Jimmy Buffett: If you bought resold tickets for this Florida show, you’re not getting in

There's trouble in Margaritaville.

Parrot Heads, some of whom paid more than $10,000 for a pod of four seats to the Jimmy Buffett and Coral Reefer Friends tour kick-off at the Pavilion at Old School Square in downtown Delray Beach, Florida just threw their money away, according to venue organizers.

Turns out, to get in the front gate on show night, your identification must match the name you provided at the time of purchase, said Carli Brinkman, public relations specialist with Old School Square. And tickets are non-transferable.

“It’s horrifying,” she said.

Bottom line: If you bought your tickets through a reseller, you are out of luck, Brinkman said.

"We are obviously warning people that is not going to work," she said, adding that the venue is equally angered over the situation.

More: Parrot Heads rejoice! Jimmy Buffett to perform four shows next month in Delray Beach

Tickets sold out

Tickets went on sale for the May 13, 14, 17 and 18 shows on Monday at 10 a.m. and were sold out in the first minute. Hours later, tickets popped up online through sites such as Vivid Tickets and Ticketsonsale.com, neither of which responded to requests for comment from The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Brinkman said she has no idea how those resellers got their hands on so many tickets, and that the venue did not have agreements with any company except Eventbrite.

Customers were limited to one pod of tickets for one night only specifically to ensure as many fans as possible had access to tickets, she said.

“Really, the goal was to make this affordable for as many people as possible,” she said.

But that is not what happened.

Parrot Heads, Jimmy Buffett fans are not happy

“The cheapest pod of four seats was $3,889 for obstructed views,” said Diane Catalano of Boynton Beach, who got shut out Monday morning. “And the front was like $10,780.”

Catalano, along with two friends, had their fingers on the button to buy tickets at 9:55 a.m., she said. While Catalano has seen Buffett more than six times, she said, this would have been the first trip around the sun for her boyfriend and the other couple that made up their pod of four.

“I was very angry to the point I would never buy a ticket through Vivid Seats again,” she said. “I don’t know how they did it. A connection, an algorithm? I don’t know how they got all these tickets.”

Catalano was not the only Parrot Head whose feathers got ruffled. Social media was abuzz with similar complaints. And it's not the first time this has happened with these two resellers.

According to the Better Business Bureau, Vivid Seats, out of Chicago, rates only one out of five stars. There were 1,643 complaints lodged against the company in the past year, and 2,239 in the past three years.

Ticketsonsale.com, a website operated by Ryadd, Inc., also rated one out of five stars with the Better Business Bureau. Only two weeks ago on April 13, it was announced the company paid $183,450.67 as a result of a lawsuit to resolve claims of “deceptive trade practices.”

Old School Square is not the only venue refusing to honor tickets from Vivid Seats or other resellers. Laurel Cove Music Festival on April 14 announced it would not honor resold tickets to its summer music festival, saying simply on its Facebook page, "Scalpers aren't cool."

It, unfortunately, spells bad news for some Buffett fans, Brinkman said.

“Every single person that comes has to show must show a ticket against a valid ID that shows the same name,” she said. “And you cannot change the name once it’s purchased.”

Brinkman said the venue has beefed up security to address any issues that might arise on show night because of scalped or resold tickets.

“It’s a pretty foolproof process to make sure somebody that bought something scalped can’t get in,” she said. “I feel pretty bad for people that bought those.”

Catalano is glad not to be one of them. She said she is bummed she didn’t get tickets legitimately, but she is grateful she didn’t get ripped off by resellers.

And she doesn’t think Buffett would be too happy to hear there were “fins” out there looking to make bait out of his fans.

“I really believe that if Jimmy Buffett himself knew what happened, he would be quite disturbed by it,” she said. “Absolutely not paradise, he would say.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Jimmy Buffett tickets: Resold tickets worthless Florida venue says