If you couldn’t get online surely the touts are offering you a service
Not a tout by any chance?
The best way around this is the one that some agencies and venues now operate; the buyer’s name is printed on the ticket, and valid ID has to be shown at the door that corresponds to the name on the ticket. Any other tickets bought at the time, and held by other people, have to accompany the primary buyer on entrance.
This policy was used by Kate Bush and Eventime Apollo, and worked very well, the other two tickets I bought for friends meant both had to be with me, and as one person lived in Stafford she had to bring her kids down so they could stay overnight with her folks.
A bit inconvenient, but it makes life almost impossible for the touts.
Forcing the likes of Ticketmaster to sell off their legalised touting reselling businesses would help remove the suspicion that they’re passing on tickets directly and raking in huge amounts by effectively being their own touts, and independent oversight would help even more.
I refuse to be shafted by touts, I’ve only bought a ticket from a tout once, and he wasn’t a tout as such, he’d bought an extra ticket for Yes at Bristol Hippodrome on spec, and was offering it at just over face value, I paid £3.50 for a £2.50 ticket, and the people around me in the queue jeered a bit when I bought it; five minutes later, while still about a hundred feet from the box office entrance they put out the ‘Closed, Sold out’ signs.
I walked away with a smug smile while everyone else walked off looking more than a little glum!
The sort of prices being asked now though are outrageous, hundreds of pounds over an already expensive ticket, which, while it may be seen as fulfilling a demand, is immoral.