Event cancelled but no refund of booking fees

HalfWayThere_2

Hello

This is most likely my fault quite an ominous start, I recently purchased two tickets for the Murder Trial live. The tickets were £20 each plus a £3.50 booking fee. 

The night before the event I received an email to say it was cancelled due to high winds, completely understandable. However I’ve only received a refund of the ticket price not the booking fee which doesn’t seem fair.

I don’t recall this being brought to my attention before I booked the tickets and as I booked directly from The Murder Trial Live I don’t see why I shouldn’t receive a full refund. If I’d booked through a third party company I could understand.

From a consumer point of view do I have any rights or do I just accept the £7 lost. It’s not a big amount but doesn’t seem to be right to me.

LadyDee

Have you asked them about reimbursing the booking fee?

ptwuk

I have quite a bit of information on a similar situation. I had bought tickets to a tennis event Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) event.

The LTA cancelled the event cancelled due to the Covid-19 virus and I was advised a refund would be made. I received a partial refund only. When I contacted them about the shortfall, they said it was because a service fee was non-refundable and that I had agreed to that when I bought the tickets.

 I had several emails with them pointing out that because they had cancelled the event then a full refund should be made, but they refused to make a refund.

  I brought their attention to the important developments that has been raised by the Competition and Markets Authority and was reported on the Martin Lewis Money Show - A Coronavirus Special Episode 6 shown on ITV on Thursday 30 April 2020 at 8pm.

 On that show the Director of the Competition and Markets Authority stated you cannot enforce un-refundable terms in contracts when you have cancelled something. They also state on their website that you cannot enforce unfair terms in a consumer contract and that if a customer complains, you can be taken to court by the Competition and Markets Authority to stop you using unfair terms or notices.

However, their stance was to refer me to the small print that says a service fee is non-refundable. I would accept that if I had cancelled, but how can they possibly enforce this when they have cancelled the event. The email I received by their ticket vendors clearly stated a refund would be made with no mention that the service fee would not be refunded. I think this is very sharp practice and they have made thousands of pounds in service fees. The purchase price of the tickets was £58.50, I received a refund of only £50.50 the service fee which they retained as being non-refundable was £8. I cannot see how they can justify their stance as it was they who cancelled the event yet retained a service fee for a service that did not provide.

 They gave me their final answer today was that they had considered everything but were unprepared to give the refund of the service fee. Therefore, I gave them notice that I would be making a claim against them in the Small Claims County Court without further reference to themselves.

 I will let you know how I get on - I will also post this as a separate topics because their will tens of thousands of people around the country who have had their events cancelled by the LTA who will have raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds for doing nothing.

 Put it this way it would be a great scam to sell tickets to a non-existing event with a non-refundable fee and then when you have a few thousand sales cancel it due to unforeseen circumstances - a quick way to make money and you would be well and truly cheesed off if you were caught that way, which in effect is what the Lawn Tannins Association has done here, but they are getting away with it by using the virus as an excuse and hiding behind their small print

Please join in if you have been conned this way.

 

Aylesbury_Duck

Are you going to spam every thread relating to service fees?

pphillips

What do the terms and conditions say about cancelled events?

born_again

ptwuk said:

tens of thousands of people around the country who have had their events cancelled by the LTA who will have raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds for doing nothing.

 Put it this way it would be a great scam to sell tickets to a non-existing event with a non-refundable fee and then when you have a few thousand sales cancel it due to unforeseen circumstances - a quick way to make money and you would be well and truly cheesed off if you were caught that way, which in effect is what the Lawn Tannins Association has done here, but they are getting away with it by using the virus as an excuse and hiding behind their small print

Please join in if you have been conned this way.

 

To be fair, they have incurred charges in selling the tickets. 

Also i'm sure that they would rather have not cancelled and made even more money selling Strawberry & cream & PIMMS to people...
Maybe you will cause them to go bust. Then you will have no tennis events in the future. New Balls please