Born Pink Jakarta - Seller #7

This is the third part of the Born Pink Jakarta Concert Ticket series. You can read the first part here <Part 1: Ticket War & Drama> and the second part here <Part 2: The World of Scalpers>.

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Out of all the sellers we contacted and cross-checked, Seller #7 seemed to be the most legit to us.

Since the money involved in this transaction is not necessarily small money (at least in my book it isn’t), at the very least, the choice I make needs to sit well with my gut. For me personally, they way Seller #7’s admin answered the chat, as well as the clear information they’ve given seemed to be the most convincing to me. So then after my sister got their contact number, I followed up via Whatsapp to ask more questions about the ticket. Here’s how it went:

On Feb 28, I abandoned my manners and messaged Seller #7 at the late hour of 11:36 pm out of desperation. Seller #7 sent the same information for the 2 VIP tickets she’s selling as the ones my sister received including the seat number, approximate seat placement, price and T&C for the payment.

Selling 2 VIP tickets at (A) IDR6,850,000/ticket (≈$452) & (B) IDR7,500,000 (≈$495). Seat no. A: Row AJ,
Payment terms: COD on physical ticket exchange venue, no down payment required. Pickup on the day, 30% down payment required.

Seller #7 was selling 2 VIP tickets with two different pricing since one seating is nearer the stage than the other, which makes total sense. She also gave a disclaimer that the seat map she sent over is an unofficial fan made seat map so the actual seating might be slightly different, but probably not off by a lot and will still be in the center section. She also told me that if I were to purchase the ticket from her, she’ll add me to a group chat that consists of other people who buy tickets from her for easy coordination for the wristband pickup and concert day. She also said that she’s going to be on standby on the day so that’s another plus point.

I also asked if the ticket is under her name which she replied yes to. Knowing that she’s the original buyer of the ticket gave me a peace of mind. So far, I got a really good vibe from these replies. I still had some reservations, but felt like things were looking up at this point. After I’m satisfied with the answers she’s given me, I finally made a decision to buy the VIP ticket from Seller #7. We did a virtual handshake 🤝🏼 and I was hoping and praying that this virtual handshake is good enough to seal the deal. 🤞🏼

Also, a quick timeline recap:

After my last chat with Seller #7, there was a 4-day waiting period until our agreed upon meeting day on March 5. During that 4 days, I tried my best to not stress too much about this while still browsing through Twitter and IG for a potential backup seller, just in case Seller #7 fall through.

Because you know what? Apparently, in the world of scalpers (in Jakarta), cancellation of your ticket nearing the concert day is, believe it or not, very common. Learned about this from my cousin’s friend who’s more experienced in the world of K-pop concerts in Indonesia. That’s why I feel the need to have a backup seller, just in case things don’t work out, you know.

The night before our scheduled meet, I sent a message to Seller #7 just to reconfirm our meeting for tomorrow and didn’t get an immediate reply.

And this was a start of another anxiety episode for me.
(Bear with me guys. This was indeed an emotional rollercoaster.)

Initially, I thought, “Oh, maybe she’s busy”.

But after 2 hours of no reply, I started to panic a little and thought:
“Did I just get ghosted by Seller #7?”
“Did Seller #7 found another buyer?”
“Did I just get lied to again?”

But since I know that I tend to think too much on the worst case scenario side, I then told my emotional support team—a.k.a my sister and my cousin—about this to calm my nerves. At this point my panic level was at a medium. Seller #7 did apologize to me in advance on our previous chat for future slow response since she has 2 kids she has to take care of so I was still hoping she’ll reply to my message by midnight.

At 11:33 pm, still no answer. My cousin told me to call her. But it’s pretty late and I didn’t want to be impolite. So instead, at 11:41 pm, I messaged Seller #7 one more time, replying to the previous meetup message she sent.

And that’s when I discovered my new source of anxiety: One. Grey. Tick. (on my Whatsapp message)

I immediately reported it to the team. My panic level was at a HIGH and I was questioning if I got hit and run (and blocked). At this point, I was emotionally drained and was in the “whatever happens, happens” state of mind to be honest. At the very least, if this doesn’t work out, I won’t lose any money and the biggest downside is probably that I have to look for a VIP ticket again. So considering all that, I think I’d still be okay with the worst outcome. Plus, either way, I’d still need to go to pick up my tickets too tomorrow. So, leaving it up to fate I guess.

