Ticketmaster UK Ltd Refunds

PhilAtkinson

My concert tickets were booked via Ticketmaster on 25-Oct-19 which was an Approved Seller but Ticketmaster changed its Terms & Conditions on 6-Apr-20. My event was cancelled by the event organizer & I received a refund of just the Ticket Price from my cancelled concert on 21-Apr-20. However, Ticketmaster did not refund the Handling Fee or the Delivery / Postage Fee:

Tickets/Items:                               £121.90  refunded

Handling Fee:                               £     2.75 with held

Delivery via: Standard Post:         £     0.70 with held

Ticketmaster had changed their Terms & Conditions, yet they did not ask for my approval for this plus they refused to answer 16+ individual e-mails I sent them, always referring to their Terms & Conditions dated 6-Apr-20. So I said that I would involve my MP, which I did many weeks ago plus I have also complained to STAR, CMA, BEIS, Trading Standards, Local Newspapers & anyone else I can think of.

Ticketmaster UK Ltd’s behaviour has been contrary to Trading Standards. I know it, they know it & so far they have attempted to placate me. It’s not possible for the Terms & Conditions to be changed to the detriment of the purchaser after the purchase has been completed without the approval of the purchaser.

A failure to provide the information I had requested 16+ times could be a breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 or the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (CPRs). In addition, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA) provides protection for consumers when entering into contracts.

On 4-Jun-20, Ticketmaster UK Ltd. responded to my last e-mail dated 11-May-20, stating that they had refunded me the full amount (i.e. Ticket Fee, Booking Fee & Postage Fee). I’ve no idea why they did this as I have not been told. Alas, I had already followed up with my MP & many different agencies. I’m still waiting to hear from STAR, CMA & Trading Standards but I have my MP involved in following up. 

Whilst individually, the money being withheld is not a large sum, I suspect that when you multiply this by the many thousands of tickets that Ticketmaster have refunded, it amounts to many hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds. Ticketmaster have had to date refunded over 9,000 events, with many hundreds if not thousands of ticket per event.

It is not acceptable for any company to behave like Ticketmaster, regardless as to the situation at hand (i.e. Covid-189). However, I know it's virtually impossible to get companies investigated even if they breach Trading Standards & don’t issue refunds to many thousands of people.

Laws such as CPR & CRA need to be followed & whist it takes an extraordinary amount of effort, such companies will be investigated & their behaviour corrected; I have faith in the system

If you respond to this forum, the more evidence I have that Ticketmaster have breached Trading Standards for others, by refusing to provide Terms & Conditions that the tickets were booked under, or by refusing to refund money that they are legally obliged to, the more likely it will be to have an investigation.

 

Thrugelmir

If Ticketmaster does not cover their internal costs. Then in future the cost levied will simply increase for everyone. There's no such thing as a free lunch. The number of ticket agencies will simply continue to decline further and more power will be left in the hands of a few monopolistic market players. 

Galloglass

If I was Ticketmaster I'd have sent you an explanation by now but they seem a little reluctant to do so. 

There were two purchases. The larger one was for the event. The handling fee was for the service of providing the ticket to the event. You had the service so no refund is due. 

Promoters essentially outsource ticketing to specialist companies like Ticketmaster to keep costs down. Ticketmaster sell their services to Promoters on the basis that their costs will be recovered through handling charges / separate contracts.

People often miss the 2 contracts issue so can't understand why it is not made clearer. It's the same when you get one of those parking tickets at supermarket car parks. Drivers are not aware they've agreed a [unilateral] contract with the parking company.

Sooler

28th October 2019

https://web.archive.org/web/20191028221759/https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/legal/purchase.html

11.2 Cancellation: If an event for which you have purchased Tickets or Packages is cancelled in full (and not rescheduled), your order will be cancelled, and you will be refunded the Sale Price of your Tickets or Packages, plus the relevant Service Charges. Your Order Processing Fees will not be refunded if your Tickets or Packages have already been dispatched or delivered to you.  If you have purchased Tickets or Packages for an event takes place over several days and one or more days (but not all days) are cancelled, you may only be offered a proportionate partial refund.

Publication Date: 28 February 2019.

Current

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/legal/purchase.html

11.2 Cancellation: If an event for which you have purchased Tickets or Packages is cancelled in full (and not rescheduled), your order will be cancelled, and you will be refunded the Sale Price of your Tickets or Packages (Service Charges and Order Processing Fees may be non-refundable). If you have purchased Tickets or Packages for an event takes place over several days and one or more days (but not all days) are cancelled, you may only be offered a proportionate partial refund.

Publication Date: 9 April 2020.

In both

• 4. PRICES, PAYMENT AND PLACING ORDERS
• 4.1 All prices for Items offered for sale from us are inclusive of VAT and are broken down as follows:
  (a) sale price of the Item (“Sale Price”); plus
  (b) any per-Item service or facility charges (“Service Charge”); plus
  (c) any per-order handling and/or delivery fees (“Order Processing Fees”).

Handling Fee:                               £     2.75 with held
Delivery via: Standard Post:         £     0.70 with held

are both “Order Processing Fees”

which are refundable in the applicable policy if the tickets have not been dispatched, or if the tickets have been sent these are not refunded.

[Deleted User]

Order processing/handling fees and postage and packing are perfectly reasonable costs to deduct, they have done that work, they have posted the tickets, that is still a cost to them and you have received the booking, you are refunded the value of the ticket which is the part of the process which is no longer able to be completed. Their service charge and postage cover costs that they have already incurred, they will be seeing very little revenue going forward as events are not being booked, I do not see why you think that they should not be paid for a service rendered. 

Also, and this is a fairly big point, it sounds like you have spent hours on this, all over £3.45, that is a huge waste of time and money as if you expended the time you used on this productively you could see a huge increase in return, even if you just worked a minimum wage job. You really need to apply some perspective.