Troubleshooting digital concert tickets

A friend of mine posted on Facebook about the high price of concert tickets. He mentioned that the ticket price ($91) included almost $45.

I thought the fees seemed high, so I went to the venue’s website and found the page where I could buy tickets for the same concert. A general admission ticket was $65, with a “convenience fee” of $17.45, for a total of $82.45.

I sent my friend a screenshot of the information and he replied with the link he used for his pricing.

Googled the artist and venue and followed the first link for tickets, which was a reseller, not the official ticket seller, which in this case is AXS.

After getting the correct link, he was able to successfully purchase his ticket using the computer, but shortly after he texted me that he was having trouble.

I called him and we discussed what to do next.

The venue only accepts mobile tickets and the website instructed you to download the AXS app on your phone and log in with your AXS account credentials. From there, you will see the ticket in the app.

My friend has no problem understanding these things so he downloaded the app and just couldn’t log in. We tried our best to walk you through the steps over the phone, but you got a strange error message that you were not authorized to do. the app that made no sense to me at all.

So I stopped by his house after work and it became obvious what was wrong.

You downloaded the wrong AXS app.

If you search for “AXS” in the iOS App Store, you’ll see two apps: one called “AXS Tickets” and one called “AXS Mobile Reporting.” Downloaded the Mobile Reporting app that AXS venues use to track ticket sales for their events. In fact, you did not have permission to log into that application.

To be fair, the “delivery method” for the tickets was “AXS Mobile ID”. I could see why you downloaded an app called “AXS Mobile”.

After I showed him the right app, he downloaded it, logged in right away and found his ticket.

He said that before I came over he called the AXS customer service number and the support person couldn’t help him log in, but they didn’t ask what app he had installed.

Buying tickets is much more important than years ago. I can’t remember the last time a paper ticket was issued.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come up to the door at a concert to see people clustered around the door trying to log into the appropriate app on their phone to display their tickets.

It would be nice to have a way to buy tickets, but there are different apps for ticketing platforms like Ticketmaster, LiveNation, AXS, EventBrite, and many others. Make sure you have the correct app installed.

Do yourself a favor. Check in and make sure you see your tickets in the app before you approach the door at the venue.

Jim Rossman is a technology columnist for the Tribune News Service. He can be reached at [email protected]