My sister and my cousin were still trying to think positively about this situation. My sister’s theory was Seller #7 probably busy with NCT concerts that were happening that weekend since Seller #7 was also selling tickets to the concert. I was still questioning the one grey tick situation while she was still hoping that I’m not being ghosted. Both of them were keeping the positive vibes going. Also, having people to laugh with in this kind of situation really helps. Anyways, at this point, if I don’t get a vip ticket, I was ready to accept my fate and try my luck again in another city.

The next morning, I got a reply from Seller #7!Thank God! 🥳 🥳 🥳 And my sister’s guess was right. Seller #7 went to the NCT concert and a relative’s wedding afterward and her phone ran out of battery. I didn’t get ghosted guys! Woo hoo!

And so, on that Sunday morning, off I went to meet with Seller #7 and to pick up my other physical tickets (wristbands). I got there around 10 a.m. and because Seller #7 was still en route, I ended up exchanging my own e-tickets first while waiting for her to arrive.

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably remember I already shared my experience picking up my wristbands. But in case you haven’t seen the stories, here’s my experience exchanging the Born Pink Jakarta e-tickets to physical wristbands:

How I got there: I put ‘GBK Elevated Parking South’ as my destination on Google Maps. When I arrived at GBK complex, I entered through GATE 5, went straight and saw the big white tent on my left where you exchange your e-tickets. If you enter from the side of the tent like the picture on the previous slide, you’ll be at the VIP & Platinum tickets exchange area. This is the entrance to the line.

Exchange time is from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and you’ll need your e-voucher and a form of identification (Government ID/Driver’s License/Passport). Also, if you’re picking up wristbands on behalf of somebody else, you’ll need a power of attorney letter (surat kuasa) from the original ticket holder.

I arrived around 10:08 a.m. and there’s pretty much no line at the VIP & Platinum area. Maybe the rain had something to do with the lesser crowd. Each section is color coded and each section is divided into DAY 1 and DAY 2.

The rest of the section is at the other end of the tent so I had to walk outsidethe tent to get to the other side. The line wasn’t too bad for CAT 1 & CAT 2. Almost no line at all actually. CAT 3 & CAT 4 were definitely busier. Since there were lots of available counters for CAT 1, my waiting time was 0 minute. I had to exchange for both DAY 1 and DAY 2 and they did let me do it on the same counter so I don’t have to move to another counter.

Anyways, back to the Seller #7 story. Almost an hour later, Seller #7 finally arrived at the venue and went straight to the ticket exchange counter. After Seller #7 got all her wristbands and sound check passes, we finally made the transaction. She handed the wristband and sound check pass to me and I transferred the full payment to her account. Everything went smoothly without a hitch and my VIP ticket is finally secured. 🥳 🥳 🥳

And that was the end of my long, stressful, slightly dramatic, mentally and emotionally exhausting journey of finding a VIP ticket for Blackpink’s Born Pink Jakarta concert. 😮‍💨 So what do you think?

During that day, I also learned about the e-ticket and the wristband. It is to my understanding that the wristbands don’t have seat numbers printed on or assigned to them yet and there’s no way to check the seat number through the QR code printed on the wristband (the QR code on the wristband is different than the QR code on your e-tickets).

When I asked the guy who helped me about this issue, he told me that the seat number will be assigned when you scan your wristband’s QR code at the door on the D-day, followed by the QR code of your e-ticket. So your seat is assigned to your wristband when you enter the venue which means you’ll need both your wristband AND your e-ticket’s QR code to get it (I assume). If my assumption and understanding are correct, make sure you have your e-ticket handy on the day. Especially those who bought their tickets from resellers, ask for the e-tickets’ QR codes and not just the wristbands.

Since this is my first time attending K-pop concert in Jakarta and I don’t know how things usually work, I asked Seller #7 about this issue and she said that this is actually an anomaly. With other K-pop concerts (cmiiw) the seat number usually already assigned to the wristband when you exchanged your e-ticket for it.

But maybe because of the scale of Born Pink concert, it’ll take forever for them to sort through thousands of wristbands looking for seat numbers during the ticket exchange so maybe that’s why they use this system (at least that’s her theory) to expedite the process. I’m just hoping that the system will work on the day and everybody’s cooperating so there won’t be chaos. If you have more info about this, let me know. Would like to know more about how this whole thing works.

