Skiddle - terrible refund policy

Grayster77

Just a word of advice regarding Skiddle and the way they conduct business. Back in May, I booked 2 etickets to see a band, total ticket price of £39.00 + Booking fees of £4.40. The concert date was Saturday 7th of August. I received a receipt for my etickets and the gig was still advertised on their website even on Saturday night. However, when I went to the venue, it was quite clear the gig wasn't going ahead. After checking the bands website that showed they weren't down to play there that night, and waiting in the area for an hour or so, just in case, I went home. To add insult to injury, Skiddle emailed me on Sunday to ask me to review the gig!

I contacted them on Monday to ask for a refund. They checked with the promoter in case I was pulling a fast one, called me back and said I would receive a refund within 3 - 5 days.

Checked my bank today, and they have only refunded me £39. They have not refunded me the booking fee. I phoned them up and their agent refused to budge saying it was company policy and was clearly laid out in their Terms & Conditions (that doesn't replace my statutory rights of course). Once I said I would pursue legal action on principle, I was offered the chance to speak to Richard Dyer, who confirmed himself as 'one of the managing directors'. He refused to refund the £4.40 saying that they had done just as much as if the concert had gone ahead! I pointed out they hadn't informed me that the gig was not happening and that I hadn't even mentioned my out of pocket travel expenses for that evening. All I wanted was the £4.40 back and it would restore my faith in them. He refused and kept referring to the T&Cs. I told him I would take legal advice and he told me that I'll lose and have to pay all the costs. They said I should speak to Consumer Direct who could confirm this.

Spoke to Consumer Direct who said Skiddle in breach of the Supply of Goods and Service act 1982 in that they haven't taken reasonable care and skill in providing goods that i have paid for. A lot of ticket agents hide behind the term that they are 'accepting order on behalf of a third party supplier'. At they end of they day, they are holding my £4.40 for doing nothing, and it's unlawful. Something to bear in mind when dealing with them in the future. I'm about to send a letter to them by recorded delivery quoting what Consumer Direct told me.

richskiddle

Hi Grayster

A few things to point out to all users of our site, or indeed any ticket outlet.

Firstly, all content on our site is provided by the event organisers, updated by the event organisers and maintained by the event organisers. In 99.9% of cases, if an event is cancelled, the promoter contacts us, the listing is updated immediately, the tickets taken off sale and the refund process started. Sadly, we do not have time to ring round every promoter on our site to ensure the show is still going ahead - I wish we did, but very rarely something like this comes up.

Though I don't wish to hide behind the terms and conditions, we are a lot more approachable than that, you did agree to them, which I presume you then read the following.

6. YOUR OBLIGATIONS

6.1 You represent and warrant that the Tickets are purchased for personal use only, and that they have not been purchased as part of any form of business or commercial activity and in particular, that the Tickets may not be resold or offered for resale by anyone whether at a premium or for any other trade purposes. Resale or the attempted resale of the Tickets is grounds for seizure or cancellation of the ticket without refund or compensation.

6.2 It is your responsibility:
(a) for checking your ticket details, mistakes cannot always be rectified;
(b) for any loss, theft or damage to your Tickets after dispatch;
(c) to ascertain whether an event, performance or activity has been cancelled and the date and/or time rearranged. If the event, performance or activity is cancelled you will be offered Tickets for the rescheduled time and date. We will use reasonable endeavours to inform you of any cancellation once we have received notification of the same from the third party supplier;

10. REFUNDS AND EXCHANGES

10.1 We regret that tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded after purchase unless the event is cancelled.

10.2 If an event is cancelled, ticket holders will be offered tickets at any rescheduled event (subject to availability) up to the face value of the tickets or, if the ticket holder is unable to attend the rescheduled event or the event is not rescheduled, a refund of the face value of the ticket.

Booking fees, are the only part of any ticket income we receive and cover all the costs incurred in selling a tickets, including the cost of processing the card, and indeed refunding the card. The credit card processing companies do not refund us the charges if a show does not go ahead, and indeed charge us to process a refund, which has to come out of the booking fee.

I'm glad you took time to speak to Consumer Direct and understand your rights, what they have told you is correct, however not really related to this situation, as we did take reasonable care to provide the goods. As you say, you received a receipt for an e-ticket, which is the delivery of the ticket - therefore we have provided the goods. It is not our duty to provide the show, this is down to the promoter, who has failed to A) Provide the show and Tell us that they weren't providing the show.

If we had received cancellation notice but then failed to tell you, we would have failed at our duty's and I would happily refund your booking fee, due to our error. As stated though, we had no idea this show was cancelled and had to check only after your call. You have however, agreed that you will only ever be refunded face value, and that it was your obligation to check that the show went ahead, something which you failed to do.

What you have also failed to mention in your thread is that we happily answered every question that you had, you then refused to accept the answer and in turn decided to call me a cocky c**t and put the phone down, behaviour and language that will certainly not get you anywhere in life.

I will of course respond to your letter in due course, but felt I had to defend our company as I don't think you have made the situation entirely clear on here.

Regards
Richard Dyer
Director
Skiddle Ltd
0843 289 3333

Lazlo_2

That can't be right can it? If I bought an item for £20 in Tescos, firstly they ain't gonna add 5% because i use a credit card. If I decided I didn't want it, they wouldn't then hold on to more money because they have to pay card fees for each transaction. More importantly here, it's not like you decided you didn't want the tickets, you went to the venue. don't understand Skiddle hiding behind card fees, it's just a cost that goes along with conducting business, it shouldn't be your cost Grayster. Have you tried to speaking to the UK Card Association?

I dont understand why they are quoting their terms about cancellation, because if the event was cancelled months ago and they had of told you about it, it seems like they still would be holding onto you money, so thats not relevant at all. I guess it just more annoying because you went to the place where a gig didn't happen.

Surely for customer satisfaction, it's in their interest to know if a event is going ahead or not? If not they are quite happy to continue selling tickets to something that doesn't exist. Surely thats fraud isn't it?

richskiddle

Lazlo

If we knew the event had been cancelled, we would have taken tickets off sale straight away. Once again, we had no notification of the cancellation until after the event. Most people who cancel a show contact the ticket agents first, on this occasion the promoter didn't think to.

As we are an agency, we quite rightly add a charge for our part of the service (the booking fee). The booking fee covers all costs incurred. The face value, is for the show itself.

The show didn't happen - we refunded the show part. The selling of the ticket, our part of the contract did happen, and we charged accordingly.

We can dispute this as long as you like, on no occasion, unless it was OUR error would we refund booking fees - and the same applies to every major ticket outlet going.

Rich

recesnap

richskiddle wrote: »

Lazlo


We can dispute this as long as you like, on no occasion, unless it was OUR error would we refund booking fees - and the same applies to every major ticket outlet going.

Rich

It's interesting you should say that, Rich, I've just checked the Ticketmaster conditions:

Unless indicated otherwise in relation to a particular event, if a performance is cancelled, ticket holders will be offered seats at any rescheduled performance (subject to availability) up to the face value of the tickets or, if the ticket holder is unable to attend the rescheduled performance or the performance is not rescheduled, a refund. Refunds for tickets purchased prior to the date of the original event will be given up to the face value of the tickets purchased plus the relevant per ticket booking fee.

For the sake of good customer relations and not getting a bad reputation, don't you think you'd be better off refunding the £4.40 fee? Because as it stands I certainly wouldn't consider booking tickets with you - I don't want to be out of pocket if an event gets cancelled.