Gig tickets: Booking fees & Delivery charges

ZootAllures

On the 11th of April, i purchased 1 ticket for a Jack White show at the Eventim Hammersmith Apollo. I purchased the ticket through Eventim.co.uk for a total of £45.75
The show has now been rescheduled from 5/7 to the 3/7, a date which i can no longer attend. I contacted Eventim, who said i would be issued with a refund. A partial refund was in my account today for £38.50, the price of the ticket only. As the phone-line is closed until 9am, i filled in a form on their website, asking why i hadn't received the full amount and was told:
"Unfortunately we are unable to issue a refund for the booking fees and delivery
charges paid.

Eventim are a ticket agent that operate on behalf of promoters and venues to
provide tickets for a wide range of events via telephone and the Internet. We
enable customers to buy tickets seven days a week and twenty-four hours a day
without the need to spend time and money on travelling to the box office to buy
tickets. The booking fee charged per ticket pays for the technology
infrastructure, distribution network, credit/debit card processing services,
merchant fees, telephone lines, labour and other costs associated with arranging
and managing ticket inventory and servicing a ticket transaction."

This seems to me to be quite a shameful practice, plus the fact that they 'own' the venue that the show has been rescheduled for.
They have directed me to their sites T&C's. I intend to call their customer services tomorrow (at cost) to demand further information. The delivery charges, don't actually exist, as the ticket is a print at home paper ticket. I've already wasted over £20 in rail fares that are non-refundable, because of this rescheduling, and now i am expected to be a further £7.25 out of pocket for something which is out of my control.
Do i have any come back tomorrow when i phone, or is this just another shameful rip-off of the British consumer, for which i have no argument ?

Many thanks,
Andrew.

daytona0

ZootAllures wrote: »

On the 11th of April, i purchased 1 ticket for a Jack White show at the Eventim Hammersmith Apollo. I purchased the ticket through Eventim.co.uk for a total of £45.75
The show has now been rescheduled from 5/7 to the 3/7, a date which i can no longer attend. I contacted Eventim, who said i would be issued with a refund. A partial refund was in my account today for £38.50, the price of the ticket only. As the phone-line is closed until 9am, i filled in a form on their website, asking why i hadn't received the full amount and was told:
"Unfortunately we are unable to issue a refund for the booking fees and delivery
charges paid.

Eventim are a ticket agent that operate on behalf of promoters and venues to
provide tickets for a wide range of events via telephone and the Internet. We
enable customers to buy tickets seven days a week and twenty-four hours a day
without the need to spend time and money on travelling to the box office to buy
tickets. The booking fee charged per ticket pays for the technology
infrastructure, distribution network, credit/debit card processing services,
merchant fees, telephone lines, labour and other costs associated with arranging
and managing ticket inventory and servicing a ticket transaction."

This seems to me to be quite a shameful practice, plus the fact that they 'own' the venue that the show has been rescheduled for.
They have directed me to their sites T&C's. I intend to call their customer services tomorrow (at cost) to demand further information. The delivery charges, don't actually exist, as the ticket is a print at home paper ticket. I've already wasted over £20 in rail fares that are non-refundable, because of this rescheduling, and now i am expected to be a further £7.25 out of pocket for something which is out of my control.
Do i have any come back tomorrow when i phone, or is this just another shameful rip-off of the British consumer, for which i have no argument ?

Many thanks,
Andrew.

I'm afraid it does state in the T+Cs as far as I can see....

http://www.eventim.co.uk/tickets.html?affiliate=EUK&doc=info/terms

8.
.........If an Event is cancelled or rescheduled (including where an event is cancelled or rescheduled as a result of bad weather or other event outside of the control of the Venue or Promoter) or if there is a material change to an Event, we may be authorised by the event organiser or event promoter to issue refunds in which case we will use our reasonable endeavours to refund you the face value of the ticket (excluding any booking fee or service charges) as soon as reasonably practicable.

Never buy if you are not happy with the T's and C's you read just prior to making the purchase. So no i'm not going to say that this is a shameful rip off on this occasion.

You should read the T's and C's before you call because they will probably fully resolve your query and if you ring up then I would give you a 10% chance of a full refund and 90% chance of no refund and a phone bill...

Also, regarding the rail fares.... This company isn't liable and also you had the option to choose refundable tickets but you didn't so unfortunately you're taking a hit there too.