Also, I would also like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to everybody who have helped me out through this stressful time. First and foremost to my sister and my cousin, of course, who’ve been with me through every step of the way. To my family who tried to calm me down and encouraged positive thinking so I don’t freak out after I found out about my cancelled ticket. And to my parents who even drove me to pick up the ticket that day. To my other cousins and friends who helped me ask around for tickets and reposting my WTB stories on IG (you guys know who you are). Just want to say I really appreciate every single help and support you guys have given. So, again, THANK YOU! 😊

And a special shoutout to Seller #7 a.k.a KakRatih from @concertix.id who I bought the VIP ticket from. Overall, I’m very satisfied withmy (very first) purchase and had a really great experience during the process. The replies I got from her were very polite and professional, wristband and sound check pass handoff went smoothly, I got reminders and useful information about the concert one day prior to the concert, she was on standby on the day and I had no problem entering the venue with the ticket purchased. Really appreciate allthe help Kak Ratih! Thank you! 😊

With that said, I also want to put out a disclaimer that people’s experience using the same vendor might varies depending on situations and the outcome might be different as well.

Let me elaborate.

One of my friend used a ticket war service and got her VIP tickets without a problem. But apparently, there were other people who purchased ready stock tickets from that same vendor who ended up getting screwed. From what I heard, they were asked to pay more for the tickets they already paid in full (essentially the seller asked for more money for the tickets) and after they paid the additional fee, the seller ended up telling them that the tickets aren’t available just days before the concert. So same vendor, different experiences.

A couple of other things that I learned during this time period (2 weeks before the concert):

Last minute fully paid ticket cancellation close to the concert day is very common. Some even had it worse than me. Like when they found out that their ticket is essentially non-existent D-2 or D-1 before the concert (honestly, after I heard that, I felt lucky I found out D-14. At least I got some time to look for another one. Not that it makes it okay to cancel people’s ticket after full payment without legitimate reason after you said the ticket is ready, let alone last minute). The ask for additional payment for the ticket near the concert day is apparently also a common occurrence.

Some people didn’t get refunded immediately after the cancellation so those with tight budget couldn’t buy a new ticket since their ticket fund is essentially held by the seller.

Some people experienced even worse where they got scammed all together and found out only days before the concert so they didn’t have time to save up for a new ticket. One common excuse that the vendors give (if that vendor is still contactable) is that the ticket war team ran away with the tickets (I don’t know how believable this is honestly. For all we know, they could’ve been in cahoots).

Anyways, what I’m trying to say is, there’s always a certain risk involved when you buy tickets from a scalper.

Whether it’s not getting the ticket you’re promised or worse, lose your money all together, it’s the risk you need to be willing to take before going in. If you’re willing to take this risk (and the stress that comes with it 😆), then by all means, go for it (I certainly did prepare my heart for the worst case scenarios 😆). My suggestion is do your due diligence and be smart about it. Ask questions and be aware of the red flags (all those sellers I turned down had at least one that I considered a red flag personally).

I’m by no means an expert in this, but from my experience, here are a couple of tips from me if you’re looking to buya ticket from a scalper/reseller:

The first filter we had when hunting for the VIP ticket was to eliminate all the sellers with suspicious social media account. Since most WTS (Want To Sell) listings are on Twitter, things that we looked for were:

1. Date of creation of the account. If the account is new with little or no information or activity, or weird user name, we immediately passed.

2. Check if they have an Instagram account associated with their Twitter account. For some reason, if they have a proper Instagram account, it’s a plus in my book (although it doesn’t mean that it’s not a scam).

3. Google their ID or read the comments under their posts.If people has issue with them in the past, it might come up in Google search, comment section or Twitter threads.

4. Use Getcontact to check their contact number. Numbers with no tags associated immediately got eliminated because if you’re doing business with that number or if you’re a real person using that number, people should have saved your number. If you are purposely hiding the tags, that’s even more suspicious.

Second, buy ticket from the original ticket buyer or holder, as in the ticket is under the seller’s name. That way it’s easier to resolve any issues that may arise in the future since you’re dealing directly with the original buyer of the ticket. When a ticket has changed too many hands, it’s going to be difficult to track down the original owner if you encounter any issue. Plus you don’t know how many other people has the same ticket information as you do since it’s been passed around. Personally, buying it from a friend or someone I know is the most ideal situation for me.

