Festival main acts pulled out due to COVID

tracey29

Hi

My daughter-in-law bought 2 x tickets for ALD+LDN this weekend but with 1 week's notice they've said that 5 out of the 30 acts have had to pull out because of COVID restrictions - this included the 3 main acts (which is who she wanted to go for).

They're saying no refunds because it's still going ahead but they aren't replacing the acts.

She bought the tickets through TicketMaster and the only way to get hold of their customer service is via their website, which we've done.

They paid by debit card but I've read that some banks are offering a similar service to credit cards in terms of purchase protection.


Does anyone have any advice re getting a refund please?

onashoestring

What are the T&Cs ? 

Upsidedownandaround

They will need to read the terms and conditions of the tickets they bought to establish whether they are entitled to a refund based on an amount of or certain acts pulling out.

A 'chargeback' will only be of assistance in the event they have a right to a refund.

If it's festival tickets of some sort usually you are buying a ticket for that not for certain bands so it's unlikely they are entitled to a refund.

If they are not entitled to a refund how they paid (via a debit card or credit card) won't make any difference. 

tracey29

onashoestring said:

What are the T&Cs ? 

There’s a lot of the usual smallprint that you have to wade through on the Ticketmaster website. I haven’t ploughed through it all, I just wanted to check to see if anyone had any advice first

tracey29

Upsidedownandaround said:

They will need to read the terms and conditions of the tickets they bought to establish whether they are entitled to a refund based on an amount of or certain acts pulling out.

A 'chargeback' will only be of assistance in the event they have a right to a refund.

If it's festival tickets of some sort usually you are buying a ticket for that not for certain bands so it's unlikely they are entitled to a refund.

If they are not entitled to a refund how they paid (via a debit card or credit card) won't make any difference. 

Thank you, I was hoping to avoid reading the t&cs!

Interesting info on chargebacks, that’s a really useful one to know

[Deleted User]

S75 cover on credit cards wouldn't apply here, she bought tickets for a festival which still has 25 acts and is going ahead. Presumably she wouldn't have just watched the hour (or less?) set of those 3 bands over the day and would have gone to see other acts etc? It's unfortunate that the acts have pulled out but the festival is still going ahead and so that and chargeback would both fail.

MalMonroe

Hi, your daughter-in-law could contact Citizens Advice in connection with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 because, although the concert may very well be going ahead, it is NOT the concert that was advertised which led your daughter to buy her tickets. 

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/our-work/citizens-advice-consumer-work/the-consumer-rights-act-2015/

It does not matter WHAT the Terms and Conditions state, the fact of the matter is that they are not providing the 'services' (in this case, the services of the artists originally booked) that have been paid for. I think she'd have a good chance of getting her money back under those circumstances.

There's also a government page on the Consumer Rights Act here -

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consumer-rights-act-2015/consumer-rights-act-2015

And the phone number for the consumer helpline is 0345 404 0506

Please try! I hate when people take other people's money and don't deliver but hide behind those statements of 'well, it's still going ahead'. Yes it might be, but it's not 'as advertised'. 

And the organisers should offer refunds to all ticket holders anyway if five of the acts (three of them 'main') aren't appearing! What a shambles.

tracey29

MalMonroe said:

Hi, your daughter-in-law could contact Citizens Advice in connection with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 because, although the concert may very well be going ahead, it is NOT the concert that was advertised which led your daughter to buy her tickets. 

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/our-work/citizens-advice-consumer-work/the-consumer-rights-act-2015/

It does not matter WHAT the Terms and Conditions state, the fact of the matter is that they are not providing the 'services' (in this case, the services of the artists originally booked) that have been paid for. I think she'd have a good chance of getting her money back under those circumstances.

There's also a government page on the Consumer Rights Act here -

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consumer-rights-act-2015/consumer-rights-act-2015

And the phone number for the consumer helpline is 0345 404 0506

Please try! I hate when people take other people's money and don't deliver but hide behind those statements of 'well, it's still going ahead'. Yes it might be, but it's not 'as advertised'. 

And the organisers should offer refunds to all ticket holders anyway if five of the acts (three of them 'main') aren't appearing! What a shambles.

Thank you so much -  you’ve given me real hope here. 

They’ve paid £75 each and there are 30 acts in total but now they’ve taken 5 away, 3 of which are widely known as the main ones. 

I don’t like them getting away with things like this either, that’s why I’ve offered to help.

Upsidedownandaround

MalMonroe said:

Hi, your daughter-in-law could contact Citizens Advice in connection with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 because, although the concert may very well be going ahead, it is NOT the concert that was advertised which led your daughter to buy her tickets. 

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/our-work/citizens-advice-consumer-work/the-consumer-rights-act-2015/

It does not matter WHAT the Terms and Conditions state, the fact of the matter is that they are not providing the 'services' (in this case, the services of the artists originally booked) that have been paid for. I think she'd have a good chance of getting her money back under those circumstances.

There's also a government page on the Consumer Rights Act here -

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consumer-rights-act-2015/consumer-rights-act-2015

And the phone number for the consumer helpline is 0345 404 0506

Please try! I hate when people take other people's money and don't deliver but hide behind those statements of 'well, it's still going ahead'. Yes it might be, but it's not 'as advertised'. 

And the organisers should offer refunds to all ticket holders anyway if five of the acts (three of them 'main') aren't appearing! What a shambles.

Of course the terms and conditions matter. Without reference to the terms and conditions there's no way of establishing what "service" they actually paid for.

onashoestring

Their T&Cs 11.5 state that “changes to the line-up of any multi-performer  event (such as a festival) and curtailment of the event where the majority of an event is performed in full; “ are not deemed be “material alterations”” and therefore they do not offer refunds for these circumstances. 

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

Upsidedownandaround

Obviously that's always been the case. Now with Covid added in I doubt any organisation/promoter would even think of organising a festival if they had to provide refunds due to certain acts having to pull out.

Everyone is now aware of the degree of unpredictability Covid has brought to the world. If you're inclined to think you may want a refund at some point in the future based on restrictions or changes the time to check your rights to a refund is before you buy.