Only received partial refund for cancelled gig

[CaptainNotSlow]

As some of you will know Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters broke his leg and had to cancel shows at Wembley. The shows were not re-scheduled so refunds were issued instead.

I paid £292.50 on my credit card for four tickets but have only received a £286 refund. The tickets were delivered before Dave broke his leg.

The tickets were purchased from the official website linked to from the band's social media pages.

£6.50 is not a lot to lose, but I am a bit miffed on principle.

I have contacted the website to request a refund but they refused, pointing to their terms and conditions and saying the £6.50 transaction fee is for printing and delivering the tickets. I have also contacted my credit card company by phone who refused to refund it on the same grounds.

I think fans should be entitled to a refund for the following reasons:

• The tickets I've effectively paid £6.50 for are useless/worthless to me as the show has been cancelled and not re-scheduled.
• If the show was re-scheduled and the original tickets still valid I wouldn't have lost the £6.50. Being cynical - the website would probably prefer to cancel the show and issue partial refunds as they'll probably still make a profit from it.
• You'd expect that the tour organisers' cancellation insurance should cover it so that fans are not left out of pocket.
• If you booked a flight and it was cancelled by the airline you'd expect to get the full amount back. Should be the same for gig tickets.
• Retaining the transaction fee for cancelled shows could be argued to be an unfair term in their Ts & Cs.
• There were not any other options to purchase the tickets without non-refundable fees that I'm aware of.

Has anyone else been in the same boat and been successful in getting a full refund?

I'm not sure if I am covered under Section 75 of the consumer credit act or chargeback scheme - can anyone shed any light on this either way?

Get well soon Dave!

Edited by CaptainNotSlow on Friday 10th July 15:31

[michael243]

CaptainNotSlow said:

As some of you will know Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters broke his leg and had to cancel shows at Wembley. The shows were not re-scheduled so refunds were issued instead.

I paid £292.50 on my credit card for four tickets but have only received a £286 refund. The tickets were delivered before Dave broke his leg.

The tickets were purchased from the official website linked to from the band's social media pages.

£6.50 is not a lot to lose, but I am a bit miffed on principle.

I have contacted the website to request a refund but they refused, pointing to their terms and conditions and saying the £6.50 transaction fee is for printing and delivering the tickets. I have also contacted my credit card company by phone who refused to refund it on the same grounds.

I think fans should be entitled to a refund for the following reasons:

• The tickets I've effectively paid £6.50 for are useless/worthless to me as the show has been cancelled and not re-scheduled.
• If the show was re-scheduled and the original tickets still valid I wouldn't have lost the £6.50. Being cynical - the website would probably prefer to cancel the show and issue partial refunds as they'll probably still make a profit from it.
• You'd expect that the tour organisers' cancellation insurance should cover it so that fans are not left out of pocket.
• If you booked a flight and it was cancelled by the airline you'd expect to get the full amount back. Should be the same for gig tickets.
• Retaining the transaction fee for cancelled shows could be argued to be an unfair term in their Ts & Cs.
• There were not any other options to purchase the tickets without non-refundable fees that I'm aware off.

Has anyone else been in the same boat and been successful in getting a full refund?

I'm not sure if I am covered under Section 75 of the consumer credit act or chargeback scheme - can anyone shed any light on this either way?

Get well soon Dave!

You got back 97.7% of how much you paid for the tickets which included printing and delivery, I didn't think you could claim back printing and delivery costs when you just get the ticket price back?

[funkyrobot]

They have terms and conditions that by paying for the tickets you agreed to.

If you don't like these, don't buy the tickets.

It's a shame you can't always buy tickets direct from the venues and not pay anything else. Also, I don't agree with paying someone else to get me my tickets. However, it's the way it is and I don't really attend many of these events so don't have to go through this.

[Mandat]

From what you say, the £6.50 was for printing and postage of the tickets. On the basis that the tickets were printed and posted to you, then you have received that part of the service that you had paid the £6.50 for.

On the face of it, I agree that a full refund should be forthcoming due to the cancellation of the gig, but the reality is that I don't think that you will be getting that £6.50 back.