Ask about the ticket info and the T&C of the transaction. Ask about the seat number, whose ticket it is, reasons why the original owner isselling it (if it’s from an individual), who’s going to get the physical ticket and when you’ll get it, the payment terms, how are they guaranteeing the ticket, cancellation policy, etc. Even if they can’t answer all of them clearly, at least you could take their answers into consideration to make an informed decision whether to purchase from them or not.

If you’re buying from a stranger, cash on delivery of the physical ticket might be the best option to avoid getting scammed. At least it worked in my case. Although, if you’re not putting any down payment, there’s always a possibility that the seller won’t keep true to their words, so be prepare for that too.

Let us all learn from my mistake and ask for a proof of purchase, especially if you’re paying in full for a ready stock ticket. At the very least, you should receive an e-ticket for your purchase.

As I mentioned previously, occurrences of “plot twists” on days leading up to the concert seem to be very common so be ready for them. So if you really, really, really want to go to the concert like I did, make sure you have backup plan or at least a backup fund in case you need to purchase a new ticket.

Also, you have to understand that when there’s a high demand and a low supply, the resell ticket price will not be the same as the original retail price.

Especially for Blackpink’s concert since there was a lot of people (Really. Like a lot, a lot. I even found out that a lot of friends who I thought don’t listen to Blackpink attended the concert. Apparently, there are more Blinks than I thought in my circle) looking for those VIP tickets AND willing to pay good money for them.

And the closer it gets to the concert day, the higher the price will be, so securing your ticket early is probably better. With that said, you kind of have to be prepared for the higher price (I did save up a little more for the VIP ticket knowing that there’s a big possibility that I have to buy it from a reseller).

Anyways, that’s all I have for this story. It ended up becoming a pretty long one. Hope you guys had fun reading it. If you guys have any thoughts, comments or questions about this whole ticketing situation, feel free to let me know.

And as always, to those who made it ‘til here, thank you so much for reading! 😊

Coming Soon: <Chapter 2>

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Born Pink Jakarta - The World of Scalpers

This is the second part of the Born Pink Jakarta Concert Ticket series. You can read the first part here <Part 1: Ticket War & Drama>.

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First thing I did after I found out about the unfortunate turn of events was asking my friends if they know anybody who’s selling VIP tickets. Buying it from somebody I know or a second/third degree friend wasthe most ideal scenario for me since it’ll reduce the chance of getting scammed. Plus if my friends can vouch for the person who owns the ticket, I know where to look for them if something goes wrong.

But again, no dice.

I think people who I know who owns a VIP ticket was planning to use it for themselves instead of reselling it. So, it led me to the next option, buying one from a scalper.

Let me start this part by saying that when it come to searching for stuff, my sister is probably at the same level as those who works at intelligence agencies. Like, seriously, she’s crazy good and crazy fast. And I’m not talking about just finding information. She actually can find good quality information.

Anyways, all the listings that I ended up following up were found by her on Twitter and Instagram. My cousin helped me checked their contact numbers to see if the account looks legit or suspicious. And so we went to work to find a VIP ticket for me the next couple of days. Here are a couple of things that we learned during that time:

There are lots of open bid for VIP tickets and the minimum bid mostly starts at IDR5,000,000 (≈$300) per ticket (the original retail price is at IDR3,800,000 ≈$252).

Selling 2 VIP tickets seated side by side. Current bid is at IDR5,500,000 (≈$363).

This is just a personal preference, but every time I received short replies like the ones I received from this seller on a business account (or business related chats), it’s a big turn off for me. Anybody else like me? So it’s a pass on this one.

Current bid at IDR 5,000,000 (≈$330).

My sister asked Seller #2 if the ticket is still available and if IDR5,500,000 is enough to bid on. Seller #2 said last bid was at IDR5,000,000, but they’ll sell it for IDR4,900,000 (≈$323). The eagerness here was a lil’ suspicious. We checked their IG account and they have 5 former usernames (Hmmm 🤔). I ended up following up this lead and texted the contact person. But then they told me they closed the bid at my sister’s offer and immediately sent me an order form. 😲 I haven’t even asked them about the seat number and T&C of payment for the ticket just yet. 😅 In the end, I passed on this one too because they seemed too eager?

Current bid at IDR 7,000,000 (≈$462).

We made an offer of IDR10,000,000 (≈$659) for 2 VIP tickets and Seller #3 replied said the last offer/bid that they got was at IDR7,000,000 (≈$462) for 1 ticket. I passed on this one because it sounded like this is going to be a high bid and it’s over my budget.

