Festival Ticket Issue

Invader75

Afternoon,

We bought two tickets for a festival and parking. Unfortunately due to health issues we were unable to attend. When we contacted the festival they told us we'd missed the deadline for ticket name change so we'd have to sell them on through their own ticket reselling site. They couldn't provide us with a direct link to the tickets so we were unable to advertise them privately or allow friends to buy them. 

They insisted that anyone turning up with the tickets would be refused if they didn't have the same name as the tickets. Since then we've learned that this isn't the case and countless people sold their privately and got in without any ID checks. 

I was wondering where we stand on trying to get out money back as the tickets, despite the festival being sold out, didn't resell and we don't have any proof from the festival that the tickets weren't used. Is this a consumer rights/trading standards issue?

LightFlare

It’s an Insurance issue if any - though I am guessing you didnt have an active policy to claim against

Invader75

LightFlare said:

It’s an Insurance issue if any - though I am guessing you didnt have an active policy to claim against

no, we were advised not to take out insurance by other festival goers who have. Apparently it's only relevant if it's cancer, death or a doctors note. I wasn't going to waist a GP's time for a simple virus. 

user1977

Invader75 said:

LightFlare said:

It’s an Insurance issue if any - though I am guessing you didnt have an active policy to claim against

no, we were advised not to take out insurance by other festival goers who have. Apparently it's only relevant if it's cancer, death or a doctors note. I wasn't going to waist a GP's time for a simple virus. 

So how would you have proved that you were ill?

Hoenir

Self diagnosis of medical conditions using Google is not advisable. 

Aylesbury_Duck

I don't see you have any right to a refund.  Their re-selling policy was clear, and it doesn't matter whether it was strictly adhered to in practice by other people - the fact remained that selling them privately may have resulted in your customer being refused entry.  Insurance was available but you were advised not to take it by other customers, not the retailer.  And not getting a doctor's note blocked that route to a refund.

I can't immediately see what Trading Standards would look into, either.  There's no automatic right to be able to re-sell tickets.  Have they complied with their terms and conditions?

I think you're left appealing for goodwill, I'm afraid.

Invader75

Aylesbury_Duck said:

I don't see you have any right to a refund.  Their re-selling policy was clear, and it doesn't matter whether it was strictly adhered to in practice by other people - the fact remained that selling them privately may have resulted in your customer being refused entry.  Insurance was available but you were advised not to take it by other customers, not the retailer.  And not getting a doctor's note blocked that route to a refund.

I can't immediately see what Trading Standards would look into, either.  There's no automatic right to be able to re-sell tickets.  Have they complied with their terms and conditions?

I think you're left appealing for goodwill, I'm afraid.

Just seems a bit out of order that we paid for them, but don't own them enough to sell elsewhere. We had friends who wanted them but weren't able to buy them as the resale site wouldn't provide us with a direct link. 

I've been to plenty of festivals, most of them bigger, in my time since the 90's. Never had this hassle before. 

The fact they wouldn't assist us in any way even though we'd paid for them is harsh IMO. 

Invader75

Hoenir said:

Self diagnosis of medical conditions using Google is not advisable. 

Obviously!

Invader75

user1977 said:

Invader75 said:

LightFlare said:

It’s an Insurance issue if any - though I am guessing you didnt have an active policy to claim against

no, we were advised not to take out insurance by other festival goers who have. Apparently it's only relevant if it's cancer, death or a doctors note. I wasn't going to waist a GP's time for a simple virus. 

So how would you have proved that you were ill?

I guess I could've done a FaceTime of myself strapped to the toilet but I'm not sure it would've gone down too well!

Aylesbury_Duck

Invader75 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

I don't see you have any right to a refund.  Their re-selling policy was clear, and it doesn't matter whether it was strictly adhered to in practice by other people - the fact remained that selling them privately may have resulted in your customer being refused entry.  Insurance was available but you were advised not to take it by other customers, not the retailer.  And not getting a doctor's note blocked that route to a refund.

I can't immediately see what Trading Standards would look into, either.  There's no automatic right to be able to re-sell tickets.  Have they complied with their terms and conditions?

I think you're left appealing for goodwill, I'm afraid.

Just seems a bit out of order that we paid for them, but don't own them enough to sell elsewhere. We had friends who wanted them but weren't able to buy them as the resale site wouldn't provide us with a direct link. 

I've been to plenty of festivals, most of them bigger, in my time since the 90's. Never had this hassle before. 

The fact they wouldn't assist us in any way even though we'd paid for them is harsh IMO. 

I suspect the first point is covered in their terms which you agreed to at the point of sale.  You can see from the current furore around Oasis tickets, that allowing an entirely free market just creates opportunities for touting.

The second and third points are irrelevant when it comes to consumers' rights, I'm afraid.  I suspect that customer behaviour has contributed to less flexibility around re-selling - frankly, the retailer wants a cut of re-sales so closing down private routes helps with that.  They did provide routes of 'escape', but you declined two of them.

PHK

Invader75 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

I don't see you have any right to a refund.  Their re-selling policy was clear, and it doesn't matter whether it was strictly adhered to in practice by other people - the fact remained that selling them privately may have resulted in your customer being refused entry.  Insurance was available but you were advised not to take it by other customers, not the retailer.  And not getting a doctor's note blocked that route to a refund.

I can't immediately see what Trading Standards would look into, either.  There's no automatic right to be able to re-sell tickets.  Have they complied with their terms and conditions?

I think you're left appealing for goodwill, I'm afraid.

Just seems a bit out of order that we paid for them, but don't own them enough to sell elsewhere. We had friends who wanted them but weren't able to buy them as the resale site wouldn't provide us with a direct link. 

I've been to plenty of festivals, most of them bigger, in my time since the 90's. Never had this hassle before. 

The fact they wouldn't assist us in any way even though we'd paid for them is harsh IMO. 

The thing is, this is not a physical item (that you sell on) but payment for a service to be performed. In this case you wanted to withdraw. You don't generally have a right to resell access to a service.