Radiohead/Ticketmaster

Stoffy

Hi guys,

Just wondering if any of you could offer any advice.

My fiance order 4 Radiohead tickets for the M.E.N arena for October this year. These tickets run on a paperless scheme where the card holder who paid for the tickets has to go on the night of the event to personally collect the tickets with photo ID and the original bank card (we didn't know this at the time of booking as we didn't check the T's & C's in full - I know it was daft but as they were selling out quickly we never checked the full T's & C's). This scheme is in place to stop touting and reselling the tickets for an inflated amount - understandable.

The problem is we bought these tickets for her dad for his birthday and 3 friends as we're not massive radiohead fans and we'll be on holiday on the date of the event. These were genuinely bought as gifts.

We have spoken to Ticketmaster who are extremely unhelpful and don't even read the emails we've sent properly to explain the situation. Seems the "computer says no" system is in place.

We have offered to go to the MEN before our holiday to pick up the tickets in person and even offered to transfer the name of the tickets to her dad's name as the surname and cardholders address are the same. We have also offered to provide them with our holiday details to prove we're not in the country at the time of the event.

I cannot see a problem personally in them doing this but it seems we're banging our heads against a brick wall as everything we suggest is either being ignored or unanswered.

As it stands we have 4 seated tickets which cannot physically be picked up on the day of the event (cost approx £250) which are going to go to waste therefore costing us money and disappointing genuine Radiohead fans.

Surely they must have some sort of resolution? We've even asked them if we can cancel them which will disappoint her dad but at least we have our money back but again, computer says no. Surely they cannot just keep our money knowing we're not able to be there?

Does anyone have any experience with this type of ticket selling scheme or any advice they could give?


Thanks in advance

Ms-Money-Penny

Stoffy wrote: »

Hi guys,

Just wondering if any of you could offer any advice.

My fiance order 4 Radiohead tickets for the M.E.N arena for October this year. These tickets run on a paperless scheme where the card holder who paid for the tickets has to go on the night of the event to personally collect the tickets with photo ID and the original bank card (we didn't know this at the time of booking as we didn't check the T's & C's in full - I know it was daft but as they were selling out quickly we never checked the full T's & C's). This scheme is in place to stop touting and reselling the tickets for an inflated amount - understandable.

The problem is we bought these tickets for her dad for his birthday and 3 friends as we're not massive radiohead fans and we'll be on holiday on the date of the event. These were genuinely bought as gifts.

We have spoken to Ticketmaster who are extremely unhelpful and don't even read the emails we've sent properly to explain the situation. Seems the "computer says no" system is in place.

We have offered to go to the MEN before our holiday to pick up the tickets in person and even offered to transfer the name of the tickets to her dad's name as the surname and cardholders address are the same. We have also offered to provide them with our holiday details to prove we're not in the country at the time of the event.

I cannot see a problem personally in them doing this but it seems we're banging our heads against a brick wall as everything we suggest is either being ignored or unanswered.

As it stands we have 4 seated tickets which cannot physically be picked up on the day of the event (cost approx £250) which are going to go to waste therefore costing us money and disappointing genuine Radiohead fans.

Surely they must have some sort of resolution? We've even asked them if we can cancel them which will disappoint her dad but at least we have our money back but again, computer says no. Surely they cannot just keep our money knowing we're not able to be there?

Does anyone have any experience with this type of ticket selling scheme or any advice they could give?


Thanks in advance

i have a similar predicament with Michael McIntyre tickets, i contacted Citizens Advice and i was told to contact the promoter and to mention contract law "unfair terms and conditions". So you could try that.

Stoffy

Thanks Ms Money Penny,

We're really stressed over this. I have no problem regarding the policy of selling tickets this way, it's just the sheer lack of help anyone is willing to give when people make a genuine error. How can buying tickets as gifts be such hard work.

We've sent 3 emails saying we'll be away so can't collect the tickets. All 3 replies mention coming earlier on the day to collect them (arrgghhhhh) nobody is reading the emails and all we're getting is copy and pasted replies.

My fiance has just got off the phone with the MEN arena and said she spoke to a really nice girl who's going to speak with a manager and call her back. Fingers crossed

sb65

Call TM again and have the ticket transferred to another perons whom has an account.

Your account credit card gets credited and the other named cardholder will have their tickets debited with the name.

Then they will have their name (and card) on the account.

Stoffy

The T's & C's say no transferring names apparently. In fact the T's & C's say pretty much once you've bought them tough.

Heres a link to them:

http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/promo/0pvxi6

We have spoken to a lovely girl at the M.E.N arena customer services who spoke with her manager.

They said that the best thing to do would be to speak to TM and tell them you have paid with the wrong card, then give the correct card details i.e. her dads details. he said if that fails they are unsure what they could do. The girl gave us her number to contact to let her know the outcome as we are the first people to query this. She said although we are the first they are expecting loads nearer the time whne people start to question the lack of tickets being sent out.

We're going to try TM again on Monday to see what they say.

Stoffy

Been doing a bit of research. Apparently theres a company called The Ticket Trust who will buy these tickets;

http://www.thetickettrust.com/Store/

Give them a try with your Michael McIntyre tickets Ms-Money-Penny

Stoffy

Sorry, just found out only tickets bought on Radioheads official website can be sold on there. Back to square 1

Kite2010

Can you imagine what the size of the queues will be if everybody has to collect from the box-office?

I bet Ticketmaster still added on a charge for "collection at box-office".

Stoffy

Kite2010 wrote: »

Can you imagine what the size of the queues will be if everybody has to collect from the box-office?

I bet Ticketmaster still added on a charge for "collection at box-office".

I know, it's going to be ridiculous. Apparently Radiohead are bringing their own ticketing machines to read the barcodes of the printouts too. I can see a few technical difficulties happening here too.

I just can't believe they can't see the difficulties this is going to cause.

sb65

Stoffy wrote: »

I know, it's going to be ridiculous. Apparently Radiohead are bringing their own ticketing machines to read the barcodes of the printouts too. I can see a few technical difficulties happening here too.

I just can't believe they can't see the difficulties this is going to cause.

You dont collect tickets at the Box Office. You go straight to the security guard with the scanner and he scans your credit card to let you in.

killerkeychange1010

i have the same problem and i have an update:


Update:

I emailed the Money sections of the Guardian (consumer.champions
@guardian.co.uk) and Daily Mail (experts@thisismoney.co.uk) newspapers with my predicament.

In addition, I did a bit of google searching for names and email addresses of Radiohead's tour and management company to ask for help and came across a press release from Ticketmaster about the Radiohead paperless concerts. At the bottom of the press release was an email address for a guy called Jon Wiffen, PR Manager for Ticketmaster:

Jon.Wiffen@ticketmaster.co.uk

So I emailed him and he replied saying that he has already received my query from the Guardian. He said he was looking into my query & would get back to me.

I also emailed Ticketmaster again (via the complaints section) to say i had emailed the Guardian and they replied saying they were looking into my query. I was very surprised at this response as every time I've contacted them about this, they've said "sorry, there's nothing we can do".

So its looking ever-so-slightly better and I'm waiting on replies from Ticketmaster.

I'll keep you posted...

Fingers crossed...!