So after following up on those leads (plus some others that we found), I didn’t really feel comfortable taking the bidding route for a couple of reasons:

1. Most of these accounts use the close bid system that made it impossible for me to find out if the current bid is actually true. How do I know that there’s actually another person who made the bid and not just the admin trying to up the price? So yeah, no.

2. The Twitter/IG account and contact numbers of these accounts lack information that can convince me if these are legit accounts. We did use Get Contact to get a feel if the number is a burner number or not.

Disclaimer: Some (if not all) of these accounts may well actually be legit, but I’m sharing my thought process in narrowing down these options since nobody I know can vouch for these accounts.

Because of that, we started to focus our effort on the fixed price tickets (a.k.a “Ready Stock Tickets”). That way, it’s easier to know the final amount I’m spending and I can skip the stressful bidding process (like, I have other stuff to do too, you know, other than hunting for these tickets. Adult responsibilities and all that).

From our research, we found that fixed price VIP tickets mostly start at IDR6,000,000/ticket (≈$398). After the tickets are sold out at Tiket.com, it makes perfect sense that the ticket price/service fee will be much higher than the order placed before the sales were open to public through ticket war services (jastipers). A couple of reasons (Note: I’m talking about legit sellers & tickets here):

1. The probability of you getting the ticket is 100%.
   With ticket war services, there’s still a big probability that you won’t get a ticket because the service they’re offering is to go to ticket war on your behalf. So, if they’re not lucky during the war, then you won’t get your tickets (the initial deposit you paid them usually will be refunded but not the service fee). With “Ready Stock Ticket”, IF the ticket is REALLY ready and in stock, then the chance of you buying a ticket and actually get the said ticket is at 100%.

2. The ticket is already issued with the seat number on it.
   We know that the seats for VIP and Platinum tickets are assigned immediately after you completed your payment. And sure, CAT 2 - CAT 4 got their seat number way later, but it’s still before the concert. So if you do your due diligence, you can find out for sure which seat you’re buying while if you buy the tickets before or during the general sales, the seat assigned to you is at random. Of course this won’t be much of an issue if you’re just trying to get a ticket (getting one is hard enough, you don’t get to be picky about the seat number, really, unless you’re willing to pay more of course).

Also, having gone through all these, I totally get why scalpers exist. For people with little luck like me, getting the tickets that I want through proper channels was an extremely stressful process (really), especially for one of the biggest K-pop concert in Indonesia’s recent history. (I participated in ticket wars in the US during Big Bang & 2NE1 era and in Hong Kong for UI & 2NE1 and they weren’t as brutal as Blackpink’s. Not even close. Time has really changed I guess.)

Honestly, I’m more than willing to pay more (within reasons of course) just to avoid all this stress. So yes, I’m all for scalpers as long as they’re legit, honest and not trying to rob people blind 😆 (double digit resell ticket price is way over my budget, but for those who can afford it, go for it I guess).

Anyways, moving on to the next sellers...

Selling VIP ticket at IDR4,500,000/ticket (≈$297). Seat no: Row AB.
Payment terms: 50% Down Payment.

This one’s the second lowest price out of all the ones we found. But then, the low price also got us a lil’ suspicious given the high demand for the VIP tickets out there. Plus the 50% DP seemed a bit steep. So,I decided to follow my “If it’s too good to be true, it’s too good to be true” motto on this one and passed on the offer.

Selling VIP ticket at IDR7,000,000/ticket (≈$277).
Payment terms: 50% Down Payment.

Seller #5 is selling 4 VIP tickets, seated side by side. ‘A’ actually found this lead and followed up on it. Turned out, Seller #5 is a middleman and not the original ticket owner. Seller #5 said that the ticket owner that seems ‘more trusted’ than others but when ‘A’ asked what did they mean by ‘more trusted’, even they weren’t sure how one is ‘more trusted’ than others. 😅

How it works with Seller #5 is we pay the ticket price to them (Seller #5) and then their team will meet with the ticket owner team to do COD (Cash on Delivery). So if the ticket owner is trying to scam us, at least our money is safe with Seller #5 and the worst thing that could happen is we ended up not going to the concert (But still. For me, as a Blink, it’s not only about the money. You can always find money again but missing that whole experience after all these years of waiting is just sad 😭).

