFICIAL SOURCES

EAST LANSING, MI — Have you ever purchased tickets to an event at Wharton Center and received your tickets only to find that you paid far above the ticket price printed on the tickets – sometimes three and four times the value?  You may have purchased your tickets from a fraudulent website! With so many high-profile and popular events coming to Wharton Center, including HAMILTON, we have found more and more patrons are being exploited by unscrupulous ticket resellers.  Oftentimes our tickets are being marketed on secondary ticket sites before the operator of the site has even purchased tickets – and they are being sold at prices far above the price you will pay through our site – THE OFFICIAL SOURCE: whartoncenter.com.  For example, HAMILTON tickets aren’t even on sale yet.  They won’t go on sale until this Saturday, March 23 at 10:00 a.m. at Wharton Center’s official ticketing outlets: online at whartoncenter.com, at the Auto-Owners Insurance Ticket Office at Wharton Center, or by calling 1-800-WHARTON.   If you go online before Saturday, March 23 you will notice many sites offering to sell you HAMILTON tickets.  If you purchase your tickets from these sites you risk the following:

• You might pay too much for your tickets
• You may have paid for invalid tickets
• You may not be able to get help from Wharton Center’s ticketing staff if you have a problem, because there will be no in-house record of your transaction. We also cannot contact you if there is a change of performance time, traffic notices, or to provide any other special information.

Below are a few recommendations to avoid being ensnared by unscrupulous ticket resellers:

• Bookmark our website, www.whartoncenter.com for ticket and show information.  Do not google Wharton Center and click on a link.  Instead, type www.whartoncenter.com into your internet address line.
• Fraudulent websites may use our name, use a version or part of our name, or a misspelling of Wharton Center in their web address, so it is important to note our actual site name.
• Be aware that we do NOT partner with any secondary ticketing company or reseller – if you see our tickets on sale on these resale sites, please check our site FIRST, or give us a call. You will frequently find tickets for sale (usually at a lower price) directly from us
• Some sites will advertise our tickets for sale before they go on sale to the public. Be aware that these vendors have not purchased the tickets they are marketing – and you may pay an inflated price for premium seat locations and receive tickets that are very different than what you think you paid for.
• Sign up for our eClub on our website to receive information directly from Wharton Center
• Beware of any seller who sends you a debit card to pick up tickets at will call – this is the sign of an unscrupulous sale.  The tickets you pick up at will call with that debit card are likely to be at a much lower value than you paid.

We urge you to protect yourself by purchasing directly from the official source for Wharton Center tickets – buy your tickets at our windows, at Whartoncenter.com or by phone at 1-800-WHARTON (1-800-942-7866).