TicketMaster Ireland & Garth Brooks?

J2010

Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone here can shed any light on the following please?

I'm not sure if the rest of the World is aware of the shambles made of the Garth Brooks 5 nights that was supposed to happen in Dublin's Croke Park last week, but basically it was all cancelled.

The event was organised by Aiken Promotions and the tickets were sold by TicketMaster Ireland. There was a whole shambles and the refund process was put off a couple of times to try to allow time to get the concerts to go ahead but eventually Garth Brooks himself pulled out. Then TicketMaster Ireland issued what they called "FULL" refunds, however they did not take into account the thousands of people out of 400,000 tickets sold who bought from outside of the Euro Currency, and due to the Exchange rate at the time of refund, anyone who bought with a Sterling card is now out of pocket.

I'm out of pocket by £30 for an event that never took place and TicketMaster or Garth Brooks had 400,000 x 65.00Euros for the past 6 months in a bank account somewhere but cannot reimburse those left out of pocket, never mind anyone who booked flights and hotels!!?

I've so far contacted Aiken Promotions who have twice advised me to contact my point of purchase (Ticketmaster) as they have had nothing to do with ticket sales... however when I rang Ticketmaster they told me it was a banking problem and I should contact my bank. The bank stated they were shocked at this response and stated that Ticketmaster should have had some thought for those who bought outside of the Euro currency when refunding. They also advised me that I can legally request a refund receipt.

I've submitted a formal complaint to Ticketmaster regarding this over 1 week ago and have heard nothing back, so I've emailed again and still no reply.

Where do I and thousands of others stand in relation to this?

I know the exchange rate is not their fault and they probably have refunded the same amount in Euros as was taken in Euros even though they have provided no proof of this... but, I the customer have paid for an event that never happened and I'm now out of pocket as a result... this can't be right can it?

Hintza

You bought in Euros and will be refunded in Euros, I really can't see any argument to refund in any other currency or cover forex losses.

OlliesDad

To clarify, you paid in Euros and were refunded in Euros?

halibut2209

It think the OPs viewpoint is this

1) Pay via card in Sterling
2) Company then convert payment into Euros
3) Event cancelled
4) Company repay Euros which are now worth less
5) OP ends up £30 down

Were the tickets advertised as Pounds or Euros? What does your invoice say?

J2010

Hi, the event was advertised in Euros and I bought them on Ticketmaster.ie (the Irish site as thats the only site they could be bought on) but as i live in Northern Ireland (UK) I paid the Euro total with my Sterling Debit Card, this was then converted to Euros by either my Bank or their Bank or their site (not sure). The company then refunded everyone in Euros to the same Euro amount as they paid back in Feb which ended up being worth less... hence the £30 difference from when I paid them 6 months previous.

When I try to view my Order in my account it now states;
"We're sorry, we're unable to process your request. Please try again."

And the Print Receipt option now shows as 0.00Euros which is why the Bank told me to request a refund receipt to firstly ensure they repaid the exact Euro amount (although I'm sure they did)... however they did not provide any form of refund receipts showing the amount.

I know the Exchange Rate is not controlled by them and not their fault, but my thoughts on this are, it's not a Full Refund to me as my Bank shows two different amounts and based on ticket sales announced they had in the region 26000000 Euros in a bank account for 6 months for events that did not take place in which they delayed the refund process by around 2-3 weeks, the least they could do is use the interest made on this amount to repay those customers left out of pocket, assuming it was an interest accumulating account.

I probably don't have a leg to stand on here, but I figure its worth asking just incase I'm missing something here.

visidigi

halibut2209 wrote: »

It think the OPs viewpoint is this

1) Pay via card in Sterling
2) Company then convert payment into Euros
3) Event cancelled
4) Company repay Euros which are now worth less
5) OP ends up £30 down

Were the tickets advertised as Pounds or Euros? What does your invoice say?

The event was in Ireland, they would be priced in Euros.

halibut2209

So you paid in Euros and were refunded the same amount of Euros. It is a full refund. All you can do is convert the money back to Euros and wait for the exchange rate to be more favourable

J2010

halibut2209 wrote: »

So you paid in Euros and were refunded the same amount of Euros. It is a full refund. All you can do is convert the money back to Euros and wait for the exchange rate to be more favourable

Yes but we were not given the choice of waiting until the rate was more favourable, they chose the refund date which ended up being considerably less than the rate on the day of purchase. They never took this into consideration... I know they probably don't have to but from the customer point of view it's not a full refund, it is to them.

SuperHan

That's the risk of paying in a foreign currency I'm afraid. They have refunded you the money that they have taken off you. If you don't manage a euro account and have lost out as a result, there's not much you can do.

If you had travel insurance, you may have a claim with them? This would also cover flights and hotels.

Hintza

J2010 wrote: »

Yes but we were not given the choice of waiting until the rate was more favourable,

It might never be favourable again. I bet it is worse today!

You have had a full refund nothing more to be done.

J2010

Yeah I guess so, well, the whole thing was a shambles from start to finish and their customer service is non existent so I guess I've learnt a lesson here. Thanks for the comments folks!