And Seller #5’s reasoning on why we have to put a down payment is because of the case of hit and run from customers (apparently, there are customers out there who left sellers hanging). Let’s say the seller is legit and honest and they hold the ticket for the customer. But then the customer found a better deal and ditched this offer. In this case, the seller is the one with who will suffer a loss because they would have to find another buyer.

I ended up passing up on this offer too just because I wasn’t comfortable putting a down/full payment to them as a middleman. Yes, they said that my money will be safe with them if the seller is a scammer, (excuse my overthinking paranoid mind) but what if THEY (Seller #5) are the ones who’ll take my money instead? You know what I mean?

Selling 2 VIP tickets at IDR4,200,000/ticket (≈$277). Seat no: Row LXX, side by side.
Payment terms: Face to face, cash, on venue on the date. No down payment required.

This was the lowest price listing that we found on Twitter. I have a feeling that the seller is a foreigner, thus the COD (Cash On Delivery) on the date requirement (and the broken English). For some reason, I also have an inkling that this person might be a masternim who’s selling their extra tickets. (Masternims usually buy multiple tickets to a concert to select the best seat and/or as a backup for re-entry in case they get caught and thrown out of the venue.)

My sister followed up on the lead and asked if they have a Whatsapp number that we can contact because we have more questions. Then Seller #6 replied with (what I think was) the most savage and unbothered answer we received during this whole journey. They said, “I don’t have much time to convincing as long as you buy from me and you won’t to let down it’s Okay to make deal and reserve it.”

As tempting as this offer was, given the price and it requires no down payment at all, COD on the day is way too risky for me. I’m not much of a risk taker if you haven’t already noticed by now, so I passed on this one too.

Selling 2 VIP tickets at (A) IDR6,850,000/ticket (≈$452) & (B) IDR7,500,000 (≈$495). Seat no. A: Row AJ,
Payment terms: COD on physical ticket exchange venue, no down payment required. Pickup on the day, 30% down payment required.

Seller #7 was selling 2 VIP tickets with two different pricing since one seating is nearer the stage than the other, which makes total sense. Pick-up on the day requires 30% DP but pick-up on the March 5th (at the physical ticket exchange venue) requires no down payment and just COD.

To be continued on <Part 3: Seller #7>.

And to those who made it ‘til here, thank you for reading! 😊

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Born Pink Jakarta - Ticket War & Drama

With the concerts being over last weekend (started writing this the week after the concert) and now I’ve (somewhat) recovered from the hecticness of weeks leading up to it, I kind of want to share my whole experience of attending my (believe it or not) first Blackpink concert, which was also coincidentally my first concert ever in Jakarta.

There were lots of interesting things related to the concert that I learned and experienced so I thought it’d be fun to share the story with you guys since some of you were in this journey (virtually) with me too.

So here goes the first part.

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Let me take you back to sometimes in early November last year. Having been following the whole Born Pink World Tour closely since Blackpink kicked off their tour in Seoul in October last year, I know how hard and competitive it is to get tickets to their concerts. Tickets were reportedly being sold out minutes after the sales were open, especially in Asian countries. Taiwan had their sale a week before Jakarta’s and here were some of the things I read online after the tickets went on sale:

Source: @villainpinks on Twitter.

And with that, like any other Blinks who are dying to go to the concert, of course I felt the need to have some sort of plan to secure my tickets.

My first recruit was of course my dear cousin. Thought if there are two us, the chance of getting tickets are going to be higher. So I bought her a Blink membership so she could joined in on the pre-sale and try our luck.

My second recruit was my close friend, Jane, who’s also a fellow Blink and she was planning to go to the concert. I was also pretty excited ‘cause I have a friend I can go with on at least one day of the concert. She also joined in on the pre-sale war with me.

I also recruited my sister to be on standby just in case none of us can’t get through to the site or if we need extra device to use.

After the pre-sale was over, I recruited four of my other cousins who were available to go to war for me during the general sales to try and get those VIP tickets.

And that’s the team who went to ticket war with me during the pre-sale and general sales.

Now that there are a couple of us, I was praying and hoping that the chance of getting tickets are going to be higher. We all of course tried to get the coveted VIP tickets but no dice. Platinum tickets were also sold out fast. And I know most of the people I know who wanted to go to the concert were mostly focusing on these two sections so competition was extremely high.