ZootAllures

Thanks for the reply Daytona0, but i dont think anybody who buys gig tickets reads the sellers T & C's beforehand, especially for a gig that will sell out quickly, like this one.
The thing that bugs me most is, Eventin own/run the venue where the gig is going to take place, and the fact that i had to pay £2.75 for delivsry chargeson my ticket, when in fact i had to print them myself at home.

Smacks of very poor customer service to me.

I realised i had no chance of getting any rail fare refund, its just another example of how much this rescheduling is starting to cost me. Luckily i booked a hotel with free cancellation.

daytona0

ZootAllures wrote: »

Thanks for the reply Daytona0, but i dont think anybody who buys gig tickets reads the sellers T & C's beforehand, especially for a gig that will sell out quickly, like this one.
The thing that bugs me most is, Eventin own/run the venue where the gig is going to take place, and the fact that i had to pay £2.75 for delivsry chargeson my ticket, when in fact i had to print them myself at home.

Smacks of very poor customer service to me.

Unfortunately I can't advise further (someone else may do). T's and C's are there and it takes 5 minutes to read them (it would be foolish to purchase without reading them but 99.9% of people don't read them which isn't the companies fault). Either plan for possible changes or use a different vendor.


I learnt that the hard way in March - booked in to see a PSG football game on the Saturday in Paris. They pushed it forward a day which meant that I had to book another hotel last minute. It was just like this - covered in the T's and C's and had I chose the refund they were going to keep about 5 euros for a similar ticket fee. You've just gotta either adapt or take the hit i'm afraid

ZootAllures

Cheers D. I suspect i'll be out of pocket, but i'll be arguing my case on the phone tomorrow. It might only be another £7, but its the principle. I'll report back anyway. Thanks for your input.

George_Michael

daytona0 wrote: »

I'm afraid it does state in the T+Cs as far as I can see....

http://www.eventim.co.uk/tickets.html?affiliate=EUK&doc=info/terms

Simply because something is written in a set of T&C's doesn't mean that it is legally correct.
The OFT have produced a booklet aimed specifically at unfair terms relating to entertainment related contracts:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/crw/445517/utccr_guidance_on_terms_in_1.pdf
and when it comes to getting refunds for cancelled or rescheduled events they state:

6.10 Where fairness requires a refund of the face value of a ticket (for example on cancellation, rescheduling or a material change) any booking fees charged should also be refunded.
...
6.12 As suppliers generally, including ticket agencies and event
promoters etc, are in a better position to insure against these
losses; we consider it unfair that the consumer should bear them.

daytona0

ZootAllures wrote: »

Cheers D. I suspect i'll be out of pocket, but i'll be arguing my case on the phone tomorrow. It might only be another £7, but its the principle. I'll report back anyway. Thanks for your input.

Good luck, you do have a chance of the 7 pound refund but it depends entirely on what agent you get and what mood they ar in that day. 10% yes and 90% no is a reasonable estimation I reckon

ZootAllures

Thanks George, a bit more information for my case tomorrow.

ZootAllures

Unfortunately, after my call to Eventim earlier today, i have received no further refund of my booking fees or delivery charges. I thought i argued my case articulately and sensibly, but the two people i spoke to (regular customer support(yeah right!), and her manager), basically just throw the stock answer of T&C's at me. I explained that the gig has been rescheduled, not cancelled, and that they haven't lost a penny, in fact they'll be doubling their money, when 'my' ticket is resold with another £7.25 booking fee on top. At no time did i ever feel that they might show me any goodwill, and refund the full amount. They directed me to STAR, a ticket regulatory service, whom i have called to no avail, so i've left a message on their website. I have also contacted Citizens Advice about this issue as well. I genuinely feel i have been ripped off, through no fault of my own. A very disappointing service from a very greedy company, i won't be using EVENTIM for gig tickets in the future.

tomtontom

I wouldn't hold out much hope with STAR - they are a trade organisation representing their members, who claim to 'self-regulate'. They are paid for by their members, EVENTIM being one, so are far from independent.

daytona0

George_Michael wrote: »

Simply because something is written in a set of T&C's doesn't mean that it is legally correct.
The OFT have produced a booklet aimed specifically at unfair terms relating to entertainment related contracts:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/crw/445517/utccr_guidance_on_terms_in_1.pdf
and when it comes to getting refunds for cancelled or rescheduled events they state:

The link is broken so i'm afraid I can't see it.

I do notice that it does state "Guidance" and google searching it says;

FOREWORD. This is the OFT's guidance on potentially unfair terms in consumer entertainment contracts. It replaces earlier guidance on some consumer.



On that basis it does seem to be indicating that it is guidance as opposed to regulations.... Is this not the case?