Unable to use Ticketmaster ticket - no refund given.

captain_planet

I travelled down to Manchester to see Fatboy Slim at the Warehosue project. I was about to buy my own ticket through Ticketmaster when someone in our group said they were dropping out so I agreed to buy their ticket off them. The person who bought all of the tickets then said he would transfer it to my ticketmaster account. He was only able to do this the day before the event (Ticketmaster only releases the tickets then). He transferred the ticket and I had an email notifying me of this with a link to click to accept the ticket, clicking the link opened the Ticketmaster app but the ticket would not show. The ticket was no longer in the original account so I had no ticket, I tried multiple times (and it did work for my other friend).
I was unable to get in when I showed the people at the door the problem, as they would only accept a valid ticket (fair enough). There was nothing at all I could have done to rectify the problem, it was a problem with the Ticketmaster system and app.
I have asked for a refund but they are refusing, and also saying it is the venue's responsibility and they would issue any refunds and stated:
 "we can’t offer you a refund for your booking– we sell the tickets on behalf of the venue and promoter, so all funds are paid over to our clients after the event and are no longer under our control. "
I have replied and copied in the venue and received an automated response from them which had some information including this: "
Ticket refund/exchanges: The WHP/PL Head Office cannot issue refunds or exchanges on any tickets purchased as these have to be issued by the company from which you bought tickets"

I think this is correct as the ticket was purchased on the Ticketmaster website, payment made to ticketmaster so that is who the purchase (and therefore responsibility) is with.

A purchase was made with Ticketmaster and they were unable to provide the ticket which was purchased due to a fault with their system.

I am absolutely not accepting this (ticket was £50). What would be my best approach to resolving this?
Thanks

kinger101

Contact Ticketmaster again.  You might get a rational person this time. Take their name.  Remain calm but firm.  If they are not sensible, ask to speak to someone more senior.

Next time, purchase your own ticket directly if they are still available.

Aylesbury_Duck

Isn't the friend that bought all of the original tickets the only one with any consumer rights here?  As I see it, they are the consumer.  Any cash moved between friends makes no difference, and it seems the transfer failed so you never became the lawful consumer.  Any refund would go to the original purchaser, and they'd refund you in turn.

captain_planet

kinger101 said:

Contact Ticketmaster again.  You might get a rational person this time. Take their name.  Remain calm but firm.  If they are not sensible, ask to speak to someone more senior.

Next time, purchase your own ticket directly if they are still available.

Yes I wish I had bought it myself, lesson learned! Was just trying to do someone a favour

captain_planet

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Isn't the friend that bought all of the original tickets the only one with any consumer rights here?  As I see it, they are the consumer.  Any cash moved between friends makes no difference, and it seems the transfer failed so you never became the lawful consumer.  Any refund would go to the original purchaser, and they'd refund you in turn.

Yes they said he would need to be involved due to GDPR, I copied him in an he OK'ed it as Ticketmaster asked. It will get refunded to him.

Ergates

captain_planet said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Isn't the friend that bought all of the original tickets the only one with any consumer rights here?  As I see it, they are the consumer.  Any cash moved between friends makes no difference, and it seems the transfer failed so you never became the lawful consumer.  Any refund would go to the original purchaser, and they'd refund you in turn.

Yes they said he would need to be involved due to GDPR, I copied him in an he OK'ed it as Ticketmaster asked. It will get refunded to him.

It's not due to GDPR, it's because your friend is the one who has the contract with ticket master.  Ticket master cannot refund you because they don't have any of your money.

MattMattMattUK

The Ticketmaster thing seems to be confusing more and more people even though it is a simple system. The ticket can only be transferred to an email with a valid Ticketmaster account, the transfer then has to be accepted and then the ticket appears in the My Events section (or it did, they have just deployed an entirely new app so that may have changed in the last few days). Many people seem to fall down by not accepting the transfer. Are you sure you accepted the transfer?

RefluentBeans

OP did you/the original purchaser contact TM before the show? It seems to me ambitious to think they were going to let you in without a ticket present. Door staff certainly don’t get a list of every person who purchased a ticket, and just can the barcodes. So they obviously couldn’t just let you in. 

captain_planet

Ergates said:

captain_planet said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Isn't the friend that bought all of the original tickets the only one with any consumer rights here?  As I see it, they are the consumer.  Any cash moved between friends makes no difference, and it seems the transfer failed so you never became the lawful consumer.  Any refund would go to the original purchaser, and they'd refund you in turn.

Yes they said he would need to be involved due to GDPR, I copied him in an he OK'ed it as Ticketmaster asked. It will get refunded to him.

It's not due to GDPR, it's because your friend is the one who has the contract with ticket master.  Ticket master cannot refund you because they don't have any of your money.

Yes, it was GDPR/data privacy as it was originally their purchase. They asked me to copy them in and for them to confirm they bought the ticket and were happy for me to deal with the complaint on their behalf.

captain_planet

MattMattMattUK said:

The Ticketmaster thing seems to be confusing more and more people even though it is a simple system. The ticket can only be transferred to an email with a valid Ticketmaster account, the transfer then has to be accepted and then the ticket appears in the My Events section (or it did, they have just deployed an entirely new app so that may have changed in the last few days). Many people seem to fall down by not accepting the transfer. Are you sure you accepted the transfer?

Hi, yes we both have Ticketmaster accounts, I received the email (same email as my account) and it had the link button to accept the ticket. Clicking this in the email on my phone opened the Ticketmaster app and took me to My Event but there was not ticket.
There was also no longer a ticket in his account. All I can assume is that it was transferred out of his to mine but the app did not update or function correctly to display it. So not our fault at all.

captain_planet

RefluentBeans said:

OP did you/the original purchaser contact TM before the show? It seems to me ambitious to think they were going to let you in without a ticket present. Door staff certainly don’t get a list of every person who purchased a ticket, and just can the barcodes. So they obviously couldn’t just let you in. 

Hi yes, it was purchased over a month in advance, he even contacted them asking if it could be transfered weeks before. They said this would be fine but the tickets would only be released 24hrs before the show, so he had to wait until then to transfer.
I had no other option but to ask the door staff, Ticketmaster offered no phone support, only an online form which isn't much use stood outside the venue waiting to go in! Understand why they can't let me in but we did everything correctly, it was the app that did not function correctly so Ticketmaster should refund me.
They claim it is the venue's responsibility but the ticket was bought online from Ticketmaster website and we use using Ticketmaster app.