We did managed to get Platinum and CAT 1 tickets during pre-sale and general sales. If you saw my stories from that time, you know what happened during those two stressful days. Here’s a refresher:

Born Pink Jakarta - Ticket War & Drama 09

Born Pink Jakarta - Ticket War & Drama 10

Born Pink Jakarta - Ticket War & Drama 11

Born Pink Jakarta - Ticket War & Drama 12

Born Pink Jakarta - Ticket War & Drama 13

I was in panic mode earlier. Went to the website at 2 pm and it’s empty. Thought it’s already sold out.

What happened today during pre-sale war:
VIP seats were gone in 1 minute. Platinum seats were gone in 10 minutes. A couple of friends said check-out through the app might be faster but I couldn’t pass through the check-out page on the app. All of my transactions ended up done via laptop. Had to refresh the payment page a couple of time because of system error (probably because of high traffic) to actually get to the payment page, but finally got my tickets for both days in the end. The whole thing took 15 minutes for me cause I had to switch devices.

Also, I noticed when I was in Day 2 page, when I tried to select one of the available packages which turned out to be sold out, it automatically switched to the Day 1 date without redirecting me to another page. So anybody who’s going to try to get tickets tomorrow, you might want to make sure you get the correct day.

Observation of the day: 
I think the first 5 minutes of ticket war is the most crucial time to get the ticket that you actually want. If you can get your ticket in 1 minute, even better.

What happened before, during (and even after) pre-sale war:
Been jittery, nervous (even ‘til now) and couldn’t sleep properly all weekend because of this. A couple of friends who also joined today’s pre-sale war shared the same conditions as me apparently. Plus an increased heart rate these past few days. One friend even dreamed about this pre-sale war last night. Ticket war is so stressful honestly. Who can relate?

General sales, Day 1 & Day 2:
Sold out in 10 minutes. 😭 It was brutal guys. Day 2 was even worse than Day 1. 😂 Congratulations to everybody who got tickets! 🥳

Biggest thing I learned (well I know this already but you know what I mean) after this whole ticket war:
Even if you have money to buy the tickets, if you don’t haveluck on your side, getting tickets is impossible.

Okay, honestly, this wasn’t really part of my plan. My plan actually stopped at Plan #1. 😆 As much as I wanted to get the VIP tickets, I’m also very aware that my luck with this kind of things are usually close to none. So I was prepared to just accept my fate at that point.

But, of course, I am also aware that there’s still chance of getting VIP tickets if I purchase them from a scalper/reseller or somebody with connections. I’m a bit iffy about the first option just because I’ve heard and read about so many scams that happened so I tried to avoid that option.

So then it left me with the second option, which honestly, I didn’t even really dare to put my hope in since I don’t know a lot of people with connections. Even if I do know people with connections, I don’t think I know them close enough to comfortably ask them for help to get tickets (part of me also feel like I don’t want to bother people or get people in trouble with this stuff, you know).

Well, unless, they offered.

And then somebody actually did offer. My cousin knows somebody who knows somebody who said that they can get VIP tickets for the concert. So when she asked if I wanted to put an order in, of course I said yes. I placed an order for 1 VIP ticket Day 2, and the order was submitted before the pre-sale even happened. I paid the full ticket price plus the 900k service fee. And then I waited for the confirmation of the purchase.

3 days filled with anxiety and uncertainty later, after the general sales is over, I finally got an update from the seller about the VIP ticket. Here’s the message I received on that day:

My reaction:

At this point, my stress level was HIGH. So then I asked people who bought their tickets through their connections. One follower said, “My guy said that he’ll give the e-ticket on the 25th or at the end of the month during pay day.” One of my friend said, “She said the e-tickets will be sent to my email but I haven’t received anything yet.” And so because these two also haven’t received their e-tickets, I calmed down. Just a teeny tiny bit. But when I realized that they were promised their e-tickets soonish and not D-1, my anxiety spiked up again.

Some of you guys might think I’m overreacting but for an overthinker Blink who really, really, really wants to go to the Born Pink concert and get the VIP experience, this was a big deal. I like to know for sure if my ticket is secured or not because:

1. If my Day 2 ticket is secured, I want to sell my backup tickets that I got during the pre-sale.

2. If the VIP ticket is not secured, then I could start making an effort to try to purchase it from other channels.

But then there were 6 of my cousin’s friends who bought tickets from the same seller and they all trusted their friend (let’s call this person A) who knows the seller and they all just accepted the terms given. So at that point, I feel I didn’t have a choice but to trust the seller too.

