What are my rights on a refund for festival tickets?

markthedoc

Hi

I was due to go to the Southport Weekender at Butlins in Bognor Regis at the end of March but the event has been postponed due to the coronavirus. The event has now been moved to the end of March 2021.

The tickets were £290 each and I paid for my partner to go as well so it's just short of £600 I paid and due to the current situation I'd much prefer a refund as the cash would be much more useful to me now rather than 'leaving it in the pot' for 12 months.

I contacted Festicket who are in charge of selling tickets and said I would like a refund and they told me refunds are only available if I can't make the new date due to already having booked a holiday or a medical procedure, and they'd need to see proof of this!

I appreciate the organisers didn't expect this to happen and it was still touch and go whether the event would go ahead right up to a few days before it was due to take place. The event sold out and the organisers claim they have a waiting list of 3000 people that want tickets and they've said they'll be happy to change the names on our tickets free of charge if we want to pass them onto someone else but this has to be done by September.

I think it's unfair not to refund people that don't want to go to the new date and to expect us to try and sell the tickets, especially as they have a waiting list of people without tickets.

I just wondered if anyone had any advice on what my rights are and as I paid with my credit card, if a section 75 claim would be an avenue to explore?

Thanks in advance for any help.

DiscoDav

I'm in exactly the same boat with the same festival, 600 quid out of pocket and can't attend the rescheduled date due to my work rotation, and they basically said tough luck. have you heard anything further back?

Life__Goes__On

Personally they are trying to pull a fast one.
As it happens every year, the 2020  has been cancelled,   unless they are also saying the 2021 has been moved to 2022 etc
Did you pay via a card?

DiscoDav

Life__Goes__On said:

Personally they are trying to pull a fast one.
As it happens every year, the 2020  has been cancelled,   unless they are also saying the 2021 has been moved to 2022 etc
Did you pay via a card?

Yea, we paid on our MasterCard, I've already put in a request for a section 75 claim, but I've seen that others have been denied when they have tried it

Life__Goes__On

DiscoDav said:

Life__Goes__On said:

Personally they are trying to pull a fast one.
As it happens every year, the 2020  has been cancelled,   unless they are also saying the 2021 has been moved to 2022 etc
Did you pay via a card?

Yea, we paid on our MasterCard, I've already put in a request for a section 75 claim, but I've seen that others have been denied when they have tried it

A Chargeback would have been better (and quicker)

macman

LIfe-Goes_On is correct. A year's delay is clearly a significant change to the contract, so I can see no reason for denying a full refund.
OP, I suggest you start with a chargeback, not an S75, as the latter means that the burden falls fully on the card provider, not the supplier.