[photosnob]

I'd be miffed too. But for the sake of two coffees I'd forget about it. Rubbish situation, but even if you get your money back you will lose out further if you invest time into this... Just let it go.

[voyds9]

That seems to me like the very definition of an unfair term.

They are also possibly insured against this loss

I would name and shame them to everyone you know

If it irks you enough try small claim court.

[750turbo]

I have had the same, but to be honest, life is too short to worry about it.

[The Surveyor]

voyds9 said:

If it irks you enough try small claim court.

Pistonheads, where £6.50 matters....

[Chrisgr31]

The Surveyor said:

voyds9 said:

If it irks you enough try small claim court.

, where £6.50 matters....

Hmmm capacity at Wembley is between 60,000 and 70,000, the op paid £6.50 postage and printing for 4 tickets so assume average buyer bought 4 that's 7,500 lots of £6.50 they have kept or £48,750.

As a matter of interest is an option offered whereby you can avoid paying postage and printing because if not it sounds like an unfair contract term to me, maybe a lawyer could confirm.

Complain to Trading Standards.

[davamer23]

Stick the tickets on eBay, the most die hard fans would still purchase them for their collection, reckon you'll get back your £6.50 and some besides.

[Gareth79]

I think you do have a right to a full refund - the c/c company is probably trying to avoid a massive ballache (possibly just that individual, although with calls recorded I doubt they would just spout BS off the top of their head).

The issue is that you aren't buying tickets, you aren't actually interested in the pieces of paper, the tickets simply issued by the promoter to prove to the venue that you are a customer. If the concert is cancelled the entire product is useless and has little to no value.

It may well be there are terms and conditions that permit this, but I think it's one of those things that will be overturned in court one day.

Edited by Gareth79 on Friday 10th July 21:11

[dudleybloke]

It's always been the same regarding the "booking fee" and refunds. Bloody rip off!

[The Mad Monk]

I hate these "booking fees", "admin charges", "printing costs". You can't get into the event without printing the tickets, so why do they do this?

Take the promoters and the credit card company to the small claims court. I will cost you next to nothing, but will cost them an arm and a leg - if they try to defend it.

[coopedup]

The Mad Monk said:

I hate these "booking fees", "admin charges", "printing costs". You can't get into the event without printing the tickets, so why do they do this?

Take the promoters and the credit card company to the small claims court. I will cost you next to nothing, but will cost them an arm and a leg - if they try to defend it.

Do you really think it is worth it over small change?? Good luck if you try, complete waste of time......and money (read the terms and conditions again)

[The Mad Monk]

coopedup said:

Do you really think it is worth it over small change?? Good luck if you try, complete waste of time......and money (read the terms and conditions again)

Of course, you may well think that £6 odd isn't worth it.

However, just because something is in the terms and conditions and you agreed to it, doesn't necessarily mean that it is legally binding.

[coopedup]

Surely if you agree to their terms and conditions that should be the end of it? You are agreeing to abide by what they have set out, I cannot see how that leaves any wriggle room, at least in this case with ticket vendors

[The Mad Monk]

coopedup said:

Surely if you agree to their terms and conditions that should be the end of it? You are agreeing to abide by what they have set out, I cannot see how that leaves any wriggle room, at least in this case with ticket vendors

There is the snappily titled "Unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations act" to consider, of course.


http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/2083/conte...

[Djtemeka]

£6.59 isn't much but it adds up when you look at the total amount of people that lost £6.50.

[FrankAbagnale]

I recently went to see Einaudi at Blenheim Palace - you could buy parking on the website in addition to your tickets.

Block:
Car Park
Row:
GA
Seat / Ticket:
70
Ticket Price:
£ 5.00
Booking Fee Per Ticket:
£ 0.50
Handling Fee Per Transaction:
£ 1.75
Total:
£ 7.25

I drove in on the day and it turns out that parking was free, no tickets were being checked and it was just an open field with a few marshalls guiding traffic. I asked a few people and none had paid in advance or on the day.

Not relevant to your story, but i've held the anger in for about a week or two now. This is my release.

[marting]

Small claims court, hahaha, brilliant.