Three weeks later, my friend got her e-tickets on her email. And then one month after that, my follower got hers from her guy. After each instances I got the updates, I asked my cousin about the status of my ticket too since the seller said everybody who purchased the ticket this way got the same rule (which obviously wasn’t true since other people already starting to get their e-tickets). But the answer was still the same. They wouldn’t give out the e-tickets or the seat number.

Honestly, it sucked to be put in a limbo for months. But I tried to not think about it too much and decided to just trust the process while still keeping my backup tickets. (This is also why I gave e-tickets to those who bought tickets from me because I know how it feels when you don’t have any proof of purchase after you paid.)

Not until February 14th, I finally got this forwarded message:

At this point I thought, “Okay, at least the ticket is issued.” But honestly, I still had some doubts because I still haven’t gotten the e-ticket and the physical wristband just yet. And I’m the type that tend to think about the worst case scenario in situations like this. But I was cautiously optimistic that this will turn out okay in the end.

On Feb 26, suddenly I got a call from my cousin. And let me tell you, she never calls randomly out of the blue like that. And for some reason, before I even picked up her call, I knew something was wrong with the VIP ticket. I got one of those gut-wrenching feeling in the pit of my stomach when I saw her name flashing on my screen. I braced myself for the worst before picking up the call and sure enough, something did go wrong with the VIP ticket.

My cousin’s frantic apologetic panicky voice greeted me from the other end of the line, telling me that apparently there was some “internal problems” from the seller’s end and turned out the seller “double booked” the tickets. So essentially there were more buyers for the VIP tickets than the tickets themselves and our group was the one that’s not getting the tickets.

Knowing how badly I wanted the ticket and the countless questions I had about the legitimacy of the ticket, she was super apologetic about it. But I know it’s not her fault. And it’s now even her friend’s fault. More like the seller’s fault, really, for miscounting the tickets.

I asked her what the seller is going to do about this big mishap and there were 2 options moving forward:

1. They’ll fully refund my payment and that’s it. No offer to help with the situation. Just wash their hands all together basically was what I understand.

2. They’ll give me a Platinum ticket and refund the difference.

At this point, Tiket.com has added additional Platinum tickets on the web and are still available, so I don’t see why I have to pay them 900k to buy something that I can get myself.

And so, in the end, I chose option 1 and got a full refund of my payment.

(Warning: Slight rant ahead.)

Honestly, I was really disappointed. And sad. And to be frank, pissed.

And not because I didn’t get the ticket because I know shit happens in life and not everything can goes according to plan all the time (although if you’re treating this as a business and profiting from it, you should be damn sure to keep your end of the bargain or at the very least own up to your mistake). More because I’ve asked multiple times about the ticket info and the seller kept insisting on not giving the information and sticking to their “We’ll give the ticket D-1, don’t worry about it” rule.

Like, how do you missed 3 tickets and not realized it? (I know Blackpink said “no one’s keepin’ tally” but I don’t think it applies to this. You really should keep a tally dude.) Now it’s D-14 before the concert and you dropped this bomb on us. And it’s not like VIP tickets are just floating around out there. Time is needed to find those and do some research on the seller too.

But anyway, I felt drained at that point and was still trying to let the situation sink in. I remember I was about to get dinner and my appetite just vanished all together. I did let my sister know about it and while I’m still in the state of shock at dinner, both my cousin and my sister immediately started searching for ticket replacement. (Honestly, super thankful for them ‘cause they weren’t even gonna go to the concert but search for the ticket for me anyway.)

And so it kinda kicked-off the next new thing I learned after experiencing my first ticket war, buying ticket from non-official channels. (To be continued on Part 2: The World of Scalpers)

Also, before I forget, my cousin’s friend, A (who knows the seller) actually reached out to me the next day and personally apologized about the whole situation. I voiced my grievances and disappointments and A owned up to the mistakes and took responsibility for it without trying to find excuses which I really appreciate. A also told me that she’ll help to look for ticket replacement so hopefully I can get the VIP ticket. And she really did. For the next couple of days, A sent me leads on VIP tickets that she found online so I could follow up on them. Just want to say I appreciate the gesture especially knowing that she wasn’t even the one who’s selling the tickets and not even going to the concert.

And to those who made it ‘til here, thank you for reading! 😊

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