Ticketmaster/others and cancelled events

ohgoodgodley

I go to a number of gigs and inevitably some of these get cancelled.
When this happens I never get a full refund, they always keep the handling fee and in my latest example they have kept the charge for the souvenir tickets that will now never be sent.

Is this a legitimate practice?

The organisation will have charged VAT on this without rendering a service which I feel like I've heard previously is illegal (please correct me if i'm wrong) and i'm wondering how far this stretches into what is basically a scam by Ticketmaster and the like. 
It is trivial amounts each time at a personal level but when multiplied by number of tickets must add up to a lot.

tightauldgit

Ticketmaster have performed the task of administrating the sale of the ticket so I can see how they might be able to justify keeping the handling fee but not sure about charging for a souvenir ticket you won't receive. Unless they are going to send it out anyway? 

The job of Ticketmaster is not to put on the gig - that's the venue and promoters - so I presume the difference is that TM are acting as agents for third parties and are not actually providing the end product/service themselves. 

turnitround

I had exactly that argument with Ticketmaster as not only was there a booking fee which I could understand but there was also a venue fee. In our case we lost £66 (6x£11) so really frustrating but its perfectly legal. There is no way to get out of paying these fees.