Ticket seller Get Me Tickets, which will be very familiar to fans of BBC 1’s consumer rights show Watchdog, has been shut down by the Department of trade and Industry.

The company, which traded largely through it’s website (getmetickets.net), was raided on the 2nd of February “following the presentation to the court of a petition to wind up the company in the public interest”.

Though they described themselves as “The front row specialists” Get Me Tickets have been the cause of great anguish for gig-goers since the company began trading, many claiming that the company did not provide them with tickets (or a refund) and on some occasions provided just the name and phone number of a ticket tout.

A statement from the official receiver posted on the Get Me Tickets website says, “When my staff attended the company’s premises a number of tickets were recovered. It appears that the company does not have sufficient tickets to supply all its customers who have ordered and paid for tickets.

“The court has therefore ordered that those tickets held by the company should be distributed to customers in the order that customers paid for the tickets. My staff are sending all the tickets recovered from the premises to these customers on the basis and they should receive tickets within the next few days. There are no other tickets available for any other customers.”

The company’s court case will be heard on the 22nd of March, after which, if the company is permanently shut down, those still owed money will be able to register a claim. Further updates will be posted here: http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/piu.htm.

For a bit more back story read this report on how Get Me Tickets upset Cliff Richard (and you don’t want to get on Cliff’s bad side): http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/reports/consumer/consumer_20051024_2.shtml.