Tickets not received but seller refusing to give refund

nobleian

Hi all
I purchased tickets in January to Harefest a small festval at Harefield hall near Harrogate.
I paid for the tickets over the phone and the money came out of my bank immediately.
I have repeatedly rang and left messages via Facebook instant messaging since january and I have been repeatedly told they are on the way. The festival was/is this weekend, the 28th March and they have not arrived. The organiser has emailed to say that the post office has been the problem and they will not issue me a refund. They said just come along and they will let me in. I have no faith in the organiser, so I just want my money back, but they have said they won't. This has astounded me.
Is there anything I can do, without paying to go to the small claims court.
Thanks
Ian

lucy03

nobleian wrote: »

Hi all
I purchased tickets in January to Harefest a small festval at Harefield hall near Harrogate.
I paid for the tickets over the phone and the money came out of my bank immediately.
I have repeatedly rang and left messages via Facebook instant messaging since january and I have been repeatedly told they are on the way. The festival was/is this weekend, the 28th March and they have not arrived. The organiser has emailed to say that the post office has been the problem and they will not issue me a refund. They said just come along and they will let me in. I have no faith in the organiser, so I just want my money back, but they have said they won't. This has astounded me.
Is there anything I can do, without paying to go to the small claims court.
Thanks
Ian

It's a little difficult as the organisers are still suggesting you can go to the festival and they'll make arrangements to let you in without the tickets. If the organiser doesn't want to refund it would mean small claims court action, and even that I'd personally suggest might not necessarily succeed.

agrinnall

If the amount you paid included an element for delivery to your home address then that hasn't happened and if you paid by debit card then you should be able to do a chargeback after the date of the event has passed (which is presumably now if the tickets didn't turn up today).

I think the organiser is just making excuses, how can the post office be at fault for his failure to get your ticket to you? The process is pretty straightforward and has worked well since the introduction of the penny post in 1840 (and before that to the founding of the GPO in 1660). I find it highly unlikely that the post office and Royal Mail would have had any great problem delivering tickets to you between January and now.

nobleian

Thank you.
There was a charge for delivery.
never heard of chargeback before.
Very helpful.
Thanks

bris

They have told you to go along so you don't need the tickets, what more do you want.

A charge back will fail because you can still have the service you paid for.

halibut2209

By not going, you have now lost any legal battle. Regardless of whether you could have got in, you were told you could so it was your responsibility to do so. Had you not been able to get in, you could have sued for the tickets plus the costs. However now you will be relying on goodwill to get a refund.

ValHaller

nobleian wrote: »

They said just come along and they will let me in.

Sorted. They are undertaking to fulfil their obligations. You cannot expect more.

agrinnall

Except the OP paid for the tickets to be delivered, not to be collected on arrival, and the seller has clearly failed to make the delivery, despite having many opportunities to do so.

ValHaller

agrinnall wrote: »

Except the OP paid for the tickets to be delivered, not to be collected on arrival, and the seller has clearly failed to make the delivery, despite having many opportunities to do so.

The essence of the contract is admission to an event. Delivery of the tickets is no more than delivery of evidence of the right of admission. OP should turn up. If he gets in, he may have a small claim for postage. If he does not turn up, he is not mitigating his losses.

halibut2209

The OP has not turned up. It was this weekend.

lucy03

agrinnall wrote: »

Except the OP paid for the tickets to be delivered, not to be collected on arrival, and the seller has clearly failed to make the delivery, despite having many opportunities to do so.

That might not be strong enough, the delivery element was incidental to the purchase of entry to the festival. The festival organisers could argue in court that they post tickets, but in event of loss, they have alternative provision to allow collection of replacement tickets. That would seem to me to be a reasonable argument.

The OP could argue that by not hearing anything they assumed they wouldn't be able to go, and made alternative plans, but then the court may well want to see a paper/e-mail trail relating to this.

From what I can see the ticket price, per person, may be £28 if I'm looking at the right festival, and I'd personally try and get some goodwill from the organisers and ask if maybe they'd swap them for tickets for next year's event (if the OP is still interested in going).