Bought Ed Sheeran tickets from Viagogo - what to do?

groke

At the request of my stepdad, I bought 4 tickets for Ed Sheeran from Viagogo. After reading this today, I'm a bit worried:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ed-sheeran-tickets-gig-concert-10835436

I paid £550-ish (including fees) on credit card, literally 2 days ago, for general admission tickets to his Hamburg concert on July 25th 2018

The article says that approximately 10,000 tickets are affected, but I have no idea if that includes mine. Should I contact my credit card company and ask for a chargeback? Will that even work for tickets? Especially considering that I have no confirmation of them being cancelled?

Viagogo were the top result on Google and I've used them before to buy tickets for my stepdad, so I thought they were okay. The second Google result was for eventim.de (which were the only seller for that concert as listed by the Ed Sheeran website - I did check) but the website was entirely in German, with no English language version at all. So I decided that Viagogo was the safest option. Kinda regretting it now :mad:

waamo

Viagogo are touts. People assume that because they have a smart looking website and rank highly on Google that they are legit.

Try a chargeback but you may face an uphill battle.

worried_jim

Lost your money I'm afraid. There is a campaign to support people in your situation.

Listen here for advice-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08x4rf3

unholyangel

Why would the OP have lost their money? They have paid a fee for a ticket that admits them to the concert. They have not received that and therefore are at least due a claim for damages - the amount required to put them in the same position had the contract been completed correctly and if this is not possible, then a full refund.

A trader (no matter what industry) can't fail to perform their side of the agreement and wash their hands of it. A contract is legally binding on both parties, not just 1.

OP if your tickets have been cancelled and you paid on credit card, ask your bank to start a section 75 claim - try and make sure it is a section 75 claim they are doing and not a chargeback. A chargeback is basically just your bank asking viagogos bank to refund, a section 75 claim your credit card company is jointly & severally liable for performance of the contract/any breaches by the supplier.


As an aside, its great they're finally taking action for this. Been going on far too long.

dj1471

Section 75 is not going to work here:

viagogo does not take title to the underlying ticket

From the T&Cs. So you're buying from a third party, chain is broken as far as S75 is concerned.

Best bet would be chargeback, followed by small claims against the actual seller.

unholyangel

dj1471 wrote: »

Section 75 is not going to work here:

From the T&Cs. So you're buying from a third party, chain is broken as far as S75 is concerned.

Best bet would be chargeback, followed by small claims against the actual seller.

The argument they (third parties like paypal) usually use is that they are just a payment processor. Viagogo's role seems to go further than that.

1.1 Introduction. Welcome to viagogo's online ticket exchange (the "Site"). These Terms and Conditions (including any documents referred to in it) ("Agreement") list the terms of the agreement between you ("You") and viagogo AG ("viagogo" or "We" or "Us") for the buying and selling of tickets ("Tickets"), and all other services that We provide (the "Services"). By using our Site, You agree to accept this Agreement.

1.3 viagogo Guarantee. When You purchase tickets on viagogo, viagogo guarantees that You will receive the tickets You paid for in time for the event. In the rare instance that a problem arises and the original ticket Seller does not provide You with the tickets listed for sale, viagogo will, in its sole and absolute discretion, review comparably priced tickets and offer You replacement tickets at no additional cost, or viagogo will issue You a refund for the cost of the tickets. "Comparably priced" replacement tickets are determined by viagogo in its sole and absolute discretion. When You sell tickets on viagogo, provided you provide the exact tickets listed for sale and the ticket Buyer successfully gains entry to the event, viagogo guarantees that you will be paid for your sale.

In other words, under the terms of the contract OP had with the party they made the payment to (viagogo) they guarantee the tickets you purchased or a refund. Sounds like OP has a claim against them to me.

ETA: Even if OP has no claim under contract, theres always tort. Where one party is negligent and that negligence causes a loss to a party that should have been in their contemplation. The media seems to indicate viagogo were given plenty of warning what would happen and that they ignored that warning and proceeded anyway.

agrinnall

It all seems a bit premature to me, why not wait to see whether you get the tickets?

PS For future reference, if you click on the German flag on eventim.de it offers you the website in English, here's the Ed Sheeran page.

http://www.eventim.de/ed-sheeran-tickets.html?affiliate=EVE&doc=artistPages%2Ftickets&fun=artist&action=tickets&erid=1822355&includeOnlybookable=true

pmduk

Have you looked at the facebook page mentioned in the Mirror article?.

waamo

pmduk wrote: »

Was Viagogo listed as an official outlet on the sheeran website?

In a word no.

worried_jim

Any Ed tickets bought via a third party site are automatically cancelled by the promoters. Hence they have lost their money.

cono1717

waamo wrote: »

In a word no.

That would be Twickets.