Refund for Ticketed Event

geordie.allie

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone had any experience of trying to get a refund from the promoters of an event you have paid to attend, however felt was not what you paid for? I really need some consumer rights advice!

A little more detail (bit long, I'm sorry)...

My friends and I paid £20 each (£80 in total) for the VIP tickets for a German beer fstival and fireworks and didn't even have access to the German beer!

When we arrived we were tolf the VIP area was not ready, then it was, then it wasn't, then it was again.

When we finally got into what they called the VIP area and I call a holding pen for a detention centre, we discovered there was no special access to the bier festival as we had been led to believe would be the case and the bar in our section only served warm Carlsburg. The food was a joke and unedible after kids had been allowed to rifle through sandwiches with their dirty little mitts. The room was souless, had no music and zero atmosphere. You couldn't even see out to see the fireworks unless you went out on to the balcony.

As we had no VIP access to the oversubscribed, non-regulated, ID free, festival itself we decided to go and try our luck again with the rest of North London. By this point (6pm), fourteen out of the fifteen ales had sold out, leaving a milk stout. The German Bier queue was ten deep and an about an hour wait. The toilet queues were huge, as were the ones for food.

The poor girls' that were serving beer were being attacked and surrounded by big burly men wanting their share. The limited space in the hall was taken up by mother's with buggys and screaming children - why were these children allowed in? As well as the families, no one was checking ID and there were scores of clearly underage kids drinking.

The whole event was totally oversubscribed and whoever organised it, obviously doesn't undestand that while you may make more money on the door by cramming people in, you will lose a hell of a lot more in money you would have taken on the bar had people been able to access it!!

In the end, we left before the fireworks.

I later received a text from a friend of mine at about 8pm who had gone to the same event and told me that the bars had all closed. I have also read the the VIP area was actually opened up to the general public anyway!

The event was at Ally Pally in North London and they are ignoring everyone's pleas for a refund and only reposting positive tweets and Facebook posts. They are even removing negative comments from their Facebook page.

agrinnall

How did you pay? If it was by card you could attempt a chargeback, although I think your chances of success aren't great, and even if your issuer agrees and refunds you the payee may well challenge it and the money could disappear again.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/visa-mastercard-chargeback

Failing that you could try a Letter Before Action, followed if necessary by a small claim, but I feel you may not be successful with the latter.

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

WTFH

If you had complained at the time of the event, you might have had better luck. Staying at the event, then complaining afterwards is less likely to work.

Also, if you didn't stay for the fireworks, how do you know where they were visible from?

geordie.allie

If you had complained at the time of the event, you might have had better luck. Staying at the event, then complaining afterwards is less likely to work.

Also, if you didn't stay for the fireworks, how do you know where they were visible from?

I did complain at the time, however all the staff had been there less than a day and did not care. They just told us there was no one to talk to. We were not the only ones to complain that evening.

I guess it's hard to describe, but we were put in a little tent thing which had no view to the outside at all! We paid to have VIP access to a terrace for the fireworks, which we then read later the general public had been given access to squashing many children. It was rather dangerous from what I have read in the press. I would post a link to the article and Facebook event pages, however as a "newbie" am not allowed to do so.

Failing that you could try a Letter Before Action, followed if necessary by a small claim, but I feel you may not be successful with the latter.

I will take a look at this later, thank you. It's so horrible to be in this situation and I know it's only £80, but it's the principle of the whole thing. We paid for something and did not get it.

paddyrg

Contact the borough council about the event with your list of complaints about being crammed, kids drinking, etc - at least you can kibosh them getting a license for next year.