Adele fan allegedly scammed by scalpers turns troubles into music

  • 22/03/2017

A woman allegedly scammed by scalpers has now followed in her idol's footsteps by turning her pain into a song.

Letita Butler's friend, Maiz Marshall-Amai, who is wheelchair-bound, bought a pair of tickets for Adele's Auckland concert for AU$1252 from scalping website Viagogo last year.

When she finally received the tickets this week, she says they turned out to be worth NZ$204.50 each and not for the seats they were sold as. Instead, they were higher up the stand in a non-wheelchair-accessible location.

Now Ms Butler has remixed Adele hit 'Hello' to share her pain.

"Hello from the outside/Your biggest fans can't get inside," she sings in a video posted to Facebook.

Ms Butler says she's cared for Ms Marshall-Amai for years, but had to leave her last year and care for her father, who was dying from cancer.

Ms Marshall-Amai bought the tickets as a gift, knowing her grieving friend was a huge Adele fan who sings many of her hits herself.

She says Viagogo wouldn't refund them, instead suggesting they re-sell their tickets on the website, one day out from the concert.

But Ms Butler isn't looking for cheaper tickets; they need wheelchair-accessible ones, which they thought they paid for.

"It's just a nuisance/that the tickets sent/aren't the ones we bought online," she sings in her video.

Concert promoter Live Nation has warned fans never to buy tickets from unofficial sources.

"Only tickets purchased via the respective approved ticketing agent [Ticketek or Ticketmaster] are valid for entry to the show. Tickets purchased via on-seller sites such as Viagogo, Ticketblaster, Queen of Tickets or eBay may not gain entry into the event, and we do not encourage anyone to purchase via these third-party agencies," says Live Nation in a statement.

Viagogo has been contacted for comment.

Newshub.