this hasn't happened to me, but i witnessed it at Outside Lands SF this year and it is devastating to watch. there is basically zero recourse for the buyer of the ticket that scans invalid and many of them have very legitimate looking pdfs and emails they got from craigslist.
neither the ticketmaster folks nor the venue folks tend to be super compassionate in my experience. it's a real mess though, the venues often have no in-and-out privileges (possibly due to how scanning invalidates some 24-hour key), so even as a law-abiding consumer, you're stuck at an event for the whole time just to deal with ticketmaster's implementation details.
i'm sure others have said this, but that is definitely a business that wants disrupting. there's so many bits of tech that could make this experience better and safer for consumers, but i suspect ticket fees are more profitable than user experience.
I just worked admissions for a festival in Seattle, and we have started seeing scalpers actually walk with the customer to the gate, and verify they get entrance. If the scalped ticket isn't valid, the scalper will refund right there. People have stopped trusting scalpers with print outs, because they often don't work. The resellers are realizing this and offering guarantee.
As an aside, many festivals and venues don't disallow re-entry due to TM implementation (I've been to enough TM ticketed events that have re-entry). They ban in-and-out so that you cannot go elsewhere to drink or eat without the festival surcharge and kickback.
Disrupting ticketing is such a painful thing, but its something I've been passionate about for a number of years. Unfortunately, the way things are run at least in Australia means that venues have exclusive agreements with various ticketing providers, so it becomes exceedingly capital intensive to break in :(
neither the ticketmaster folks nor the venue folks tend to be super compassionate in my experience. it's a real mess though, the venues often have no in-and-out privileges (possibly due to how scanning invalidates some 24-hour key), so even as a law-abiding consumer, you're stuck at an event for the whole time just to deal with ticketmaster's implementation details.
i'm sure others have said this, but that is definitely a business that wants disrupting. there's so many bits of tech that could make this experience better and safer for consumers, but i suspect ticket fees are more profitable than user experience.